“At the end of the day, you want a child that is confident. And if you’re at a school that isn’t right for you, that can be a recipe for disaster.”
Brooke Parker (Steck Studios)
Forget legacy—getting into kindergarten at one of New York’s private schools has never been more cutthroat and competitive PETER DAVIS discovers. Scoring a spot at a nursery school or in a first-grade class in New York City is a challenge akin to being accepted at Yale. Enter Brooke Parker, the city’s number one early childhood admissions consultant that every in-the-know parent has on speed dial.
At a dinner party recently, a friend asked me with whispered urgency where I had gone to nursery school in the city. I told her The Brick Church School, on Park Avenue and 91st, and she audibly gasped. “That is our absolute first choice for our son,” she excitedly exclaimed. “It’s so competitive. Brick Church is like the Exeter of kindergartens. And our son is so smart, too. We speak French to him and we’re thinking about starting Mandarin.”
The next week at a fancy black tie fête, another mother moaned that getting her daughter into Spence was much “scarier” than she expected. “I mean, I went to Spence and so did my sister and mother, but legacy just doesn’t seem to matter anymore,” she revealed. “I should get Gwyneth Paltrow, who was in my graduating class, to write a letter. Anything to get her in.”
As the September school start date creeps closer, getting your children enrolled into private school in New York is harder than being accepted at Robin Birley’s new member’s club, Maxime’s on Madison Avenue—and just as pricey. Your child may be fluent in one of the Chinese languages or they might be a star lacrosse player, but that doesn’t guarantee admission to schools like Spence, Buckley or Brick Church anymore. And don’t bother trying to buy your way past the door at Horace Mann or Nightingale-Bamford either. “There is so much money in New York right now,” one dad told me with an audible sigh. “You can’t cut a check and get your kid into a top-tier school anymore. Those days are long gone.”
Hence the rise of a secret weapon for would-be private school parents—the priceless discovery of Brooke Parker Consulting. A native New Yorker (she went to Nightingale-Bamford and Riverdale Country School), who after years of experience as a teacher and tutor at almost every covetable school in the city, has built a career as NYC’s number one admissions guidance guru.
“Parents would ask me all these questions and I knew children so well that I could give insight into their application essays and how to tackle an interview,” Parker says. “It all evolved from there.” Word of mouth spread and Parker had a fast-growing list of clients.
Brooke Parker Consulting focuses on admissions starting in preschool and she isn’t limited to the Brick Churches of the city, like the popular Garden House School or 92nd Street Y Nursery School. She stresses that it’s a family affair, as she’s working with the entire family and not just the child because the parents are being interviewed and scrutinized just as intensely.
“You can learn a lot about the child from their parents. And the parents are the ones that need a lot of coaching for the interviews.” – Brooke Parker
Brooke Parker (Steck Studios)
“I only work with families that are going to be team players with me,” she says. “Sometimes, I’ll get a family that just wants one specific school because they Googled it, and they think it’s prestigious. But I won’t work with a family if they say they only want one school, especially if I find it’s not going to be a good fit for the child’s learning style. I speak my mind, and I don’t believe in sugarcoating things because honesty is always the best policy. At the end of the day, you want a child that is confident. And if you’re enrolled at a school that isn’t right for you, it can be a recipe for disaster.”
Before taking on a new client, Parker has them fill out a confidential intake form she created, that includes information she needs about the child andthe parents. “You can learn a lot about the child from their parents,” she says, from how they put together their child’s schedule to the types of activities the family does together. “The parents are the ones that need a lot of coaching for the interviews.”
Parker does a learning style assessment, and even ensures the child has a selection of age-appropriate books and toys to help foster their development. “Every child has their own challenges, and I like to figure out how I’m going to best reach them in a meaningful way,” she explains. “The strategies and games we play are things I’ve created and adapted. To get through to a child that was really into Ninja Turtles, I would create a lesson that centers Ninja Turtles, so it doesn’t feel like we’re working. I want to introduce a new concept in a way that feels natural and makes sense.”
Fill out your intake application pronto: Parker is almost always booked solid. “I’m putting in 150% of myself” she says, her eyes widening. “Parents that sign up for my ‘full package’ are getting texts from me daily, with constant access to anything that has to do with their child, not just the admissions process. In fact, some people even hire me when they are pregnant so I can help them prepare for everything they need in place when their child is born. And I also work with many families after the admissions process has ended. Type A New Yorkers want to make sure their child is engaged in A+ activities and seeing all the right specialists. They know that they can count on me to guide them.”
Parker is acutely aware how daunting and difficult the private school admissions game has become to play. “And the Kindergarten tuitions have become more than some colleges,” she adds. “The prices and demand are higher than ever before.”
Years of being in the trenches of New York’s private schools as a student herself and then as a teacher and an admissions coordinator, coupled with graduating summa cum laude from Tufts in Child Development and Spanish Literature followed by winning an academic scholarship to Columbia University for Early Childhood Education, make Parker an expert in her field. Plus, she’s the parent of two young children that both attend highly competitive schools in the city. “My kids are my guinea pigs, so I can try approaches out on them,” she says with a laugh. “I look at the whole child through both an educational and parental lens. I’m very particular about things and people know that about me, so they trust me.”
Brooke Parker (Steck Studios)
Bottom line: it’s never ever been tougher to get into a private school. “It has gotten harder, so you need to know how to navigate the system,” Parker tells me. Her extensive experience has led to a perfect enrollment score for her clients, giving both her and her business an A+. Beyond just getting prospective students into school, Parker also teaches parents about what books a child should be reading (she’s a fan of non-fiction) and what toys are appropriate for play (she isn’t big on too much iPad screen time).
Not to mention that her job can also be a kind of de facto therapy for harried parents biting their nails as they wait for that fateful admissions letter to arrive. “There is always an element of nervousness that comes through when you’re applying to anything,” she says. “The reason I’ve had success is that I’m not picking schools that are easier to get into because that doesn’t even exist in New York anymore. It’s finding the right fit and when things are the right fit and the child and family are prepared, that’s when you have a positive outcome.”
