Another "stumbled across" web site -- they seem to come in bunches, don't they -- Worth magazine did a study of the Top High Schools in the nation for getting students into Harvard/Yale/Princeton. Seems like an awfully narrow view of a high school's excellence, but I'm sure there's a demand for this kind of information out there. 94 of the top 100 are private schools. I'm not sure that can be called a surprise, but I would have expected it to be less overwhelmingly skewed. To get 50 public schools, they had to go to spot 294 on their list. 930 of 31,700 nationwide high schools sent at least 4 students to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton combined in the four years 1998-2001. More than half of those sent less than 1%. School #1 sent 21%. School #100 sent 4%. And the rest inbetween (obviously). High School Rankings

My alma mater is the top ranked public school, which is pretty cool. #26 overall. I think this list is a great argument for a private school voucher system, because it shouldn't have to cost $20,000 a year to get a real chance at these schools. Obviously there's some self-selecting going on, but still....