Top 100 Private High Schools In the US 2024

[dimondpark]

Niche's 2024 ranking...a lot of New England and NE

Top 100 Private High Schools in the United States, 2024:
1 Groton School--Groton, MA
2 Phillips Academy--Andover, MA
3 Phillips Academy--Exeter, NH
4 Choate Rosemary Hall--Wallingford, CT
5 Commonwealth School--Boston, MA
6 The Hotchkiss School--Lakeville, CT
7 The College Preparatory School--Oakland, CA
8 Riverdale Country School--New York, NY
9 St Paul's School--Concord, NH
10 Stanford Online High School--Redwood City, CA
11 Harvard-Westlake School--Los Angeles, CA
12 The Pingry School--Basking Ridge, NJ
13 The Brearley School--New York, NY
14 The Nueva School--Hillsborough, CA'
15 St John's School--Houston, TX
16 The Lawrenceville School--Lawrenceville, NJ
17 Regis High School--New York, NY
18 The Chapin School--New York, NY
19 Dwight Global Online School--West Palm Beach, FL
20 The Bishop's School--La Jolla, CA
21 Flintridge Preparatory School--La Canada Flintridge, CA
22 Elite Preparatory Academy--Hopatcong, NJ
23 Noble & Greenough School--Dedham, MA
24 Rye Country Day School--Rye, NY
25 The Loomis Chaffee School--Windsor, CT
26 Windward School--Los Angeles, CA
27 Horace Mann School--New York, NY
28 Trinity School--New York, NY
29 Princeton Intl School of Math & Science--Princeton, NJ
30 Sage Hill School--Newport Coast, CA
31 St Mark's School--Dallas, TX
32 Sidwell Friends School--Washington DC
33 American Heritage Schools--Plantation, FL
34 Lake Forest Academy--Lake Forest, IL
35 The Dalton School--New York, NY
36 The Spence School--New York, NY
37 The Quarry Lane School--Dublin, CA
38 Crystal Springs Uplands School--Hillsborough, CA
39 Deerfield Academy--Deerfield, MA
40 Ethical Culture Fieldston School--New York, NY
41 St Andrew's School--Middleton, DE
42 Cate School--Carpinteria, CA
43 BASIS Independent Mclean--Mclean, VA
44 Middlesex School--Concord, MA
45 Avenues The World School--New York, NY
46 The Thatcher School--Ojai, CA
47 Boston University Academy--Boston, MA
49 The Village School--Houston, TX
50 The Madeira School--Mclean, VA
51 St Mark's School--Southborough, MA
52 BASIS Independent Brooklyn--New York, NY
53 Ransom Everglades School--Coconut Grove, FL
54 Newark Academy--Livingston, NJ
55 Milton Academy--Milton, MA
56 Covenant of the Sacred Heart--New York, NY
57 The Taft School--Watertown, CT
58 The Hopkins School--New Haven, CT
59 The Overlake School--Redmond, WA
60 Cranbrook Schools--Bloomfield Hills, MI
61 Lycee Francais de New York--New York, NY
62 Head-Royce School--Oakland, CA
63 The John Cooper School--Houston, TX
64 Marlborough School--Los Angeles, CA
65 Berkeley Preparatory School--Tampa, FL
66 Castilleja School--Palo Alto, CA
67 Collegiate School--New York, NY
68 The Awty International School--Houston, TX
69 Georgetown Day School--Washington, DC
70 Delbarton School--Morristown, NJ
71 Greenhills School--Ann Arbor, MI
72 The Hockaday School--Dallas, TX
73 Fulton Science Academy--Atlanta, GA
74 John Burroughs School--St Louis, MO
75 Crossroads School for Arts & Science--Santa Monica, CA
76 United World College-USA--Montezuma, NM
77 Friends Academy--Locust Valley, NY
78 Cary Academy--Cary, NC
79 Episcopal High School--Alexandria, VA
80 Polytechnic School--Pasadena, CA
81 University High School--San Francisco, CA
82 St Stephen's Episcopal School--Austin, TX
83 French-American School of New York--Mamaroneck, NY
84 Blair Academy--Blairstown, NJ
85 Belmont Hill School--Belmont, MA
86 Catlin Gabel School-Portland, OR
87 Eastside Preparatory School--Kirkland, WA
88 Indian Springs School--Indian Springs, AL
89 Mercersburg Academy--Mercersburg, PA
90 Greenhill School--Addison, TX
91 Sierra Canyon School--Chatsworth, CA
92 Maharishi School--Fairfield, IA
93 The Potomac School--Mclean, VA
94 Holton-Arms School--Bethesda, MD
95 The Branson School--Ross, CA
96 Pierrepont School--Westport, CT
98 Menlo School--Atherton, CA
99 Marymount School--New York, NY
100 The Bryn Mawr School--Baltimore, MD

[202_Cyclist]

Interesting list. There are also a couple of schools in the DC-area. Your kid better be a captain of industry or a titan of finance if you pay $40K - $60K per year for K-12 tuition. I Realize some people have more money than they know what to do with but I don't know how tuition at Harvard-Westlake or Sidwell Friends makes any financial sense.

