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Background on the top 34

What are the top high schools in the DC metro area? We spent hundreds of hours looking at academic data to find out who has the smartest students.

The top 3

The magnet public high school Thomas Jefferson, known for its STEM emphasis, outranked every school in the DC metro area. Sidwell Friends, known for its scions of famous families, ranked #2. The all-girls National Cathedral School rounded out the top 3.

Ranking methods and references

Click here to learn more about our methods and references.

Rank	High School	Average SAT	National Merit Semi-Finalists	Presidential Scholars	Tuition and fees	Type	Gender	City	State
1	Thomas Jefferson Magnet	1503 Learn about tutoring	37.41%	7.29%	$0	Magnet	Co-ed	Alexandria	VA
2	Sidwell Friends School	1480 Learn about tutoring	10.94%	6.25%	$44,672	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
3	National Cathedral School (NCS)	1400 Learn about tutoring	5.63%	11.27%	$48,290	Parochial	Girls-only	Washington	DC
4	St. Albans School	1460 Learn about tutoring	8.43%	9.64%	$48,682	Parochial	Boys-only	Washington	DC
5	Maret School	1365 Learn about tutoring	2.78%	4.17%	$37,470	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
6	Holton-Arms School	1440 Learn about tutoring	3.75%	1.25%	$42,975	Private	Girls-only	Bethesda	MD
7	The Potomac School	1440 Learn about tutoring	Not reported	0.88%	$45,985	Private	Co-ed	McLean	VA
8	Georgetown Day School	1410 Learn about tutoring	8.66%	8.66%	$43,370	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
9	St. Anselm's School	1342 Learn about tutoring	2.38%	Not reported	$31,050	Parochial	Boys-only	Washington	DC
10	Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School	1370 Learn about tutoring	6.12%	2.04%	$37,275	Private	Co-ed	Rockville	MD
11	The Heights School	1330 Learn about tutoring	5.08%	Not reported	$28,750	Parochial	Boys-only	Potomac	MD
12	Washington International School (WIS)	1310 Learn about tutoring	1.82%	7.27%	$42,830	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
13	Georgetown Preparatory School	1386 Learn about tutoring	1.63%	Not reported	$71,515	Private	Boys-only	Bethesda	MD
14	Walt Whitman High School	1322 Learn about tutoring	2.24%	1.22%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Bethesda	MD
15	Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School (Visi)	1339 Learn about tutoring	0.83%	Not reported	$30,100	Private	Girls-only	Washington	DC
16	Stone Ridge School	1295 Learn about tutoring	Not reported	Not reported	$40,525	Private	Girls-only	Bethesda	MD
17	Bullis School	1320 Learn about tutoring	0.90%	Not reported	$44,850	Private	Co-ed	Potomac	MD
18	British School	1331 Learn about tutoring	Not reported	Not reported	$35,038	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
19	Montgomery Blair*	1318 Learn about tutoring	5.93%	1.84%	$0	Magnet	Co-ed	Silver Spring	MD
20	Gonzaga College High School	1297 Learn about tutoring	1.73%	1.73%	$23,550	Private	Boys-only	Washington	DC
21	Landon School	1250 Learn about tutoring	2.74%	2.74%	$43,560	Private	Boys-only	Bethesda	MD
22	Richard Montgomery High School	1244 Learn about tutoring	6.34%	2.29%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Rockville	MD
23	Sandy Spring Friends School	1288 Learn about tutoring	Not reported	Not reported	$53,195	Private	Co-ed	Sandy Spring	MD
24	Walter Johnson High School	1289 Learn about tutoring	0.51%	0.17%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Bethesda	MD
25	Winston Churchill High School	1252 Learn about tutoring	2.12%	0.88%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Potomac	MD
26	Madeira School	1288 Learn about tutoring	0.00%	Not reported	$62,000	Private	Girls-only	McLean	VA
27	School Without Walls	1272 Learn about tutoring	4.73%	4.73%	$0	Magnet	Co-ed	Washington	DC
28	Bethesda-Chevy Chase (BCC) High School	1250 Learn about tutoring	1.72%	0.38%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Bethesda	MD
29	Edmund Burke School	1230 Learn about tutoring	Not reported	Not reported	$42,390	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
30	Thomas Wootton High School	1229 Learn about tutoring	2.06%	0.00%	$0	Public	Co-ed	Rockville	MD
31	St. John's College High School	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	$23,975	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC
32	Episcopal High School	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	$58,500	Parochial	Co-ed	Alexandria	VA
33	St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	$39,770	Parochial	Co-ed	Alexandria	VA
34	Field School	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	$48,260	Private	Co-ed	Washington	DC

Methodology: ranking the best high schools

Factors

3 factors were weighted equally:

1. Average SAT (math and critical reading)
2. Average number of Presidential Scholar candidates
3. Average number of National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists

For many high schools, we also reported the average number of students who went on to attend 14 top colleges. This number was not included for ranking purposes. The schools included were Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Each criterion was normalized by the min-max method to create raw scores:

x^t – min_c(x^t0) / (max_c(x^t0 – min_c(x^t0)).

High schools were ranked by raw score.

References

¹ SAT Average. Calculated by adding average Math Test and average Reading Test scores.

² National Merit Scholarship Semi-finalists. Calculated by dividing the number of 2018 class year National Merit Semi-finalists by the number of students in the 2018 class year.

³ Presidential Scholar Candidates. Calculated by dividing the number of 2018 class year presidential scholar candidates by the number of students in the 2018 class year.

⁴ Number attending 14 Top Colleges. This is an average of the percentage of students from each high school who went on to attend 14 top colleges from 2004 to 2014. The schools included were Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. The methods of obtaining this information were inspired by three different studies and included collecting the high schools’ self-reports and viewbooks from the colleges. Education researcher Sam Tuo collected these data from 2004 to 2014.

*Note: Montgomery Blair was scored on the basis of its entire student body, rather than its magnet program alone, because magnet students at that school are mainstreamed in many classes.