Boarding School Rankings

Prep School Admissions
1

<p><em>Based on SAT Scores, Endowment, Acceptance Rate, SSAT Scores
*</em>Only used schools that provided ALL data on boardingschoolreview.com</p>

<ol>
<li> Andover (74)</li>
<li> Exeter (71)</li>
<li> Groton (66)</li>
<li> St. Paul’s (59)</li>
<li> Deerfield (55)</li>
<li> Middlesex (52)</li>
<li> Hotchkiss (52)</li>
<li> Milton (50)</li>
<li> Lawrencevillle (49)</li>
<li>Thacher (43)</li>
<li>Choate (40)</li>
<li>Georgetown Prep (33)</li>
<li>Taft (26)</li>
<li>Cate (25)</li>
<li>St. Andrew’s (21)</li>
<li>Concord Academy (20)</li>
</ol>

<p>***Point system based on top 20 rankings; full data below; if equal, the school with the other three data points that were better took the slot</p>

<p>SAT Scores</p>

<ol>
<li> Exeter</li>
<li> Lawrenceville</li>
<li> Groton</li>
<li> Middlesex</li>
<li> Andover</li>
<li> Milton</li>
<li> Concord Academy</li>
<li> Cate</li>
<li> Choate</li>
<li>St. Paul’s</li>
<li>Hotchkiss</li>
<li>Deerfield</li>
<li>Georgetown Prep</li>
<li>Indian Springs</li>
<li>Thacher</li>
<li>Emma Willard</li>
<li>St. Mark’s</li>
<li>Cranbrook Schools</li>
<li>Miss Porter’s</li>
<li>Taft</li>
</ol>

<p>Endowment</p>

<ol>
<li> Exeter</li>
<li> Andover</li>
<li> St. Paul’s</li>
<li> Deerfield</li>
<li> Hotchkiss</li>
<li> Groton</li>
<li> Lawrenceville</li>
<li> Choate</li>
<li> Woodberry Forest</li>
<li>Cranbrook</li>
<li>Milton</li>
<li>Taft</li>
<li>Middlesex</li>
<li>Loomis Chaffee</li>
<li>St. Andrew’s</li>
<li>Church Farm</li>
<li>Hill</li>
<li>St. Mark’s</li>
<li>St. George’s</li>
<li>Thacher</li>
</ol>

<p>Acceptance Rate</p>

<ol>
<li> Andover</li>
<li> Thacher</li>
<li> Groton</li>
<li> Deerfield</li>
<li> St. Paul’s</li>
<li> Hotchkiss</li>
<li> Middlesex</li>
<li> Taft</li>
<li> Lawrenceville</li>
<li>Exeter</li>
<li>Cate</li>
<li>Georgetown Prep</li>
<li>Choate</li>
<li>Milton</li>
<li>St. Andrew’s</li>
<li>St. George’s</li>
<li>Loomis Chaffee</li>
<li>Westminster</li>
<li>Blair Academy</li>
<li>Suffield Academy</li>
</ol>

<p>Average SSAT</p>

<ol>
<li> Exeter</li>
<li> Andover</li>
<li> Milton</li>
<li> Thacher</li>
<li> Georgetown Prep</li>
<li> Groton</li>
<li> St. Paul’s</li>
<li> Middlesex</li>
<li> Deerfield</li>
<li>Hotchkiss</li>
<li>Woodside Priory</li>
<li>St. Andrew’s</li>
<li>Indian Springs</li>
<li>Choate</li>
<li>Concord Academy</li>
<li>St. Mark’s</li>
<li>Lawrenceville</li>
<li>Taft</li>
<li>Cate</li>
<li>Colorado Rocky Mountain</li>
</ol>

2

<p>C’mon, Groton’s acceptance rate this year was 12%, Andover was 13%. I don’t think there’s anything lower.</p>

<p>Groton: [Groton</a> School ~ Groton School Welcomes New Students](<a href=“Groton School Welcomes New Students | Groton School”>Groton School Welcomes New Students | Groton School)
Andover: [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.andover.edu/About/Pages/FastFacts.aspx]Phillips”&gt;http://www.andover.edu/About/Pages/FastFacts.aspx]Phillips</a> Academy -<a href=“do%20the%20math”>/url</a></p>

