DaleBarton Vs Newark Academy vs Pingery

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

<p>Hi,
My son received acceptance letter from Dalebarton for his 9th grade admission. We have applied in Newark Academy as well as Pingery.</p>

<p>As far as I can tell my son will get 99% admission in Newark Academy, not sure if he will get in pingery as well or not.</p>

<p>My dilema is below:
Should we send him to Dalebarton or Newark Academy. I have run analysis on their placement to IVY League colleges and both have about 14-15% Average acceptance rate for last 4 years.
Dalebarton fees is 10% lower than the Newark Academy.
Dalebarton is 5 miles closer from house to Newark Academy.
My son's 4 good friends go to Newark Academy.
Dalebarton has issue of Monk's with kids came out in article below.
Comments</a> on 2 more men come forward, support sexual misconduct accusations against former Delbarton headmaster | New Jersey Real-Time News -
Pingery has about 25% acceptance rate for IVY league. Only thing is Pingery is little far from house unless I get a ride share with other parents. Pingery is definately no brainer if I am leaving close to this school. It is little expensive than NA and Dalebarton though.</p>

<p>Anyone can help me to share there thoughts on any of the above schools ?. I am personally leaning towars Dalebarton due to priximity, Fees but on other hand they do have some issue what i have posted in the article in link</p>

2

<p>Friend’s kid graduated from NA, she loved it.</p>

<p>My former secretary sent her kid to Delbarton for less than one year, she took him out for reasons I do not wish to write in a public forum. Do your due diligence on this one.</p>

<p>I understand Pingry is a grind but look at their college matriculation data.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>I know nothing about any of these schools, but the statement I’ve quoted struck me as important. Where does your son want to go?</p>

<p>Yes, he can adapt and make new friends, but it’s not always a quick or easy process. If you like these kids and they’re a good influence on him, then that is something worth considering.</p>

4

<p>Anyone who is interested in College Placement numbers to IVY Leagues, Please send me email and I will send you side by side comparison for last 4 years. I have spent good amount of time putting all numbers together and it may help you to make educated decision for you kid who is looking to join Newark Academy, DelBarton, Pingery</p>

5

<p>Check out matriculationstats.org. These schools are all there</p>

6

<p>@LOTR: You are making a fairly large assumption that every parent has the goal of an IVY matriculation in mind when choosing a high school for their child. For what its worth, I would not base your choice on this measure — I believe if your child is the sort of kid who could get admitted to an IVY, he will be able to do that from ANY HS, not just the three well-regarded NJ schools you mention.</p>

7

<p>Dandrew,
Thanks…This site was very helpful</p>

8

<p>SevenDad - It would appear that you (and I and Weatherby) have instead made the fairly large, and mistaken, assumption that lordofthering defines his son’s well being in terms of anything other than Ivy league admit rates. Thank goodness DAndrew is here to encourage him . . . :(</p>

<p>lordofthering - I am disappointed that you have chosen to define your son’s success solely in terms of his eventual matriculation at an Ivy League institution. There is quite a bit more to high school than that. You appear to have disregarded all posts in this thread that did not share your viewpoint. Too bad for your son.</p>

9

<p>dodgersmom,
Would please highlight some of your thoughts on process of selecting the high school which can help me to understand your statement better. </p>

<p>Reason I am using IVY matriculation rate as one of the criteria is simply it shows the success rate of the school. if IVY or top schools are accepting students from given school means those school have certain quality of educations and other exact skill development ability which impresses to top school. I am not sure what will be too bad for my son going to top school if he is willing to ?</p>

10

<p>@LOTR: I guess it all depends on your POV. Not everyone sees high school merely as a means to an end. Best of luck in making your decision…again, those are all regarded as strong NJ schools.</p>

11

<p>at comment #8
While I strongly believe that ivys or similar are not the be all /end all of life, and we all know examples of people coming out of state schools and running corporations, or having fulfilling lives, etc etc ad nauseum, Ivy (or rather college) matriculation IS a factor in choosing a school. It is one in a list of many others, such as academic offerings, student body, sports, progressive/traditional, etc. etc., all of which indicate fit.
However, if it weren’t important, schools themselves would not publish that information on their sites, in their literature. Two of my kids’ schools, and these are tippy top schools (the third was a BS so no opportunity like that) devote an entire PA meeting to the subject of where kids got in for the year.<br>
My son and his friends are now in the process of securing summer internships, in preparation to securing jobs after graduation. Guess who’s getting those internships and guess who’s scrambling? The kids who are attending ivys and colleges in the top 25 lists have many more opportunities open to them, in all areas of jobs. It’s myopic to think otherwise.
And I do agree with this statement – believe if your child is the sort of kid who could get admitted to an IVY, he will be able to do that from ANY HS, not just the three well-regarded NJ schools you mention., but again, one must evaluate all factors.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>I believe that a kid does best when he is in a school where he is happy. That might mean the school that his closest friends are also attending, as I suggested above, or it might mean the school that offers the particular subjects or extracurriculars that he is most passionate about.</p>

<p>Assuming that each of the three schools under consideration is a strong school - and it appears that each of them is - then my first question would be, “Which of these schools is most going to encourage your son to flourish?” And it might be the school that sends 25% of its graduates to Ivy schools or it might be the one that sends only 10%. </p>

