Hello! Is anyone familiar with the Princeton International School of Science and Math? (PRISMS) https://www.prismsus.org/
I am struggling to find enough feedback from parents across different forums, including this one… Anyone sent their kids there? The program came to my attention thanks to a STEMmy name and high ranks at Niche but it barely has any word-of-mouth coverage. and I find it unusual for a high-ranked private school.
I researched their faculty and staff bio, and concerned that many teachers seem new to school and/or it seems they dont have much formal teaching experience . Perhaps I overlooked something. Any intelligence will be much appreciated.
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I live in the area but don’t know anyone who has attended. It’s small and half the students are international, so that may not be surprising or meaningful.
There was a bilingual (Chinese English) lower school that some friends’ kids attended, and I was wondering as I read the description (and timing of founding) if it was possibly an offshoot of that.
Hoping something else knows more.
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I live in the area and it was not on my radar. Seems to be adjacent to Hun. Student stats look great though which probably helped spike it in niche.
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I know nothing about the school beyond what everyone has read. I think it is a very niche school that is very focused on stem with gifted students which must be why it ranks so high. I have been wondering about this school as well and how it ranks so high beyond the stem category. Love to hear thoughts re: school as well as no one I know even in the industry seems to really know about the school.
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Only 24 kids in the senior class.
Over the last 8 years, the school most matriculated to, by a wide margin, is MiT. Over 8% of graduates have gone on to MIT, which is certainly unique.
Its head of college counselling is the former Dean of Admissions at MIT.
Seriously? Is anyone actually buying this?
- Rated #1 Best Private High Schools in NJ by Niche
- Rated #2 Best Boarding High Schools in USA by Niche
- Rated #2 Best Private High Schools in USA by Niche
The school is very small (24 seniors) and it caters to a very specific kind of family/student.
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Why do you say that? It appears to be off Rosedale, in one of those old mansions. It doesn’t seem to have much in terms of usual school grounds.
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Because the back of the school is up against the other side of Stony Brook from the neighborhood the Hun School is in.
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Buying what?
That there is any value in these rankings/that they make any sense at all.
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Do you think they use the facilities? I thought the location was just a coincidence. I have heard the name but know nothing about the school.
I assume it’s a coincidence. I think they took over the facility of a prior school.
As for Niche, I presume most people on CC at least look at all ratings with a healthy dose of salt. This probably just reflects the simplicity of their algorithm. The school has extremely high average tests scores and 16 of 17 5 star reviews (with the hold out being 4 stars). What their methodology probably lacks is some kind of weighting system based on number of reviews, number of students, etc. So there’s nothing to handicap the schools data being skewed by the extremely small class size (and review base). At least so far. It’s possible someone at Niche will do something about that after hearing from all the lobbyists at Phillips and Harvard-Westlake, etc.
PRISMS took over the land from the American Boychoir School. I think the school itself is fairly small for a number of reasons. Mainly because they are mainly interested in educating ex-pat children. The school was founded by a wealthy Chinese real-estate magnate who was looking to start a boarding school in the US.
I’ve met many of the PRISMS students, and a large percentage are from mainland China. There are a handful of students from the local Princeton area who attend as well. The focus on STEM is understandable.
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There is a long story behind the demise of American Boychoir. Famous constitutional scholar Lawrence Lessig went to school there. The school ultimately went bankrupt because of sexual abuse settlements. The property was empty for some time, so its good to see that another school has taken over and gone on a different track.
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Niche ratings are almost totally without value and easily manipulated.
College admissions have value though. But I would guess the school is acting more like a finishing school for international students who need English skills and maybe a lot of individual work. The kids don’t have the ability to get into the real boarding school which is why there is a lot of name dropping on the website. There are lot of students like these available. Very recent money but not very sophisticated yet. Very first generation. Kids might have some solid academic skills but also need X before they can get into Y at the university level.
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Tried to edit but could not. Full disclosure: lots of experience with Niche. Zero experience with this school so I could be entirely wrong and I am happy to be corrected. I do have experience with the demographic I’m describing and it fits with this website.
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I agree - Niche is the wrong place for a realistic assessment of the schools.
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100%!!!
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