<p>We are looking for academically rigorous day schools in Boston/Suburbs. We need recommendations for top K-8 Schools and Secondary Schools. Thanks for your help. </p>
<ol>
<li>Please ONLY recommend K-8 schools with excellent placement in GLADCHEMMS, and </li>
<li>Secondary Schools with excellent IVY placements.</li>
</ol>
<p>Is the large matriculations to Harvard at Roxbury Latin due to Harvard Prof’s children/legacy attending RL? Matriculations to other IVEYS seem to be not that great compared to Harvard matriculation.</p>
<p>Many of the elementary schools with competitive admissions in the Boston area don’t run K - 8. Many parents choose to change to the excellent local public school systems at 9th grade. Thus, what matters for secondary school placement at private schools is the success rate for those students who apply to private day and boarding schools. </p>
<p>The Massachusetts boarding schools frequently mentioned on this site also accept day students. In general, it is more difficult to win admission as a day student.</p>
<p>Belmont: Belmont Hill, all-boys, 7 to 12</p>
<p>Boston: Winsor School, all-girls</p>
<p>Cambridge: Buckingham Browne & Nichols, Pre-K to 12</p>
<p>Concord: Fenn School (all-boys), grades 4 to 9.<br>
Nashoba Brooks, all-girls, grades 4 to 9, coed, PK to 3. Many Nashoba Brooks boys enroll at Fenn in 4th grade.</p>
<p>Dedham: Noble & Greenough, 7 to 12</p>
<p>Groton: Groton School, grades 8 to 12.</p>
<p>Milton: Milton Academy, k to 12, day k to 8, boarding & day, 9 to 12.</p>
<p>Newton: Fessenden (all-boys), k to 9, day & boarding from 5th grade </p>
<p>Southborough: Fay School, PK to 9 Day, PK to 5, day & boarding, 6 to 9 (PK & K begin Fall, 2010)</p>
<p>West Roxbury: Roxbury Latin</p>
<p>With respect, there are many excellent private schools in the greater Boston area. The limiting factor tends to be transportation, as traffic makes certain commutes very difficult. </p>
<p>The greatest difficulty lies in winning admission to any private day school in the greater Boston area.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aisne.org/[/url]”>http://www.aisne.org/</a></p>
<p>You may search on this site for schools which match your needs.</p>
<p>Go to <a href=“http://www.aisne.org%5B/url%5D”>www.aisne.org</a> which covers nearly all the schools in the NE region. Many, but not all, secondary schools will list their matriculations from which you can draw your own conclusions.
It’s impossible to know exactly why RL boys do well. Some are definitely legacies (often multi-generational), some have piles of money, all are darn smart and work hard. RL has been sending boys to Harvard for about as long as Harvard has been around, so it’s no big surprise that they continue to do so.
RL, Milton, BB&N, Commonwealth, Boston University Academy, Concord Academy, Middlesex, Belmont Hill and Winsor are clearly some of the highly rigorous high schools.</p>
<p>Minor correction to Periwinkle’s list:</p>
<p>Nashoba Brooks only goes through 8th, not 9th grade.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the excellent list. Which are the top 5 K-9 feeders to GLADCHEMMS?</p>
<p>Most parents don’t focus on boarding schools. The day school admissions are more competitive. Some of these schools were feeder schools, but cars and highways mean that a smart kid from Fessenden may choose Andover over the school Fessenden once was a feeder for.</p>
<p>Some school may draw faculty families from demanding neighboring schools. Those children’s matriculation into their parent’s school says nothing about their classmates’ chances of admission.</p>
<p>Can any one rank Milton, BB&N, Nobles, BUA, and Commonwealth for academic rigor, athletics, and infrastructure? Which have the strongest Math and English programs? I like to hear from people in the know from inside, as the info posted on websites don’t tell you the complete story. Thanks.</p>
<p>Pulsar, the rankings of such strong schools are utterly subjective. You must visit the schools, ask questions, and ask for copies of their curriculum. They all hold open houses and welcome visitors. </p>
<p>My ranking of the five would not match anyone else’s. Any adult who graduated from these schools isn’t up to date. </p>
<p>It is a much better idea to visit these schools. They are all eager to explain their programs to prospective students. They all have strong academics. Only you know if they would be a fit for your children.</p>
<p>Periwinkle, agree with your post. As you know, schools may not be as good as the cool presentations they make during open houses as some amount of marketing is involved in the process. I was looking for posts from recent graduates and their parents as to what their actual experiences are like. I’m not local to Boston now, so I need to short list even to visit the schools as there are a large number of them in the area.</p>
<p>Anyone could rank the schools, but no ranking is worth much. Look at the websites in detail as a start. You can also talk to school folks on the phone.