<p>In my view, being happy, active, and successful at the 10% school is going to get your son a lot further than being miserable at the 25% school. So find the school with great teachers and great classmates - who will encourage your son to be the best student, no, the best person he can be . . . and the rest will take care of itself.</p>

<p>I believe absolutely that the most important thing to focus on in high school is . . . high school. Not college. If your son has four really good years at a good school that he loves, that is the best way he can prepare for his future.</p>

<p>Thanks for asking. :)</p>

13

<p>Dodgersmom…I merely gave the OP some feedback from my limited knowledge of these three schools. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>If I follow this logic, my child would do best attending public high school in Irvington just because he has friends there. In case you were not aware, there are public schools that have never or hardly ever send kids onwards to Ivy or any top schools for that matter.</p>

<p>I do not presume to know the OPs motivations or circumstances but Pingry and Newark Academy are the only two that I would consider and they are not close to one another but they are probably the only three good private high schools in the OP’s area (say within 40 minutes commute). Depending upon where the OP lives, these three schools might be the only venue for a decent education short of moving. Like I had said, a family friend had sent her child to Newark Academy and she is now very happily attending law school. I also know that the child found college to be much easier than HS due to the apparent rigor at Newark</p>

14

<p>Three excellent schools. I attended two of them and I am impressed by the alums I know from the third. (I’m also impressed with the alums I know from the first two.)</p>

<p>I haven’t clicked through to the link, but I have to say that the monks at Delbarton are generally top-flight people. There’s a very strong, long-term lay faculty, and they are active in different faith communities. The Benedictine monks, much like Jesuits, are not interested in indoctrination. They are confident and faithful enough to put the chips on the table and let trained minds reach their own conclusions. The goal, therefore, is to train young minds to think independently and critically – skills that last a lifetime. In fact, the spiritual experience was very rich and rewarding because the focus was on developing people to be comfortable in their own skins, not inculcating passive, weak-minded, maleable minds to become automatons. It is not a predator-friendly environment.</p>

<p>I have remained in touch with faculty at Delbarton and many students I knew from my days there are now active with the Administration. I’m not Catholic but if I had lived in the area, that’s where I would have wanted my son to attend. (And not to follow in my footsteps because I have every bit as much affinity for my undergraduate alma mater and I was relieved when my son dropped it from his list.)</p>

<p>One of the reasons is that the people who are the educational leaders at Delbarton are all people I came to know as a student. They are fabulous people and the school is in able hands.</p>

<p>Whatever you and your son decide, congratulations are in order. All three schools are highly competitive in terms of admission. I’ve remained in touch with faculty at the other school I attended and have only praise for them – although, sadly, they have moved on or retired. I can only assume that their successors are equally capable and committed to their students.</p>

<p>And, without a doubt, the people I know from all three schools are quality people. To me, as a parent, that’s the most important factor in judging a school: what can I say about the alumni I know from that school? In all three cases, each of the three schools have a disproportionately high rate of amazing and spectacular people who I am proud to know.</p>

<p>To a student, there are more direct, nuts-and-bolts considerations that are best informed by spending a day on campus. The big one, I think, would be single-sex versus coeducation. Some people can’t handle that – for very good reasons, too, not just for social fun. That’s got to be up to the student.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

15

<p>I love the fact that the OP thinks his/her son has a 99% chance of acceptance to NA…</p>

<p>I work with parents all the time who believe this, yet their kids are not accepted; come back after March when admits are released…</p>

<p>NA has an annual agenda with admissions every year; good luck trying to second guess this year’s…</p>

<p>If the OP’s is as academically qualified as I suspect, he might be accepted to Pingry yet not NA…much more transparent system…</p>

16

<p>OP’s son could be a student-athlete and the coach may have signaled this. Sometimes people have good reason to think that there’s a very high chance of admission. Sometimes, however, they may be receiving bad or misleading feedback. Sometimes coaches have no idea…but they would rather not have a prospective student-athlete commit to another school until his school’s admission office makes its decision. The parent doesn’t know about that and has every reason to think that the coach is being honest. And, in this case, that would be a very reasonable underlying assumption (if, as I suspect, the certainty here is due to a coach’s assurances).</p>

17

<p>^^good point…and one I did not consider…</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>Read what I wrote, Weatherby. My next paragraph started out, “Assuming that each of the three schools under consideration is a strong school - and it appears that each of them is . . .” Obviously that’s a consideration - I never said it wasn’t! What I did say is that between three arguably comparable schools, you want to find the one where the student will thrive. That might be the one that his/her friends are attending . . . or it might not be. Depends on the friends, among other things.</p>

<p>My son is at his best when he has his closest friends to compete with. Split them up and they all work just as hard . . . but they don’t enjoy it as much.</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>I do completely agree with above statement from my personal experience while i was in high school. I competed with my best friend and we had healthy competition on everything what we do. We envy with best friends success to do better and work hard.</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>And I never assumed anything about the OP’s intention. I misunderstood, sorry.</p>

<p>I apologize if I have been testy. My son was injured in gym class at his public middle school. Bad concussion. The gym teachers were playing a game amongst themselves w/o supervising the rest of the 56 kids. I get emotional when it comes to my son and it probably has unfortunately spilled out in a few of my posts. I suppose we all have character flaws.</p>