High School

How does St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) Compare to Boston-Area Private Schools

By Data Team | Published August 24, 2026

Analysis of St. Paul's School's collegiate matriculation records for the Class of 2025 reveals a consistent pipeline into the nation's most selective research universities. Operating in Concord, New Hampshire, this 100% residential institution demonstrates strong placement outcomes that rival the top independent schools in the highly competitive Greater Boston area.

For families evaluating the prestigious New England boarding school market, our data indicates that St. Paul's provides robust access to the Ivy League and Top 25 national institutions, supported by rigorous, college-level academics and a robust financial aid structure.

Summary of Key Findings

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The Ivy+ Pipeline (23%): According to our evaluation of the 154-student Class of 2025, St. Paul's sustains a 23% Ivy+ matriculation rate. This yield is driven by significant cohorts enrolling at Harvard (8), Yale (7), Cornell (6), and Columbia (5).
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Top 25 National Concentration (38%): The school placed 38% of its graduating class into Top 25 National Universities, expanding beyond the Ivies to secure strong outcomes at institutions like Georgetown, USC, and UVA.
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New England ECPI Benchmarking: When evaluated against the Boston market methodology, St. Paul's School generates an estimated Elite College Placement Index (ECPI) score of 98.45, placing it in the uppermost tier of regional independent schools, closely trailing Milton Academy (102.33).

Regional Context: The Elite Boarding Ecosystem

Educational professionals widely consider the New England preparatory school market the most academically competitive secondary education environment in the United States. While we maintain distinct metropolitan indexes, assessing boarding schools in Northern New England often requires benchmarking their data against the structural realities of the Greater Boston market.

St. Paul's School operates differently from many of its regional day-school peers. As a 100% residential community, it draws a nationally and internationally diverse student body. This residential model, combined with an endowment that supports extensive financial aid, allows the school to curate a specific intellectual cohort that strongly aligns with the geographic diversity and socioeconomic mandates of elite university admissions offices.

Geographic Diversity: The current student body represents 37 U.S. states and 30 countries, with 16% identifying as international students.
The Independent School League (ISL) Parallel: While geographically located in New Hampshire, St. Paul's competes directly for admissions yields against top-tier Massachusetts boarding and day programs such as Groton School and Phillips Academy Andover.

How We Measure: The Boston ECPI Methodology

Applying the Boston Standard

Because St. Paul's operates within the immediate orbit of the Boston educational market, we utilized the Boston ECPI Methodology to evaluate its placement data. This regional index places a heavier premium on Ivy+ and Top 25 national placements compared to our Southern indexes, reflecting the specific ambitions of New England independent school families.

Boston Region ECPI Components & Weighting
ECPI Component	Weight	Metric Description
Ivy League+ Matriculation	35%	Modeled percentage of graduates attending an Ivy League institution, plus Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the University of Chicago.
T25 National University Matriculation	20%	Modeled percentage of graduates attending a Top 25 National University (inclusive of the Ivy+ group).
T15 Liberal Arts College Matriculation	20%	Modeled percentage of graduates attending a Top 15 Liberal Arts College (e.g., Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin).
College Readiness Score	15%	An internal score reflecting a school's academic rigor, resources, endowment, faculty qualifications, and national reputation.
Top 50 Broad Placement	10%	Modeled percentage of graduates attending a Top 50 National University or Top 50 Liberal Arts College.

Campus Profile and Academic Environment

Founded in 1856, St. Paul's School occupies a sprawling 2,000-acre campus in Concord, New Hampshire. It maintains a historic affiliation with the Episcopal Church while operating as a fully residential (100% boarding) coeducational institution for grades 9 through 12.

Geographic Footprint: 325 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH

Table 1: Structural Baselines (2025-2026 Academic Year)

Institutional Metric	St. Paul's School
Total Enrollment	538 students (100% Boarding)
Student Demographics	48% Students of Color, 16% International
Average Graduating Class Size	~140 (154 in Form of '25, 131 in Form of '26)
Faculty & Ratio	100 full-time faculty (83% advanced degrees); 5:1 Ratio

Academic Rigor

The school eschews a traditional Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum, instead offering in-house advanced coursework designated at the 400 and 500 levels that utilize college-level texts.

Classical Honors: Requires sequential Greek and Latin study, faculty interactions from leading universities, overseas travel, and a senior capstone.
Applied Science and Engineering: A specialized track allowing students to complete laboratory internships and extensive senior research projects.
Humanities Core: Intensive double-credit courses in the 4th and 5th forms focusing on American history, literature, and religious studies.

