New York City Private School to Charge $40,000 Tuition

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So, they serve lunch on golden platters, right?

Getting the best just got more expensive. The Riverdale Country Day School in New York City, will begin charging parents $40,450 for tuition per year this fall, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The hefty price tag marks the first time a New York City school has charged more than $40,000 and puts the prestigious Bronx-based school ahead of even the likes of Ivy League universities. By comparison, tuition at Harvard for this past year was $34,976, while Princeton will charge $37,000 next year.

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But Riverdale is hardly alone. Private school tuition in New York City, like many things in the high-cost metropolis, has long outpaced other schools in the nation. Several other New York City schools charge nearly $40K, including Manhattan’s Trinity School, which will charge $38,180 next year and the Hewitt School, which will charge $38,000.

According to the National Association of Independent Schools, nationwide the median tuition in 2010 was $21,695; in New York City it was $35,475. By 2012, the average tuition in the city is expected to be $39,700. Overall, tuition rates at private schools nationwide have spiked by 79% in the past decade.

The concern with such high-priced tuition is that the schools attract only one type of student — the very rich — which results in a campus culture lacking socioeconomic diversity.

Dominic A.A. Randolph, the head of Riverdale, told the WSJ via email that while he was “perturbed” by the ever-increasing cost of education, he added, “I also believe that our parents rightfully make it a priority for their children to have the opportunity of an amazing education and are willing pay for that.”

Randolph’s statement is likely to perturb those parents who, while they prioritize the importance of an “amazing education” for their children, they could never afford to foot the costly bill.

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