<p>can someone give me a list of top prep and/or private schools in california?</p>
<p>how do they rank/compare against the top publics in CA? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Cate, Thacher, Harvard Westlake, Bellarmine Prep</p>
<p>No rankings; classes are very much smaller than their public counterparts. They have more students interested in academics, better teachers, better alumni connections, better college matriculation, and cost 30 grand more than CA public schools.</p>
<p>Head Royce, Athenian, St. Ignatius</p>
<p>A top public high schools, such as the one our son attended, had over 20 of its seniors entering UC Berkeley last fall. Other '05 graduates attend Harvard, Stanford, MIT, UCLA etc. so I wouldn't discount top public schools for good college matriculation.</p>
<p>well i know there's a lot of good publics, like lowell, monta vista, troy, gunn, whitney, university, torrey pines, and i could go on and on... </p>
<p>but i'm curious to see how the privates/preps stack up to these schools.</p>
<p>I will second St Ignatius because i went there and can attest to its strengths. but know that it is not a boarding school.</p>
<p>Both of my sons applied to Cate, Thacher, and Webb - - were accepted by all three - - and chose Webb. #2 son is now a rising senior at Webb. #1 son ( Webb class of '06) chose Harvey Mudd over Cal Tech for his undergrad training in astro-physics.</p>
<p>Not everyone follows the beaten path!</p>
<p>whitney is the best school in california as i know. their average sat 1 scores is 1380/1600. the next highest was troy at 1285/1600 and mission san jose was like 1275/1600. oh yeah, and schools in california take a standardized test every year which gives their school an api ranking (200-1000) and troy was 910. mission san jose was 935 and whitney was 979. clearly whitney is the best school in california (21 points off perfect 1000 in the api). but that said, whitney requires an entrance exam to attend the school while the other two schools i mentioned are dont so yeah...</p>
<p>In the Bay Area, Crystal Springs, Menlo, Harker. Sacred Heart is rising fast.</p>
<p>kfc4u -
btw FYI University High School in SF is private...</p>
<p>i think he was talking about the university in irvine. ranked 117.</p>
<p>anybody know of cardinal Newman in Santa Rosa? I believe it's all boys but, does it have a good rep?</p>
<p>cannot believe this has been mentioned only ONCE... harvard-westlake!</p>
<p>What about Archer?</p>
<p>Mega, yes this is a top school......Harvard-westlake x200</p>
<p>sorry, i didn't mean to come off as pompous... it's just that i have enormous school pride (sister went there, and i would've probably too if my dad didn't live in NYC)
i'll try to be of actual help: cate and thacher are the top boarding (there are others though, and if you don't like rural norcal they might not be for you)
off the top of my head, an excellent public in CA would be something like Lowell.
i don't really think you can justly compare private vs. public b/c even the best public schools don't have the funds or resources to catch up to the preps (state aid vs. rich alumni)...</p>
<p>mega, you did not come off as "pompous", I was agreeing with you regarding H-W</p>
<p>whoops, i accidently read it as sarcasm.
you can never tell on the internet now adays...</p>
<p>I believe Robert-Lewis Stevenson is considered in the same tier as Cate and Thacher.</p>
<p>I’m most familiar with Los Angeles and the surrounding area, so I’ll just give you those schools. Marlborough School (all-girls) and Harvard-Westlake (co-ed) are top tier. If you imagine an East Coast prep school that was picked up and placed in Los Angeles, you probably have a pretty good idea of these high schools.</p>