If Elisabeth "Babby" Krents didn't have a healthy ego before—doubtful since she's been running admissions for the posh UES Dalton School for 15 years now—she's gotta have one now! In the last four months the 61-year-old has been the subject of praise-filled profiles first in the Wall Street Journal and now in the New York Times. But we can live with that—because really, how else would we know that Babby defended her Ph.D dissertation at Columbia on the same day she delivered her second daughter? No wonder she scares people. more ›

For sometime now, families have been pouring into lower Manhattan left and right. Very wealthy families with very wealthy kids who need to be educated. And though the public schools downtown are quite good, there is already a limited supply of seats in the elementary school arena. By the time it comes to send Zelda and Holden off to to high school well, the choices are few and far between. But not for long. Though the last attempt to open a new high school downtown was a victim of the economy, two very different schools are now making a go of it. One has deep New York roots and the other is...ambitious. more ›

Despite the impression you may have gotten from Bravo's late "reality" show NYC Prep (has it really been two years?) the world of high end private education in New York is not all rich and white. In fact, a number of New York private schools are working quite hard to try and assure that their student bodies are increasingly diverse...and rich. Take the posh Dalton School, for instance, which happily crows to the Journal today that nearly half of its incoming kindergarten class will be students of color. Which, naturally, has given anxious parents one more thing to worry about when playing the admissions game. Is little Holden ethnic enough? more ›

With Riverdale Country School raising their tuition to $40,450 a year for high school students in 2011-2012, New York private schools have topped the $40K mark for the first time. Though the head of Riverdale tells the WSJ that he's "perturbed" by the rising education costs, he says that "our parents rightfully make it a priority for their children to have the opportunity of an amazing education and are willing to pay for that." Yes, but once you factor in tutoring that's the same price as tuition, and the apartment you have to buy your kids when they graduate, educating your kids costs a lot more than $40K a year. Nevertheless, money and influence do buy achievement. more ›

These days it's just not enough to cough up $40K to ensure that little Sebastian Higgenbottom IV goes to all of his classes at Riverdale Country School or Dalton, or one of the city's other prestigious high schools. Now you need an equal amount of cash to make sure he actually learns things there. The Times reports that "prepping," which sounds awfully close to "studying really hard with a tutor," is costing parents of overachieving students up to $795 per 50 minutes, and as much as $35K for the entire year. Kids: just talk your parents into giving you $40K a year by dropping out. For those of you that don't have tutors, that's a savings of almost 50 percent! more ›

Is the 225-year-old Manhattan private school Friends Seminary getting ready to end its relationship with the Quakers? Very possibly! The NY Times today looks at the issues facing the relationship between the $32,870-a-year school and the city's few remaining Quakers and finds reasons for and against a split. more ›

In another reminder that money and hoity-tiotyness will always triumph over spirit, fairness, equity and merit, the NY Times reports that the public playing fields on Randall's Island are being overwhelmingly used by private schools and institutions, leaving public schools way in the outskirts. more ›

With the economy changing people's financial situations, many parents who would have enrolled their children in private schools are looking to put their kids in highly regarded public schools, like P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, P.S. 199 and P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side and P.S.'s 6, 59 and 290 on the Upper East Side. So now parents trying to find their ways into the neighborhoods where these schools are—the NY Times speaks to a few of these desperate parents; one said she and her husband were considering subletting their apartment and then rent an apartment in a more attractive zone while one father said, "I will certainly consider some alternative way to game the system by gaining a different address. This is my child, who is a really smart kid, and he’s not going to my crummy zoned school. That’s just not going to happen." The Times also has some tips for parents, one being to research schools on Insideschools.org and another to make sure a potential home is actually in the school's zone. more ›

They may have grown up privileged and prepped for success from birth, but a record number of four-year-olds are facing rejection from New York's top kindergarten programs. Fortunately, the parents of the doomed children are probably still young enough to procreate again and hope for better chances with their younger progeny. more ›

A state judge has shot down Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to rent sports fields on Randalls Island to private schools because the administration failed to follow the legally required land-use review process when it made the deal. The plan was for private schools to pay $2.6 million a year for the next two decades in exchange for use of the renovated fields during peak hours from 3pm to 6pm. The Parks Department had agreed to contribute $65 million to refurbishing 36 sports fields and building new fields on 12.5 acres of the island. more ›

Norman Siegel, former NYCLU director, is taking the city to court today on behalf of Harlem residents opposed to the city’s plan for sports fields on Randall's Island. The city is building 63 new fields on the island in addition to the 36 fields already there; the construction is being partially financed by a consortium of private schools who will be given exclusive access to most of the fields between 3pm and 6pm on weekdays. more ›