The Upper East Side picture
Four testing rules within fifteen blocks
Nowhere else in New York do this many admissions offices disagree this sharply about the same exam. On the Upper East Side, seven schools accept the SSAT on equal footing with the ISEE — Brearley, Spence, Dalton, Nightingale-Bamford, Loyola, Convent of the Sacred Heart at the top of its range and Marymount at the bottom of its. Two of those same schools refuse it elsewhere in their own grade range. One takes no admissions test whatsoever. Two more run exams that have nothing to do with either.
The two reversals are the part families get wrong, and they run in opposite directions. Convent of the Sacred Heart requires the ISEE for grades 5 through 8 and accepts either test for grades 9 and 10 — so the SSAT becomes useful only at the top. Marymount does the reverse: it accepts either for Classes VI to VIII and requires the ISEE alone for Classes IX to XI. A family preparing the SSAT for a Marymount ninth-grade application has prepared the wrong test, and nothing in the test registration will catch it.
Chapin is blunter than any of them, and the bluntness is useful: the school states that ISEE and SSAT scores are not part of its admission process and asks families not to send them, because they will not be added to the file. Regis uses the HSPT as its scholarship exam. Ramaz requires the JSAT, administered by the Jewish Education Project. Three schools on the same avenue, three reasons an SSAT score does nothing for you.
So the first piece of work on this side of the park is not preparation at all. It is settling which schools are on the list, reading what each of their admissions pages actually requires at the grade your child is entering, and only then deciding which test to sit. We do that mapping with you before the first session, because it is the decision that all the others hang on.
Where Upper East Side families apply
Schools on a typical Upper East Side list
The Brearley School
610 East 83rd Street
All-girls, K–12. Requires the ISEE or the SSAT, and asks that the test be taken by December so the file is complete on 8 January 2027. Its SSAT school code is 1799.
The Spence School
22 East 91st Street (Middle and Upper School)
All-girls. Accepts either ISEE or SSAT scores from a sitting between August 2026 and early January 2027.
The Dalton School
108 East 89th Street (grades 4–12)
Co-ed, K–12. Requires recent results from either the ISEE or the SSAT, with no stated preference between them.
Nightingale-Bamford School
20 East 92nd Street
All-girls, K–12. Classes V to XI submit either the SSAT or the ISEE; Classes II to IV submit ISEE Primary, where the SSAT has no equivalent.
Convent of the Sacred Heart
1 East 91st Street
All-girls, pre-K–12. The ISEE is required for grades 5 to 8 — the SSAT is not accepted there. For grades 9 and 10 either test is accepted.
Marymount School of New York
115 East 97th Street
All-girls. Classes VI to VIII submit either test. Classes IX to XI must submit the ISEE — the SSAT is not an option at those grades, which is the reverse of every other school here.
Loyola School
980 Park Avenue
Co-ed, grades 9–12. Accepts the ISEE, the SSAT or the HSPT, and states it prefers none of the three over the others.
The Chapin School
100 East End Avenue
All-girls. Takes no admissions test: the school states that ISEE and SSAT scores are not part of its process and asks that they not be sent.
Regis High School
55 East 84th Street
All-boys, grades 9–12, tuition-free. Uses the HSPT as its scholarship exam — neither the SSAT nor the ISEE applies.
Ramaz School
60 East 78th Street (Upper School)
Co-ed. Requires the JSAT, administered by the Jewish Education Project. An SSAT score does nothing here.
Every line above is quoted from the school’s own admissions page, read on 15 September 2026. Requirements change between cycles and several of these schools split their rules by grade, so confirm directly with each admissions office for the grade your child is entering before you register for a test. We publish no admission rates and no score cut-offs: no school here publishes a reliable one.
We keep dedicated prep pages for Brearley and Dalton, and the full programme sits on our SSAT prep page.
How we work here
What that map changes about the prep
The test is the same everywhere in New York. What changes from one neighborhood to the next is the shape of the school list — and the list is what the plan is built around.
We settle the test before we settle the plan
On a list that mixes Brearley, Sacred Heart and Marymount, the answer to "SSAT or ISEE?" is different at grade 7 and at grade 9, and it is different again for the school that takes neither. We go through the list school by school, at your child’s entry grade, and write down which test covers the most lines of it. Only then does the prep start. Families who skip this step are the ones who discover in January that the score they worked for is not accepted where it mattered most.
The January file date, not the test date, is the deadline
Brearley asks for a complete file on 8 January 2027 and recommends testing no later than December; Marymount sets the same 8 January date for score reports; Spence accepts scores from sittings up to early January. There are six Standard SSAT dates in the 2026-27 year, and the last two — 30 January and 13 March 2027 — fall after most Manhattan day-school files have closed. We build the schedule backwards from the earliest file date on your list, which is almost never the last date on the SSAT calendar.
