Pine Crest School (relocating from MA) (Fort Lauderdale, Weston: fit in, middle school, universities) - Florida (FL) -Broward County - City-Data Forum

pr4141 · 03-09-2009, 03:53 PM

Hi,
We may be relocating to the area with our two girls 11 &13 and wanted to know what the Pine Crest School was like. They are in a private school now and we like the small class size, close knit community and the kids are low key (LL Bean, Gap clothes). Can anyone give us feedback about the Pinecrest School in Fort Lauderdale?
Thank You!

Momma_bear · 03-09-2009, 04:26 PM

Pine Crest is a private school located in Fort Lauderdale. It is fairly competitve to get into the school. Your daughters will have to take an entrance exam. Pine Crest is academically oriented and sends students to many fine universities. It is a non religious school and has high academic standards. I know quite a few people who have kids there and most of them like it.

Pine Crest also has many extracurricular activities and sports. It is a fairly small school (by Broward standards) and it has a nice campus.

Other non religious private schools are American Heritage, North Broward Prep, University School. There are also some very nice Catholic High Schools in Broward County.

If a Catholic school is acceptable you should consider St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaminade, Cardinal Gibbons, and Archbishop McCarthy for high school. The costs are lower than the non religious schools and many of these schools are very fine academic school (especially St. Thomas).

In another post you mentioned that you were thinking of moving to Palm Beach Gardens. None of the schools I mentioned are a reasonable distance from Palm Beach Gardens. They are all pretty far away.

pr4141 · 03-09-2009, 05:10 PM

Thanks you for the information. Do you have a sense of what the school student body is like at Pine Crest? I have heard wonderful things about their academics but not a lot about the kids. Are they low key or is it like a 90210 crowd?
Thanks!

Mattie · 03-09-2009, 05:26 PM

My friend sent her children to Pine Crest. It is academically rigorous. Her eldest was an excellent student, and did very well. She originally sent her daughter, who was not as serious a student, to No. Broward Prep. That school was definitely 90210! My friend got totally fed up with her daughter's requests for clothes, bags, etc to "fit in", and decided she was happier with the focus at Pine Crest. She knew her daughter would need a lot of support from her to handle the work.

Momma_bear · 03-09-2009, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pr4141

Thanks you for the information. Do you have a sense of what the school student body is like at Pine Crest? I have heard wonderful things about their academics but not a lot about the kids. Are they low key or is it like a 90210 crowd?
Thanks!

All the kids in the non religious private schools in Broward are pretty high end. Tuition approaches $20K a year for high school so it's expensive and there is a concentration of fairly wealthy kids.

As far as I know all the non religious schools require a uniform so the clothes thing does not get out of hand with the kids. Your kids will be the way you raise them. My kids go to Heritage and they are not out of hand with the material things, although there are many there that are.

fauve · 03-09-2009, 06:55 PM

The private schools down here seem to be more chill than in the northeast. My niece goes to Georgetown Day in DC and there was definitely an unusual interest in juicy couture sweatsuits and prada purses while she was growing up. My daughter who goes to American Heritage, same as Momma Bear's kids, was pretty oblivious. Her friends are pretty down-to-earth. Son's friends too.

Momma_bear · 03-09-2009, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fauve

The private schools down here seem to be more chill than in the northeast. My niece goes to Georgetown Day in DC and there was definitely an unusual interest in juicy couture sweatsuits and prada purses while she was growing up. My daughter who goes to American Heritage, same as Momma Bear's kids, was pretty oblivious. Her friends are pretty down-to-earth. Son's friends too.

My son has pretty normal friends at Heritage. Some do have a ton of money but my kids don't ask for crazy stuff.

My youngest has more of an issue with kids having crazy stuff at Imagine Charter in Weston. He has kids in his class (4th grade) with iphones!

vvolin · 03-10-2009, 08:17 AM

At University School some friends of my daughter had blackberries in 3rd grade. There are many cliques, which tend to be driven by wealth but are certainly not unique to a private school environment. My daughter was fine in lower school, but I knew middle school would be much more challenging from a social perspective. Yes, there were many kids who were down to earth, and many more who, with their parents, were not. I guess we did not have to figure middle school out since we moved to Connecticut. However, I must say University School was a great school for my daughter: academically challenging, although not quite as demanding as Pine Crest in terms of homework (I know from friends whose children attended both), very good teachers for the most part, very open minded, always ready to take on challenges.

kevinkagy · 03-10-2009, 09:41 AM

Pine Crest definitely has a lot of wealthy kids, and is extremely "90210". I know a teacher that teaches there and she says that the kids are ridiculously snobby and when they don't get their way, they're vocal. It's really messed up. It bothers me when kids think they have more rights than the teachers to begin with, but anyways. Overall though, Pine Crest has a strong academic reputation and is highly respected. Most Pine Crest grads make it to the best universities.

Other good schools in Broward that I'd suggest are North Broward Prep (which is just as snobby as PC but really good), Cardinal Gibbons, St. Thomas, and American Heritage. All of these are the best private schools in Broward. The last three schools are really low-key and much more chill than Pine Crest, but still really good academically and well-respected.

fauve · 03-10-2009, 09:42 AM

Vviolin makes a good point. There are always cliques in jr high/high school. A lot of it probably depends on who your kid is. They'll find their niche. I don't agree however that they're necessarily driven by wealth. My kids have friends all up and down the socioeconomic ladder; Heritage gives very generous scholarships. Another plus is that the kids are from all over the world and are pretty sophisticated. I actually think this leads to less snobbiness. The character values I see are very high.