Looking for private schools in Massachusetts or CT?

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
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Alright, so my husband and I are getting ready to start the home search. We aren’t expecting yet, but very much intend to have children. We’re both Ivy league graduates thus we’re looking for private schools that will give our kids the edge. We’re not really considering public school beyond Elementary school, but would prefer a K-12 program. We know that the best schools are in Boston, like Winsor and Roxbury Latin. However, looking for homes in the Boston area is disheartening. We want our kids to live in a family friendly neighborhood in a nice house with a big yard. We’ve worked hard to be able to afford a great home and do not want to pay top dollar for something in Boston that would cost 250K elsewhere.

So what are the best private schools in suburban areas in Mass or Connecticut? Or RI?
Also, I know it’s a bit of a petty requirement, but I want our children to have uniforms. Both my husband and I wore uniforms throughout our schooling and I think it eliminates a lot of conflict between kids.
We don’t mind all boy or all girl schools, but if we send one child to an all girl school, there needs to be another school nearby that is all male. Incase of a son and daughter.

I’ve been doing a lot of research but haven’t found a school that’s the perfect fit. The reason we’re thinking so far in advance is I don’t want my kids to have to move around each time they move up a school.

Thanks,
Celia

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um, this is a college forum…

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I saw threads about private schools such as Roxbury Latin. @jym626

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Try the prep school admissions forum on this site.

However, you are taking long range planning to a new level. Your children aren’t even zygotes!

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The city-data forums may be a better resource to answer those questions, OP

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This website has a listing of private day schools as well as boarding schools in New England.
http://www.aisne.org

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Hi try looking at The Bement School and The Fay School…Both are excellent !!! Uniforms are a thing of the past but Blazers on Mon are required at Bement…hope this helps you.

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Also wanted to add The Hackley School in Tarrytown NY but vey close to Conn.

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I, too, am an Ivy League grad who went to an excellent private school that had uniforms growing up-- that no longer has uniforms (and yes, I liked them too). While many religious schools still have uniforms, you will find that many secular academic schools have changed their dress code. Many BS (for high school) still have strict dress codes, but not really uniforms-- and many private schools for younger grades NO LONGER require uniforms. Just saying, try to keep an open mind on the uniform requirement, or you may miss some fantastic schools.

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All the schools I have posted are personal recs from myself and family and friends who have had children attend or are current students. I wish I had this website when I was looking!! Greenwhich Academy and Brunswick school inConn. Hopkins School in Conn. I hope all this helps and look very early !!!

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Boston schools:
(Note, Bement is about 2 hours from Boston. The schools on this list are all within about a half hour from the city. Many are in what would be considered the Boston suburbs and are in towns with excellent public school systems-always good to have as a backup.)

You won’t find many schools in the Boston area with uniforms, but some have traditional dress codes.

If you’re looking for schools that continue through 12th consider Buckingham Browne and Nichols (BB&N) in Cambridge, Dexter-Southfield in Brookline and Milton Academy in Milton. Dexter and Southfield are brother-sister schools that share a campus. Milton has boarding in the upper school.

The Boston area has many good K-8 schools. They have excellent secondary school placement offices. Take a look at their secondary school records, listed on their websites, usually under the admissions tab. While it means reapplying in a few years it also gives you the flexibility to look at school that don’t have lower schools, like Andover, Groton, Nobles, Middlesex, Roxbury Latin and Winsor. Some lower schools send large portions of the class to specific secondary schools.

Because I’m more familiar with some schools than other this will not be an exhaustive list and others are free to correct it or add to it.

In Concord, you’ll find Nashoba Brooks (coed pre-K to 3rd, all girls 4th to 8th) and Fenn (all boys 4th to 9th). Although the two schools are not officially linked, in practice they are. Boys who attend Nashoba in the early years have a fast track to Fenn in 4th and the two schools have dances, projects and a play together. Most families who send their girls to NBS send their boys to Fenn and vice versa. Both day schools. Collared shirt dress code.

Fessenden-Newton. All boys, jacket and tie dress code. Some boarding. No sister school.

Fay in Southborough. Coed, jacket and tie dress code. Sends much of the class to St. Mark’s. Some boarding.

DCD in Dedham. Coed, day.

Meadowbrook in Weston. Coed, day. Collared shirt dress code.

Park in Brookline. Coed, day.

Pike in Andover. Coed, day.

Shady Hill in Cambridge. Coed, day.

Shore Country Day in Beverly (N. Shore). Coed, day.

Of all the schools on this second list I’d guess Fay is the closest to what you’re looking for, but many others would work as well. If you’re looking for a very traditional school D-S may fit the bill.

