Boston.com private school ratings for MA...lots of surprises, check it out!

Prep School Admissions Prep School Cafe
1

<p>These are from boston.com, their ratings for Massachusetts private schools. I was surprised by some of them. Anyone else?</p>

<p>School Ranking Value Ranking Tuition Enrollment Average Class Student/
Teacher AP College Total Percent on Average SAT<br>
Day Boarding Size Ratio Courses Counselors Sports Financial Aid Critical Reading Math Writing
Commonwealth School 1 11 $30,465 NA 150 12 5:01 16 3 15 36 742 701 715
Groton School 2 32 $35,090 $46,790 372 13 5:01 9 3 47 37 700 700 700
Middlesex School 3 36 $35,450 $44,320 360 12 5:01 24 4 29 31.9 680 680 690
Phillips Academy, Andover 4 28 $31,100 $39,900 1,105 13 5:01 32 6 71 42 684 700 692
Newton Country Day School 5 35 $32,800 NA 240 12 7:01 19 3 24 21 670 650 740
Winsor School 6 34 $32,250 NA 233 13 7:01 10 2 33 24 694 667 725
Boston University Academy 7 31 $30,123 NA 156 12 9:01 0 2 12 33 722 694 713
Montrose School 8 3 $16,900 NA 89 15 4:01 4 1 7 30 640 640 680
Belmont Hill School 9 37 $32,700 $38,800 437 11 6:01 12 2 53 30 660 675 700
Noble and Greenough School 10 41 $33,900 $38,900 586 14 6:01 17 5 54 24.5 668 674 682
Waring School 11 18 $24,075 NA 89 14 8:01 2 2 6 33 640 620 650
Milton Academy 12 45 $34,470 $41,960 680 14 5:01 9 4 30 32 681 688 696
Lawrence Academy 13 52 $35,575 $46,200 399 12 5:01 8 4 54 28<br>
Deerfield Academy 14 42 $32,740 $43,800 653 12 6:01 10 4 60 34 660 670 670
Tabor Academy 15 38 $31,100 $43,500 510 12 6:01 22 5 49 31 589 618 591
Concord Academy 16 55 $35,915 $44,415 373 12 6:01 NA 3 28 25 686 683 692
Governor's Academy 17 46 $33,600 $42,600 378 12 5:01 16 3 47 27 594 633 603
St. Mark's School 18 51 $34,800 $43,600 359 10 5:01 19 2 48 27 * * *
Rivers School 19 47 $33,750 NA 440 12 8:01 13 3 35 26 641 660 660
Thayer Academy 20 40 $31,650 NA 462 14.5 6:01 13 4 48 33 * * *
Walnut Hill School 21 43 $32,800 $42,840 300 14 6:01 0 4 NA 50 * * *
Cushing Academy 22 39 $31,200 $42,850 445 12 8:01 8 5 43 28<br>
Beaver Country Day School 23 48 $33,180 NA 307 13 7:01 16 3 32 25 * * *
Worcester Academy 24 26 $25,340 $44,830 501 13 8:01 15 4 52 34 587 634 603
Gann Academy 25 33 $27,700 NA 330 16 5:01 4 2 20 33 655 651 668
Roxbury Latin School 26 12 $19,500 NA 203 13 8:01 3 2 35 * * * *
Buckingham Browne & Nichols 27 54 $34,330 NA 480 15 8:01 20 3 48 23 675 660 676
Brimmer and May School 28 49 $33,200 NA 135 14 7:01 11 1 23 28 * * *
Mount Alvernia High School 29 1 $11,100 NA 252 13.5 9:01 3 3 19 17 667 686 661
St. Sebastian's School 30 44 $31,550 NA 350 11 7:01 20 2 38 25<br>
Brooks School 31 53 $33,060 $44,370 356 12 5:01 15 2 47 21 * * *
Pingree School 32 50 $32,000 NA 335 15 8:01 10 4 44 22 609 623 614
Dana Hall School 33 56 $37,113 $49,224 370 12.3 9:01 14 3 29 18 601 626 627
Sacred Heart 34 4 $11,200 NA 335 13.7 10:01 6 2 34 * * * *
Bishop Fenwick School 35 5 $10,250 NA 600 20 17:01 10 5 50 51 * * *
Cathedral High School 36 2 $8,237 NA 500 18 13:01 9 3 48 40 * * *
Lexington Christian Academy 37 29 $21,250 NA 233 15 11:01 6 1 19 35 607 613 629
Pope John XXIII High School 38 6 $8,000 NA 300 18 14:01 4 3 15 60 510 525 515
Notre Dame Academy 39 15 $14,490 NA 600 20 11:01 13 4 35 * * *
Ursuline Academy 40 10 $12,285 NA 385 18 11:01 6 3 18 17 640 619 653
Woodward School 41 7 $11,1 95 NA 90 16 10:01 4 1 4 30 560 520 532
Cambridge School of Weston 42 57 $34,100 $45,350 330 10 6:01 2 1 13 25 * * *
St. John's Preparatory School 43 27 $16,900 NA 1,250 19 12:01 19 8 44 30 601 612 600
Boston College High School 44 25 $14,950 NA 1,250 23 13:01 24 11 39 35 591 602 598
Archbishop Williams High School 45 9 $9,600 NA 527 20 14:01 5 3 38 * * *
Austin Preparatory School 46 21 $13,700 NA 500 16 11:01 16 3 38 15 580 576 576
Newman School 47 22 $13,600 NA 220 14 14:01 9 1 12 25 578 584 566
Marian High School 48 8 $8,900 NA 270 17.5 13:01 6 2 23 35 522 523 526
Malden Catholic High School 49 13 $10,650 NA 700 22 13:01 12 3 32 55 545 568 556
St. John's High School 50 16 $10,550 NA 964 24 14:01 23 8 37 30 589 612 590
Catholic Memorial 51 23 $12,825 NA 745 21 12:01 16 4 48 33 556 562 542
Holyoke Catholic High School 52 14 $6,900 NA 295 21 12:01 4 2 23 18 562 525 555
Mount Saint Joseph Academy 53 19 $8,500 NA 235 17 16:01 3 1 10 * 552 549 589
Bishop Connolly High School 54 17 $7,350 NA 300 18 18:01 8 2 38 35 494 480 494
Arlington Catholic High School 55 20 $8,000 NA 750 22 17:01 12 5 31 541 539 569
Matignon High School 56 24 $7,700 NA 392 17 17:01 6 2 25 22 510 530 500
Trinity Catholic High School 57 30 $8,690 NA 235 17 13:01 2 1 22 472 474 465
HOW WE DETERMINED VALUE: Our rankings this year were computed by statistician George Recck, director of the Math Resource Center at Babson College. As in years past, we gathered data on area schools by consulting school officials and websites, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Education. With this information, Recck calculated mean scores for each data category and then ranked schools based on their distance from the averages. With this traditional performance ranking in hand, he also evaluated performance against tuition, producing a ranking that shows which high schools deliver the most academic bang for the buck.<br>
* Indicates average class size
** Indicates number of college counselors</p>

