<p>Long-time lurker, first-time poster. My son has been accepted to Horace Mann and Trinity for high school, and we have until March 15 to make our decision. We're obviously getting inputs from a number of sources, but would be interested in any views from the community here.</p>
<p>I really didnt like TP, the facilities are so old..and not quite impressive in terms of BS standard</p>
<p>bearcats -- I think the op meant Trinity, a NYC day school. You might have meant Trinity Pawling, a NY state boarding school. </p>
<p>Congratulations nynyparent! However, I have no insight on either school. I've heard of Horace Mann more, but since I'm not part of the nyc crowd, that doesn't mean much.</p>
<p>Thanks Burb Parent - you're correct that I meant Trinity School in NYC, not Trinity-Pawling. We realize that we're incredibly lucky to have the choice, and in some sense we probably can't go wrong with either, but we really loved both schools, so it's a very hard choice</p>
<p>Well, Trinity's in the city, which is definitely a plus, but Horace Mann is prettier.</p>
<p>Academically, they're pretty equal, and the kids are pretty much the same. I'm guessing it's a little less "pressure-cooker" at Trinity, though. I think that at this point, it's all about fit, so it doesn't matter what anyone on this board tells you.</p>
<p>Ask your son. Let him visit both and decide. This shouldn't be up to us anymore.</p>
<p>Congratulations, though! :)</p>
<p>nynyparent,</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son. We’ve been through the New York high school application process with two kids. Our daughter is a junior at Trinity; our son is a freshman at another NY independent. </p>
<p>Both kids had nice choices and we basically let each of them make their own decision. I would second PurpoisePal’s advice to have your son visit both schools and just let him choose (I know Trinity schedules day-long visits for its acceptees and guess that Horace Mann does the same).</p>
<p>I know two teachers and several students at Horace Mann. It’s a great school.</p>
<p>Here’s the sales pitch for Trinity: Our daughter loves Trinity. She has many school friends and is comfortable with the social environment. The culture is very casual – while there are many highly privileged kids it is always downplayed. The typical dress is jeans and t-shirt. Most of the teachers are first rate. In three years she has had difficulty with only two teachers. One she just didn’t jibe with, many of the students like this teacher; the other was universally complained about and has since left the school. A special strength of the school is languages. Many of the students take two languages through all four years – the Latin program is superb. Trinity does not over-emphasize AP or SAT II classes. Like many of the NY independents they claim that the subject content of their normal classes covers the AP material and is an adequate preparation for same; we’ve found this to be true. Trinity has two math tracks, the honors level winds up taking Calculus BC in senior year. The honors math kids take physics in 10th grade, chem. in 11th; the others do the reverse, chem. in 10th, physics in 11th. </p>
<p>Our son was also accepted at Trinity and we just assumed it would be his first choice. He had some very specific reasons for choosing his school and we wound up letting him go. He also loves it there, and I suspect that if you allow your son to make his own choice that he’ll wind up feeling the same way about either Horace Mann or Trinity.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>You can actually now consider how far you live from each school. Try traveling to the schools during a weekday and during rush hour so you know what it would feel like for your child to attend the school daily.</p>
<p>CONGRATS!!!!! Trinity and Horace Mann are 2 EXTREMELY good schools. in fact, Horace Mann is ranked higher than AESDCH and trinity is one ranking below Exeter. Your son must be very special to be accepted to these schools. I live very close to the city so i do know about these schools but have not applied to them since its toooo close to home.</p>
<p>oh yes and you should do what EuNixD says. Rush hour is HORRIBLE in the moring and after noon. you have to leave like 1hr b4 the time you would want to leave without traffic.very annoying..</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. And yes, I should be more careful about my use of the "we" pronoun. To be clear, I do view this as his choice, particularly given that I will be delighted for him to attend either school. But he likes both and is still at an age where he is open to parental guidance and input (I know this won't last).</p>
<p>The rush hour point is a factor - he's about a fifteen minute walk from Trinity (and on a bus line in the case of bad weather or laziness). But Horace Mann has a bus service that would pick him up and have only a couple of additional stops in the city before going direct to the school. They claim it's not that bad a commute, particularly given that it's going in the opposite direction from the rush (out of the city in the morning, into the city in the afternoon). Should I take that claim with a grain of salt?</p>
<p>See if you can take the bus service to and from the school. If you cannot do this, then ask for the phone #s of parents whose children take it. Then you'll find out how long it takes. Also, consider what you will do for evening school events and sports events that end after the bus leaves.</p>
<p>nynyparent,
I have kids at HM and have a friend whose child graduated from Trinity. They are both terrific schools. There is something to be said for being within walking distance of a school, rather than relying on the vagaries of NYC traffic. I'm not sure where most of the Trinity population lives, but I can tell you that HM draws from not only all over the city, but also the suburbs of NJ and Westchester with a bit of Connecticut thrown in for flavor! You just have to know what you're "buying into" in terms of going to HM. Your child may make friends/be in group projects with kids from all over the geographical region, so you have to be ready for the chauferring/transportation issues that come with that. Just a thought. And maybe Trinity also draws from a wide geographical region. But your child certainly has two great choices. Good luck!</p>
