New parents to the area with child accepted to these schools for Middle School.
Please share your thoughts and feedback, if distance wasn’t an option.
Thanks.
What are your child’s main interests and motivations? Each of the schools are quite different. What are your long-term goals for high school? Does your child have any specific needs?
This information would be helpful before making any sort of recommendations
Thanks. Interests are all over the place —Languages. Music. Math. (Good problems tonhave) Child is high aptitude who has had lifelong (so far) joy of learning, a true “Montessori kid”. Could see her go into the arts or hard science. We mostly just want her to be challenged and to have access, ideally all in one place for logistics and time.
most opportunities at PDS, especially soft areas such as music are determined by the parent ($$) factor. You child will get the basics in languages and science for sure and may very well do well in the courses. However, opportunities to actually shine at school are rather reserved for the powers that be. For instance, the opportunity to be the speaker at special events, get a choice part in a play, athletic awards for both middle and high school, etc are ‘reserved’. If you are one of those parents who can hit the ground running, hobnob with the PA, get membership at Bedens Brook, you are all set. Else, if you want you kid to shine, look elsewhere or of course you can pay the tuition and yet spend $$ on outside extra-curriculars. Sadly, many private schools are the same though.
Look into Scicore academy and PRISMS as well. For hgh school I would highly recommend Peddie in the area.
You’ve described like a “caste” system at PDS — one experience for “privileged”, another entirely for those who aren’t (what?) celebrities or “VIP”?
What is your experience with PDS that you can describe it the way you have?
Has anyone else experienced what was described in that post?
Our experience (through admissions) has not revealed any of that, so I’m surprised to read it here…
@RansomEvergladesPrinceton, there’s a bit of truth to it actually. I think it may be related to the fact that kids start in elementary, when parent involvement is the norm (and many parents never extricate themselves ), that the school has/needs donors, that current parents are on the board and/or stay involved, and that overall, it’s a competitive and affluent zip code where parents are very involved in general trying to get their kids an edge. (Tutoring, lessons, summer enrichment, etc.) It doesn’t mean it’s not a good school, but @sonsun 's comments are not without some merit.
I would not eliminate it from consideration for this reason, but think about whether you would be bothered by it. There is typically a variant of this even at public schools where there are families that have lived in the area for a long time or have a lot of kids that have a different relationship with the school than you will as a newcomer with one kid.
The benefit you have with doing this for middle school is that you can switch for high school if it’s an issue for you. It is possible, of course, that it will not be.
I know several parents who sent their kids to PDS. Most were fairly happy. The description by @sonsun appears to be correct. I’ve heard the same thing. However this does not appear to be unique to PDS. Probably happens at other private schools that start at K level (Chapin, Rutgers prep, etc).
Another important thing that I’ve noticed about PDS is that many of the ‘top’ kids end up going elsewhere for high school: Lawrenceville, Pingry, Exeter, etc. So there is a big drop off in 9th grade. Also a lot of new kids enter at Grade 9.
Hun on the other hand starts at Grade 6, so there is less issue of combatting sharp elbowed parents. Very low pressure style of learning. Lots of opportunity for kids to seek extra help from teachers. Percentage of boarders is low, so most kids are day students. High emphasis on sports (at HS level). Overall its a great school.
Rutgers prep: i’ve heard mixed things about it. Has been around a long time, but still doesn’t have the college matriculation stats you’d expect from a top private school. Can be good for the right type of kid.
I don’t know about the schools but do want to mention the excellent music instruction available in Princeton at Westminster Conservatory (since you mentioned a musical interest). Good luck with your choice.
Seconding what @sgopal2 said… We also know of several families that left PDS to go to Lawrenceville or Peddie for high school. We also know a few who started at PDS for 9th.
I would put another school on your radar: Newtown Friends School across the river in Bucks Co., PA. Flies under the radar compared to the Princeton schools, but there is some good stuff going on there and the vibe is a lot more laid back than PDS, Chapin, etc. Lots of the kids from NFS go on to George School, but they go all over–this year’s class had 2 accepted to Lawrenceville, 3 to Peddie, etc. For middle school especially, the Quaker values can be really magical.