There is no simple answer to any of your questions. Consider math as a start - BUA kids take the hardest math classes at the very top end because they take math classes at BU when necessary - and that includes, rarely graduate level courses. But other schools have bigger programs, larger math teams, more math coaching for competitions. WHich is better?
Consider infrastructure - Milton has a huge campus with great sports facilities - is that better than BB&N which is smaller overall but with an amazing gym of its own and (I think) far nicer crew building at a better spot on the Charles? BUA and Commonwealth have very small buildings, but both are in downtown Boston with many options right at hand - they can both use the Museum of Fine Arts , for example. BUA kids can use BU facilities, which certainly gives them the biggest library, but it is a modest walk from the BUA building.<br>
BUA is a very young school - the oldest graduates are still under 30 and there aren’t a lot of them - not , I suspect are here. Milton is old and big and there well could be some old grads who are now parents here - would they but able to tell you much about the school now?
If you are looking for a slot at any of them this coming fall, you are likely to have a problem - but there might be a few openings.</p>
<p>nemom, Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>I’m looking for a relative ranking/reputation in the areas below to short list schools, something like (1=best, 100%, 5=not great 20%):</p>
<pre><code> Math Sports Facilities (Labs, Ath Fac)
</code></pre>
<p>BBN 1 3 2
Milton x x x
Nobles x x x</p>
<p>Just wondering…is Belmont Hill really that rigorous academically? What about Rivers in Weston?</p>
<p>labbydog,
Did you visit Belmont Hill when they had the curriculum open house? I was impressed with what they are doing with the boys. I don’t have kids attending, but I know current families love it. Like all ISL schools, sports are big there. Same goes for Rivers, though, as far as I know. I think that the academic and overall reputation is much higher for Belmont Hill than Rivers.</p>
<p>Fellsmom,</p>
<p>Yes, we went to the curriculum night at Belmont Hill. I was not that impressed, though. There are no “honors” level courses for 9th graders, maybe because they still clump 9th grade in with their middle school, which I think is odd.</p>
<p>Rivers, on the other hand, did have honors courses for freshmen, although, when my son went to revisit, he commented that the honors courses he visited had a majority of girls in them!</p>
<p>Ugh…decisions. I have to decide between one of the two between now and Friday, and son is lukewarm about them both!</p>
<p>Pulsar,
My point is that you can’t make a relative ranking in some of these areas. You have to figure out what matters to you in each area and look at what each school offers. Do you want a highly competitive sports environment? BB&N, Nobles, Milton, Belmont Hill, Rivers, RL are all in that area. Do you want an environment in which everybody gets exercise and tries various activities? Try BUA, Commonwealth, Cambridge School of Weston.
Milton has some very nice labs and a wide variety of AP science courses. BUA has two small labs and limited choices for the first two years, but after that , kids take BU science courses (and we borrow from BU labs too). Rivers has some great science teachers and does great things using their setting. WHich is better?</p>
<p>Rivers and Belmont Hill - they are very different schools! Rivers does not ramp things up until the Upper School, but they get quite rigorous. A friend with a child at Rivers has also noted that there are more girls in honors and with top grades.
Belmont Hill might have a bit more ‘street cred’, but I don’t think that should decide you.</p>
<p>I did not look into the 9th grade of Belmont Hill. Sorry to hear that it does not provide a good fit for more academically advanced kids. </p>
<p>My impression of Rivers came from a family we ran into during one of the interviews (neither BHS nor Rivers). The father was a Belmont Hill alum, and he was almost apologizing that his son also applied for Rivers.</p>
<p>But I have also heard that Rivers has good science teachers.</p>
<p>Perhaps nemom has the right idea about the WLs (on another thread).</p>
<p>Any one know what is the traffic like on Route 93 during rush and non-rush hours? Is a daily commute from Milton to Cambridge doable? Google shows 12 miles, 26 minutes. How is the traffic on 93N going to Andover from Cambridge? Thanks.</p>