<p>According to my clear-cut almost-totally objective analysis, Winsor School would be 15, falling between Rivers and Brooks. This is because it only has 4 vowels and the vowel tie-breakers I used put it after Rivers. I’m sorry to bear such news…and I hope you can enjoy that mentholated reality check in your pipe.</p>
<p>D’Yer Maker, I am flattered that you would consider BB&N to be #1 and first tier. As an alum looking back, I can truly call it a very rigorous and challenging institution. BB&N is special and unusual in many respects. Thank you…but I think you are being a little generous even for this alum! I know the school is good, I don’t know it’s THAT GOOD!</p>
<p>However, some naysayers out here with a couple of horses in these races, would have some questions about you ranking Lawrence Academy above Groton. Also, The Governor’s Academy above Roxbury Latin. Also St Sebastians over many other institutions. In the boys school pecking order it should probably go:</p>
<p>Roxbury Latin
Belmont Hill
St. Sebastians</p>
<p>RL’s endowment and history alone makes it “better” than the other two prep schools of its like. </p>
<p>Colonel will have a field day with your list!</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of opinion or subject to debate. I’m using a strictly objective methodology and, by my count, BB&N is alone at the top, having more vowels than any of the others.</p>
<p>D’yer Maker: Your list is wrong! You miscalculated. There are no vowels in BB&N. There are also no vowels in “St.”, but there are two in “Saint”. You must re-rank Saint Mark’s, Saint George’s, Saint Sebastian’s, and Saint Paul’s. Please check your objective calculations next time before posting. Your incorrect list will be on the Interent for a long time affecting future admissions and (potentially even) mankind itself.</p>
<p>There’s only one vowel in CKSABS, so your accusations are not credible. That said, I want to be clear that I deeply regret being caught in an error, without actually admitting to having made one. Mistakes were made. I will not be taking questions at this time.</p>
<p>I’ll do a new ranking that might make everyone happy.</p>
<p>1st Tier: Top 8 of ISL (alpha order)
Belmont Hill School
Buckingham Browne & Nichols
Groton School
Middlesex School
Milton School
Noble and Greenough
Roxbury Latin
St. Pauls School</p>
<p>2nd Tier:
Brooks School
The Governors Academy
Lawrence School
The Rivers School
St. George’s School
St. Mark’s School
St. Sebastians School
Thayer Academy</p>
<p>Additional ranking: tiers with alpha order</p>
<p>I Groton, Milton Academy, Roxbury Latin, St. Pauls School
II BB&N, Belmont Hill, Middlesex, Noble & Greenough
III The Rivers School, St. George’s School, St. Mark’s School, St. Sebastians
IV Brooks, The Governor’s Academy, Lawrence Academy, Thayer Academy</p>
<p>Does this work for people???
Have a great weekend!</p>
<p>I confess, I only checked into this thread so I could hate-read it.</p>
<p>D’yer’s list made me grin from ear to ear.
I bet Governor’s is kicking themselves for removing the “Dummer” from their name now! Those two extra vowels could’ve secured them a place nearer to the pinnacle of academic excellence!</p>
<p>Though D’yer Maker’s list is objectively near truth, I am afraid he missed one of the main variables in the equation, which at this very moment I am working on including.
The ratio of faculty members to faculty members’ dogs on campus.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken with parents and administrators at a number of boarding/day schools, and I’ve heard on several occasions that St. George’s is improving and has improved greatly in terms of its academics and college acceptances in recent years. They always had the money, but I guess the school is getting a lot more serious about their students’ objective performances.</p>
<p>Gang,
Prep Review 2012 ranking:
I’m ranking the ISL in order by % going to Ivies+MIT+ Stanford according to their guide/criteria. Top 50 high schools (will not list all of them) </p>
<p>Name ISL rank Prep Review Rank % to Ivies MIT Stanford </p>
<p>Roxbury Latin 1 6 33%
St. Pauls School 2 11 30%
Noble & Greenough 3 17 27%
Groton School 4 22 24%
BB&N 5 27 22%
Milton Academy 6 27 22%
Middlesex School 7 36 20%
Belmont Hill School 8 37 19%</p>
<hr>
<p>So again, there are probably 2 tiers of ISL schools and the above are the top 8 of the bunch. BUT, we need to keep in mind that the “weaker” ISL schools will still send individual students to the above colleges as well as other wonderful institutions. </p>
<p>Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
have a great weekend!!!</p>
<p>Just checking back from vacation and what do I see…mdgranny, pulling up the 2012 PR matriculation stats and restoring order to the discussion. As always. well done, MD.</p>
<p>But extract Nobles’ Div I female hockey recruits (ok maybe boys hockey and girls’ bball as well) and the school’s PR HYPSM totals and Ivy numbers plummet faster than Titanic. Great school but just sayin’ : ) Wouldn’t put them ahead of Groton School, no sir.</p>
<p>I think Brooks is higher than md’s #13 rank… its an underrated school IMO. I would bump Gov’s or St Seb’s down.</p>
<p>Oh, and Oscar is spot on about St George’s. Not sure that they are behind St Mark’s anymore and might be pushing into the top 1/2 of the ISL.</p>
<p>I knew Colonel had to post at somepoint after my list!!!</p>
<p>more thoughts, will run through a quick 10:</p>
<p>1) Yes, on Groton above Nobles.<br>
2) Yes, on Nobles heavy recruiting for sports for IVY league.
