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Rating and ranking of prep schools is a very sensitive issue. 8 years ago USNews tried to rank preps as it does for colleges and got stonewalled by an association of boarding schools led by one somewhat secretive school. I recently ranked about 20 elite boarding schools and 5 key day schools on college placement success as determined by actual matriculations over the past 5 years. Obtaining accurate and verifiable data was the most difficult task. Ranking by tiers can be done for certain aspects, but not for claiming that one group of schools is superior to the others in all respects. Rating and ranking by tiers can be done for particular aspects such as endowment, facilities, selectivity and elite college placement. Ratings and rankings cannot determine the best school for an individual. Most prep schools send out "brag sheets" touting their elite college placement successes as an attempt to increase applications. I discovered that these "brag sheets" focused only on the top 10% or so from each class. The Wall St. Journal rankings focused only on 6 of 8 Ivies, MIT & Stanford placements to rank prep schools. My rating system evaluated one hundred (100%) percent of all U.S. college matriculations. The results showed some surprises. To the OP: St. George's has one of the best college placement offices in the country. St. Paul's, Andover, Deerfield and Groton were in a class above the others with respect to college matriculation success. But Exeter has the highest endowment. Hotchkiss has grueling academics and superb students. Each school has its own culture and strengths and weaknesses.
Last edited by icy9ff8; 11-17-2007 at 10:28 AM.
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