Best Middle Schools in NYC under $20K

17 schools match. Top 10 ranked by size, tuition fit, and freshness of our data.

Looking for the best middle schools in NYC? We track 17 K-12 options that serve middle grades. Annual tuition ranges from $6.2K/yr to $17.5K/yr, with a median of $8.5K/yr across schools that publish a number. Staten Island has the highest concentration with 8 schools, followed by Brooklyn (3).

Middle-school admission is the most competitive transition point at many independent schools. Expect a standardized test (ISEE, SSAT, or in-house), a writing sample, and teacher recommendations from 4th or 5th grade. Every school is re-verified through direct outreach to admissions teams; data is refreshed on a 180-day cadence and timestamped on each profile.

See also: Scholarship-friendly, Tuition-Free.

  1. 1

    St. Joseph Hill Academy

    Staten Island, Richmond County · Grades PK-12

    Tuition
    $12K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~650 students
  2. 2

    Bnos Malka Academy

    Forest Hills, Queens County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $11.4K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~400 students
  3. 3

    Notre Dame Academy

    Staten Island, Richmond County · Grades PK-12

    Tuition
    $12.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~400 students
  4. 4

    Hebrew Academy of Staten Island

    Staten Island, Richmond County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $17.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~250 students
  5. 5

    Martin Luther School

    Maspeth, Queens County · Grades 6-12

    Tuition
    $10.6K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~200 students
  6. 6

    Visitation Academy

    Brooklyn, Kings County · Grades N-8

    Tuition
    $11.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~180 students
  7. 7

    St. Clare Catholic Academy

    Staten Island, Richmond County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $6.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~500 students
  8. 8

    Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Academy

    Staten Island, Richmond County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $6.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~400 students
  9. 9

    Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Academy

    Forest Hills, Queens County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $7.8K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~400 students
  10. 10

    Saint Mark Catholic Academy

    Brooklyn, Kings County · Grades PK-8

    Tuition
    $6.5K/yr
    Type
    private
    • ~350 students
How we rank these schools

Built relationships, not scrapers. AdmitCompass ranks schools using a composite score that blends four signals: enrollment size (a proxy for stability and program breadth), tuition reasonableness within the local market, freshness of our most recent verification, and a small bonus for schools with full admissions detail published on their profile.

Public data comes from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and each school's own admissions pages. The information that actually matters to most families — acceptance rates, deadlines, what a director cares about — comes from direct interviews with school directors and admissions coaches across our active markets.

We do not publish scoring weights or per-axis thresholds. That keeps the moat intact: the rankings reflect actual conversations with people inside schools, not a formula anyone with a crawler could clone. Every profile is re-verified on a 180-day cadence, and the "last updated" date is timestamped on every school page.

Read the full methodology.

Frequently asked questions

What's the average tuition for middle schools in NYC?
Across the 17 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $6.2K/yr to $17.5K/yr, with a median of $8.5K/yr. Many schools offer financial aid, sibling discounts, or accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — check each school's detail page for current aid policy.
How competitive is admission in NYC?
Admissions selectivity ranges from open-enrollment (most charters and parish schools) to highly selective (top independent K-12 programs). Each school's profile page lists deadlines, test requirements, and any published acceptance rate.
What's the smallest and largest school on this list?
Visitation Academy is the smallest with 175 students; St. Joseph Hill Academy is the largest at 650. Smaller schools tend to offer more direct teacher contact and tighter community; larger schools usually have more elective and extracurricular breadth.
Is this list updated?
Yes. We re-verify school data on a 180-day cadence through direct contact with admissions teams, plus cross-checks against FLDOE, NCES, and published school sources. Each school profile shows the date of its most recent verification.

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