Does anyone have kids at both? I'm really curious how the pedagogy/class size/social-emotional learning/extracurriculars differs between the two. All I know about HCES is that the kids are super smart, but wanting to know more about the school than that!
Worry about this when your child gets into HCES.
No. When your kid gets in you have one week to decide, which is very little time to do research. OP is right to worry about this now.
Have many friends who turned down HCES for private due to class size, facilities, and less emphasis on SEL than what one finds in private. The differences on those factors are real. But it's such a personal and individual thing that it's worth getting in and touring / talking to people and then deciding for yourself. Every family is different in the value it places on such things.
Agree. Some more points:
At HCES the teachers are unionized, and don't seem particularly answerable to the administration. At privates (save perhaps EC/F?) the administration has more control. You can decide which is better. It's not clear to me that the teachers are necessarily better at one than the other.
In the lower grades the academics at K-12 privates move at a snail's pace. (I think K-8s are more driven.) Make sure you're comfortable with that if you choose private.
Regarding HCES, in short there is nothing special about it other than (a) the kids are very smart (or at least test well, if you want to quibble), and (b) it guarantees admission to HCHS (de facto, if not de jure). Of course (a) leads naturally to somewhat fast-paced academics, though keep in mind that by the time they get to HCHS the HCES kids are arguably weaker on average than the incoming kids. My guess is that HCES is probably better than most privates at addressing the academic needs of very smart kids, but even they aren't great at dealing with super-geniuses (e.g. 5th graders taking calculus).
Some parents feel that being around other very smart kids trumps all. Others don't. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer.
@Anonymous: these are excellent points and all true, esp on the academic front. One other thing is the peer group. You are likely to be in a MUCH wealthier peer group overall at a TT private than at HCCS. As OR said, leave to you to decide whether that is good or bad. It's likely a combination of both. This is not say there are not fabulously wealthy people at HCCS. There are. Plenty of them. Just saying that overall there is more wealth in the TT privates.
@Anonymous I don't agree that there are "plenty" of fabulously wealthy people at HCCS. More like a few per grade. Which is not a lot.
Honestly, if you have the money, I would hands down choose TT private.
It depends on what you value. Friends we have who sent their kids to HCES years ago (these are C-level executives) liked the idea of their kids effectively being in private school in terms of the peer group and their values, but in the grittiness and hustle of a public school environment. It really just depends on what you value, I think and there are no right or wrong answers there.
Of course, who wouldn't?
@anonymous People who think their already entitled children may be less entitled by attending a school like that one.
We chose a TT private and have been generally happy with the choice. School has been fantastic about the pandemic, which perhaps is why we are even happier this year with the choice. I will say, though, that this private is very slow academically in the early years, basically covering and re-reviewing much of what DC already knew going into school. We chose not to supplement with outside work, but I do at times wish DC was challenged a bit more.
Academics are slow at TT in K and 1st because they have to get everyone up to speed with basic reading/math. Once my DCs got to 2nd grade though, the writing expectations were high (i.e. multi-paragraph essays, projects using encyclopedias for research, etc).
I am thinking more math, which was still slow in all of lower school, 2nd through 4th grade included.
I don't think there are many families with kids at both Hunter and TT private. My understanding is that most families at Hunter have their other kids at public schools. There are some private school families there, but I hear that a lot of them are at Speyer and other random schools as opposed to TT/2T. There is just not a lot of overlap between the crowds. At a TT school, the vast majority of the families will never have considered public school and did not apply to Hunter. At Hunter, if you ask around, you will find that very few people applied and toured private schools.
I do think you can find a number of Speyer/Hunter families if you are interested in that comparison. Speyer sends a lot of kids to HCHS too. Of course, when it came to the Speyer founders (who are truly wealthy like people are describing above), they sent their kids to Trinity and HM for HS. At that level of wealth ($10m+ home and significant net worth as opposed to a $2 million home and a few million in the bank), there are close to zero people who will consider any form of public school. Not saying it's good or bad, but that is the reality I have observed.
This is accurate IMO. Other than Speyer I can't think of any private schools that feed into Hunter in any significant numbers. I know two people who turned down HCHS seats when their kid got off the WL at a TT.
There are families at Hunter and TT private. Hunter and Trinity is a popular combination. Most people have other children in public school but the Hunter/TT private connection is absolutely there. As for their being no "truly wealthy" people who will consider any form of public school, that is not consistent with my experience or observation when you're talking about a public school like Hunter. It's a stereotype that has truth to it, but that's not the same thing as actually being true as a matter of fact.
There definitely are people "at that level of wealth" who do consider public school (not just Hunter).
How do we make sense of the fact that academics are slow at TT lower grades? If you happen to have a 4 year old who is academically advanced (yes sounds ridiculous, but let's say she already reads at a second grade level, preschool teachers comment on her brightness, etc), are they just going to be not so challenged at TT for the first few years?
Furthermore, how does everybody at TT "catch up" in the later years when the rigor of the academics pick up? Do they all use tutors? Do I have to assume I'll eventually have to pay for tutors on top of the tuition if I send my kid to private?
Good TT teachers will supplement the more advanced kids in lower grades (harder chapter books, more advanced math problems, etc). The less advanced kids have specialists at school (and/or tutors at home) to help them catch up. Not sure what happens in higher grades because we're not there yet, but it does seem like TT HS is soul-crushing and everyone needs tutors.
Little kids don't really need to be "challenged" in early elementary school. More important is they get to do creative stuff, learn problem solving and socialize. And you'll see a lot of leveling around 2nd - 3rd grade. What seems like genius at age 4 often turns out to be precociousness.
You should absolutely assume you will have to pay for tutors in private school. 100%. They are ubiquitous. If you have an exceptionally bright child, the reality is that they may not be a challenged in private either by the teachers or by the peer group. But everyone catches up eventually and, if not, then they're counseled out to find a better match. The transition to middle/high school can be extremely difficult for some.