<p>The Prep Review report seems to rank solely on IVY+MIT+Stanford admission rates. That data can vary from year to year and seems to be dated. Using the 2005-2008 data on each school’s websites, I calculated the most recent 4 year averages as 31.2% for SPS and 32.6% for Andover. I could do others, but it was sufficient to satisfy me that ranking schools based on a point-in-time Ivy/M/S ranking wasn’t particularly meaningful or static. The differences could probably be explained by pure statistical variance.</p>
<p>One thing that surprised me was SPS low number of matriculations for top 20 or so universities not named Ivy/S/M. Matriculations (SPS/Andover) included: Duke (5/30), JHU (5/24), Northwestern (3/15), Notre Dame (0/4), Rice (0/8), University of Chicago (8/20), Vanderbilt (3/29) and WUSTL (2/10). Most of the SPS figures were far below Andover’s figures even taking into account the fact that SPS graduating class is slightly less than half as large.</p>
<p>That perplexed me until I thought that perhaps the size and culture of the schools would be reflected in the type of colleges selected. Sure enough, if we look at leading LACs the numbers change significantly: Amherst (10/7), Bowdoin (12/10), Middlebury (14/16), Pomona (6/4), Swarthmore (2/5), Wellesley (9/4) and Williams (14/9).</p>
<p>This is hardly a scientific study (and college matriculation is but one measure of a prep school), but my perhaps unsurprising conclusion is that the “best” school will be based on a student’s goals. Both Andover and SPS do a fine job of placing students in Ivy/S/M. After that the cause and effect relationship is not clear, but Andover students seem to have a greater affinity for large national universities and SPS students go to LACs at a higher rate. I don’t have the time but it would be interesting to see if there is a pattern that is consistent across other large (for example, Exeter) and even smaller (e.g. Groton) schools. Similarly, one could map perceived strengths (e.g. Exeter is known for its extremely strong math department) against matriculations.</p>
<p>no it’s no perfect, but few rankings are. Certain schools that are highly ranked may have close connections with harvard or princeton and not yale or stanford, but a school with equal strength in college placement, but closer connections to yale and stanford rather than h&p would be lower on the list.
wsj did however choose a variety of selective schools that would give those who saw their list a fairly good idea of which schools had the most success in college placement. Obviously there are some great colleges missing from their sample, but it wouldn’t work if they chose too many–then you’d just be saying well what about this school and that school all over again. Sooner or later the “success rates” would be 90-98%. In most cases, the high schools that do well with the colleges on one list will also do well in other lists, but obviously not always. I never said the list was perfect. I just said it was a list of schools that did well in college placement, according to the wsj survey and gave you a link so you could see for yourself and take a look at how it worked. I’m sorry if your survey is better, but that one is not published yet. The wsj list is one we can use for now</p>
<p>I think what WSJ may have done was gather a list of top schools and randomly chosen within that list. It makes it random, so no school has any preference.</p>
<p>My guess is that you will find that SPS has many more legacies at the top LACs. In a real sense, Andover and Exeter are less ‘elite’ than Groton, Deerfield and SPS. They were leaders in reaching out early to the poor and middle class.</p>
<p>Many private prep schools looked to them as an example in achieving diversity later. But the other schools probably had a majority of America’s wealthy and connected–people long educated at top LACs-- for quite awhile longer.</p>
<p>Makes sense. Would it be accurate to say that Groton, Deerfield, and SPS have an advantage over Andover and Exeter in all but the top schools. If you put major hooks into three categories; legacy, recruited athlete, and URM then A/E would have the latter two (more money to give) while the “elite” schools would have the legacy because it shows connections.</p>
<p>There is a far more recent one I have posted a few times, I will quote it when I find it. Does anyone else see 17 pages on this thread except can only get to 16?</p>
<p>I think the other top schools have caught up with Andover and Exeter in terms of recruiting an economically and racially diverse student body (don’t some have higher per pupil endowments?) so the placement advantage would rest with the percentage of legacies.</p>
<p>I see. What, then, draws Exeter/Andover so much more attention than the other HADES GCM? Is it the the pedigree that these schools have earned, from being the oldest and the best for the longest time. Until now…?</p>
<p>Also:
Andover: Percent Students of Color 36%
Exeter: Percent Students of Color 20%
SPS: Percent Students of Color 35%
Deerfield: Percent Students of Color 26%
Groton: Percent Students of Color 20%</p>
<p>So Andover is still above all of the others, but it is true they are getting close.
But, Andover and Exeter have probably the largest selection of classes.
Ex. Languages: German, Russian, Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic.