2

<p>not to offend anyone, but…</p>

<p>middlesex & concord have higher SAT scores than deerfield? seriously?</p>

<p>wow, i never realized concord was that high-scoring of a school. :open_mouth: i guess i’ve been pretty misinformed… !</p>

3

<p>Well I live in the MA area and their doens’t seem to be many surprises here to me. Around here, there’s not too much of a difference between a middlesex and an andover. I would love to have seen them include New hampshire schools like Exeter and St. Pauls</p>

4

<p>Looks like teacher/student ratio and #of APs is the hallmark of a quality education :-)</p>

<p>Commonwealth and BUA have been under the radar for a while; they deserve credit.</p>

<p>Roxbury Latin #26? HA!</p>

<p>Kei</p>

5

<p>^^ oh my gosh, i just noticed that. worcestor > roxbury latin?!?! seriously?!</p>

<p>oh maaan, rankings are so funny. i wonder what kind of methodology they use, because roxbury latin being 26… hmm.</p>

6

<p>How come no NMH?</p>

7

<p>Berkshire? </p>

<p>Williston Northampton?</p>

8

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>Simple. To Bostonians anything west of Worcester is beyond the boundaries of civilization and not worthy of consideration. Deerfield gets a special dispensation because of its elite status.</p>

9

<p>Even then, placing Deerfield on this list sure doesn’t make it very special, does it? I guess that this view of Deerfield just underlines the point of this article in the first place: If you are not in or near Boston, you don’t count…unless, however, you are at Deerfiled, and then you don’t count much.</p>

<p>How sweet.</p>

10

<p>They’re just trying to sell magazines. C’mon. The list is only useful for providing the same kind of data found on BSR all on one page. If I were a day student in the Boston area, it would be a great source of raw stats.</p>

<p>Does anyone really take these lists seriously?</p>

11

<p>Many people…sadly… live and die by such lists. (See, for example, the PrepReview list mentioned constantly on CC.) </p>

<p>I used to laugh at the “U.S. News and World Report” lists of top colleges…until some of these top colleges themselves started citing those lists. No matter now stupid these lists may be, they are weapons used in the war for more apps, more demand and more money. The laugh is now on those (like me) who used to laugh at these unbearable lists.</p>