Transition to Traditional Grading

Effective for the 2025-26 academic year, St. Paul's abandoned its long-standing 7-point grading system in favor of a universally recognized scale to create clearer communication with college admissions offices.

New Scale: Transitions from the historical "High Honors with Commendation (HH+)" system to a standard A+ (4.3) to F (0.0) grading scale.
Unweighted Metrics: The school explicitly does not weight grades and refuses to rank its students.
Historical Integration: For the Class of 2026, transcripts will reflect the new system for current work while preserving the old system (HH+ to U) for prior academic years.

The Top 25 Pipeline

Based on our evaluation of the 154-student Class of 2025, St. Paul's generates exceptional yield in both the Ivy+ and Top 25 national categories. Our data identifies specific, high-volume institutional relationships maintained by the school's college counseling apparatus.

Matriculation Density Metrics

23%

Ivy+ Yield ('25)

38%

T25 Yield

9%

T15 LAC Yield

9.6

Readiness Score

The Elite Northeast Anchor

St. Paul's leverages its historic reputation to place substantial cohorts into the most selective Ivy League universities. In the Class of 2025 alone, 26 students matriculated to just four elite institutions.

Harvard University 8 (5.2%)
Yale University 7 (4.5%)
Cornell University 6 (3.9%)
Columbia University 5 (3.2%)

Broader T25 National Reach

Beyond the highest-density Ivy League pipelines, St. Paul's counseling office actively secures placements at top-tier national institutions across different geographic regions, expanding its overall T25 yield to nearly 40%.

Georgetown 5 (3.2%)
Dartmouth 3 (1.9%)
USC 3 (1.9%)
UVA 3 (1.9%)
Brown 2 (1.3%)
Princeton 2(1.3%)
NYU 2 (1.3%)
UChicago 1 (0.6%)
Duke 1 (0.6%)
MIT 1 (0.6%)

Top 15 Liberal Arts College (LAC) Placements

Our Boston methodology reserves 20% of the overall index weight for successful placements into Top 15 Liberal Arts Colleges. St. Paul's demonstrates an effective, consistent pipeline to elite regional LACs, generating a 9% yield in this highly specific tier for the Class of 2025.

New England Collegiate Focus

St. Paul's students frequently favor elite small-college environments within the New England footprint.

Primary Pipelines

9%

Amherst College 4 (2.6%)
Middlebury College 3 (1.9%)
Wesleyan University 3 (1.9%)

Secondary Selectivity

Bowdoin College 1 (0.6%)
Williams College 1 (0.6%)
Hamilton College 1 (0.6%)
Washington and Lee 1 (0.6%)

Matriculation Data Insights (Class of 2025)

Our data evaluates a verified 154-student cohort from the Class of 2025 (147 direct college matriculants). The table below details key institutional placements utilized in our scoring models, extracted directly from St. Paul's School's official collegiate reporting.

Institution	Class of '25 Vol.	% of Class	ECPI Category
Harvard University	8	5.2%	Ivy+
Yale University	7	4.5%	Ivy+
Cornell University	6	3.9%	Ivy+
Columbia University	5	3.2%	Ivy+
Georgetown University	5	3.2%	T25 National
Amherst College	4	2.6%	T15 LAC
Dartmouth College	3	1.9%	Ivy+
Middlebury College	3	1.9%	T15 LAC
University of Southern California	3	1.9%	T25 National
University of Virginia	3	1.9%	T25 National
Brown University	2	1.3%	Ivy+
Princeton University	2	1.3%	Ivy+
New York University	2	1.3%	T25 National
Tufts University	2	1.3%	Top 50 Broad

Regional Competitors

To contextualize the estimated ~98.45 score achieved by St. Paul's School, we compare its institutional performance against its immediate peer group within the Boston private school market, utilizing our ECPI index for the Boston region.

Rank #1

Groton School

The regional benchmark. Groton commands a 119.93 ECPI score, propelled by a region-leading 37% Ivy+ matriculation rate and a 48% overall T25 yield.

Rank #2

Phillips Academy Andover

Operating at scale, Andover secures a 113.18 ECPI score with a significant 32% Ivy+ rate and a 52% placement into the Top 25 national universities.

Rank #7

Milton Academy

A close peer to St. Paul's geographically and demographically, Milton generates a 102.33 ECPI via a 25% Ivy+ yield and a 12% T15 Liberal Arts retention rate.

Culture & Counseling Strategy

We assign a College Readiness Score based on advanced coursework availability, curriculum distinctiveness, and the structural integrity of the college counseling office. St. Paul's School achieves a robust 9.6 rating out of 10.0.