Then like 50 of each other subject.</p>
<p>They are far larger than the others. I think they have become better known because of size and outreach to a wide variety of groups. Often the most elite in any category are not the most commonly known.</p>
<p>I guess that is true. Does legacy + BS + decent grades translate into ivy top school admission, maybe that’s what makes certain schools have such good college matriculation.</p>
<p>From prepreview.com: “Only boarding schools with a minimum of 5-days residential/boarding program with a minimum average graduating class of 50 is included in the ranking. Ranking of top 30 college preparatory boarding schools in the United States is based on the percentage (estimate) of graduating class during the past 5 year period, if unavailable, a time period of 1 to 4 years is used, entering Ivy League Universities + Stanford & MIT.” </p>
<p>I don’t understand what that “estimate” in parenthasis means. They don’t even have the actual matriculation data? It’s hard to tell how reliable it is, because we don’t always have the 5 year college matriculation data for each of those schools to verify. One thing is for sure though - the numbers do fluctuate. Based on the data published on the school websites, the percentages of students matriculating in Ivies + MIT + Stanford at Andover, Deerfield and Milton for 2008 are: </p>
<p>See how off the numbers are with its supposedly 5 year average (Andover - 29%, both Deerfield and Milton 32% according to prepreview)?</p>
<p>Here’s the 2008 prepreview ranking:
1 St. Paul’s School New Hampshire 34 %
2 Deerfield Academy Massachusetts 32 %
2 Milton Academy Massachusetts 32 %
4 Groton School Massachusetts 31 %
5 Middlesex School Massachusetts 30 %
6 Phillips Andover Academy Massachusetts 29 %
6 Phillips Exeter Academy New Hampshire 29 %
8 Noble and Greenough School Massachusetts 28 %
9 St. Alban’s School District of Columbia 25 %
10 Lawrenceville School New Jersey 22 %
11 Hotchkiss School Connecticut 20 %
12 Choate Rosemary Hall Connecticut 19 %
13 Hockaday School Texas 18 %
14 Peddie School New Jersey 17 %
15 St. Andrew’s School Delaware, USA 16 %
15 Belmont Hill School Massachusetts 16 %
17 Blair Academy New Jersey 12 %
17 Taft School Connecticut 12 %
19 St. George’s School Rhode Island 11 %
19 Indian Springs School Alabama 11 %
21 Cate School California 10 %
21 Concord Academy Massachusetts 10 %
23 Cranbrook Schools Michigan 8 -10%
23 Georgetown Preparatory School MD 8 -10%
23 Loomis Chaffee School Connecticut 8 -10%
23 Northfield Mount Hermon School Massachusetts 8 -10%
23 Miss Porter’s School Connecticut 8 -10%
23 Emma Willard School New York 8 -10%
23 Episcopal High School Virginia 8 -10%
30 Kent School Connecticut 5-8 %
30 Webb Schools California 5-8%
30 Woodberry Forest School Virginia 5-8%
30 Culver Academies Indiana 5-8%</p>
<p>That’s just one aspect to the ranking. AS hmom said PrepReview is the usnwr of rankings. She is very knowledgeable about NE bs scene, so I trust that.</p>
<p>? US News and World Report ranking? Do you mean Prepreview is copying that ranking? (or…?) I thought this ranking was based on the matriculation only. No? What are the other factors they took into consideration? They didn’t mention any other on their website for this top 30 boarding school ranking I just qoted above.</p>
<p>Nope. they take HYPSM national rank in placement, student teacher ratio, financial aid, tuition, color students, university partnership and research, etc. Quite a few things, actually.</p>
<p>Rank 2008 College Prep Boarding School Location (State) Ivy League+ MIT Stanford Placement(%) Harvard Placement Rank MIT Placement Rank Yale Placement Rank Stanford Placement Rank Princeton Placement Rank Faculty/ Student Ratio Boarding Grade School Type AP Course Offered Day Boarding Public Boarding Tuition $US School Endow- ment $US</p>
<p>That’s all they look at, along with “hidden” factors in which the reviewers look at some of the subjective/objective things.</p>
<p>And it is up to date because the information is supplied by school administrators via a special part of the website. I know because there was a link which said “add or update school” in which one can select a school and update it. Curious to know if anyone was able to do it, I selected a random school (taft). It required you to put in a “admin” username and password from the school.</p>
<p>OK. I found the list of things they consider: Location (State), Ivy League+ MIT Stanford Placement(%), Harvard Placement Rank, MIT Placement Rank, Yale Placement Rank, Stanford Placement Rank, Princeton Placement Rank, Faculty/ Student Ratio, Boarding Grade, School Type, AP Course Offered, Day Boarding, Public Boarding, Tuition $US, School Endowment $US </p>
<p>But IMHO among the top tier schools those other factors can hardly make any meaningful quantifiable difference.</p>
<p>Edit: No, I take it back. The title of that ranking says: Top American College Preparatory Boarding School Ranking New 2008, Based on Percent Matriculation to Ivy League + MIT and Stanford University, which is consistent with the methodology I quoted earlier. The other things apparently are just FYI.</p>