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Thanks for all the help!
We’re thinking about Moses Brown, Wheeler, and the Lincoln school all of which are in RI.
They’re all reputable and there are a lot of fairly priced, suburban communities nearby. It’s too bad uniform are a thing of the past!! @sue22 @solargem

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^All good schools. I didn’t mention them because as a Bostonian I don’t have enough information about the RI or CT schools to comment.

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I also wouldn’t discount the public schools. MA has the best performing public schools in the nation by many national standards. My town has two prep schools often mentioned here as highly desirable but I’d put our local high school up with either. You could save the money you’d spend on prep school tuition and put it toward a house in a town with strong public schools. $40,000 x 2 kids x 7 years would be over half a million dollars.

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I know a Choate faculty family who sent their three children to the Foote School near New Haven, CT. The parents were very satisfied with both the school and how all three developed during and after their time at Foote, which is K-9. The school draws from 25-plus communities surrounding New Haven and teaches 475 boys and girls. I would think that from New Haven north up I-91 toward North Haven, Wallingford and Meriden you would find something reasonable.

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You’re looking for schools for your unborn children? You’re kidding, right? And people are taking this seriously? You may find out you can’t have children (even though you seem perfectly fine right now) or you could have a special needs child or a child who won’t or can’t benefit from the plans you’re making for any number of reasons. Or you could find yourselves in financial difficulties in the future that preclude the ability to pay for the plans you’re making. Or you could find the perfect home right in the backyard of one of those perfect schools with a top-scoring bright child and find only thin envelopes in the mail come application time. Or, God forbid, you could experience what our dear friends went through this summer losing their exceptionally bright, well-educated youngster to a jeep roll-over accident. You have no crystal ball, you can’t know what the future holds such that you can plan so specifically.

If this post is real, I’m hoping you’re just very young so you’ll have some time to figure out what’s really important at this stage in your life. Kids need lots of love and attention. They need role models and friends and parents who love unconditionally and provide what they need emotionally. They don’t need zip codes and uniforms. There’s nothing wrong with living in a nice neighborhood and wanting a good education for your children (that’s why this forum exists), but most of the seasoned parents here will tell you that focusing on having healthy, happy, emotionally well-adjusted kids is the real goal. Where they live or go to school does not determine their success or happiness in life. Just spend a few hours reading @stargirl’s posts to put this all into perspective.

There is so much ahead of you and your spouse. Focus on keeping your marriage strong and loving. Focus on loving your offspring fiercely when they come along. Focus on the importance of every moment you are able to spend with your children. Teach them well. Love them better. THAT’S what will give your kids the “edge.” The rest will take care of itself.

Signed,
-Someone who moved away from Andover when kiddo was two and who turned out well regardless of his godforsaken address-

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I have to admit that I read the OP quickly and didn’t catch the “not expecting yet” line. I have to agree with ChoatieMom that it doesn’t make much sense to be looking at specific schools when you have no idea what kind of school(s) will best fit your kids. My 3 are or have been in independent schools and the schools are all different- everything from an artsy, urban, progressive day school to a highly traditional, preppy boarding school-because my kids are all different. They did not attend the most competitive schools to which they were admitted because they weren’t the best matches for them, yet the first two have done better than we could have hoped in their college applications. I think this is largely because we followed their leads, letting them explore the activities that interested them the most instead of trying to mold them into the students we thought they should be. We hope things will work out as well for the third, but who knows? What works with one child may not work with another and it would be hubris to claim that we’d found some magic formula.
My advice at this point would be to find a community that suits you and that has solid public schools. Consider commuting distance to work, because that will affect the amount of time you have at home with your family and your ability to be a part of their lives. As ChoatieMom’s post suggests, love the children you will hopefully someday have and enjoy the journey.

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@ChoatieMom You said it better than anyone else could’ve. Goodness, I love you so much. :x

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Sure, ChoatieMom is of course the voice of sanity here. On the other hand, shameless shilling of schools never goes out of vogue on CC! ~O)

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I have no idea where I will be a year from now. I can’t imagine planning my life, say, twelve years from now.

I don’t want you to feel like we’re attacking you. We just want to keep it realistic. You know what? I’ve lived in the same house in a Boston-area suburb my entire life. My school system ranks higher than it should. Boarding school didn’t cross my mind until two years ago, and the thought of it hasn’t escaped since.

Aside from a cure for Alzheimer’s, there was nothing I wanted more than a fat envelope last March 10. With my hands full of waitlists, I wrote letters, made phone calls, and rallied up a bunch of online friends to cross their fingers for me. It didn’t work out, so I’m a freshman at my overcrowded, understaffed, big smelly public high school. I’m not a huge fan of it here. I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason, but there are things about my school that I really appreciate. This could turn into an essay about my incredible English teacher (a prep school grad herself, I might add), but I’ll leave it simple.

There are some things you just can’t plan. It’s awful and terrifying to feel out of control, but the truth is that you often are. But I’d say more times than not, it’s gonna be okay.