Pingry School In Top 10 Sending Students To Elite Universities

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Basking Ridge has made it onto a new ranking of which schools are funneling the most students to three elite universities among the top 10 in the state. (See the list of top New Jersey schools below.)

The new website, called PolarisList, now offers a new way to rank high schools, by the number of students the school sent to Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between the years 2015 to 2017.

PolarisList, founded by Harvard College alumnus Sai To Yeung, is his attempt "to demystify the education planning process for families across the country, and across all socioeconomic levels."

Pingry cracked the top 10 in New Jersey for private schools, while Ridge High School cracked the top 20 for public schools.

Pingry School (No. 6 in the state and No. 9 in the country), sent 28 students to those three institutions during the period. Of those 11 went to Harvard, 15 to Princeton and two to MIT.

Ridge High School (No. 17 in the state), sent seven students to those institutions in the same time frame. Of those seven all of them went to Princeton.

In the site's methodology, Yeung explains why those three universities were selected to anchor the ranking:

We decided to focus on Harvard, Princeton, and MIT based on a combination of their selectivity and their accessibility to lower income students.

Selectivity is important to us because it means these schools have their pick of the lot when it comes to applicants. If a high school is able to send students to one of these three schools, it means that the school has created an environment to support high achieving students, whether it's in academics or extracurriculars.

Accessibility is just as important to us because we believe a college is only as good as its student body, and a student body is at its strongest when it encompasses a diversity of experiences. According to U.S. News and World Report, these three schools are among the colleges with the highest percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, which are most often given to undergrads with family incomes below $20,000. This means that these schools all offer generous financial aid that make it possible for all students to attend without significant burden.

At the top of the national list was Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, with 79 students sent to Harvard, Princeton and MIT during the period, followed by Stuyvesant High School in New York, which sent 71 students, and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, at No. 3, which sent 70 students. Rounding out the top five were The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., with 63 students, and Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, with 62 students.

Top 10 New Jersey private schools based on how many students were sent to Harvard, Princeton and MIT:

• 1. The Lawrenceville School (Lawrenceville)
• 2. Princeton High School (Princeton)
• 3. Bergen County Academies (Hackensack)
• 4. Delbarton School (Morristown)
• 5. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (West Windsor)
• 6. Pingry School (Basking Ridge)
• 7. High Technology High School (Lincroft)
• 8. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (Plainsboro)
• 9. John P. Stevens High School (Edison)
• 9. Princeton Day School (Princeton)

Top 10 New Jersey public schools include:

• 1. Princeton High School (Princeton)
• 2. Bergen County Academies (Hackensack)
• 3. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (West Windsor)
• 4. High Technology High School (Lincroft)
• 5. West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (Plainsboro)
• 6. John P. Stevens High School (Edison)
• 7. Montgomery High School (Skillman)
• 8. East Brunswick High School (East Brunswick)
• 8. Millburn High School (Millburn)
• 10. Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School (Bridgewater)

Click here to visit PolarisList.

Also contributing to this story was Rich Kirby, Patch Staff.

(Image via Shutterstock)

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