Choosing a Private High School

Mother_of_3
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:29:11 +0000

Our oldest two children went to the local public school (a top ranked institution) and did very well. They did well academically, played a sport, joined clubs and were accepted to their first choice college (an Ivy league school). However, the only thing they liked about high school was their friends. They felt that it was a large, impersonal place with a few good teachers and many mediocre ones (who didn’t seem to care about the kids). They worked until 1 am on a regular basis and did homework every weekend, all weekend. They would sleep in on most Saturdays and Sundays to try to catch up on their sleep, make social plans on Saturday night, but Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday were devoted to homework. We couldn’t even go out for family dinners on Sunday evenings anymore. They even had to bring homework on family vacations during school breaks and were assigned a ridiculous amount of summer work for their upcoming courses Since they didn’t really enjoy high school at all, we want something different for our third child. He is just as good a student as his older siblings and could excel academically at the local high school, but we actually want him to be happy and enjoy school as well. To this end he has applied to four private schools: Morristown Beard, Golda Och, Newark Academy and Pingry. He has been accepted to all of them except Pingry (we haven’t heard from them yet). We are trying to strike a balance for him but don’t want to give up academic excellence or his ability to get into a top tier school. Has anyone had children that have gone to these schools? My questions are: what was the typical homework load? what type of schools did they get into after high school? How was the adjustment to college - were they prepared? were they happy at high school? Would you send them there again? How competitive is the environment - cutthroat or collaborative? We would appreciate any feedback on this. Thanks!