Quick answer: Among the Top 25 U.S. boarding schools, Phillips Academy Andover posts the highest published Top 30 university enrollment rate (44.4%), and St. Paul’s School posts the highest published Ivy League rate (21.4%). Rates count students who enrolled, not students admitted, and several schools ranked below the Top 25 match the middle of that group.
Boarding schools with the best college placement are easy to name and hard to measure. Every admissions season, the first question families ask about a school is the same: what is its Ivy League rate? The lists circulating online rarely agree. Some count acceptances, others count enrollments, and the same school’s figure can double from one list to the next.
So InGenius Prep’s data team started over. We went through the officially published college lists of the Top 25 schools in FindingSchool’s 2027 U.S. boarding school rankings, plus 23 schools ranked 26 to 100, and recalculated four matriculation rates on one consistent basis. The result covers 48 schools, and every figure traces back to an official school source. Below is what the numbers show, how to read them, and where to download the full report.
How We Measured Boarding School College Placement
Each rate answers one question: of all the graduates a school produced over the years covered, what share enrolled at a college in a given group? A student admitted to six Ivy League schools counts once, at the college they attended.
We tracked four college groups:
- Ivy League: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell
- Ivy + Stanford + MIT: the Ivy League plus Stanford and MIT
- Top 30 universities: the Top 30 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 national university rankings [1]
- Top 10 liberal arts colleges: the top 10 in the 2026 national liberal arts college rankings, including Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona and Bowdoin [2]
The groups overlap. Every Ivy League enrollee also counts toward the Top 30, so the four rates are read side by side, never added together. Coverage depends on what each school publishes, from one to five years of data, and multi-year figures are averages.
Schools appear in FindingSchool’s 2027 order. That ranking weighs academics, student-teacher ratio, selectivity, curriculum depth and college outcomes, so it reflects a school’s overall quality rather than its placement record. Other rankings make similar blends: Niche’s boarding school ranking combines the colleges students consider with student-teacher ratio and family reviews. [3] Where a school sits on any list is a different measure from where its graduates enroll, which is why we present the two separately.
Top Boarding Schools for College Placement: The Top 25
The table lists each school’s college matriculation rate in all four groups. Schools marked * publish only colleges above a minimum count, so their figures are conservative lower bounds.
| Rank | School | Ivy League | Ivy + Stanford + MIT | Top 30 Univ. | Top 10 LAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phillips Academy Andover | 16.8% | 22.0% | 44.4% | 6.2% |
| 2 | Phillips Exeter Academy* | ≥8.1% | ≥9.2% | ≥15.5% | ≥2.6% |
| 3 | The Lawrenceville School* | 19.1% | 21.3% | 41.3% | 3.1% |
| 4 | Choate Rosemary Hall* | 20.1% | 21.8% | 44.3% | 5.3% |
| 5 | Groton School* | 18.8% | 22.9% | 43.1% | 3.8% |
| 6 | St. Paul’s School | 21.4% | 22.1% | 32.5% | 5.8% |
| 7 | Middlesex School | 8.8% | 8.8% | 25.2% | 5.3% |
| 8 | The Hotchkiss School* | 15.5% | 17.3% | 34.2% | 4.4% |
| 9 | Concord Academy | 14.2% | 15.8% | 31.0% | 9.0% |
| 10 | The Webb Schools | 6.3% | 11.5% | 35.4% | 7.3% |
| 11 | Deerfield Academy* | 15.4% | 16.7% | 28.0% | 6.1% |
| 12 | Milton Academy* | 18.2% | 20.6% | 35.7% | 5.3% |
| 13 | Cate School | 10.3% | 12.5% | 33.8% | 8.0% |
| 14 | Peddie School | 13.5% | 14.9% | 30.5% | 2.8% |
| 15 | The Thacher School | 10.9% | 12.7% | 32.7% | 10.9% |
| 16 | St. Andrew’s School* | 18.1% | 19.4% | 36.3% | 5.0% |
| 17 | The Taft School* | 14.3% | 14.3% | 33.0% | 3.6% |
| 18 | St. Mark’s School* | ≥5.9% | ≥6.5% | ≥14.8% | ≥2.2% |
| 19 | Episcopal High School | 7.8% | 8.7% | 15.5% | 0.0% |
| 20 | Suffield Academy | 4.4% | 4.4% | 7.9% | 1.3% |
| 21 | St. Stephen’s Episcopal School | 4.3% | 6.0% | 22.8% | 3.3% |
| 22 | Loomis Chaffee | Enrollment counts not published | |||
| 23 | Emma Willard School | 4.9% | 6.3% | 15.9% | 2.7% |
| 24 | Dana Hall School | 3.8% | 3.8% | 18.8% | 1.3% |
| 25 | Blair Academy | 11.9% | 12.7% | 28.0% | 5.1% |
Rank: FindingSchool 2027. * School lists only colleges above a minimum count; figures are lower bounds.
