A long seated rivalry between two Houston high schools just heated up a bit thanks to a new ranking of the 50 Smartest Private High Schools in the U.S.
Business Insider's new list unsurprisingly named both St. John's School and The Kinkaid School as two of the smartest private high schools in the nation. The two elite schools have been fierce rivals for decades and their annual football game, held at Rice Stadium, is a destination for thousands of students and alumni alike.
The newly released list adds fuel to the fire with St. John's ranked No. 13 — a whopping 35 spots ahead of Kinkaid, which came in at No. 48.
The rankings were determined by Niche, a database of information about schools, by weighing each school's composite SAT/ACT score, the average score of the colleges attended by graduates, the percentage of graduates who go on to attend a four-year college and student-teacher ratios.
The two elite schools have been fierce rivals for decades.
The composite SAT scores for the two Houston schools were virtually identical, with St. John's at 2081-2130 and Kinkaid at 2080-2130.
Business Insider writer Emmie Martin's commentary on St. John's described students there as being encouraged to challenge themselves "both personally and academically" with the school offering classes like multivariable calculus, organic chemistry and ancient Greek. Martin also noted that a "commendable" 83 percent of St. John's students scored either a 4 or a 5 on their AP exams.
"The beginning of January consists of 'interim term,' a three-week period in which students have opportunities to travel internationally, complete internships, and take courses in subjects not typically offered," Martin wrote of Kinkaid. The description also highlighted the school's four core values: Honesty, responsibility, respect and kindness.
Niche did note in the methodology that several high schools "scored extremely well but did not qualify for the numerical ranking due to insufficient data." One of the Top 5 schools that didn't make the cut was The Woodlands Preparatory School.
St. John's School was ranked No. 13 on Business Insider's list of the 50 Smartest Private High Schools in the U.S.
