@marvelcomics : the top American boarding school prestige rankings are definitively as follows, at least in those certain clubby circles in Greater NYC, Boston, DC, Palm Beach, SF Bay/LA, HK/Shanghai/Beijing/Seoul/Singapore/Other Asia, and everywhere else in between where these things matter for some cultural reason or the other:
1 and 2: PA/PEA in no particular order (hard to imagine defensible dissent on this, although of course everyone and their brother has their 2 cents)
3 to 9: CRH, Lawrenceville, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, SPS, Groton, Milton in no particular order (I can imagine many equally compelling arguments for various rank orders within this list, so therefore they all cancel each other out–how’s that for fuzzy math!)
(Some may have the urge to attack me for not including Thacher, Cate, Taft, St. Andrew’s, maybe others, who knows, maybe they’re right to do so. Please forgive me, it’s not personal!)
Relevant nuances: Groton (which has 8th grade) and SPS are Episcopal (only kind of, it is 2020 after all), and don’t have PG programs. Milton is fully 50% day students, lacks a PG program, and moreover has a lower school as well, so it’s less of a “pure play” than the rest of the list. Deerfield and Hotchkiss attract slightly more NYC day school kids who want to attend boarding school. Lawrenceville uses SAO rather than Gateway making it painful to apply. All have all types of social circles. All provide ample opportunities for the clever middle class kid to grasp at the brass ring. In case you don’t already know, all of these schools can be trigger happy on disciplinary measures, which can be ruinous, so only well-disciplined, mentally stable kids who take kindly to direct orders (or at least can pretend to) should ever contemplate attending, IMO. Otherwise they should stay with their loving parents.
Size matters: PA/PEA biggest. CRH, Lawrenceville not far behind. Groton tiny. Others all in between.
Day population matters. Generally, it increases the academic strength/competitiveness of the school. The day students have myriad advantages related to completing schoolwork away from distractions, without bed times or internet restrictions, with the benefit of mother’s nutritious/delicious home cooking.
College matriculation: Early admission at Harvard (or P/Y/S) is not just a pipe dream or roulette spin if you “do very well” at any of the 9 schools mentioned, used your summers wisely for truly distinguishing activity relevant to college, and are in a special category (academic superstar with the prizes, publications, and scores to prove it, recruited athlete, child of involved alumni, child of serious current or potential donor or faculty/staff, URM with way above average stats, or ideally more than one of the above). Be warned: “doing very well” at the above 9 schools can be a cutthroat zero-sum-game business on a good day, without the banal troubles of teenage life, and extremely problematic on a bad day.
I noted an attempt in this (wonderful) online community to “erase” the reality that the above ranking is widely accepted in the circles I mentioned, or ascribe it to marketing budgets and so forth. Maybe this is a righteous undertaking, but who knows. I’m merely answering your question. What I will say is that the best attract the best (or at least the children of the best LOL) in a virtuous cycle, so over time these schools are getting only better and better (read: more and more competitive/excellent in all senses).
Day schools: The above boarding schools used to have the monopoly on prestige (a gentleman would go from Buckley to Deerfield to Harvard to Wall Street, or some variation thereof), but (as the world is changing very quickly) not anymore, not even close. On the best college campuses today, the best connected, most travelled, most cultured kids often went to America’s best day schools, and learned the art and science of being a skilled deipnosophist directly and daily from their worldly parents, had free reign and a credit card over a major urban area during their teenage years, and often took a gap year as well doing the “Grand Tour” in europe or asia or some other such very interesting thing. Contrast this with mostly hanging around boarding schools teachers and that group’s increasingly comical focus on fringe social justice issues for four years. Harvard-Westlake and Harker and Lakeside to Collegiate/Brearley/GA/Brunswick/etc. to Roxbury Latin/Winsor/etc. to St. Albans/NCS to St.John’s/St.Mark’s/Hockaday to Ransom, it’s a much longer list out there in “elite” American secondary education once you include day schools (and of course certain public schools, not to mention the whole wide world outside of America). But since prestige seems to be important to you, keep this point in mind.