<p>I understand that we often flock to statistics, but they aren’t always the most accurate and don’t tell much, since the students are mostly self-selected. These are all great schools and will be #1 to their students.</p>

3

<p>If Georgetown Prep w 23% boarders is a boarding school, then that makes Andover a day school</p>

4

<p>While the urge to rank the schools is one we all succumb to, it is not the wisest approach. </p>

<p>The schools have very different “personalities” and a fit for one student may not be a positive environment for another. A particular interest may find a niche at one school and not another.</p>

<p>The use of common applications and international recruiting has skewed acceptance percentage data for prep schools and colleges. As a college example, MIT has announced that it has begun discouraging applications, does not accept the common application, and requires several unique essays. </p>

<p>Nor would many of us suggest that the quality of a school should be measured by SSAT in and SAT out.</p>

<p>So certainly we can check out the rankings, but valid arguments limit their validity and there are many different ways to cut the cake - and some like vanilla, some like red velvet, and some like carrot cake. </p>

<p>There is no one “BEST” school for all students. There are many wonderful schools.</p>

5

<p>Yes, yes thank you 2prepMom. You and everybody else who feels the incessant to preach fit and “all better in different ways” whenever schools are ranked can not be argued with as usual. It needs to be said.</p>

<p>However, THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME A THREAD LIKE THIS COMES UP. Let people who enjoy rankings have their fun. I know for a fact that almost everyone here reads and likes the U.S. News and World Report ranking of universities. People understand to not take the annual list as gospel, but I believe I represent a majority when I say they are still relevant and even entertaining.</p>

<p>Look, I’m not trying to be rude BUT WE GET IT. SCHOOLS ARE ALL DIFFERENT, AND THERE IS NO BEST ONE. It’s just this is brought up Every. Single. Time. there is a thread even remotely related to rankings. So, can we just stop with the chiding of “personality” and just assume people are smart enough to realize their own preferences? It’s getting old (with all due respect).</p>

6

<p>

The problem is that too many do take it as gospel, and they only apply to a couple of schools. Then, come M10, we read their frantic sob threads…</p>

7

<p>I’m curious ThisOneKid why you get in a twist about the “fit” argument but not the equally frequent mentions of ranking and stats. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, right?</p>

8

<p>Curious as to what kind of “entertainment” rankings provide and what the purpose of this thread is. Everyone knows that the data on the BS review site is often quite out of date and, as the OP notes, some of it is missing. So, what kind of information is this thread providing?</p>

9

<p>While we can argue about whether rankings should matter, the reality is that they do matter. </p>

<p>Sure, some parents over value prep school rankings because they want trophy kids who attend the very best prep schools. But other parents under value these rankings because they may seek to shield their children and perhaps themselves from the reality that not all people and prep schools are created equal. </p>

<p>By contrast, ThisOneKid strikes the right balance by considering rankings, but not regarding them as the “gospel” truth.</p>

10

<p>If you’re going to include Endowment, you should calculate it as a ratio of Total Endowment/Number of Students. That will definitely reorder your list in a more meaningful way. A school with a large endowment and a small number of students will move up on the list, compared to a school with a similar endowment and a large number of students.</p>

11

<p>All of the schools listed are great schools, and it is impossible to truly rank them. The key is a good fit for the individual student. Personal interests, social life, size of school, type of campus, school culture, geographic location… etc… are all factors that are not rankable and are a matter of individual taste and preference. The variables in academics are too small to truly differentiate between the top 15-20 schools. On that score, it truly depends on the individual student and what they put in to their academics. That is not something that can bought and brought to the student on a silver platter… even at those schools deemed at the top of the top of the list. In the end it mostly comes down to the individual student… the school, as good as it may be at that level (top 20), is secondary.</p>

12

<p>^Really? That’s twice this thread. You are saying the near to the exact same thing as 2prepMom. Are just doing this to spite me, or has it become second nature for some people to just see “ranking” in the title and just immediately go in armed with short-sighted analogies and the same sententious argument of “it depends on the student, everyone is different, there are so many different factors to consider, and everyone has their own fit”? FIT. FIT FIT FIT FIT FIT FIT. Just type that single word into the website search bar, I dare you. You will see the exact same argument just toyed with and reworded quite possibly over 50 times. </p>

