Dwight-Englewood School - Any Experience? (Hackensack: transferring to, private schools, rich)

[MichaelPh]

Looking for feedback on Dwight-Englewood School - only from those who have direct experience as a student or parent of please.

Also, any other suggestions for private schools in the Northern NJ area would be appreciated.



Thanks, Mike

[cyntmac]

Jonathan Demme's (the director) kids go there.
All I know is that it's a day school with a decent rep.
Sorry don't know more.

[zas]

My daughter was going to go there but I change my mind at the last minute because for a elem school it had more kids in the classes then some of the public school in my area...

[shorebaby]

My son is going to go there for Kindergarten next year. We researched many private schools in the area and found this to best fit for him.

[Illyn]

I attended Dwight-Englewood from 5th through 8th grades before transferring to Bergen County Academies in Hackensack for high school. I attended the Englewood public schools beforehand, and Dwight-Englewood was a huge step-up at the time (and still would be, I'm sure). The school is reasonably high-quality, and I know they turn out a fair number of Ivy-bound students each year.

The size of each grade is very small only--there were only 36 students across two classes in my 5th grade class, increasing to 60 students across four classes in 6th grade, and 100 students across six classes in seventh and eighth grades. (The number of students increases again as you enter high school, but I don't know the numbers.) There was never any impression that class sizes were too large, and after fifth grade we were often mixed together in a way that made for strong class bonding.

A lot of students at Dwight-Englewood attend Elisabeth Morrow through 6th grade and then transfer into D-E, which is why the number of students in the 7th grade class increased a lot.

Any family which does not have considerable money should be aware of the pressure not having considerable money will put on your child at D-E, as most students will expect somewhat extravagant events put on by everyone in order to be friends. (I ended up in a pleasant circle of friends consisting of the kids who did not come from rich families.)

Ultimately, Dwight-Englewood was a good school, but it couldn't compare to my high school experience at BCA. BCA is a public magnet high school, and it's difficult to get into, but it provided the best possible education I could have wanted in high school. Dwight-Englewood was very good preparation for a rigorous high school, though.