<p>Horace Man hands down is the most prestigious and rigorous. It also has great College matriculations as it churns out a very prepared student body. My friends D just got accepted and it's an admission slot to die for.</p>
<p>I saw a list today of college placements for Trinity's Class of 2006. By my count, more than half the class - one more than half to be precise - is going to Ivy League colleges. While impressive, it also made me wonder whether it reflects too narrow a focus, when half the class ends up at eight schools. (I know, I'm a neurotic NY parent.) Any reaction here? Impressive or troubling or both?</p>
<p>Well, nynyparent, as i've had friends at both, the biggest complaint i've heard about trinity (there haven't been many at ALL) has been the lack of a stand-out visual arts program. </p>
<p>If that's important to you, I'd head for HM as they have an top notch (and quite beautiful) building dedicated to their visual arts.</p>
<p>Trinity also is less aesthetically pleasing that HM, but really, that doesn't matter much.</p>
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<p>I just realized I didn't actually answer your question. </p>
<p>I think while it's a great thing to boast 50% ivy attendance for a school, I personally would prefer to see a balanced list of LAC's, Ivies, and other top rated special program colleges (Ranging from, say, Olin to Julliard to Cooper U) because it shows that students are subjected to a wide range of personalities and talents. </p>
<p>However, I don't think that Trinity students aren't diversified - they are, and that's why colleges dig them so much. So in Trinity's case, I don't think it's a bad thing at all, but I think for other schools it can be.</p>
<p>I have wondered for some time whether Trinity micro-manages their college acceptances a little too much. Let me tell you a real life story. My daughter's best friend and academic peer from grade school went to Trinity, while my daughter chose to go to St. Paul's in New Hampshire. St. Paul's, which prides itself on encouraging students to make their own decisions, even if they fail, urged my daughter to apply early to her dream school even though her chances were low. During the Christmas holiday, I saw her Trinity friend and asked if she were applying early to her father's alma mater, Yale. She said that Trinity wouldn't allow it. She had been told that the college counselor had other students to support for Yale, but that the counselor had promised to support the girl for U Penn. Well, the Trinity girl got into Penn early, as promised by Trinity, and my daughter got into Harvard after being deferred in the early decision round. All turned out well, but not necessarily for the best.</p>
<p>Damaris, Trinity wouldn't allow it? Or did they just suggest that the student in question would have a better chance of admission at Penn than Yale? It's hard to see how a school could prohibit a student from applying to whatever school the student chooses, but it's not hard to see them guiding a student to a school where the chances of admission are higher. At the end of the day, though, isn't it the student's choice whether to follow the guidance or not? </p>
<p>P.S., congrats on your daughter's admission. How are she and her friend liking their respective schools?</p>
<p>nynyparent, I'm not sure if you know how it works at nyc private schools, but in case you don't, I'll fill you in: (or at least this is how it works at my school, and it appears to work the same way at a bunch of other schools)</p>
<p>When kids apply to college, the administration calls the good schools (ivies, etc.) and recommends certain kids because the college can't take everyone and the school wants to maximize their acceptances. So when kids look at colleges, the college advisor will push for the college that the school will back that kid up on. A lot of the time, the kids that the school backs up are major donors, so other kids will get left out (for top ivies). Before the kids decide on what college to apply, the high school has a rough list of who they want where (probably).</p>
<p>It looks like the girl at Trinity was pushed to Penn because Yale was "full." It looks like other people got preference over her. It has very little to do with chances of admission (minus the phone call). They can't prohibit a student from applying, but they can discourage very strongly. When a school does discourage you from applying to a certain college, it isn't a very good idea to ignore their advice because chances are, you won't get in because you didn't get a phone call in your name. </p>
<p>Sometimes, though, you can apply anyway and you'll still get in. I have a few friends whose siblings applied to top ivies and got in even though the school's college counselor told them that they would never get in and that there was no point in trying.</p>
<p>^Yeah. That's a pretty rough sketch of how it goes down in nyc private schools. lol ;)</p>
<p>On the off-chance that anyone's interested in the outcome, my son chose Trinity. He really liked both schools and believed he would be happy at either. I think the deciding factors in the end were geographic proximity and the fact that one of his good friends will also be attending Trinity.</p>
<p>I'm grateful for the posts and thoughts in this thread. I did inquire a little more into the college placement process (but didn't say anything to my son about it as I don't want him even thinking about it for another few years). What I was told was that Trinity does not tell students where to apply or prohibit a student from applying to any particular school. Their college counselors do, however, spend a fair amount of time talking to each student and parents about the college choices and what are realistic targets. </p>
<p>They also have a policy (which I'm told is common among NYC private schools) that if a student applies under an early application program and is admitted, the student can't apply elsewhere even if the college does not make the early admission binding. I think there's an exception to this if financial aid is an issue. But they don't push students into applying early and the decision on where to apply and whether to apply early is ultimately up to the student.</p>
<p>Again, thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. I'm now going back to lurking. Maybe I'll find my way to one of the other forums in a few years when my son starts looking at colleges.</p>