<p>I swear, one could copy and paste some of them and still be just as relevant as ever. </p>

<p>I already know I’m going to get rocked with the fact that not everyone has enough common sense to look outside of ranking. There are those kids who just do not get the possibility of rejection. This situation would be different if it were a chance thread of somebody saying “I’m going to Hotchkiss because Daddy went and the interviewer thought I was just an absolute angel”. But it’s not. This is a ranking thread. I hate to be THAT guy, but if you don’t like it, don’t post in it. I sympathize with the white knight coming in to save all the ignorant applicants, I really do, but you all come in so frequently and numerously you’re tripping over each other and potentially trampling the very kids you’re trying to help. </p>

<p>There is a reason some schools are considered the schools of the elite. The elite have gone there, and they will continue going for the foreseeable future. The right kid in the wrong place may get crushed by the likes of Exeter or whatever, but it has to be him to know that it was his school and he could manage it. You can’t decide for him. He got into Exeter, so why won’t you trust in him enough to let him pick his own school, even if it is because of his own bias towards prestige? The kid who got rejected for applying based solely on prestige probably isn’t ready for prep school, or at least his idea of it. If you tell a kid to go to Indian Springs over St. Paul’s School because Indian Springs has a better ski program and he’s not Episcopalian, then you need to rethink your priorities in an education. I’m sorry, but you do.</p>

<p>And you know what? I agree with the argument that as long as you are in the top 20 schools or whatever, you’ll be fine. They’re all good schools, they really are. A Porsche is just as capable as a Chevy as long as you can drive it right. Any one of them could take a gifted student and put the world at their finger tips. But tell me you don’t think that such a thing is equally as possible or common at Berkshire as it is at Andover. And should the kid that could flourish at both choose Berkshire because s/he thought the campus was prettier? </p>

<p>Ranking does matter. There is a reason 7/9 Supreme Court justices went to Harvard Law School, and the other two to Yale Law School. Are you really going to sit there and tell me they could have gotten where they are today from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities? It’s consistently a top 20 school with fine program, and who knows? Anything’s possible. But I know you know their chances were better with their brand-name education, and when it comes down to it you want the lawyer getting you out of a murder to be from Harvard Law! Ok, no? You want the BEST lawyer? Chances are he’s from HYPMS, and while I can’t say for absolute certainty, you know as well as I do that it’s true.</p>

<p>This is an argument I can’t win, which may be the very reason users like 2prepMom and strangeusername are so quick and instinctual on postings like this. So all I can do is offer up this small, perhaps meaningless plea for us to stop beating this dead horse in “ranking” threads. Go save the soul in the chances forum if you can, but don’t keep saying those who make the lists based on reputable data are wrong. They’re not, and you’re fighting a trivial cause that has more than likely already been won.</p>

<p>There. End of rant. I applaud you if you read all that. Now I’m going to sit back, do some homework, and vainly watch as I am torn apart. Have a nice day.</p>

13

<p>On a continuum, with “fit” being at one end and “ranking/stats” at the other, I would bet that fewer than one percent of all the people who participate on the Prep School site are more than 20% in either direction of the mid-point. No matter how “fit” focused a parent is, the rankings and results still DO matter to that family and no matter how “rankings” focused another family might be, “fit” is still important.</p>

14

<p>I think the key point is this: if the FIT is wrong, the RANKING doesn’t matter. The “right” school will be a combination of the two.</p>

15

<p>Wading into this at my own peril…</p>

<p>Saying that 7/9 of the Supreme Court are from Harvard Law is VERY different than saying that anyone who goes to Harvard Law has a seat waiting for them on the nation’s highest court.</p>

<p>The latter is my interp. of how many prospects view going to the most selective boarding schools. Getting in is their ticket to HYPS+M/S which their ticket to some mythical “better life”. Or some stamp of approval that they are “among the best and brightest”.</p>

<p>Here’s the POV that I’m speaking from: A parent whose first child was admitted to one of the “top” schools and also one that MANY consider “second tier”. We chose the latter, and yes, we believe it has made all the difference. And I know of a few other families on the forum who made similar choices over the past few years.</p>

<p>Does my older daughter attend a school that shows up on the lists above? Yes. But too far down for most people. That’s just one reason why I don’t like rankings.</p>

