I applied to only three boarding schools on the east coast: the top three.
During the summer of seventh grade — months before I began the high school application process — Choate was ranked fifth among private high schools and third among boarding schools by Niche, the popular online resource that ranks K-12 schools and colleges. According to Niche’s 2022 rankings, Choate now holds the title of “The third best private high school in the United States,” an improvement from the past few years.
However, despite Choate’s high-standing reputation on Niche, when I first received my acceptance letter from Choate, I was inclined to turn it down for two main reasons. The first was that I had a great experience attending public school — one that I didn’t want to give up just yet. But, more importantly, Choate’s ranking came with a price: the pressure to gain admission to an elite university.
College is the elephant in every classroom, hallway, and building on campus. To no one’s surprise, the “college” factor accounts for over 50% of the weight in high school Niche rankings. More specifically, 28.5% of the ranking is based on the Niche scores of the universities that their students attend after high school, 20.1% is based on standardized test scores, and 16.9% is based on the percentage of students at the school who go on to attend college. In other words, the ranking and quality of a school on Niche is not determined by course variety or quality of education, but rather where students go after they graduate. With this ranking system, Niche perpetuates a biased and faulty notion that success is seeded in college admissions.
Furthermore, the sources of the data used by Niche are questionable. While the statistics on college enrollment and student-to-teacher ratio are based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, other data — such as the top colleges attended after graduation or standardized testing scores — are measured through surveys submitted by Niche users, a small and selective sample size. Because these statistics and the reviews on the website only consist of those willing to share this information publicly, Niche fails to provide a comprehensive representation of the school as a whole.
Besides the inaccuracies in data collection and skewed information towards college matriculation, correlating college admissions with the quality of a school ignores the hard work of the students who attend the school. Although a school can provide knowledgeable teachers and a rich curriculum, college admissions are more often a reflection of an individual student’s talent, diligence, and passion than of the school itself. Contrary to popular belief, Choate does not give its students a shortcut to an Ivy League. As a Choate student, you are competing for college admission in a pool of highly-qualified applicants who have already been filtered through a low high school acceptance rate. Choate can foster growth, but it does not create student success. Students, themselves, create their own success.
I’ve learned that coming to Choate with the sole goal of attending a good college enables a toxic mindset. Before arriving at Choate, students are often the “golden child” of their hometown, excelling in academics and extracurriculars. But, it is impossible to be perfect at Choate. You cannot get flawless grades, be the president of a thousand clubs, and be the captain of every sports team while also having an adequate social life with healthy lifestyle habits. It’s simply not sustainable. By associating high school with the goal of building a college resume, classmates become competition, and every mistake feels like failure.
That said, while I do not regret coming here, the way I think about Choate has changed drastically. I now know that at Choate you must be prepared to fail, accept failure, and try again. You must prioritize learning and growth over grades. And, the parts of this school I love the most — the teachers, the Harkness tables, the community, the arts program, the dining hall conversations, the friendly hellos on the paths, the strolls around campus, and the dorm movie nights — are all aspects of the Choate experience that can never be embodied by a ranking.