[sopas ej]

I'm more curious to know where on this list the best ranking public high school is in comparison to this private school list.

I'd love to see rankings of both public and private schools mixed together.

[Bonsai Tree]

I find it fascinating how heavily private schools are featured in the Northeast and California. Northeast (going down to VA) has 53 schools on the list, California with 20. The rest of the country only has 27. Growing up in the Midwest (Chicago area) the best schools were almost exclusively public schools. Sure, some were select enrollment and others were in expensive suburbs, but they were still public. The Midwest has 4 schools on the list. Crazy how much of a cultural difference it is.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Interesting list. There are also a couple of schools in the DC-area. Your kid better be a captain of industry or a titan of finance if you pay $40K - $60K per year for K-12 tuition. I Realize some people have more money than they know what to do with but I don't know how tuition at Harvard-Westlake or Sidwell Friends makes any financial sense.

In the DC area, they have county schools, so my sense is that a lot of suburban professional families send their kids to private schools, even if they're in an affluent area.

For example, if you're in Bethesda, you're sending your kids to Montgomery County Schools, which is quite a bit different than if you had Bethesda Schools.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Crawford

In the DC area, they have county schools, so my sense is that a lot of suburban professional families send their kids to private schools, even if they're in an affluent area.

For example, if you're in Bethesda, you're sending your kids to Montgomery County Schools, which is quite a bit different than if you had Bethesda Schools.

I'm not sure. My understanding is that some of the public schools in Bethesda and Chevy Chase are some of the best in the country. I am sure Fairfax County also has some excellent public schools.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I'm not sure. My understanding is that some of the public schools in Bethesda and Chevy Chase are some of the best in the country. I am sure Fairfax County also has some excellent public schools.

Yeah, they have good schools, but they don't have community-based districts. If you look at, say, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High, they have a high share of students in poverty, which wouldn't be the case if there were a Bethesda-Chevy Chase district, bc the school is taking some share of students from throughout the county. Also, revenues are shared, so you can't really have those pseudo-private public districts.

[mhays]

I'm surprised Seattle's Lakeside School isn't included. It's always at or near the top of National Merit Scholar lists. The local billionaires mostly send their kids there, and often attended themselves (it's where Gates and Allen met).

My guess is this is an "opt in" list and they didn't participate.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Interesting list. There are also a couple of schools in the DC-area. Your kid better be a captain of industry or a titan of finance if you pay $40K - $60K per year for K-12 tuition. I Realize some people have more money than they know what to do with but I don't know how tuition at Harvard-Westlake or Sidwell Friends makes any financial sense.

I think you have to be at the executive level (VP or higher) to send your kids to these schools. Most of the SWEs I know send their kids to public school even though they're making really good money. You have to be filthy rich to afford the private school tuition. Most of the Bay Area ones are closer to $50-70K/year.

[sopas ej]

It's funny that people waste money on these expensive private high schools. Nobody gives a shit where you went to high school. The CEO/owner of the company I work for sent his only kid (a daughter) to Flintridge Prep in La Cañada Flintridge. Then she went to the University of San Diego, a not-all-that Catholic college. What does she do now? She's a real estate agent living in Arizona.

That's why I wanna know where the best public high schools rank in relation to these private high schools. A lot of people assume that just because a high school is private, that it's a good school.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

It's funny that people waste money on these expensive private high schools. Nobody gives a shit where you went to high school. The CEO/owner of the company I work for sent his only kid (a daughter) to Flintridge Prep in La Cañada Flintridge. Then she went to the University of San Diego, a not-all-that Catholic college. What does she do now? She's a real estate agent living in Arizona.

I think the idea is that it's supposed to feed directly to an Ivy. Basically the minor league version of Stanford or Harvard. Or least that's the parents' hope.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by homebucket

I think you have to be at the executive level (VP or higher) to send your kids to these schools. Most of the SWEs I know send their kids to public school even though they're making really good money. You have to be filthy rich to afford the private school tuition. Most of the Bay Area ones are closer to $50-70K/year.

