Bergen School Among Tops In US For Sending Kids To Elite Colleges

A Bergen County school was ranked among the top high schools in the United States for sending its students to some of the most elite universities in the United States.

A new website, called PolarisList, ranks 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.

The list ranked Bergen County Academies in Hackensack No. 8 in the country and No. 3 in New Jersey. The school sent five students to Harvard University, 30 to Princeton University, and four to MIT.

Dwight-Englewood School was next-highest ranked Bergen County school on the New Jersey list at No. 22. That school sent four kids to each Harvard and Princeton in the years examined.

Sai To Yeung, a Harvard College alumnus, founded PolarisList to try and demystify the education planning process for families across the country, and across all socioeconomic levels.

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."

Click here for more information about PolarisList or to view the lists.

Also contributing to this story was Rich Kirby, Patch staff writer

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