<p>I am an American parent living abroad with two young boys (ages 3 and 1). I will move back soon and trying to decide where to live. One of my biggest concerns is a place with the best private day schools. I saw that NYC has some of the best and they also have programs starting at grade K. Does it mean if my sons get into these schools at the K level and do average or above average compared to the other students, that they automatically can stay on at these schools all the way through to graduation. I am talking about schools like Collegiate, Trinity, Chapin and Dalton.</p>
<p>It is customary for schools to keep students from year to year as long as the students follow the rules and meet all academic and social expectations. Some lower school students are counselled out if learning disabilities are uncovered. Policies on this vary by school.</p>
<p>Excellent. If that is true then it would seem best to place all of my efforts on getting my children into a good Kindergarten program that is part of one if the best Private Day Schools in the country, then he won’t have to worry about which high school he will get accepted to. Likewise he is already in a great school, so if he wanted to transfer from say Collegiate to St. Paul’s it might not be as hard.</p>
<p>Can anyone else verify this?</p>
<p>My son goes to a prestigious day school. Some of my thoughts are</p>
<p>1) It is correct that students can stay in the same school as long as they meet the academic standard. It is not hard to stay but it is difficult to predict. When kids come in pre-K or K, I really wonder how can the schools tell whether the students are smart and hardworking? My son transfered in at the beginning the 3th grade. Among the 60+ students, more than 10 of them have transfered out.</p>
<p>2) It doesn’t mean that 10 of them failed. It is all about fit in the middle and upper school. Giving what I know my son know, I would think that Rye Country School or Fieldston are better fit for him. Students who do well in Collegiate and Dalton could fail miserably in Fieldston. Student who are excellent students in Rye Country Day could do poorly in Hackley. None of my son’s former classmates transferred to boarding schools. Yet many of them moves to Horace Mann or Fieldston when they felt that other schools were better matched for the students.</p>
<p>3) You don’t need to go to private day school from Pre-K. If students are in good school districts, they can always transfer in at the beginning of middle and high schools. In my observation, some of the best students in my son’s school do not start in pre-K. If I had choice, I would transfer my son in at the beginning of 6th grade. </p>
<p>It is just my humble opinion. Hope that this help. :)</p>
<p>I’ve heard it’s much harder to get into kindergarden at a NYC private than to get into Andover.</p>
<p>It’s harder to get into the most prestigious Manhattan preschools than to get into Harvard.</p>
<p>1- The most presting Manhattan day schs (Brearley, Spence, Chapin, St. Bernard’s, Buckley) do NOT have pre-sch prgms (not sure about Mann). Also, if memory serves, at least one of the boys’ schs (Buckley?) doesn’t go through 12th grade.</p>
<p>2- Way harder to enter top NYC day sch at K than to enter any BS. And K is by far the easiepoint of entry b/c the schs are filling an entire class. </p>
<p>Class size increases a bit in grades 6 and maybe 9, but competition is FIERCE - - especially since all of the schs admit students from Prep for Prep (throughout MS, but mostly in 7th grade) or other prgms. </p>
<p>Vacancies in other years arise only through attrition. In D’s class (k-8), attrition was often 0 and NEVER more than one seat per year. Also, if a legacy applies the one seat will go to him/her. In D’s class there was only ONE non-legacy admitted k-6. A friend whose older D was admitted to Spence for 6th grade and whose younger D was denied for 3rd, was was successful when younger D applied to 4th as a legacy. </p>
<p>3- t1388 is correct, it is virtually impossible to predict which of the k bright lights will be having difficulty in grade 3 and/or counseled-out in middle sch. Remember these schs are very rigorous (At Brearley 30-40% of each class qualifies as NMF semi-finalists, by the time you add the NMS commended students and those who qualify for the URM NMS equivs, you’ve accounted for 80% of the class. And about 25% of the grads enroll at HYP every yr.)</p>
<p>The good news - - if prep admission is like college admission, sco-ed chs will be seeking boys in order to maintain gender balance.</p>
<p>Its generally known thru out all of the private schools(the ones i know)If ur child isnt doing well in school and/or he/shes getting into trouble and hasnt gotten expelled he will not be asked back for the following school yr(yeah ur child has to be asked back imma good grl i was just asked back for my 3rd an d final yr at my private school on Long island…Being not asked back is very common i was asked not to come back from my nursery school actually</p>
<p>My son applied to NYC private high schools this year and will be attending Trinity in the fall. We were told that admissions at the kindergarten level are even more competitive than at the high school level. Trinity expands their class size in 9th grade significantly, opening up spaces for new students. Horace Mann does the same. Many other schools, such as Collegiate and Dalton, do not, making it very difficult to gain admission in the 9th grade to those schools given that there are only a handful of openings.</p>
<p>We received materials from Trinity showing that in 2005-06, there were 532 applications for kindergarten and 62 were admitted (and 61 of those admitted enrolled). But this overstates the chances of admission, because many of those spots are reserved for siblings of current students. We have been told that in some years, there may be only 10 or 15 openings for non-siblings. In addition, the number of applications is limited by the fact that they typically stop giving out applications by the end of September if not before.</p>
<p>At the high school level in 2005-06, 356 students applied for admission to Trinity for 9th grade and 102 were admitted (and 53 of those admitted enrolled). Definitely better odds, though I expect there is some self-selection - students who do not have top grades and scores may not apply if they conclude their chances of admission are too low.</p>
<p>P.S. to NYC - Buckley is K-12. St. Bernard’s is K-8 (as is Allen Stevenson, I believe). And for OP, Chapin is an all girls school.</p>
<p>nynyparent: thanks for clearing up with Chapin. Actually, I paid for some company online that ranks schools, <a href=“http://www.prepreview.com%5B/url%5D”>www.prepreview.com</a> and they erroneously listed Chapin as Coed. By the way, they listed Trinity as the second best Private Day school in the nation, second only to Collegiate and with a higher matriculation rate to the Ivies plus MIT and Stanford 41% than even St. Paul’s with 40% which was ranked as the best Boarding School. Congratulations NyNyParent! </p>
<p>So does anyone know anyone that got into Collegiate, Trinity or Dalton at the K level? I read this article in the NYT <a href=“http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/education/features/1508/[/url]”>http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/education/features/1508/</a> . Very interesting, sounds like it is mostly an IQ test and interview. Worth a shot if my son is bright, well he seems so and both of his parents are exceptionally smart 
. If he gets into any of the big three that take boys in NYC then I think I should move to Mahatten!</p>
<p>I know many chrn who entered Collegiate, Trinity, Dalton and Mann in K (know even more who entered the girls’ schs). All of the schs use the ERB which is a Wexler PreSch IQ test.</p>
<p>Also, to follow-up on NYNY’s post: Many of the students who enter Trinity, and Mann in 9th grade are also legacies, so of the 52 seats added to Trinity in 9th grade only half of those may be “unreserved.” Slightly better odds than K (only 10-15 “unreserved,” according to NYNY), but still slim pickings - -especially when you consider than a signif number of the successful apps are kids transferring from the top days schs (ie: Brearley, Spence and Chapin girls seeking coed experience).</p>
<p>i have a really good friend who went to Dalton k-12. she said that quite a few people go the whole stretch.</p>
<p>A link for you.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.electricprint.com/edu4/cl...iteschools.htm[/url]”>http://www.electricprint.com/edu4/cl...iteschools.htm</a></p>
<p>The book, “The Kindergarten Wars,” by Alan Eisenstock, covers admissions to private kindergartens in New York.</p>