So…Trinity School (in NYC) is no longer accepting applications for admission to Grade 9 for the 2020-21 season…Didn’t quite realize they close so early! Does anybody know if Grade 9 applications closed earlier than usual this year? I know the deadline for Kindergarten was October 23, 2020–was that the deadline for Grade 9 as well? Is there any way to get on a waitlist or something? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Is this a common thing these private schools do - when they have enough applicants, they close down before their advertised deadline?
Most private schools seem to have actual deadlines and accept applications up to the deadline. But I guess Trinity is different…? Some warning would have been nice!
2020-21 is the current year. They have closed applications for the 2021-22 year.
Ninth grade applications are typically one of the most competitive years for private school applications. Because of COVID, a lot of parents have been looking for smaller learning environments and there has been a surge in applications, making it more competitive than usual.
Trinity always closes applications early, they are famous for it for K but do it for all grades, when they have enough they just return your check and that’s that. This is not at all new this year has always been the case. Naturally, there is a back door and if you are an extremely desirable applicant they would still take it but someone would have to make the call. They do take a lot of kids for 9th grade but have a rubric as far as how many kids they take from private K-8s (often quite a few siblings/legacies), public schools, and parochial schools as well. Particularly if you have a boy, the quotas fill quite quickly.
@417WHB on your last sentence, are you saying it is harder to get in as a boy (vs a girl)? Question is specifically about high school admission.
I agree with @417WHB about 9th being harder for boys, especially from Manhattan. There are 4 K-8(9) UES boys schools that used to send almost exclusively to boarding schools but now many want to stay in the city. Many, many of them apply to Trinity. I’m not sure about a rubric but I wouldn’t be surprised.
IDK how it impacts boy applicants from other areas. And yes, they do close applications early. Nothing like keeping people on their toes, I guess.
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Yes it is definitely harder for boys, for reasons @PetraMC already stated. Particularly if you are an UMC white boy. None of the girls’ schools end in 8/9th grade and while some girls will look to switch for change of social scenery, the numbers are not at all comparable as all of the boys need a new school. Most of them used to go to boarding schools but that number has been declining steadily and the majority want to stay in the city nowadays. Typically, the strong students either want Trinity or one of the hill schools (HM, Riverdale or Fieldston, with Riverdale being most popular of the 3).
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@417WHB or anyone else here are you from NYC? Did you apply/applying to day schools and boarding schools?
I still bare the scars from NYC preschool, Kindergarten, and High School admissions but none of mine ultimately decided to apply to boarding schools.
They are all in college or fully grown now, so my info might not be the freshest.
My DC is in a private school in NYC. We applied to multiple private and parochial schools in NYC 2 years ago (no boarding schools). Feel free to ask any questions here, although I only know what I know, which is probably very limited.
@sonatarhia Thanks for the reply. My DC is an 8th grader in a magnet program in a good/competitive public school. Initially we were thinking he would go for a specialized high school though we didn’t like toxic competition and overly stressed kids in most specialized high schools. Then we learned about financial aid option and our Dc decided to apply for day schools. Just before schools closed last year, he learned about boarding schools and he is very eager to attend boarding school. We are applying both day schools ( Trinity interview will be our last one in a few days), and boarding schools. We do not have any results yet, obviously, but I wonder if any families had a dilemma choosing between day schools in NYC and boarding schools. He is applying only top boarding schools, and mixed bag in day schools in NYC.
We also had a interview with Trinity - during the entire parent interview, we felt the interviewer was “bored” by us. So after that, we thought we had no hope with Trinity. But came Feb, he got an offer. So the lesson here is don’t stress too much about the interview (we didn’t prep our DC at all), and you never know. One thing I feel about Trinity is that they like sporty kids. If your DC plays any sport, make sure to play that up.
You did the right thing by applying widely. You never know which school is looking for what candidate. We applied to about 7 or 8 private schools in NYC, and the results varied widely (from acceptance/rejection to FA), and several of them not what we expected (if there’s such a thing).
Anecdotally, apps to boarding schools are probably up this year. Several of my friends’ kids are applying to boarding schools this year only because those are test optional. They all say they wouldn’t have applied otherwise. Again, these are what I’m hearing in my little circle.
Good luck to your DC - 8th grade is so stressful to begin with, and this year is definitely no joke!
Did you opt in Trinity? If you did, how does he like it? Is it true that kids get/need tutoring almost daily?How was his test scores?What hooks did he have?Thanks for the tip for playing out the sports. He plays 3 sports and got a citiwide recognition in one of the not so popular sports.
We were lucky to have a few choices. I’ll send more info to you in a DM.
Both of my kids are now in BS, but went to day schools in the NYC area. One kid’s school ended at 8th and the other went through 12th grade. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. A classmate of the kid who went to the N-8 school had the Trinity/top BS option. One of the problems is that the ISAAGNY/day schools need to hear back from you before the BS notify. The parent wanted the kid to go to trinity and the kid wanted to go to BS. It eventually shook out that the kid went to BS. The gap in reply dates will be a problem if your kid unsure (which is hard with no revisits/tours).