New Trier Township High School Winnetka

Posted: April 7, 2026

New Trier high school is full of students who bully others relentlessly. The administration sweeps all sorts of problems under the rugs. They really only care about students who are athletes and parents who donate money.
Many move here because of the schools. Our family can’t wait to leave because of how awful the administration and teachers have treated my children.

Posted: April 7, 2026

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Posted: January 25, 2024

New Trier is a very overrated high school. Do not send your kids to New Trier. We regret it. Teachers are not good or helpful. We have witnessed bullying and discrimination.

Posted: January 25, 2024

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Posted: September 29, 2023

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Posted: September 29, 2023

New Trier is not a good high school anymore. It does not treat kids with special needs appropriately. New Trier discriminated against kids. Found the teachers to be arrogant and not helpful.

Posted: March 10, 2023

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Posted: March 10, 2023

Wonderful teachers and advisors. Provided an excellent education and prepared me for my future.

Posted: March 10, 2023

Posted: January 22, 2018

a wonderful but competitive school .... caring about students.... we like it very much.

Posted: January 22, 2018

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Posted: April 22, 2017

Best public school in the country! Wonderful teachers, great students.

Posted: April 1, 2017

My children didn't observe bullying, but there is an place on the website to anonymously report bullying to the administration.

Posted: April 1, 2017

my child had learning differences and was well supported.

Posted: April 1, 2017

The principals of both campuses are both caring, effective, and approachable.

Posted: April 1, 2017

The school administration and staff model this and promote it with service work, in the classroom and in advisery.

Posted: April 1, 2017

They are knowledgeable (most have at least master's degrees) and care.

Posted: April 1, 2017

They don't assign busywork; the teachers look at it and follow up.

Posted: April 1, 2017

Northfield is the freshman campus of New Trier and Winnetka is the campus for sophomores - seniors. My two daughters attended Hubbard Woods, Skokie, Washburne and then New Trier. Both are now successfully in college. They are very different people and had very different high school experiences but the school was great for both. One is academically focused and is now at an Ivy League college. The other had an IEP and New Trier was very helpful and supportive of her needs. The teachers care (for the most part - my kids liked theirs but I heard of complaints about a few; with a school of 4,000 students that's bound to be the case). Resources are excellent. NT graduates students who are extremely well prepared academically for college from day one, even when the student walks into an Ivy League college.

Posted: May 17, 2016

NT offers unlimited opportunities to its students in academics, music, sports, and the arts. It is one of the most well rounded high school educations that you can receive.

Posted: September 9, 2015

I'm a sophomore currently and I changed schools this year because new tried was a dreadful experience and my parents were fed up (my siblings had also attended new trier and had a bad experience). New Trier was an INCREDIBLY competitive environment. Being in high honors classes was like having all of your happiness slowly be sucked out of you. I didn't have time to sleep or be a kid anymore and I was only 14. I became more and more depressed with the homework load and the constant struggle to pretend you were doing fantastic around your peers. Coming to school without homework done was humiliating in a class with highly intelligent kids. My self esteem dropped to an all time low because, despite doing extremely well on standardized testing and placing in the 99th percentile in the district, I couldn't handle the work load. The teaching was so impersonal that if you were struggling there wasn't much the teachers could do to give you an easier time. I ended up being hospitalized towards the end of the second semester. New Trier, for myself and certain others I know, was an extremely dangerous environment.

Posted: September 9, 2015

Posted: March 18, 2015

NTHS was a sad disappointment for our family, I do not understand the hype associated with this school. NTHS spends over $18,000 per child per year and clearly much of these funds do not go toward making high school a great learning experience for all. This superintendent is a bully and incompetent, she was brought in just to get the $100 million addition put onto the school, not enrich the education of all students. We moved to the area for the schools, we were sadly disappointed.

Posted: November 14, 2014

New Trier is a great school with a lot of resources for talented students. The academics, athletics, and performing arts programs are all top-notch. Two of my teachers (math and English) actually had PhDs in their subjects, which is rare for a high school. One classmate went on to become a high-ranking executive at Facebook. Another classmate's father was the head of Morgan Stanley at the time we were in school. I agree with some of the reviewers who find the school competitive--the student body consists of a lot of upper middle-class students gunning for top colleges, so people are ambitious. A better word than competitive might be "rigorous"--the education I received at New Trier prepared me for college. I was fortunate enough to attend Harvard and a top-5 business school (Kellogg/Northwestern) and I have found these schools to be less competitive than New Trier in certain ways. Certainly New Trier is not for everyone: some students may benefit from smaller high school experiences, but most of the best small high schools are private schools that cost upwards of $40k per year.

Posted: August 28, 2014

New Trier HS is a remarkable place with strong pros and cons. It's competitive to the point of Darwinian. If your child is smart, talented and hard-working, the environment will push them to achieve their high potential in academics, arts or sports. If your child is a notch down from that, they will either be likewise motivated or possibly discouraged by their hyper-competitive peers. Socially it's also high pressure. NTHS prepares students exceedingly well for college. Students learn early that they need to work for grades and take responsibility for their studies. The level of coursework is high. A lot of students find college relatively easy after running the gauntlet at NT. New Trier is also a victim of its own success: As both a very large school and drawing from a highly educated community, NTHS graduates a very large number of kids whose grades, scores and achievement are "Ivy level." Is there a larger HS with so many over-achievers? The problem is that these students compete against each other for the small number of slots that the best colleges will give up to any one high school. The system favors kids from smaller and private schools.

Posted: May 26, 2014

The best thing I learned at NT by far was the ability to advocate for myself. I just graduated from an Ivy league school and because I learned this early on, I won a lot of very prestigious awards (I hadn't at NT) and develop great relationships with my professors. I will be attending Harvard for a science PhD this fall and I am much closer with my college professors than I was with my high school teachers, even though my school has 10,000 undergrads. I developed the confidence I had lacked at NT. Being a student at NT was absolutely painful. I felt that the teachers and administration just didn't care or consider student's potential when making decisions. The orchestra teacher basically said that some people are just more naturally talented than others and you can never catch up. This undermines the idea that it takes hard work to realize one's full potential and abilities. They also picked favorites in an absolutely obnoxious way. Unlike some people think going to NT will hurt you in Ivy league admissions. The acceptance rates are similar to overall rates even though students are more qualified than the average applicant.

Posted: March 17, 2014

This school is MUCH larger than the number listed at the top of this page. I know the class of 2017 is over 1100 kids alone but since the Freshman attend a separate campus they are not shown here. Add 1100 to the above number. It is impossible to be involved in any athletics or theater unless you are superb at that particular activity. They make up for it by having a millions clubs that don't mean much. Frankly, the school is just too big. I am a third generation family at NT.

Posted: February 18, 2013

New Trier is clearly the best public high school in illinois for bright, motivated students. The academics are top notch as are the athletics and performing arts curriculum. My son plays with the Symphony Orchestra and was able to tour Australia and play in the Sydney Opera House with the ensemble last Spring. I attended Loyola Academy myself as did my father and grandfather and it is clear to me that Loyola cannot compete with NT on the range and quality of available options.