Forbes.Com ranks the 20 best preparatory schools in America. Creation of the list begins with 55 private schools. Statistics such as student to faculty ratio and what percentage of faculty has advanced degrees are then compiled on each list. Another prominent factor is the percentage of students who graduated and then went on to attend Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania or Yale University.
PrepReview.Com gives rankings to several categories of preparatory schools. These rankings cover three categories: boarding schools, private day schools, and public high schools. Each school's ranking is based on the percentage of graduates that continued education at an Ivy League college or university in the last five years. Additional requirements for boarding schools include program length as well as graduating population. Schools seeking the private day school ranking must be without any on-campus living arrangements for students.
The Wall Street Journal Online started with a list of public as well as private schools who had students entering eight of the top colleges: Harvard University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, University of Chicago, and Johns Hopkins University. The number of students that went on to the universities were divided by the number of graduates in 2007. On their list, over ten of the best schools were private preparatory. Graduating classes of any school must have at least 50 students to be considered. This survey to determine rankings only covers currently enrolled students.
Boston Magazine generates a list of rankings for private schools in the eastern Massachusetts area. The magazine receives its information by contacting schools and the Massachusetts Department of Education. A statistician calculates an average score in several categories. Each is then ranked by how close they approach the averages. If a school did not provide figures to the magazine, the average is in use as a placeholder. Some of the categories under consideration are tuition for day schools, tuition for boarding, enrollment, class sizes, student to teacher ratio and advance placement courses.