Best private high schools in the Boston area, ranked by published college outcomes

Which private high schools in the Boston area have the strongest published college outcomes?

Among the 16 private high schools in the Boston area with a counted college list, Phillips Academy (Andover) sends the most graduates to the Ivy+ twelve, 83 per class year (83 over 1 class year), followed by Noble and Greenough School (39.8) and Middlesex School (21).

Private high schools in the Boston area that publish a counted acceptances list

An acceptances list counts every college that admitted a graduate, so one student admitted to three of the twelve counts three times. It is a different document from a matriculation list and is never added to the table above.

How many private high schools in the Boston area publish a college list?

16 of the 95 private high schools in the Boston area publish a college list with counts, 16 publish a list without counts, and 63 publish no list we have read.

Which private high schools in the Boston area are boarding schools?

8 of the 95 private high schools in the Boston area are listed as boarding schools by the TABS member directory: Brooks School, Dana Hall School, Lexington Christian Academy, Middlesex School, Phillips Academy, St Mark'S School, The Cambridge School Of Weston, and Walnut Hill School For The Arts.

Which private high schools in the Boston area are religiously affiliated?

On the federal Private School Survey, 18 of the 95 private high schools in the Boston area are Catholic, 11 have another religious affiliation and 66 are nonsectarian.

What families are also choosing at a private school

Parents are not only shopping for college outcomes. The tables above count where graduates enrolled, and a high school is also four years of a teenager's days: who they spend them with, what the school asks them to value, and whether the adults know them.

• Community and values fit. A private school sets its own mission and expectations, and the application, the entrance exam and the interview work as a fit signal in both directions. On the federal Private School Survey, 18 of these schools are Catholic, 11 have another religious affiliation and 66 are nonsectarian.
• Residential life. 8 of these schools offer boarding, per the TABS member directory, so living on campus is part of what they offer.
• Class size. Class size is a fair question for each school's admissions office; we hold no student–teacher ratio for the schools listed here.
• Advising. Each private school builds its own college-advising model, so the useful question is how many students each counselor carries and how early the work starts.
• Arts and athletics access. A smaller school can mean more students on each team and in each production; ask each school what participation looks like.

Public schools are a great choice when a family cannot afford a private school, and a published college list is one of the few outcome measures a private school and a public school can be read on side by side.

Every other private high school in the Boston area with a page on Reach (63)

Listed alphabetically. These schools publish no college list we have read; that is all their absence from the tables above means.

School	City	Grades	Affiliation
Archbishop Williams High School	Braintree	7–12	Catholic
Arlington Catholic High School	Arlington	9–12	Catholic
Arlington School	Belmont	9–12	Nonsectarian
Austin Preparatory School	Reading	6–12	Catholic
Bay Cove Academy	Brookline	7–12	Nonsectarian
Beacon Scholastic Academy	Millbury	3–12	Nonsectarian
Beverly School For The Deaf	Beverly	—	Nonsectarian
Bishop Fenwick High School	Peabody	9–12	Catholic
Boston Higashi School	Randolph	—	Nonsectarian
Brandon School & Residental Treatment	Natick	5–12	Nonsectarian
British International School Of Boston	Boston	—	Nonsectarian
Cardinal Cushing Centers	Hanover	7–12	Nonsectarian
Cardinal Spellman High School	Brockton	9–12	Catholic
Cats Academy	Braintree	8–12	Nonsectarian
Clark School	Rowley	—	Nonsectarian
Clearway School	Newton	7–12	Nonsectarian
Clifford Academy	East Walpole	7–12	Nonsectarian
Cns/Pathways Academy	Belmont	4–12	Nonsectarian
Cotting School	Lexington	—	Nonsectarian
Covenant Christian Academy	Peabody	—	Other religious
Cristo Rey Boston High School	Dorchester	9–12	Catholic
Dearborn Academy	Newton	4–12	Nonsectarian
Fontbonne Academy	Milton	7–12	Catholic
Fusion Academy Burlington	Burlington	6–12	Nonsectarian
Fusion Academy Newton	Newton	6–12	Nonsectarian
Fusion Hingham	Hingham	6–12	Nonsectarian
Gann Academy-The New Jewish High School	Waltham	9–12	Other religious
German International School Boston	Boston	—	Nonsectarian
Gifford School	Weston	5–12	Nonsectarian
Glenhaven Academy	Marlborough	6–12	Nonsectarian
High Road School Of Ma	East Bridgewater	6–12	Nonsectarian
Hopeful Journeys Educational Center	Beverly	1–12	Nonsectarian
Ivy Street School	Brookline	9–12	Nonsectarian
Landmark High School	Prides Crossing	2–12	Nonsectarian
Learning Prep School	West Newton	5–12	Nonsectarian
Maimonides	Brookline	—	Other religious
Meadowridge Pelham Academy	Lexington	8–12	Nonsectarian
Mesivta High School Of Greater Boston	Brighton	9–12	Other religious
Milestones Day School	Waltham	4–12	Nonsectarian
Mt Alvernia High School	Newton	7–12	Catholic
Nashoba Learning Group	Bedford	—	Nonsectarian
Ne Pediatric School	North Billerica	2–12	Nonsectarian
New Beginnings Academy	Hyde Park	—	Other religious
New England Academy	Beverly	7–12	Nonsectarian
North American Hockey Academy	Wellesley	9–12	Nonsectarian
North Shore Recovery High School	Beverly	9–12	Nonsectarian
Notre Dame Academy	Hingham	7–12	Catholic
Perkins School For The Blind	Watertown	—	Nonsectarian
Rcs Learning Center	Natick	6–12	Nonsectarian
Riverside School	Needham	9–12	Nonsectarian
Seaport Academy	Chelsea	9–12	Nonsectarian
South Shore Christian Academy	Weymouth	—	Other religious
St Joseph Preparatory High School	Boston	9–12	Catholic
The Academy At Penguin Hall	Wenham	9–12	Nonsectarian
The Cambridge Matignon School	Cambridge	9–12	Catholic
The Guild For Human Services	Concord	4–12	Nonsectarian
The Learning Center For The Deaf	Framingham	—	Nonsectarian
The Newman School	Boston	7–12	Nonsectarian
Ursuline Academy	Dedham	7–12	Catholic
Waldorf High School Of Massachusetts Bay	Belmont	9–12	Nonsectarian
Wayside Academy	Framingham	7–12	Nonsectarian
Willow Hill School	Sudbury	6–12	Nonsectarian
Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael High School For Boys	Chestnut Hill	8–12	Other religious

Other metros are on the private high schools by metro index. The same arithmetic across every state is the Ivy+ enrollment board; for one college at a time, see which private schools send the most students to each college.

Ivy+ means these twelve: Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University in the City of New York, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, Duke University. A graduate is counted once, at the college the school says they enrolled at; the per-class-year figure is the published total divided by the class years the school's own document covers, and both are shown. A school that is not on this page did not publish a numbered matriculation list we could read — that is all absence means here. It is never a statement about a school's graduates. Lists of acceptances (where students were admitted, not where they enrolled) are never counted in this ranking: an acceptances list runs about three times an enrollment list, so counting the two together would compare different things. Those lists are ranked on their own, separately. Grades and religious affiliation are from the National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Survey. Boarding is read from the TABS member directory — The Association of Boarding Schools' 2026 list of its US member schools — matched onto our school pages by exact or town-confirmed name (173 of them). A school that directory does not list is not called a boarding school on a guess, so it waits for the next directory pass rather than appearing here. A school is listed here when its NCES coordinates fall within 25 miles of the metro's center and it is in MA, NH.