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I would welcome any input on the best private schools in New Jersey that are close to Manhattan. In particular, any thoughts on the relative merits of The Stevens Cooperative School, Pringry, Dwight Engelwood or Elizabeth Morrow? (And while public schools are a great option, I'm focused on the private schools for purposes of this query). Thanks all!
The best is debatable and highly subjective but Pingry, Lawrenceville, Princeton Day, Gill St. Bernards, Newark Academy, Dwight Englewood, and Montclair Kimberly Academy are all highly regarded. The only thing I know about them are their marketing departments.
Thanks tdstyles. That is useful information. Lawrenceville and Princeton Day are too far away from NYC for our purposes, so having looked into these I think its between Pingry, Dwight Engelwood, and Stevens for us. Any input from anyone that knows of these schools would be welcome. Might consider applying to Montclair Kimberly as well.
my info on Dwight-Englewood is 6 years out of date, but would be surprised if it has changed significantly. Excellent school with a great image, nice campus, and excellent faculty. However, pricey
Pingry , Delbarton ,Newark Academy , Morristown Baird ,Seton Hall , Kent Place , Oak Knoll , are some of the best but many of the public schools are just as good, such as Millburn .
Is this for commuting purposes? Indeed look at the ones in Hoboken, Summit, Montclair or Morristown. Most are very expensive though and are close to NYC prices.
Forest_hills_Daddy it is for commuting to manhattan for work. Prices are indeed all pretty similar so I'm really just trying to get a sense of the relative merits.
I worked an after school program for a short while at Stevens Coop--I sometimes worked at the JC location and a few times over at one of the Hoboken locations. I thought Stevens was a great little school--but you should be aware it's a progressive school and read up about that type of school philosophy and see if it fits your child. It's Pre-k-8 only, but many of the 8th graders then went on the McNair if they lived in JC or to another private if they lived in Hoboken. One little girl I had went on to one of the most prestigious HS in Manhattan, but I'm not sure how common that is.
There are no grades in the traditional sense--teachers instead write detailed reports on a regular basis that detail what your child has learned, what they need to work on--general strengths and weaknesses.
Each class has a head teacher and an assistant teacher (or rather, most classes). Both the head and assistant teachers are degreed professionals, but most of the head teachers (maybe all? can't remember) have master's degrees in progressive education whereas many of the assistant teachers are still working on it.
Class sizes are small. Kids are encouraged to create and self-direct their learning--can't say this was always, 100% effective, but it does work for many kids.
Students adress all adults by their first name (teachers, coaches, headmaster). Again, you have to be into progressive education to like this school.
I feel like tuition for Stevens is very reasonable--much cheaper than most privates in Manhattan--cheaper than my daughter's daycare tuition even. I want to say it's around $14-15,000/year for full time (this was several years back, probably have changed). ETA: Looks like it's 19,000 now.
Annikan that is great insight! Thank you so much. Any thoughts on the relative merits of doing that kind of school versus a true K-12 likes the others on the list?
Forest_hills_Daddy it is for commuting to manhattan for work. Prices are indeed all pretty similar so I'm really just trying to get a sense of the relative merits.
If price is a concern, there's a French academy that's expanding in different NJ locations like New Milford and JC:
They are relatively new and still have to prove themselves.
Otherwise you can't go wrong with Oak Knoll, Kent, Kimberly etc.
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