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New Yorkers often say that it is easier to get their kids into Harvard University than into a top-tier private preschool. This may be an exaggeration but it’s not far from the truth, said Amanda Uhry, founder and President of Manhattan Private School Advisors (MPSA), the city’s largest private school advisory firm.
“The problem with New York is that the public education system failed our kids,”Uhry said. “It began to fail them 30 years ago, and we didn’t do anything about it. We don’t have a better public education system than we did 15 years ago or 20 years ago, we have a worse one—and parents that ordinarily would have sent their kids to good, decent public schools cannot rightfully send their kids there.”
A rash of budget cuts have propelled many New York parents from the public system into the arena of independent school admissions, Uhry said. The number of applications to the private sector increases by about 11 percent to 17 percent each year, exacerbating an “already overwhelming level of competition for spots.” One top-tier local private school, for example, received over 3,000 applications this year, for 166 spots.
“Who do you take? I can imagine that you could take all the applications of the adorable kindergarten kids, throw them out of the window and take the first 60 and they’d do just fine in school, but it doesn’t work like that,” Uhry said. “It’s a nightmare, but people are still willing to do it. Your kids are your message to the future. You will live in a one-bedroom apartment on 1st Avenue to send your kids to [top-tier private school] Horace Mann.”
Average tuition at private schools in New York runs about $40,000 per year, said Uhry, and a K-12 private education totals $750,000. Parents of toddlers just entering the world of child education often feel a sense of sticker shock.
“[The cost of private education is] completely ridiculous,” said Sarah English, 32, mother of three-year-old Beulah. “That said, if I had tons and tons of money to burn, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend it on a ridiculously expensive preschool if I felt it were the right situation for her.”
English currently enrolls her daughter at a New York preschool offered by the local public university, but said she has “no idea if this choice will affect her educational future.”What she wants for her daughter’s preschool education is “lots of play, both physical activities and quiet time, and enough structure and rules to minimize chaos.”
While happy with her current choice of preschools, English said she is concerned about her daughter’s future educational options.
“In a perfect world, I could just send my daughter to the local public school and not have to worry about it. That’s not how it is! I have no idea yet how we’ll navigate the system, and try not to stress about it too much yet. We have another few years at her current preschool,” English said.
Private schools are expensive, Uhry said, and not always worth the cost. There is no “perfect school” and success is based on the needs of the individual child. Even students at “top” schools may encounter a teacher they don’t like, she said. Every school in the United States today, public and private, aspires to produce the same thing in its students, Uhry tells her clients, a self-motivated, independent learner who has good study and time management skills and can take what he or she learns in one academic or social area and use and apply it elsewhere.
“A smart kid will do well anywhere, a dumb kid will do badly everywhere, and parents have to accept that,” Uhry said. “The problem is when it costs $40,000 a year, parents become clients of the schools instead of parents of the schools. You have rights. It gets very complicated when parents start dictating things at the school.”
Mary Wight, 35, a New York mother of two, enrolls her three-year-old son Salvador in a private preschool that offers kindergarten prep such as learning letters, numbers and early reading.
“They have a very diverse program that integrates more academic learning, like letters and numbers, with arts and crafts activities, music, sensory activities like sand and water, and a mix of group activities and free play. They also go out to a local field or playground when it’s nice out. That’s really important to me, for the kids to have as much outdoor time as possible,” Wight said.
But as Salvador and his 16-month-old brother Sebastian grow up, Wight says she may have to switch to more affordable public education. New York City has a number of specialized public high schools such as Stuyvesant High School and Bronx Science for gifted students, but admission to these schools is also difficult.
“There’s a growing trend of parents enrolling their preschoolers in test prep for the gifted exam, and higher numbers of kids are placing into gifted schools, particularly in more well-to-do, educated neighborhoods,” Wight said. “That bothers me and stresses me out, because now families that have the money to pay for test prep have an advantage in gaining entry into this public program. Also, even if I could afford to formally prep my kids for this kindergarten test, philosophically, I don’t really believe in it.”
MPSA uses a quota system to maintain diversity in its clientele, Uhry said, from extremely wealthy families to those applying for scholarships. All MPSA clients are parents that simply “don’t want to fail their kids,” she added.
“This firm would not exist if it wasn’t for our failing public school system and it certainly would not be this big,” Uhry said. “I feel like a war-time profiteer.”
Bill Clinton Sent Me
A “skyrocketing” number of Chinese families, flush with money from the economic boom, are flooding into the private education system in New York City, said Amanda Uhry, founder and President of Manhattan Private School Advisors (MPSA).
“There are a lot of new private schools in China, but they don’t have the history the schools in New York have,” Uhry said. “[Chinese parents] really want to send their kids to schools in the United States.”
Over 40 Chinese families have already approached MPSA for help in 2013 private school admissions, Uhry said. MPSA employs a Mandarinspeaking member of staff to advise the growing demographic.
“[Chinese families] want to come here to a school that’s been around 200 years because they figure, rightly, this is a way to get into an American university,” she added.
But Chinese parents who expect to buy their way into a top-tier school may be in for an unfortunate reality, Uhry said. Nearly all applicants to top-tier private schools in New York can well afford the tuition, and competition for spots is overwhelming. Even parents with VIP connections may find the process challenging.
