<p>but spence is considered a top four all-girls school in nyc</p>
<p>that list goes something like</p>
<p>1) brearley
2) nightingale
3) spence
4) chapin</p>
<p>yeah out of six
big deal</p>
<p>its really not a very good school</p>
<p>* live i new york spence is not consider a top five city school</p>
<p>list goes </p>
<p>1) brearley
2) collegiate
3) Horace mann
4) riverdale
5) fieldston</p>
<p>and trust me i know all we do is talk smack about each other’s school </p>
<p>and this is the generally accepted top 5</p>
<p>sorry i know this was off topic but i had to shed light on this ignorant error *</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you say this is the “generally accepted top 5”. It certainly isn’t. First, on any list like this, there’s almost never a “generally accepted” anything. Second, although all of the schools on your list are certainly excellent, ever hear of Dalton? or Trinity? I’d suspect amongst a poll of New Yorkers with knowledge of these schools that both of these would usually rate in the top 5.</p>
<p>This sort of rating is tough to do because it is difficult to compare the smallish all girls schools with the larger coed schools like Dalton, Riverdale, Horace Mann and Fieldston. Collegiate is the only all boys school on that list.</p>
<p>And although matriculation statistics are certainly not dispositive, Spence is averaging 12% of its class into HYPMS and 30% into the Ivies (without Stanford and MIT, though they probably wouldn’t boost that percentage much). Not too shabby for “not a very good school”, however you want to define it.</p>
<p>Mind you, I’m only the father of an 8th grade son who is currently applying to a number of these schools (well, not Spence, Chapin, etc… :)) and who feels like he’s been talking about almost nothing but topics like “who is applying where” and “do you think that you have a shot” for the last 9 months (since my son’s school ends at 8th grade, the entire class is applying to the whole spectrum of NYC private schools right now). But, what do I know?</p>
<p>first of all take a chill if i offended you i am sorry
this is what students at the hill schools think
and i am talking about within student circles not the parents they are very much different with different perceptions of the schools
dalton and trinity are both fine schools that are certainly in the top 7
and the comparsion of the size if you look at the class size of the larger co-ed schools and divide it in half then number of boys or girls will equal the appx class size of collegiate or brearley. and i am talking about high schools so Buckley, STD, and st. Bernards dont count</p>
<p>hey listen i know i went through that process two years ago and i was sick of it by the end and now i have to do it all over again for boarding schools. the process is extremely stressful and i understand where you are coming from </p>
<p>and about spence i never hear anything about it all i hear is how great brearley is all the time. but im just a kid after all ;)</p>
<p>top 7: no order</p>
<p>Riverdale Country school
Horace Mann
Fieldston
brearley
collegiate
trinity
dalton</p>
<p>I’m not sure which of these schools you go to, so I may be about to offend a little bit, but here I go.</p>
<p>The general consensus from the school my two sons are at, amongst both parents and students, is that Riverdale (where my niece graduated from and loved) and Fieldston, are a half-step behind the other schools you’ve listed (but certainly excellent schools). Part of this conclusion is based on watching class after class apply to most of these schools and see who gets in where. The credentials of the students who get into Dalton, Horace Mann and Trinity tend to be stronger on average than of those who get into Fieldston and Riverdale. Define credentials however you want: grades, ISEE scores, athletic ability, impressive extracurriculars, etc… Getting into Collegiate and the girls schools tends to be very tough, but that effect is exaggerated by how many open spots they have for high school freshman (a different measure than the size of the class). As to class size, Horace Mann is running about 175 (though the current freshman class is now 190ish) and the girls schools and Collegiate are all around 50. Trinity, Riverdale and Dalton are all roughly in the 110-125 size range.</p>
<p>As to the girls schools, which admittedly I’m not that focused on (being the father only of boys), I generally hear Spence, Chapin and Brearley all mentioned in the same breath. Then people will get around to Nightingale-Bamford. I have the distinct impression that Hewitt is a lower tier school than the other girls schools. Are you counting Sacred Heart as the 6th or am I missing another one?</p>
<p>That you are a kid doesn’t demean nor enhance any point you may make. Points speak for themselves.</p>