One of the questions asked most frequently by readers goes something like this: "I'm moving to (name your city) next summer. Can you give me the rankings of private schools in that area?"
The truth is that ranks do not matter. Because private schools are unique, it is almost impossible to compare them. That is why it makes more sense to hire an educational consultant to assess the writer's specific requirements and make appropriate recommendations.
1. Rankings Are Much Less Important Than The Fit
Rankings are much less important than fit. Make sure that the school accomplishes the academic objectives which you have in mind. Then focus on the only thing which truly matters, the fit.
Let me explain what fit is all about. Our eldest daughter was very competitive. She was also very strong, even gifted, academically. The other daughter shrank from competition. She also was gifted academically but found some subjects more difficult than others. Both read voraciously.
We managed to get our eldest daughter into a competitive school which met her needs. But it was a process somewhat akin to Russian roulette. We were lucky in that the school turned out to be a good fit. Having learned our lesson, we engaged the late Hugh Silk to recommend schools for our second daughter. He came up with several choices, any one of which was a pretty good fit. And Hugh did it efficiently and with a minimum amount of worry and stress for us.
Get Professional Advice
That's why it is important to hire an educational consultant. If you have a legal problem, you hire an attorney. If you have a health issue, you go to a doctor. If you need advice on schools, go to an educational consultant. These professionals know their stuff. They interview you and your child and make appropriate recommendations based on that knowledge and their own wide knowledge of the schools which might be a good fit.
2. Each Private School Is Unique
Back to rankings. To mean anything, ranking has to compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges. The whole point of private education is that each school has its own distinctive personality. It also has its own take on the educational process. It is possible to categorize schools according to their particular specialty - girls' schools, boys' schools, arts schools, sports schools, Jewish schools, Catholic schools, and so on. But these are not rankings, they are merely groupings. When you try to compare schools within that category, it's an impossible task. They are all quite different. What folks really are asking is for somebody to compare intangibles. That simply cannot be done in any meaningful way.
It's easy enough to rank schools by tangible characteristics such as the size of their endowment, the size of their campus, the size of their student body and so on. You could even rank them according to where their graduates go upon graduation. However it's a terribly subjective sort of analysis.
The best analogy is buying a home. A 3500 square foot home will shelter you adequately no matter where it is located. But we all know that the watchword in real estate is always 'location, location, location'. With schools, the watchword has to be 'fit, fit, fit'.
It's All About Fit
Concern yourself with fit. Then you will understand why rankings are relatively unimportant in the school choice process.
