Marymount School of New York

Start with an invention

In second grade (Class II), Marymount students take part in the Invention Convention. Teams build a working invention that solves a real-world problem, drawing on tools such as littleBits circuit blocks, laser cutters, and 3D printers, and then make a short commercial to pitch it.

Presenting finished work starts earlier: Kindergarten writing units close with publishing parties, where classmates share the books they have made.

Marymount is an independent Catholic day school for girls in Manhattan, and families of any faith may apply. Mother Marie Joseph Butler founded it in 1926, and it belongs to the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM) network of schools.

Grades are called Classes: Class II is second grade, Class VI is sixth, and Class IX is ninth.

What Catholic means day to day

Religion is built into every student's program rather than offered as an elective. Every student takes religion classes, attends chapel once per cycle, and goes to Mass five or six times a year.

Religious studies also teaches about other faith traditions.

Catholic students prepare for and receive First Communion in Class II, Reconciliation in Class III, and Confirmation in Class VIII. Every student has a role in those celebrations, though only Catholic students receive the sacraments.

Museum classrooms, presentations, and course choices

The Metropolitan Museum works as a regular classroom for Marymount. The school has two dedicated classrooms there, and students in every division visit the galleries regularly, beginning in Nursery.

In Classes III–V, art classes regularly meet in the Carroll Classroom at the museum, so studio work and gallery visits can feed each other.

Class X, tenth grade, has an older version of the pitch. In MPACT, each team picks a local nonprofit, researches it, and builds a multimedia presentation advocating for it.

The winning organization receives a $5,000 grant and runners-up receive smaller ones. Every team's work is presented to Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management for possible further funding.

In middle school, math students are grouped with similar learners as they move from pre-algebra to algebra.

In the Upper School, Marymount says it is phasing out AP courses in favor of its own advanced college-level courses, but the 2026–27 guide still lists AP Statistics and AP Calculus AB or BC, so AP has not entirely gone. Honors and advanced courses require department approval.

Dates and how to apply

Marymount accepts applications from Nursery through Class XI, with Pre-K, Kindergarten, Class VI, and Class IX as the main entry points. Space in other grades is limited and depends on attrition, and there is no Class XII entry.

Nursery and Pre-K also enroll some boys, typically siblings or legacies, with exceptions in special situations.

For Kindergarten, a child must turn five by August 31 of the entry year, which means a birthday on or before August 31, 2022 for fall 2027.

Testing applies only to Classes VI–XI: ISEE or SSAT for VI–VIII, ISEE only for IX–XI, with score reports sent directly to Marymount by January 8, 2027.

The table shows regular-admission steps for Kindergarten, Class VI and Class IX; the school's admissions pages for Nursery–Class V and Classes VI–XII list the rest.

Early notification

Siblings of current students and legacy applicants (children of Marymount New York alumnae) can opt in to early notification on a separate calendar: opt in by November 6, 2026, finish materials and appointments by November 30, hear on December 9, and reply by December 16. Early notification brings special consideration but no guarantee.

The Butler Scholarship route

Class IX has a second route: the Butler Scholarship, a nominal partial merit grant that lasts four years. Candidates attend a parochial school or are baptized Catholics, and their principal must nominate or approve them.

It is separate from need-based aid, which is a Clarity application due December 1, 2026.

The 2026 cycle's application was due October 2 and its exam date was October 3; for future cycles, the process starts with the principal's nomination in the spring of seventh grade.

Cost and financial aid

K–12 tuition includes books, school-issued devices, daily food service, and day trips. Nursery and Pre-K carry no aid, and 2027–28 tuition is not yet posted.

The $6,500 nonrefundable deposit is reduced in proportion to any aid. The Financial Aid Committee may also extend grants toward some costs outside tuition, such as buses and after-school programs; those are not automatic.

Aid must be requested with the first application, through the Clarity form due December 1, 2026. A family that enrolls without aid must complete two full-time years, not counting Nursery or Pre-K, then show a significant change in circumstances and a current tuition account.

Even then, aid is not automatic.

Aid does not renew itself: families reapply through Clarity each year, and the committee reassesses continued need with the tuition account current. Both households count, stepparents included, with separate forms from each parent.

Income a parent chooses to forgo is counted, with possible exceptions for medical reasons, involuntary unemployment, and parental leave.

Support and the school day

Marymount lists counselors, psychologists, and learning specialists among its resources and describes differentiated instruction, but its pages do not lay out which services are available for which needs. That is a reason to ask, not a sign that help is missing.

Freshmen also meet in small peer-led groups through the PALs program, which adds to professional support rather than replacing it.

Extended care or supervised study runs until 6:00 p.m. from Kindergarten through Class VIII. Sports begin as intramurals in Class IV, with competition against other schools from Class V.

Getting to school

Free yellow-bus service from the Department of Education is Manhattan-only and covers Kindergarten through Class V: children in K–II who live half a mile or more away, and Classes III–V at a mile or more. Published pages differ on whether it reaches Class VI, so confirm that directly if sixth grade is your entry point.

Free student OMNY cards cover Kindergarten through Class XII at half a mile or more.

Private buses, for a fee, serve routes in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and New Jersey for Kindergarten through Class XII. Afternoon buses leave from the Fifth Avenue campus at about 3:45, so ask how the transfer works if your child will be at the 97th Street campus.

Support, religious life and math groups at Marymount

Marymount is a Catholic girls' school, so ask how faith shows up in your child's division as well as how support and math grouping work.