An Insider Look at One of the Most Prestigious Private Schools in NY

Evelyn Shaw ’29

On November 19, 2025, me and my BHSEC Americas 1 class visited The Dalton School, an elite private school on the Upper East Side founded in 1919. The school champions progressive learning and has roughly 1,300 students and get this - the annual tuition is $67,000. Our Americas class was visiting this school on a rainy Wednesday to attend a conference about “Why YOUth Should Care About the Constitution.” It was a conference to help educate students on why they should care about the constitution. Our Professor, Supreme Court correspondent for the Economist and the Bardvark Faculty Advisor, Steven Mazie, was one of the speakers there, and he kindly arranged for our class to be able to attend.

To phrase it lightly…It was an extremely notable experience.

To better illustrate the experience I asked some of my other classmates their thoughts as well. From the moment I laid eyes on the Dalton School, I noticed how tall the building was. I later better understood its height when me and my peers climbed up 28 flights of stairs…twice, to get to the classroom that our breakout session was held in. The buildings had elevators, which all the other students employed. However, we couldn’t figure out how to call the elevator when we were out of breath on the 8th floor…I suppose it was only 6 more floors, but it felt like 100. Yes, I will admit not knowing how to call an elevator was not our finest moment as a class, but overall we showed BHSEC pride and asked thoughtful questions throughout the presentations. My friend Ruby, had more or less the same take stating that Dalton has “too many stairs…” However the conference had an array of notable speakers including a New York Times Reporter, former speechwriter for US president Barack Obama, various political figures, and military figures, as well as several authors, and comedians. However, what really shocked and amazed us was not an inspiring remark from a notable figure– it was the cafeteria.

The Dalton School partners with FLIK Independent School Dining which “provides nutritious and delicious meals and snacks tailored to meet diverse dietary and allergy needs,” according to the Dalton website. Although I do not feel that this does the school justice, one of my peers described the cafeteria as “like a whole foods.” This cafeteria had a panini press, salad and sandwich bar, a parfait and desert bar with a variety of fresh fruit, and Thanksgiving-themed hot food options. Everyone - including me, enjoyed the nice staff and facilities, I guess that’s what $67,000 gets you. One of the 9th grade Representatives, Nick, said that “it was amazing…the facilities were very modern and well equipped. It was a great trip.” The school was also generous enough to provide snacks for students such as chips, popcorn, sugar-free cookies, and fresh fruit. However there was one highly misleading aspect of this beloved cafeteria.

The drinks…

The school has a variety of milk, juice, and fruit infused water dispensers. Isabella, another BHSEC student stated that the apple juice tasted “like bleach” while another warned “don’t mix 4 flavors [of the fruity water] together.” I tried a blackberry mint infused water and it tasted like those oddly flavored children's toothpastes to say the least.

Nevertheless, the school's facilities were simply divine! The building overall was very clean and modern with lots of nooks with colorful cushions, tables, and whiteboards.

Our class showed lots of BHSEC pride throughout the experience, especially while listening to Prof. Mazie talk about the supreme court. We were all cheering and clapping for him, as well as taking many photos on our phones - a luxury the Dalton students didn’t have because their school uses the infamous Yonder Pouches. We were allowed to keep our phones because there wasn’t a prearranged way to store them in the school, which was very nice for us. I really enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker Max Rose (former US Congressperson) because I felt it was a very enlightening experience on how politicians speak in general. It was overall a fun bonding experience. However, is it worth $67,000? I would say not - Dalton is in session for approximately 150 days a school year so that means you’d pay over $450 a day to attend. I just don’t think it is necessary to pay that much for nicer dining and facilities, when there are some diamonds in the rough in the public school system. A student in our class named Joseph commented that “food and facilities does not [make] a good education…I’d take a good community over nice classrooms any day.” Although we were unable to reach out to any Dalton students, it was amazing to visit a different school and see firsthand what lies beyond the public school system. While it was educating to hear people speak on the constitution, I think I learned the most about how money and education influence one another.