12

<p>Sorry, didn’t mean to offend anyone or create conflict by posting this. I just found it interesting, especially since schools like BUA, Commonwealth and Winsor are never mentioned on CC (yeah, I know they’re day schools, but still). They are all phenomenal schools and I’m glad they’re getting recognition. There has to be some truth to these rankings, right? I was surprised that Andover wasn’t numero uno, though. And to Imcrazy- I live in MA, too and have for most of my life, but I was a bit surprised by the order of these schools. Especially some of the lower ranking ones that managed to sneak in. :)</p>

13

<p>Well, rankings are rankings and people will take them in different ways. Im not sure you can call it a complete joke when they clearly state their critereia though…</p>

<p>I would have loved to see Deerfield higher :P. But it’s cool.</p>

14

<p>prepschoolnew helps prove my point that prep school rankings are often important. On another CC thread, I read that prepschoolnew plans to apply to prep school soon and that his/her grades and resume are quite strong. He/she wants, not surprisingly, to apply to, and get into, the best school(s) possible. Well, what are those schools? A popular magazine in Boston identifies and then ranks, with some air of authority, the top schools in MA. Heck, that list is as good as some and probably better than others. </p>

<p>So, does anyone take these lists seriously, neato? It appears that prepschoolnew, who is a great candidate for prep school, took this list seriously; if not, he/she would not have posted it here. If he/she thinks it is noteworthy, you can beat a whole mess of others think so too.</p>

15

<p>I do take these sorts of lists with a grain of salt and I acknowledge that they aren’t the be all and end all of “which school is the best?”. But I do think they are important tools in weeding out the great schools from the not as good ones (don’t get me wrong, all of these schools are nice) and gauging which ones are worth applying to. Especially if the rankings have some sort of method to them, rather than just listing a bunch of schools based on prestige and reputation.</p>

16

<p>OK, OP in #15</p>

<p>So how does this list help you weed out great from not so good? What conclusions have you gleaned?</p>

<p>Kei</p>

17

<p>Kei-</p>

<p>Out of the schools on this list, I’d rather apply to the ones with high SAT scores, a lot of APs, and small class sizes than schools with large class sizes and comparably lower SAT scores.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to argue that these rankings are the #1 authority in choosing the “best” school (if such a school even exists :stuck_out_tongue: ), I just think that it’s interesting to see how they stack up. I really, really don’t want to start a controversy here. :)</p>

18

<p>Well perhaps not an error, but to list BUA as having zero AP courses is not realistic. The comparison should have counted the number of unique college (BU) classes that students have taken in the last three or so years. I don’t know the number but it has to be higher than any other school’s number of APs.</p>

<p>[Boston</a> University Academy](<a href=“Boston’s Best Private High School for Curious + Kind Students | Boston University Academy”>Boston’s Best Private High School for Curious + Kind Students | Boston University Academy)</p>

1 Like
19

<p>I don’t quite get how Boston.com is “trying to sell copies” when it appears to me that they have done a bit of research before they posted statistics which is the base criteria of their rankings. I love it how because the rankings do not adhere to some of the opinions of other people on this forum, that means the rankings shouldn’t be taken seriously.</p>

<p>If I hadn’t look at this list, and based all my opinions from the sources from this forum only, I would have assumed Andover would be left par none followed by Deerfield (Or vise versa depending on allegiance) yet they are ranked 4th, and 14th respectively. So, someone is clearly off… and I’m willing to bet it isn’t Boston.com, yet still I try to keep an open mind.</p>

<p>Just my two cents, take it or leave it…either way its free</p>

20

<p>yeah, the rankings are nuts. </p>

<p>i had all As at a private middle school, 98th percentile on the SSAT, and got flat out rejected from RL. On the letter they sent me, they told me they had 200 or so applicants for 10 9th grade spots. They accepted like 15 kids. </p>

<p>now, i go to nobles, which i, of course, believe to be the best day school in MA. the fact that newton country day made it ahead of nobles, and windsor for that matter which is also a girls school, is ridiculous. no offense to ncd, but it’s simply not on the same level. as mild proof, i know many kids that did not get in to nobles, but got in to newton country day and middlesex for that matter.</p>

<p>in terms of college matriculation, nobles is close to the best in the isl, MUCH better than middlesex and belmont hill, and on par with RL, groton etc.<br>
35% of nobles kids went to ivy league schools, and the rest went basically went to Vanderbilt, Duke, UVA, and NESCAC schools.</p>

<p>that’s my little rant, and i encourage all those who are looking to apply to private school to NOT TAKE THE RANKINGS SERIOUSLY.</p>