St. Paul’s School Leads the Top 25 in Ivy League Placement
St. Paul’s School, sixth in the overall ranking, posts a 21.4% Ivy League enrollment rate, higher than each of the five schools ranked above it. Choate Rosemary Hall (20.1%) and Lawrenceville (19.1%) follow. Overall rank and Ivy League placement measure two different things, and this is the clearest example in the data.
Andover Sends Nearly Half Its Graduates to Top 30 Universities
Phillips Academy Andover sends 44.4% of its graduates to a Top 30 university. Choate (44.3%), Groton (43.1%) and Lawrenceville (41.3%) sit close behind, and all three publish partial lists, so their true rates are likely higher. For a closer look at how the top two schools differ beyond placement, read our Andover vs Exeter comparison.
Blair Academy Outplaces Several Top 15 Schools
Blair Academy, ranked 25th, reaches an 11.9% Ivy League rate, ahead of Middlesex (8.8%), Cate (10.3%) and The Webb Schools (6.3%). St. Andrew’s School in Delaware, ranked 16th, reaches 18.1%, on par with the Top 5.
California Schools Lead for Top Liberal Arts Colleges
Families focused on liberal arts colleges should look west. The Thacher School (10.9%), Cate (8.0%) and Webb (7.3%) hold three of the top four spots for Top 10 liberal arts college placement, with Concord Academy (9.0%) the only East Coast school among them. Webb also posts a 35.4% Top 30 rate, higher than four of the schools ranked above it.
Get the Full Report: Top 100 Boarding Schools College Placement White Paper
All 48 schools, four matriculation rates for each, the full methodology and every data point we flagged along the way. Download the complete report (PDF).
Hidden Gem Boarding Schools Ranked 26 to 100
Parents often cross schools ranked below 25 off their lists early. The data makes a case for keeping them on. We applied the same method to the 23 schools ranked 26 to 100 that publish usable placement data, and many match or beat the middle of the Top 25.
- Woodside Priory School (#68), Portola Valley, CA: a 40.2% Top 30 rate, on par with the Top 5. Of 87 graduates in the Class of 2026, 4 enrolled at Stanford and 6 at UC Berkeley. This is single-year data, so the trend is worth watching.
- The Hun School of Princeton (#52), Princeton, NJ: a 12.2% Ivy League rate, ahead of Middlesex, Cate and Thacher. Seven members of the Class of 2026 enrolled at Princeton and eight at Cornell.
- The Stony Brook School (#34), Stony Brook, NY: a 26.2% Top 30 rate, above seventh-ranked Middlesex. The school lists only colleges with three or more enrollees, so its true rate can only be higher. Stevenson School (22.0%) and Western Reserve Academy (20.3%) are close behind.
- Canterbury School (#75), New Milford, CT: an 11.0% Top 30 rate, above Suffield’s 7.9%, with 13 Ivy League enrollees over five years. Cheshire Academy (at least 12.0%), Darlington School (at least 9.1%) and Indian Springs School (at least 8.7%) also top Suffield.
Admission at these schools is usually less competitive than at the Top 25, yet their college results rival the middle of that group, and competition for places grows every year. For a family building a balanced list of reach, target and likely schools, they deserve serious consideration.
How to Read Boarding School College Matriculation Data
Placement numbers are useful only when you know how they were built. Three checks matter most.
Check Whether the List Is Complete
Some schools list only colleges above a minimum count, such as three or more enrollees. Their real rates are higher than what can be calculated, which is why Exeter’s figures look low next to its peers. Loomis Chaffee publishes where graduates went without counts, which says nothing about its placement record either way.
Separate Enrollments From Acceptances
A student often holds offers from several top colleges and can attend only one. An acceptance list counts that student many times; a matriculation list counts them once. Every rate here counts enrollments, so the share of graduates admitted to a given college group is usually higher.
Read Averages as a Description of a Class
A 20% Ivy League rate describes a graduating class, and it does not lock in an outcome for any single student. Colleges read each applicant against classmates from the same school, and rising to the top of a highly competitive class takes sustained work. Outcomes also reflect recruited athletes, legacy applicants and other factors, so they describe the whole school rather than the quality of its teaching.
Choosing a Boarding School Beyond College Placement
College placement is one filter among several. Student-teacher ratio, extracurricular resources, dorm culture, location and whether a school suits your child’s personality and learning pace matter just as much. A student who thrives at a school ranked 40th can build a more compelling college application than one who struggles at a school ranked fifth.
Will, a Suffield Academy Former Admissions Officer, makes the same case in his look beyond boarding school rankings, and our post on the pros and cons of boarding school covers the trade-offs families weigh before applying.
Use the data to build a first list. Then visit campuses, sit in on classes and talk with current families. The school where your child will grow is also the school most likely to set up a well-built college application four years later.
Ready to take the next step? Through our private high school admissions counseling, Choate, St. Paul’s and Suffield Former Admissions Officers build a reach, target and likely boarding school list around your child, weighing college placement alongside fit. Get a clear, honest read on which path actually fits your goals, and the specific next steps to build a competitive application. Click here to book your complimentary consultation.