Scores take about three weeks to arrive
E3N reports scores to families and to every school named on the registration within three weeks of the administration. That delay is why the December sitting is the honest last option for an 8 January file and the January sittings are not, and it is why we plan the final full-length practice test for the weeks before the sitting rather than after it. The organisation provides no score interpretation of its own and no school-specific guidance: reading the number against your actual list is work someone has to do.
Getting here
From Upper East Side to 928 Broadway
Our center is at 928 Broadway in the Flatiron District, between 21st and 22nd Street. From the Upper East Side the 6 is the only one-seat ride: it runs local down Lexington Avenue and then Park Avenue South and stops at 23rd Street, two short blocks east of the door. From 77th Street that is seven stops with no change — 77th, 68th-Hunter College, 59th, 51st, Grand Central-42nd, 33rd, 28th, then 23rd.
The Second Avenue Q is quicker but it does not stop at 23rd Street at all: it runs to 14th Street-Union Square, seven blocks south of us, and from there it is a walk up Broadway or one stop on the R. The 4 and the 5 behave the same way. Sessions run on weekday afternoons after school and on weekend mornings, and the identical program runs live online when the autumn calendar of tours and interviews tightens.
A note that matters in this neighborhood specifically: the Standard SSAT is a Saturday test, and E3N offers limited Standard sittings on the Sundays immediately following each Saturday date for students who cannot test on a Saturday for reasons of religious observance. If that applies to your family, it changes which of the six dates you can actually use — and it is worth settling before you build the prep schedule, not after.
- 6From 96th, 86th, 77th or 68th Street. One seat to 23rd Street at Park Avenue South, then two blocks west to Broadway. The only direct ride from this side of the park.
- QFrom 96th, 86th or 72nd Street on Second Avenue. Fast, but it does not serve 23rd Street. Ride to 14th Street-Union Square, then walk north up Broadway or take the R one stop.
- 4 / 5From 86th or 59th Street. Express to 14th Street-Union Square. Neither line stops at 23rd Street; the last stretch is on foot or on the R.
Before you book a sitting, check the SSAT prep page — the six Standard dates, the computer-based and Flex options and the registration cut-offs. Session rates are on the pricing page.
Upper East Side FAQ
What Upper East Side parents ask us
Which Upper East Side schools actually accept the SSAT?+
Brearley, Spence, Dalton, Nightingale-Bamford (Classes V to XI), Loyola, Convent of the Sacred Heart at grades 9 and 10, and Marymount at Classes VI to VIII. Chapin takes no admissions test and asks that scores not be sent. Regis uses the HSPT and Ramaz the JSAT. Each of these comes from the school’s own admissions page, and each can change between cycles — confirm at your child’s entry grade before registering.
My daughter is applying to Marymount for ninth grade. Can she sit the SSAT?+
No. Marymount requires the ISEE for Classes IX to XI; the SSAT is accepted only for Classes VI to VIII. It is the one school in the neighborhood where the SSAT closes as the grades go up rather than opening, and it is the mistake we see most often on this side of the park. If Marymount is on your list at ninth grade, the ISEE is the test that serves it.
Which SSAT level does my child sit?+
The level follows the grade your child is in when they test, not the grade they are applying to: Elementary for students in grades 3 and 4, Middle for grades 5 to 7, Upper for grades 8 to 11. A seventh grader applying for eighth-grade entry sits the Middle Level; an eighth grader applying for ninth sits the Upper Level. The two share an identical structure, so the difference is in the content and the norm group, not the format.
Does a wrong answer cost points on the SSAT?+
Yes, on the Middle and Upper Levels: a correct answer earns one point, a wrong answer loses a quarter of a point, and an omitted question neither gains nor loses. E3N publishes the decision rule itself — avoid random guessing, but if you can eliminate two of the five choices, an educated guess is worth making. There is no such penalty on the Elementary Level. This is the single biggest difference from the ISEE, which carries no penalty at all, and it changes how a student is trained to move through a section.
How many times can my child sit the SSAT in one year?+
More often than most families expect. In the testing year that runs 3 August 2026 to 20 July 2027, a Middle or Upper Level candidate may take all six paper Standard tests, one Flex test, up to two Prometric computer-based tests and one SSAT at Home. But E3N does not superscore: it will not combine the best sections from different sittings, so every administration is reported whole. Sitting the test repeatedly is rarely the plan we recommend.
What does it cost?+
Sessions are $125 each after a one-time $150 diagnostic, billed session by session with no package and no contract. Every figure is on our pricing page.
Several schools on your list may ask for the ISEE instead, and on this side of the city a good many do. If that is your situation, start on our ISEE prep page. For the whole admissions picture — timeline, feeder schools, borough trends — read the ISEE vs SSAT guide for NYC parents.
Other neighborhoods
SSAT prep across Manhattan
Take the next step
Ready to start SSAT prep on the Upper East Side?
Begin with a diagnostic. We evaluate your child's current level, work out which test your actual school list calls for, and write the prep plan around it.