At a Glance
A coed Catholic college-prep in Middle Village-Ridgewood that delivers a four-year Jesuit-style formation at one of the most accessible price points in NYC private secondary education.
Best suited for
Queens or Brooklyn Catholic families — including middle-income and working-class households priced out of Manhattan private schools — who want a structured, faith-based college prep with real community, dual-enrollment college credit, and an M-train commute.
What stands out
- Flat $11,950 tuition — among the lowest flat prices for any Catholic college-prep in NYC and a fraction of Manhattan independents.
- College-credit partnerships with St. John's and Seton Hall give students a head start on general-education requirements before they graduate.
- The Medical Gateways Program is a niche but distinctive track for students eyeing healthcare careers — uncommon at the secondary level.
- A genuine coed environment with athletics and theatre consistently cited by parents as the cultural backbone of student life.
- Recent campus renovations have modernized facilities without raising the price of admission.
Things to consider
- Parents reviewing the school online note that the AP catalog is thinner than at peer Catholic preps — families chasing a heavy AP transcript should ask directly about course offerings by discipline.
- The December 15 application deadline is earlier than many NYC private high schools; late applicants get squeezed.
- A Catholic formation is core to the daily experience — families who are not comfortable with regular religion coursework and Mass attendance should look elsewhere.
- Ridgewood is car-centric in feel; while the M train is close, the neighborhood doesn't have the cafés-and-bookstores vibe that some Manhattan private-school families are used to.
- A 17.7:1 ratio is average for the category — personal, but not the small-seminar experience a school like Regis or Xavier offers.
Identity
A Roman Catholic college-preparatory high school rooted in the Dominican tradition (via its Christ the King sponsorship), educating the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. Coeducational across grades 9-12, it serves about 665 students with a 17.7:1 student-teacher ratio. The mission emphasizes independent thinking and moral leadership, with spiritual growth woven into daily life rather than treated as an elective.
Community
The student body is notably diverse — roughly 42% White, 31% Hispanic, and 22% Black, with smaller Asian and multiracial populations — reflecting the cross-borough mix of working- and middle-class Catholic families the school has historically served. Parents consistently describe a close-knit community where teachers know students by name, sports teams and theatre programs anchor school culture. The vibe is more neighborhood parish than Manhattan academy.
Neighborhood
The school sits on Metropolitan Avenue at the eastern edge of Ridgewood, where the blocks are predominantly middle-income homes with a 12.6% poverty rate and a 35.8% rate of bachelor's-or-higher attainment among adults — solidly working-class to lower-middle-class by NYC standards. The vibe is residential and unpretentious, with auto-body shops and family-run delis mixing in among prewar brick. It feels like old-school Queens: quiet blocks, multigenerational households, a genuine lack of pretense.
Middle Village-Metropolitan Av on the M line is roughly a two-minute walk, making this one of the easier private-school commutes anywhere in the city — most students can take the M straight in.
Notable Programs
What Parents Are Saying
Close-knit environment with strong sports and theatre programs; recent renovations; some concerns about academic rigor and limited AP class offerings; rated 3.73 out of 5 based on 186 reviews
Synthesized from public parent reviews · Apr 2026
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL a good school?
- Published quality ratings aren't available for CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL yet on Motley. It's a private school serving grades 9 to 12 in Ridgewood.
- What grades does CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL serve?
- CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL?
- CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL runs its own private admissions process — typically an application, a visit, and sometimes testing.
- Is CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL public, charter, or private?
- CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL is a private school.
- What neighborhood is CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL in?
- CHRIST THE KING HIGH SCHOOL is in Ridgewood, Queens.