The Advising Timeline

Director of College Advising Erin C. Ainor and Dean of College Advising Gregory B. Buckles lead St. Paul's formalization of its intensive admissions counseling early in the student lifecycle, actively preventing student burnout in the senior year.

Early Engagement: Introspection and advising commence in earnest during the Fifth Form year, accelerating into the summer where Sixth Form students are encouraged to complete Common App personal statements prior to arrival.
Curated Exposure: The school hosts dedicated college mini-fairs throughout September and October, effectively bringing elite admissions officers directly onto the Concord campus.
Calculated Matching: Rather than adopting a broad application strategy, the College Advising Office works to formulate balanced, highly customized final college lists prior to Thanksgiving break, maximizing Early Decision yields.

Transcript Management

In a pivotal shift for the 2025-26 academic year, St. Paul's modernized its transcript architecture. The move from the legacy 7-point (HH+ to U) system to the standard 4.3 (A+ to F) scale simplifies the evaluation process for university admissions readers.

Crucially, St. Paul's maintains its refusal to weight grades or rank its student body, preserving an institutional focus on collaborative, rather than aggressively competitive, academic rigor.

Financial Footprints & Alumni

University admissions officers closely evaluate the socioeconomic frameworks of independent prep schools. St. Paul's School maintains a substantial financial commitment to ensure access and diversity within its fully residential cohort. The institution meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for admitted U.S.-based students.

For the 2025-26 school year, more than 200 students received nearly $13 million in total aid, significantly enriching the intellectual community that elite colleges aim to recruit. Families with an annual household income up to $150,000 generally qualify for full tuition support.

Tuition & Fees (2026-27 Academic Year)

Tuition, Room and Board $75,400
Mandatory Fees $1,480
Estimated Personal Expenses $3,485
Estimated Total Cost $80,365

Financial Aid Impact (2025-26)

Students Receiving Aid 37%
Total Annual Aid Budget $13.6 Million
Average Need-Based Grant $66,140

Featured Alumni Profiles

St. Paul's School boasts an extensive legacy, producing highly influential political figures, titans of American finance, and Pulitzer Prize-winning creators. This powerful alumni network provides immense networking leverage for graduating seniors.

Class of '62

John Kerry

68th United States Secretary of State, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

Class of '62

Robert Mueller

Sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice.

Class of 1885

J.P. Morgan Jr.

Prominent American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist who inherited and expanded the J.P. Morgan banking dynasty.

Class of '66

Garry Trudeau

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and creator of the highly influential Doonesbury comic strip.

Class of '78

Judd Nelson

Acclaimed actor and core member of the "Brat Pack," known for defining roles in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.

Class of '30

Archibald Cox

U.S. Solicitor General and the first special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.

Implications for New England Families

When synthesizing datasets across the Northern New England and Greater Boston market, the trajectory of St. Paul's School offers definitive insights for families navigating the highly competitive secondary admission process:

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The Ivy Engine: St. Paul's continues to serve as an established feeder for Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. A 23% Ivy+ yield indicates that the school's core academic rigor strongly aligns with the expectations of the nation's most selective admissions offices.
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Grading Transparency as an Asset: The shift to the 4.3-0 grading scale eliminates friction for university readers. This structural change ensures that outstanding student performance is immediately identifiable without requiring complex translations of legacy grading tiers.
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Socioeconomic Accessibility: With a $13 million financial aid budget, St. Paul's operates one of the most robust funding frameworks in the region. The ability to meet 100% of demonstrated need ensures that the school continually attracts the highest caliber of applicant, irrespective of financial status.

FAQ: The St. Paul's Evaluation

When benchmarked against the Greater Boston and New England private school ecosystem, St. Paul's School secures a highly competitive position with an estimated ECPI of 98.45. This places it in the upper echelon of regional preparatory schools, slightly trailing Milton Academy (102.33) but ahead of Boston University Academy (96.63).

For the 154-student Class of 2025, St. Paul's achieved a 23% Ivy+ matriculation rate, highlighted by substantial pipelines to Harvard (8), Yale (7), Cornell (6), and Columbia (5).

For the 2026-27 academic year, the total estimated cost of attendance is $80,365 (including $75,400 for tuition, room, and board). The school meets 100% of demonstrated financial need, with 37% of students receiving aid and an average need-based grant of $66,140.

St. Paul's School utilizes an unweighted grading system and does not rank its students. Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, the school transitioned from a 7-point scale (HH+ to U) to a traditional 4.3-0 scale (A+ to F).

No. St. Paul's does not offer a traditional AP curriculum. Instead, the school provides advanced, college-level courses designated at the 400 and 500 levels, alongside highly selective honors programs in Classical Studies and Applied Science and Engineering.