School life, between the linesBy Admissions Diary
School stories, admissions adventures, and the things parents talk about on the way home.
School portraits · Upper West Side, New York City
In the pandemic years, Columbia Prep students could only go out to lunch within set lines on the Upper West Side. Almost everyone the student paper asked wanted one restaurant brought inside.
Parent life · The school book fair
A Pennsylvania parent ran her school's Scholastic fair on one rule. That year's bestseller sold for $12.99, $7, $1 and nothing.
Parent life · Missouri · School photo day
A Missouri mother planned her seventh grader's school photo down to the squint. Nobody mentioned the green screen.
School life · Chattanooga, Tennessee
St. Nicholas School marks Shrove Tuesday with a service, a lesson on Lent and a pancake race. The winners' favorite part was not the winning.
School portraits · New Jersey
A student who thought Lawrenceville's House system was mostly marketing had to decide whether a friend she split delivery fees with was a sleepover friend.
School portraits · New York City
Sacred Heart schools keep a tradition called Congé: one unannounced day when classes stop. At the Manhattan school, the student council found a way out of the theater.
School portraits · New York City
A Manhattan school's mock trial team had ten hours of class time and modest expectations. Then it started objecting.
School life · Texas · Calgary · Guam
Schools from Texas to Calgary to Guam hold a day when students carry their books in anything except a backpack. The rules arrive about an hour after the idea.
Life with schoolchildren · Georgia
For the hundredth day of school, children bring collections of a hundred things. One Georgia pre-K family found the only collection that cannot roll under a radiator.
School rivalries · New York City
Before the 2026 Buzzell game against Horace Mann, a Riverdale student writer reviewed the last meeting. The team passed. The crowd did not.
School portraits · New York City
In 2024 a student at Riverdale Country School ranked the bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches available to his classmates. Free did not get him off the hook.
School portraits · New York City
Fifty-five years after an undefeated season, an alumnus brought his varsity jacket back to the Bronx. The coaches admired its condition, and he told them why.
