Blog · Who feeds which college · October 2, 2026
The high school that sends the most students to Northwestern is New Trier Township H S Winnetka
- New Trier Township H S Winnetka in Winnetka, Illinois sends 12 graduates per class year to Northwestern University. That is first of 184 schools whose published lists name Northwestern University, from the school's own Class of 2025 list.
- Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, California is second, with 6 per class year. Palo Alto Senior High School is third, also with 6.
- Northwestern is a home-state school on this board. Of the top 10, 4 are in Illinois. The other six sit in California, New York and Texas.
A matriculation list is a list a school publishes saying where its graduates enrolled. "Per class year" means the count the school printed, divided by the class years that list covers. One school may print one year. Another may print five. Dividing lets both sit on the same page.
New Trier Township H S Winnetka printed 12 for Northwestern University. Its list covers the Class of 2025. The school is about 14 miles up the lake shore from the Northwestern campus in Evanston.
Harvard-Westlake School is second with 6 per class year. Its list is labeled "BY THE CLASSES OF 2021-2025," and the 6 sits in a column the school heads "CLASS OF '25." Palo Alto Senior High School is third, also with 6, from a list labeled "2023, 2024, 2025, 2026" with the count in the column headed "2026."
Here are the top 10.
| Rank | High school | City, State | Type | Students per class year | Count as printed | Class years (the school's words) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Trier Township H S Winnetka | Winnetka, IL | public | 12.0 | 12 | Class of 2025 |
| 2 | Harvard-Westlake School | Studio City, CA | private | 6.0 | 6 | BY THE CLASSES OF 2021-2025 |
| 3 | Palo Alto Senior High School | Palo Alto, CA | public | 6.0 | 6 | 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 |
| 4 | Univ Of Chicago Lab School | Chicago, IL | private | 5.2 | 21 | In the past four years |
| 5 | University of Chicago Laboratory Schools | Chicago, IL | private | 5.2 | 21 | past four years |
| 6 | Ethical Culture Fieldston School | New York, NY | private | 5.0 | 25 | Classes of 2022–2026 |
| 7 | Horace Mann School | Bronx, NY | private | 5.0 | 15 | Class of 2024 - 2026 Graduates |
| 8 | Orange County School of the Arts | Santa Ana, CA | public | 5.0 | 5 | Class of 2026 |
| 9 | Lake Forest Academy | Lake Forest, IL | private | 4.5 | 18 | 2021 - 2024 |
| 10 | The Hockaday School | Dallas, TX | private | 4.3 | 13 | 2024 – 2026 |
Four of these 10 schools are in Illinois, Northwestern's own state. Three are in California, two are in New York, and one is in Texas. So the board is part home market and part coast. The two schools at the top print one-year lists. Most of the rest print three, four or five years at a time, and the per-class-year number smooths those longer lists out.
Northwestern also publishes a separate side of this picture: acceptances. That is a different list, counting where students were admitted rather than where they enrolled, and the two are never mixed. On the acceptances side, Bronx High School of Science (The) in Bronx, New York is first, with 14 admissions per class year from its 2025 list.
A school that is not on the list did not publish a numbered matriculation list we could read. That is all absence means, and it is never a statement about its graduates.
See the full Northwestern feeder board for the top 25 plus the acceptances section, or the Northwestern University college page.
Boards as of October 2, 2026. Schools publish new lists every fall, so the live board is the current ranking.