We are looking at Rivers, Belmont Hill, and Nobles for our son who has good grades and plays competitive sports. We know Belmont Hill and Nobles are considered more prestigious, but from what we read Rivers appears to have equally rigorous academics and strong athletics. Belmont Hill and Nobles have significantly better college matriculation results. Is it because they do a better job preparing for college? better relationship with colleges? more legacies? or simply because they admit students more fit for top colleges?
I think once you adjust for legacies, recruited athletes, etc., the college matriculation results will look more in line across schools. I am not an expert on these three schools specifically, but it’s very challenging to use past college matriculation results as a criteria for selecting a high school. There is just too much that we do not know. At least until all schools start publishing a Harvard-Westlake style guide that excludes students with “distinctions.”
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Belmont Hill’s class of 2022 had an exceptionally strong college admissions year, with about 10% of the class going on to Harvard and more great acceptance results across the board. Most of the Harvard admits were unhooked students. BH was especially successful making immediate investments in pivoting to a stable, safe in-person learning environment during the worst of the pandemic, so this might have something to do with it. It is an example of how well-run and well-resourced the school is.
Any ISL school will have a sprinkling of recruited athlete, legacy, and development admits to colleges, varying year to year, but in general, matriculation differences among them reflect the kind of students the ISL school attracts and the fit of those student’s to that school’s learning culture. Trying to determine the last attribute is the more useful than comparing college matriculation data, in my opinion.
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Nobles and Belmont Hill are a cut above Rivers academically. The caliber of the students is generally higher and these schools are more rigorous. That said, kids at Rivers seem happy there.
Thank you all for your response. I read from other threads that Rivers is making progress in the past few years and its gap with the other two schools has narrowed in terms of competitiveness in prep admission and college matriculation. I am not sure if that is based on personal experiences or reflects a general trend.
I agree that we should not use college matriculation as a main criterion for selecting schools. Our son will be transferring from another private school that has decent college matriculation. We do not have direct experience with the three schools and at this point they are equally attractive in terms of offerings in academics, athletics, and other programs. I was hoping that a better understanding of the college matriculation data can help us figure out some differences among the schools. Our son is a strong student but he also spends a lot of time on sports, so we would not expect him to be at the very top of a class at a top school.
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I was at Rivers’ graduation this year where all the matriculations were read. It was incredibly impressive!
My family’s member experience at Rivers was excellent. Very challenging course offerings, great college counseling, summer internship opportunities, and a very strong athletic community.
Thank you for sharing. I am glad to hear that your family’s member has a good experience at Rivers. It seems to be a common impression that kids at Rivers tend to be happy.
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We have a close family friend whose son attended Belmont Hill and really loved it. He was both a very smart kid and athletically-inclined (could pick up any sport and be the best in weeks. His least successful attempt at a sport was hockey, which of course made it the one he wanted to pursue because he wanted a real challenge. Within a year of picking it up, he was playing for an elite youth hockey team outside Boston.). While at BH, he moved to a different sport and was recruited by several elite colleges. He ended up at an Ivy and was quite successful and felt well-prepared academically.
A related question. Can someone with experience/knowledge comment on the level of academic rigor of these three schools? I have heard of different perspectives. The Belmont Hill and Nobles families/students we talked to typically consider Rivers a level below, especially with respect to the overall academic levels of the student body. The Rivers families/students all speak highly of academics at Rivers and think it can provide enough depth to challenge motivated students. Looking at the curriculums, it appears that Belmont Hill and Rivers have similar offerings, and Nobles clearly provides more options. Thank you!
Nobles and Belmont Hill have smarter kids. My son goes to BH and he is surrounded by REALLY bright kids. The Nobles kids are extraordinarily smart too. I know a lot of kids at Rivers and they are definitely a notch below, academically. With regards to rigor, I can only speak to the rigor at BH and it’s definitely a slog. My son has a ton of homework.
I’m surprised to hear BH spoken of so highly. I know people who have attended and because it’s all boys it has a smaller pool to select from - which means a lower standard. Kids I know who go there are nice kids, bright kids (but not academic ninjas), and SUPER sporty kids.
But I’d say for all three schools there are a lot of sporty kids. Sports are no joke at all three schools. D1 commits common.
Also lots of Ivy League + top nescac legacy kids at all three schools. So college matriculation lists reflect that.
I think your focus is misplaced. tour and interview at the schools, apply to all three. If you are accepted to all attend revisit day and pick the school your kid vibes with the most. Trying to pick the “better, best” school among those three is splitting hairs and culture will be more important.
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Thanks for sharing your perspective. We are trying to pick the “better, best” among these schools with the goal of finding the best fit. Son is currently at another prep school and had interacted with students from all three schools. Based on our conversions with families, all three schools seem to be a good fit, and that’s why we are applying. We have had pretty positive interviews with some other boarding/day schools that are typically considered the most rigorous ones. We will tour and interview at the three day schools next. Based on son’s experience at his current school and feedbacks from the schools that we have done interviews with, son should be able to meet the academic requirement at any of the schools. He will be recruited and play sports, so there are indeed other factors that we need to consider, and possibly some trade-offs to make. At this point, we are trying to learn as much as possible, especially on the academic side, to help us figure out the best fit if he is lucky to have a few options.
Thank you again for all the responses. I understand that people have different experiences and perspectives, but what I have read so far has been very helpful. If anyone else has more to share, please post or PM. Thank you!
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Roxbury Latin and Winsor are two of the hardest schools in the Boston area to get into. There are plenty of smart kids to go around, just because the pool is only half the population doesn’t mean that there aren’t still plenty of impressive kids in it.
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