Through a rigorous and challenging college preparatory curriculum, which includes a rich spectrum of choice, Berkeley Carroll students exercise critical thinking and writing through active classroom dialogue and debate.
Exposing students to the great resources of our city is an essential part of the Berkeley Carroll High School education. Symbolic of our mission to make the city our campus is a program we offer to our 9th graders called New York at Night, where the entire grade attends a “quintessential” New York event such as taking the Circle Line, attending a concert at the Apollo Theatre, going to a Knicks game, and taking Big Onion walking tours. Additionally, students take class trips to museums, concerts and the theater.
Another important aspect of the curriculum comes from students giving back to the community through service to soup kitchens, food banks and annual participation in the clean up of Prospect Park. High School students also plan and participate in the United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights and Climate Change every December.
As the author E. M. Forster posed in Aspects of a Novel, “How do we know what we think, until we see what we say?” In other words, it is through writing that we hone and refine what we think. Our writing program, which spans the disciplines, is excellent. Awards from Scholastic Gold Keys on the regional and national level to yearly acceptance to the Breadloaf Young Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College testify to the strength of our writing program.
Berkeley Carroll is an elite private school. Its High School classes run like seminars, where discussion leads to further inquiry and deeper understanding. Four years of this kind of engagement and exposure, is excellent preparation for the next step: the college search. Students work closely with our college counselors in their junior and senior year to find the right fit. This fit may be an Ivy League, a small and competitive liberal arts college, top choice music and art programs or international universities.
Finding the right college match is the end goal of a Berkeley Carroll education---a match that will build upon what our students have learned in the High School and prepare them to navigate and succeed in the largest classroom of all, our 21st Century world.