<p>I knew there is a college ranking in USNEWS.</p>
<p>There IS a high school ranking which includes public schools. </p>
<p>Is there any authentic and reliable BS RANKING? Thank you!</p>
<p>You can do a search and find lots of threads about rankings -- the problem is, what are you ranking them on? The rankings I have seen are enormously limited -- basically they list which schools send the most kids to the ivies. </p>
<p>There are numerous problems with that -- there is just so much more to a school than what percentage go to ivies and it is the view of most of the parents on this board that "fit" is much more important.</p>
<p>The other problem with that "percentage matriculating to the ivies" is that many, many of those kids accepted are legacies, recruited athletes and underrepresented minorities -- so you can't really judge if your "normal" kid will get any boost at all in admittance to an ivy over any other school.</p>
<p>What is most important is how the school fits your child and family -- think in terms of location, cost, classes offered, casual or preppy, number of kids, facilities, weather, etc -- there are many, many different factors to look at and while one might rank Thacher as #1 because of the weather another family might have it at the bottom of the list because of how casual it is or the fact that they don't offer numerous languages.</p>
<p>If you post the schools you are looking at and the criteria you are looking for, you might get some good input on the board.</p>
<p>I second this excellent response!!</p>
<p>Ranking boarding schools is just like ranking dessert -- impossible!
I, for instance, would put chocolate mousse WAY ahead of creme brulee. Others might put a key lime pie at the top of the list and my dear, chocolate mousse at the bottom of the dessert ranking.</p>
<p>It is all a matter of taste!</p>
<p>Excellent analogy!</p>
<p>Yes, and I bet you'd rank key lime ahead of my beloved chocolate mousse! I'm just no so sure where you'd rank a rum baba. Would that be a considered a first tier dessert or a second tier?</p>
<p>We all know that I place durian ice cream in last place.</p>
<p>"...I bet you'd rank key lime ahead of my beloved chocolate mousse!" </p>
<p>What could possible have made you think that??? ;)</p>