3) Have always felt that the weakest of ISL were Thayer, Lawrence, and the Governor’s Academy. Alluded to this in several posts over the last year on this board.<br>
4) Consider Rivers, St. Sebs, Brooks, and St. Georges to be low-middle of ISL. Still not a bad place to be within the league.
5) Yes on St. George’s improving. Most beautiful of the campuses when I visited as a BB&N student competing in athletics.<br>
6) Brooks. I might have been too critical in earlier posts. Probably is underrated and Colonel’s ranking could be justified.<br>
7) Wealthiest of ISL are Roxbury Latin, Groton, St. Pauls, and Middlesex…helps recruiting as well as prestige. Middlesex might be weakest of the above four, but still at least a minimum of “Top 8” of the ISL:
8) My alma mater BB&N will always do well in the prep review survey because of its Cambridge location so MIT/Harvard placement will always have strong figures.
9) Attending any of these 16 institutions is still an accomplishment regardless of rankings.
10) I wonder if rivalries also play a factor in rankings?? BB&N’s archenemies were always Belmont Hill, Brooks, Milton Academy, and Roxbury Latin. Groton vs St. Pauls was always viewed as an important contest. Any thoughts on that issue??</p>
<p>Always enjoy the discussion out here about these topics!</p>
<p>If we don’t count the Nobles athletes recruits, what about RL legacies/parents who work at Harvard? The true “number” would be one that does not include legacies, athletes, faculty, etc.</p>
<p>Rivalries play a factor in the rankings? not following you on that one, md. What do you mean?</p>
<p>But I am with you on the other 9 thoughts. St George’s campus is the most beautiful. Sorry I didn’t see your bottom three before…but would agree on all three. Rivers and St Sebs are making strides as well as Brooks and St George’s.</p>
<p>Irishmom: I think the real number of admits is the real number. The Nobles recruited female athletes work hard, are talented and are very deserving. I am not suggesting otherwise.
Just to clarify, Nobles is a fine school. They place more recruited athletes into Ivy league than any other ISL school and that accounts for a larger percentage of their pool than at any other ISL school. I stand by that. </p>
<p>Your theory to minimize Roxbury Latin’s oustanding Harvard, Ivy SM matriculation numbers are…well just not what I have observed. I know alot of RL parents and none work at Harvard. Also, ask any parent alumnus from a highly selective university, legacies just aren’t worth what they used to be. Additionally, RL’s outstanding matriculation numbers aren’t limited to just Harvard but are very broad based. Check RL’s students’ median SAT and ACT scores, National Merit Awards, AP scores and college matriculation data. You may very well reach a very different conclusion.</p>
<p>Funny, all the highly placed Harvard-employed people I’ve met recently have or have had children at Roxbury Latin. Of course, anecdotes are not data.</p>
<p>At Stanford, normal legacy kids get two people that read their application, so they can have two advocates. Super Legacy (those that donate time or money) also get the Dean to read. They have no other special ranking. Only if you have more people advocating for you - all other things being equal, you will have a better chance of being accepted</p>
<p>Legacies admits, no matter how hard we want to deny that it exist, is still “alive” and being practiced by these top universities, the same universities that would speak out against racial discrimination but who obviously do not think it is a discrimation against children of lower social economic classes whose parents did not attend HYP, children of parents who are recent immigrants, etc.</p>
<p>Was taking time off from viewing the message board so playing catchup.</p>
<p>Colonel, glad you liked 9/10 of my points. For rivalries, I meant the age of the rivalries.
Roxbury Latin vs Browne & Nichols went back to at least the 1940s. Browne & Nichols vs Belmont Hill and Milton around the same time. Groton always had longtime rivalries with St. Paul’s and St. Marks. Lawrence Academy, St. Sebastians, and St. Georges didn’t enter the ISL until the 1970s. So I consider the more prestigious ISL schools to be ones that have longer sports rivalries as well. There were only 8 schools in the initial ISL and then they expanded to 16 over a 25 year period. Tabor came and went at somepoint too.</p>
<p>As for legacies for Roxbury Latin and ties to employees at Harvard, I can’t say one way or the other. BB&N always had longties to Harvard and many families worked at Harvard in various departments, divisions, etc…But the same principle could apply to Boston Latin School as well as Cambridge Rindge & Latin. Both are prestigious public schools in Boston and Cambridge. BU Academy could also be viewed that way. Let’s be fair, people that work in higher education also want the best education for their own children! So if they send their sons and daughters to a RL, BB&N, Milton Academy, or 8 others of a similar vein (and are employees at one of Boston’s higher institutions) that should be complimented. It shows that the faith in the secondary school is universal and the mission of the school is justified. </p>
<p>I think what is encouraging is that the intelligent discussions are trying to attack the age old question “What makes a good private school good?” What makes a good private school “better” than a plain public school. </p>
