Great schools with extended hours option, lots of physical activities (gymnastic, dance class…read moreetc.), great academics and Torah studies. Very cozy homie atmosphere and caring staff and teachers. My son is going for his second year there, my middle daughter starts preK there also. Definitely recommend

Shaloh House is a wonderful school that checks all the essential criteria (and then some): high…read moreacademic level, caring staff, qualified teachers, and a supportive environment.

There is systemic injustice at Harvard Extension School. Their policies as stated on their website…read moreare not upheld. I had a professor who graded anything beneath a 90% as a 0%. So, in other words, if you don't get an A you fail your assignments. I withdrew, brought this to the attention of the Dean, and asked for financial credit so I could take another course instead. She did not respond but simply forwarded my concern to a registrar who refused to do anything about it. The registrar said, wrongly, that the professor was acting in accord with HES policy. The grading system on the website does not in point of fact map onto the grading system of all the professors. So be forewarned that you may end up with a professor who will give you an F if you get less than an A. Don't waste your money at HES and don't expect the administration to act justly. I've matriculated a different program. HES just lost the 30K they would have made if they would have simply rendered a just decision.

I am extremely saddened to say that HES does not help International Students solve their financial…read moreissues at all. There are no Financial Aid options coming from the university itself, and 2 out of 3 student loan companies that their office recommends actually don't really accept Extension School students. The third one needs a lot of extra paperwork that the school isn't willing to help with. In order to enroll you need to pay in full and you don't get a letter of enrollment until after the drop out period, when it's too late. You can't get a loan without paying and you can't get enrolled without a loan. So it's a chicken and egg situation that has no end. They say the university helps cover for you until the loan is approved, but in reality, you have to pay in full first and they will reimburse you after the loan is paid. Which defies the entire point of asking for financial assistance. There is a very short window in which to apply for the loan after registration before being dropped out for non-payment. Paperwork takes more than a month, which is not nearly enough to get everything done. I've spent hours and hours with both the lending officers and the financial aid officers, and in the end, nothing got solved. Nothing. I am unable to join the courses. I am unable to get a loan. I feel like my potential is wasting away... Harvard has failed me.

I went to high school here. I can't give it the full 5 stars since I have no idea what the school…read moreis currently like, but I heard that the bio teacher became the principal and everything totally changed. I have fond memories of attending school here and all the trouble that I would get into! They had a great budding music and theater program. I can only hope that is still so. Thumbs up to Trinity for a great 4 years!!

GISB is not only our three kids' school, but it is also our family's cultural home. All our…read morechildren started in GISB preschool, and by now, our oldest daughter is studying neuroscience at Boston University, our son is writing his "Abitur" right now and will decide if he wants to study in the US or in Europe, and our 8th grader can't stop talking about how excited she is to go for a school exchange with Oslo next school year. Over the 16 years at GISB, our kids have always been taken care of, both emotionally and academically. The teachers are young and committed, the principal is competent and visionary, the parent community is strong and supportive. The German International School Boston has that name for a reason. The curriculum is German based but also covers the American highschool curriculum, and our families are international. Last year we had 39 different nationalities at our school. The annual turnover is hard, many families come for a predefined amount of time to Boston and then leave (some also stay!). But that also means that you have friends all over the world since GISB by now has a worldwide network of families who help each other. Our graduates finish school with the International Abitur and the Massachusetts High School diploma, opening doors all over the US and Europe. If you want your child grow up in a warm, nurturing setting where he/she will be raised with excellent academics and a strong focus on character-building, then you should consider this truly wonderful school!

My children attended GISB for four years. Below is an honest review of our experience. I wish I…read morehad an honest review of the school before we had decided to enroll there. Hopefully this will help parents who are considering GISB make an informed decision. Location: The traffic in Allston is bad now and will only get worse as Harvard opens its new Engineering Campus in 2020. Facilities: Upper campus is an old Catholic school that is quite shabby in areas. There is no air conditioning in the summer. The heat fails in the winter. The paint is worn out in the stairwells. The parking lot has rusty twisted broken fences. Some specific spaces such as the library have been renovated recently and are OK. Lower Campus, where the pre-K and K grades are located, is a recently converted office building. The lower campus space turns out to be quite cramped when it is full of students. If you have a young active child that needs to move and get their wiggles out over the course of the day this will be a challenging environment for them. Tuition: The German International School of Boston (GISB) demands all the tuition upfront for the school year and there are no refunds for any reason. Buyers beware of any service that demands all the money up front and puts "no refunds for any reason" in the fine print. There are also a lot of various extra fees for the after school classes, ski week, vacation week camp, etc. School Calendar: The GISB academic calendar follows the German academic calendar rather than the American academic calendar. This means that there are two week breaks in February and April where parents must scramble for childcare. Teacher turn over: In the four years that my kids attended GISB they lost teachers every year (sometimes even mid-year) for a variety of reasons (disputes over pay with the administration, visa issues, pregnancy, health problems, etc.). There is no substitute teacher pool to draw on so when a teacher is sick it is a mad scramble to cover the classroom. Even when there is plenty of advance warning of a teacher's departure. (This teacher is pregnant. She will be going out on maternity leave in 4 months.) There was no planning on the part of the administration on how to cover the class room and it was an ad hoc assortment of people covering the class which was very detrimental to the students. Teacher's Credentials: Being a private school the teachers are not subject to the same credentialing criteria as public-school teachers. When I asked the administration if I could see the credentials of my kid's teachers, I was told no. What are they hiding? Why won't they share their teaching staff's credentials? Teaching style: Modern pedagogy acknowledges that students have a variety of learning styles and that teachers need to craft their lesson plans to cover different types of learners. GISB seems firmly stuck in the 19th century with one method of teaching and if your kid doesn't get it too bad. It obviously must be the kid's fault. My older child entered public school a full year behind in reading skills than his peers after we left GISB. Thankfully he was immediately identified as someone who needed some extra help with learning to read and after just one semester in public-school, he was up to grade level. Clearly there was no learning disability on my child's part. My child just hadn't been taught to read. I have talked to other parents who have left GISB for public-school and they have related similar experiences. If a school can't do something as basic as effectively teach kids to read... Social Environment: The small classes mean that the social environment is somewhat stifling. If you kid doesn't make a friend in the handful of other kids in their class, it will be a long lonely year. If your kid becomes the target of a bully, there is no avoiding the bully. The bully is right there all the time. The teachers seem at a complete loss of what to do when bullying is brought to their attention. The teachers and school administration at GISB clearly view the student's behavioral, emotional, and social development as not their responsibility. My experience so far in the public-school system is the complete opposite. The public-school system views its mandate as helping children grow as a whole person and this includes the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. Addressing of Concerns and Grievances: The GISB administration, parent council, and GISB board have no interest is addressing issues that are brought to their attention. There is a constant shirking of responsibility. The standard excuse they all give is "But you have to understand GISB is a young school." GISB has been around for 18 years and there are plenty of resources available on how to effectively run a school. The public-school principal of my children's current school has a clear "The buck stops here." attitude which is so refreshing after GISB.