“One very rich [Chinese] parent knew [former U.S. President] Bill Clinton and wanted Clinton to write his son a recommendation letter. I told him ‘What’s the point? Bill Clinton doesn’t know your son,’” Uhry said.
“The problem with New York is that the public education system failed our kids,”Uhry said. “It began to fail them 30 years ago, and we didn’t do anything about it. We don’t have a better public education system than we did 15 years ago or 20 years ago, we have a worse one—and parents that ordinarily would have sent their kids to good, decent public schools cannot rightfully send their kids there.”
A rash of budget cuts have propelled many New York parents from the public system into the arena of independent school admissions, Uhry said. The number of applications to the private sector increases by about 11 percent to 17 percent each year, exacerbating an “already overwhelming level of competition for spots.” One top-tier local private school, for example, received over 3,000 applications this year, for 166 spots.
“Who do you take? I can imagine that you could take all the applications of the adorable kindergarten kids, throw them out of the window and take the first 60 and they’d do just fine in school, but it doesn’t work like that,” Uhry said. “It’s a nightmare, but people are still willing to do it. Your kids are your message to the future. You will live in a one-bedroom apartment on 1st Avenue to send your kids to [top-tier private school] Horace Mann.”
Average tuition at private schools in New York runs about $40,000 per year, said Uhry, and a K-12 private education totals $750,000. Parents of toddlers just entering the world of child education often feel a sense of sticker shock.
“[The cost of private education is] completely ridiculous,” said Sarah English, 32, mother of three-year-old Beulah. “That said, if I had tons and tons of money to burn, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend it on a ridiculously expensive preschool if I felt it were the right situation for her.”
English currently enrolls her daughter at a New York preschool offered by the local public university, but said she has “no idea if this choice will affect her educational future.”What she wants for her daughter’s preschool education is “lots of play, both physical activities and quiet time, and enough structure and rules to minimize chaos.”
While happy with her current choice of preschools, English said she is concerned about her daughter’s future educational options.
“In a perfect world, I could just send my daughter to the local public school and not have to worry about it. That’s not how it is! I have no idea yet how we’ll navigate the system, and try not to stress about it too much yet. We have another few years at her current preschool,” English said.
Private schools are expensive, Uhry said, and not always worth the cost. There is no “perfect school” and success is based on the needs of the individual child. Even students at “top” schools may encounter a teacher they don’t like, she said. Every school in the United States today, public and private, aspires to produce the same thing in its students, Uhry tells her clients, a self-motivated, independent learner who has good study and time management skills and can take what he or she learns in one academic or social area and use and apply it elsewhere.
“A smart kid will do well anywhere, a dumb kid will do badly everywhere, and parents have to accept that,” Uhry said. “The problem is when it costs $40,000 a year, parents become clients of the schools instead of parents of the schools. You have rights. It gets very complicated when parents start dictating things at the school.”
Mary Wight, 35, a New York mother of two, enrolls her three-year-old son Salvador in a private preschool that offers kindergarten prep such as learning letters, numbers and early reading.
“They have a very diverse program that integrates more academic learning, like letters and numbers, with arts and crafts activities, music, sensory activities like sand and water, and a mix of group activities and free play. They also go out to a local field or playground when it’s nice out. That’s really important to me, for the kids to have as much outdoor time as possible,” Wight said.
But as Salvador and his 16-month-old brother Sebastian grow up, Wight says she may have to switch to more affordable public education. New York City has a number of specialized public high schools such as Stuyvesant High School and Bronx Science for gifted students, but admission to these schools is also difficult.
“There’s a growing trend of parents enrolling their preschoolers in test prep for the gifted exam, and higher numbers of kids are placing into gifted schools, particularly in more well-to-do, educated neighborhoods,” Wight said. “That bothers me and stresses me out, because now families that have the money to pay for test prep have an advantage in gaining entry into this public program. Also, even if I could afford to formally prep my kids for this kindergarten test, philosophically, I don’t really believe in it.”
MPSA uses a quota system to maintain diversity in its clientele, Uhry said, from extremely wealthy families to those applying for scholarships. All MPSA clients are parents that simply “don’t want to fail their kids,” she added.
“This firm would not exist if it wasn’t for our failing public school system and it certainly would not be this big,” Uhry said. “I feel like a war-time profiteer.”
Bill Clinton Sent Me
A “skyrocketing” number of Chinese families, flush with money from the economic boom, are flooding into the private education system in New York City, said Amanda Uhry, founder and President of Manhattan Private School Advisors (MPSA).
“There are a lot of new private schools in China, but they don’t have the history the schools in New York have,” Uhry said. “[Chinese parents] really want to send their kids to schools in the United States.”
Over 40 Chinese families have already approached MPSA for help in 2013 private school admissions, Uhry said. MPSA employs a Mandarinspeaking member of staff to advise the growing demographic.
“[Chinese families] want to come here to a school that’s been around 200 years because they figure, rightly, this is a way to get into an American university,” she added.
But Chinese parents who expect to buy their way into a top-tier school may be in for an unfortunate reality, Uhry said. Nearly all applicants to top-tier private schools in New York can well afford the tuition, and competition for spots is overwhelming. Even parents with VIP connections may find the process challenging.
“One very rich [Chinese] parent knew [former U.S. President] Bill Clinton and wanted Clinton to write his son a recommendation letter. I told him ‘What’s the point? Bill Clinton doesn’t know your son,’” Uhry said.