Is Pennington, Hun, or Lawrenceville better for STEM? I’ve heard that Lawrenceville’s curriculum isn’t that great for STEM, like computer science or other science. On a side note, I’ve heard that Hun is not too culturally inclusive. Is that true? If I got in to all three, which one would be better to go to for a quality education?
Current Lville senior here. Out of all three schools, L’ville is definitely strongest overall in terms of educational quality, opportunities, and perhaps sports. The liberal arts education aspect of it is extremely valuable even if you want to be a software engineer in the future. Yes, the coursework structure might be a little bit restricting for STEM or computer science at first, but there are plenty of opportunities after junior year.
Do most students at these schools pay full tuition?
Lville per se, over 40% of the incoming students will get financial aid/scholarship. Some students even get full aid, plus monthly allowance, budgets for laptops, etc.
What is the approximate number of students who are accepted and who enroll at these schools each year?
Lawrenceville is probably the most competitive out of the three, about 2000 or so students applied, less than 20% admitted, and 150 freshmen, 50-60 sophomores and small number of juniors/seniors/PGs chose to enroll. Rough estimate.
My son graduated from Lawrenceville, so I’m quite familiar with the STEM program there. The main problem is that Lawrenceville does not offer AP classes. Some classes are taught with the AP curriculum, but students will have to study the extra topics on their own. The only STEM classes that I’m aware which adhere fully to the AP curriculum are: Statistics and Computer Science.
There several high level math classes at Lville, and less so on biology, chemistry, physics. The opportunities to do research while in HS are also limited at Lville. The teachers weren’t too motivated to do research projects with the students. There is a program called Hutchins Scholars, which offers about 10 students the opportunity to do research over a summer. But its tough to get one of these positions. Lawrenceville is much better in the humanities due to its Harkness teaching style.
Pennington has a new program with an applied science certificate, which is nice. Pennington does have AP classes, and the overall school is much smaller. Higher ratio of day students to boarders as compared to Lville. Same issue with finding research opportunities.
If you are really gung-ho on STEM, then one of the local magnet schools might be a better option (Bergen Academies, High Technology HS, Biotechnology HS). Of course this depends on where your home is located.
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Admit rate fo 2021 was 15% at Lawrenceville per admissions office.