Which school is the best for my daughter?

How to choose which private school for our daughter?

• Our daughter will be starting kindergarten in the fall. She attends Pre-K at the Montclair Kimberley Academy in NJ. The advantage to this school is it is very close to our neighborhood. However, my husband and I have been considering an elementary school located in New York City, the Columbia Grammar-prep School. However, the difference would be should would have to get up much earlier, as she would have close to a 40 minute ride into school each morning. We like the academic program offered at Columbia Grammar-prep School because of the emphasis put on the arts, however we are not sure about having such a long ride into school every morning would work for our daughter. We are happy with her current school, just trying to keep our options open. Do you think having a long ride into school would put too much of a strain on our daughter? Would anybody happen to have experience with either of the 2 schools; either positive or negative?

• Answer:

  The one with the longest waiting list for Fall 2007 (8 months ago) will tell you a lot.