When I was a Bay Area kid, my parents would guilt-trip us into getting good grades by reminding us that our school tuition was comparable to college tuition. Of course, college tuition was lower in those days than it is now. But still, it was always expensive.

I knew a girl who attended Castilleja (#66). She concealed from me for quite some time the fact that her family owned the Oakland A's at the time.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by homebucket

I think the idea is that it's supposed to feed directly to an Ivy. Basically the minor league version of Stanford or Harvard. Or least that's the parents' hope.

Probably, but some of it is just peer pressure. I know people sending (or planning to send) their kids to ridiculously expensive private schools in NYC solely because that's what the people around them are doing. You have to get on the waiting list for some of these schools before the kid is even born. It is absurd.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

It's funny that people waste money on these expensive private high schools. Nobody gives a shit where you went to high school.

Many of these schools have something like 1/3 of graduates going to Ivies and their equivalents.

And many of the parents choose to pay the tuition and live in an area with less-than-great public school options.

Also not clear if it costs more in many cases. If you move to Scarsdale for the great public schools, you'll pay 40-50k annually in property taxes. Or you could live somewhere with low property taxes (and undoubtedly worse performing schools) and just pay for private school. In the end, costs about the same.

So I bet the parents don't think they're wasting money.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by craigs

When I was a Bay Area kid, my parents would guilt-trip us into getting good grades by reminding us that our school tuition was comparable to college tuition. Of course, college tuition was lower in those days than it is now. But still, it was always expensive.

I knew a girl who attended Castilleja (#66). She concealed from me for quite some time the fact that her family owned the San Francisco Giants at the time.

I think in some/many cases high school private tuition is even more than college tuition, at least for public universities. It's pretty crazy.

I just looked up Castilleja's tuition for 2024-2025:
6th to 12th Grade Tuition & Fees are $62,400
Additional Expenses:
Books & Uniforms (new or used):
$650–$1,100
Laptop: $1,500–2,000

That comes out to $65,000 annually.

Compare to UC Berkeley, which is $10,550 per semester for residents, or $21,100 annually. And Stanford is $21,709 per quarter, or $65,127 annually.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Many of these schools have something like 1/3 of graduates going to Ivies and their equivalents.

And many of the parents choose to pay the tuition and live in an area with less-than-great public school options.

Also not clear if it costs more in many cases. If you move to Scarsdale for the great public schools, you'll pay 40-50k annually in property taxes. Or you could live somewhere with low property taxes (and undoubtedly worse performing schools) and just pay for private school. In the end, costs about the same.

So I bet the parents don't think they're wasting money.

Indeed but I think it is crazy that some people live in these affluent Westchester or Fairfield county towns and still send their kids to private schools. I can understand if you live in DC and send your kid to a private school but if you pay these ridiculous property taxes and home prices, you expect to have quality schools. That is just lighting money on fire.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Many of these schools have something like 1/3 of graduates going to Ivies and their equivalents.

And flip there is that 2/3 don't.

"haha, Mom and Dad, the joke's on you! Little Pryce wasn't that fucking smart after all.

[Crawford]

Pulling up Collegiate, one of the schools on the list.

They don't give exact counts of college matriculation, but they list the most commonly attended schools.

These are the most commonly attended schools (over 10 students)-

Columbia University
Cornell University
University of Chicago
Duke University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University

Obviously if you don't care about this stuff, it's a waste, but many parents care.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I can understand if you live in DC and send your kid to a private school but if you pay these ridiculous property taxes and home prices, you expect to have quality schools. That is just lighting money on fire.

Arguably yes, but in a certain wealth bracket, it doesn't matter.

It costs 50k a year, easy, for HS aged kids to specialize in many sports. These same parents will pay this in a heartbeat. What's another 50k in tuition? Won't break the budget.

Some people spend 80k on a truck. Some spend it on education.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

And flip there is that 2/3 don't.

"haha, Mom and Dad, the joke's on you! Little Pryce wasn't that fucking smart after all.

Exactly. I went to a public high school in Orange County, CA. We had dozens of people who went to UCLA and UC Berkeley, a handful who went to Stanford, some who went to the various Claremont colleges.

It is unfortunate that quality public education is tied to how much your parents earn and where they can afford to live but I think living in an upper middle-class suburb is a far better option than these top-100 private schools.