NYC private school tuition now higher than HARVARD

monydad
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:54:24 +0000

Hey jonri, I may be rusty at all this NYC stuff but:

IF I recall correctly, you have to be nominated by your school to sit for the Hunter test in 6th grade. The class is filled for 7th grade, and you can’t get in at all after that. We just moved back to NYC this Fall, and it’s too late for my 7th grade son to sit for the Hunter exam. No Hunter for him.

I recall for sure that at the Pre-k level entry into Hunter was as about as difficult as getting into Harvard, at least. I don’t think admission to the High school is quite that bad, but it’s probably extremely competitive nonetheless. so your Hunter solution is simply unavailable to most students. Leaving aside that the school has no windows, it is at a location that may be difficult for some to get to, I doubt it has much in the way of athletics, etc.

I don’t know anything about the humanities curriculum at Townsend Harris, but I do know it’s in Queens. Maybe it’s not that easy for everyone to get to Townsend Harris. Does Townsend Harris have buses that take kids to it? Is Townsend Harris even open to students who don’t live in its area? Once again, I doubt this is a ubiquitous solution for everyone.

Even if it’s true that there are a couple public alternatives that are acceptable, it doesn’t necessarily follow that these particular schools are better for a particular kid than a particular private school is, overall.

Based on my own experiences, and those of my kids, I see no substantial problem with mzhang23’s first two paragraphs, myself.

Financial aid is another story. In my experience private schools tend to reserve financial aid for groups that help them somehow with some kind of quota or other need; eg minorities, athletes, whatever. I knew a guy who was laid off from his job, upon contract renewal applied for financial aid to his kid’s school, as a returning student, and despite qualifying on all the aid calculations the school gave him nothing whatsoever. He had to move out of the city.