16

<p>One of my children, who was admitted to three of the “top ten schools” on that list, chose to attend Choate for numerous appropriate reasons. He recently said to me in surprise, “Did you know that some people consider Choate a safety school?” I’m still sputtering, and saddened that these kind of comments influence the schools students choose. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of fit. Another of my children attended St. Paul’s for a year before transferring to Exeter. Is one school “better” than the other? Absolutely not. Both wonderful schools, very different in culture. They are not interchangeable.</p>

17

<p>Unless a parent has attended boarding school, most parents are unfamiliar with the whole concept of boarding school. If they do research, they will eventually end up on threads like this or in boarding school review. Given limited time, it is probable that these parents will look at the lists as a distillation of general knowledge and regard them as meaningful (if not outright gospel). Thus, rankings produce efficiency in research for parents. Com M10, they can also produce severe disappointment unless these same parents understand that these rankings are like the USNews rankings of universities: the ridiculously hardest to get into school are at the top – look at the list for safeties!</p>

18

<p>@Quenn: Exeter, Choate, SPS, SAS…what do you feed those kids at the Quenn household? And can you share your recipe with the rest of us? ;-P</p>

<p>@makennacompton: OTOH, I came to this forum years ago only really knowing about the A/E/C/D/MPSs (okay, and George, Lawrenceville & Blair too, due to geography) of the world, and am THANKFUL that various parents on the forum were my guides in discovering all sorts of other less-well known schools (I’m sure Winterset would cringe at the assertion SPS is less well known than the rest of the HADES schools, but IMO it was and still is). </p>

<p>Were it not for this forum and the various parents associated with various schools, I would never have gotten to know the Thachers, Emma Willards, Culvers, St. Andrew’s of the world…</p>

19

<p>@Sevendad: hopefully a steady diet of gratitude for all the opportunities they have enjoyed throughout their lives!</p>

20

<p>Well, I for one don’t think there’s anything wrong with one’s attempt to rank BS per se. US News does it, Newsweek does it, and even the US government tries to do it too… these are more about colleges than high schools, but you get the idea. Boarding schools are as expensive as colleges. People spend decades to pay off college loans. So the stakes are high, and people want to make a wise decision using all the available information and tools.</p>

<p>My concern over OP is somewhat practical. Why these four metrics (SAT, endowment, acceptance, and SSAT) over others? To me, they are just arbitrary selections. I can accept endowment and acceptance rate, but if college matriculation is important, why not look at % seniors going to, say, HYPMS, Ivy colleges, or top (however you define it) colleges, instead of SAT scores? After all, SAT is just one component of college application package. I know that the former data is more difficult to collect than the latter, but that can’t be the reason to settle if you really want to “rank” anything at all for better informed decision.</p>

<p>Furthermore, for the majority of schools listed here, SAT scores merely reflect SSAT scores. I’ve already done this analysis before (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1550335-ssat-sat.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1550335-ssat-sat.html&lt;/a&gt;). The conclusion was, smart students tend to have higher SSAT scores, go to top BS, score higher SAT, and go to top colleges. This would be consistent with 7Dad’s argument. Exceptions are like Linden Hall and Lawrenceville, who appear to do particularly better job of helping students achieve higher SAT scores, compared to their baseline SSAT scores. But then, while Lawrenceville is probably a legit elite school, Linden Hall, as I’ve come to learn, looks like an SAT mill populated with certain types of Asian kids. My point is if you use both SAT and SSAT scores to rank schools, you are giving unfair weight to certain schools–sort of double dipping.</p>

<p>My last concern, that is for now, is OP’s overall ranking is ranking of rankings. This kind of methods tend to exaggerate small, nuanced differences, or worse, flip ranks of those from more careful methods. Most ranking systems, including the above-mentioned magazines, do not use ranking of rankings when deriving “overall” rankings. They use weighted scoring methods based on their judgment of what deemed more important than others, and rank only once to produce overall rankings.</p>

<p>In the end, we all live in a busy world and are pressured to make a hasty decision with insufficient information. I guess no one is willing to visit 300+ schools, not even to visit all their websites, to select schools to apply. So there’s the utility of ranking schools. But I feel that a poor attempt to rank schools does not help with one’s desire to make better informed decisions.</p>