Downtown Mom here: toured Chapin, Brearley, N, S, SH. Did open houses at same. Ended up applying to C, B, S. Honestly cannot tell the true cultural differences between the schools. The academics seemed remarkably the same. The girls did not seem all that different- about the same percentage of hairbow kids in each. I detected the most marginal of differences, but all of those differences could be due to the quirks of the days I was there. Examples: S open house put me off a tiny bit as it seemed like the majority of attending men were dressed like Michael Douglas in Wall Street (but maybe they just changed their clothes and hair grease for C and B). Brearley seemed a bit chilly and institutional (despite the river views), slightly bored looking kids (but could have just been the classes I saw at the moments I walked in). Teachers at Chapin seemed warmer, very interested in what they were doing and delighted to explain it to a passing adult (but maybe I just didn't ask the right questions elsewhere). At the high school level, very hard to detect statistically significant differences in college admits and SATs. So in the end, I did not first choice any of them, as I'd be delighted with any. I am mystified by the vitriol and insane backstabbing here among the pretenders to any of these schools. They seem more similar than different, but maybe since i am not an UES Mom, I can't see what they see.

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