Moving to NYC from Dallas; Preschool and location suggestions (Paris: apartment, to rent)

[da49130]

I recently accepted a position where I will be working in Midtown Manhattan. My wife and I will be renting an apartment for about a year and then will eventually buy a house out in the suburbs once we figure out where we want to put down roots. In the meantime we were thinking of renting somewhere in Manhattan or in Hoboken. I have a three year old daughter that was attending preschool in Dallas at about $3,000 per year for a two day program. One of our biggest concerns is getting her into a reasonably priced preschool that has a good reputation. I've heard the stories of long waiting lists and tuition of $20,000+ which is way out of our budget. I've also tried hours searching online and still don't have any good leads. We would also like to rent an apartment that is in somewhat proximity to the preschool or is a good area to live for families with small children. If anyone has recommendations for preschools or tips for getting enrolled for the fall I would be very grateful.

[mead]

Are you Catholic? Do you have anti-Catholic feelings, and would you mind your kid being in a Catholic parochial school?

I ask this because the Catholic schooling system is probably the best bet for a reasonably priced education for your child in the city. There are tons of good private pre-schools out there, but you'll have to pay out the nose for many of them, especially in Manhattan.

A lot of Catholic parishes have attached schools that are quite reasonably priced as well as a good choice for education. The local public schooling system in NYC is really a crap shoot, and probably isn't what you are looking for (although for Grade school, public schools aren't THAT bad).

I only asked the first couple of questions because you mentioned you were from Dallas, and I know there is some history between Southern Protestants and their feelings for us Catholics up here.

Most regular private schools that aren't affiliated with the Catholic church are really expensive. Many of these secular places are really popular with Jewish parents, but their tuition rates are incredibly high.

Most Protestant churches don't run parochial schools in this area. I have seen a few that do, and most of them are smaller Luthern schools.

[da49130]

Thanks for your response. We are Catholic and I understand your comments regarding some of the friction and sentiment of some of the Protestants in the South. My wife is also from Northern New Jersey originally but hasn't lived in the area for awhile. Also we, aren't that familiar with the Parishes in the city and which one's offer preschool for 3 year olds. Any suggestions or experiences with a particular school would be greatly appreciated.

[Viralmd]

The private schools that aren't church affiliated are popular with MANY parents. NOT just Jewish ones.

[mead]

Yeah thats true, but if you look at all of the really exclusive private schools in the city and surrounding areas, the ones that are secular generally tend to be heavily Jewish. The other students are usually rich old-money WASPs, over-acheiving Catholic Irish/Italians, Asians who struck it rich somehow by being small business owners, random Eurotrash, Latin-Americans with corrupt money, and your run of the mill yuppies/hipsters.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that though.

Would you question whether these exclusive private schools have a disproportionately high percentage of the student body who are Jewish? Keeping in mind that Jewish people only make up about 10-15% of the population today, down from its peak of 25% of the city back in the 1940s/1950s.

[Viralmd]

They do NOT. I WENT to one of these schools. Jews were DECIDEDLY in the minority. My niece currently attends one of these schools. They are, 35 years later, STILL in the minority.

Where does your experience with these schools come from?

[mead]

While I did not attend one of these schools I attended a fairly prestigious Catholic High School that was a rival and sports competitor to a lot of these secular/Protestant High schools. Perhaps it was just the conference we were in, but from my vantage point there was a disporportionately high number of Jewish students. Of course just about all of the better Universities have a large number of Jewish students, especially the Ivy league.

I have a fairly recent take on this as I just graduated college recently and started up grad school a year ago.

I just went on google and found this article very easily, seems to substantiate what I am saying: Jews swarming to WASP schools

[Viralmd]

Sorry, but a Catholic high school, regardless of its prestige, still is not a Manhattan secular private school.