2025 Update: The Best Public High Schools in Boston
An update of 2024 Best Public High Schools in Boston
Where are the best public high schools in Boston?
For those who have been following this series, you’d know that the best public high schools in Boston are typically not located in Boston city; neither are they in towns serviced by the metro, or “T”, as Bostonians call it. The best public high schools are in the suburbs of Greater Boston.
This year's Top 20 list has five new names: Needham, Norwell, Lincoln-Sudbury, Medfield, and Algonquin Regional (which covers the towns of Northborough and Southborough).
Here’s a pinned Google Maps image of 2025’s top 20 schools as ranked by Boston Magazine:
Five schools moved up into the Top 20 list this year: Needham (was #29 in 2024), Norwell (#26 in 2024), Lincoln-Sudbury (#36 in 2024), Medfield (#28 in 2024), and Algonquin Regional (#21 in 2024). Needham's jump is the biggest of the bunch - nearly 20 spots.
And here are the locations of these top 20 schools, superimposed on a geographically accurate representation of Boston's MBTA Subway (Red, Orange and Blue Lines), Rail (Green Lines B, C, D, E), Bus (Silver line) and Commuter routes.
Purple lines are commuter rails that extend to the suburbs. Blue, Orange and Red lines are subway trains. Green lines are light rails (they go slower). The Silver line (it looks grey on the map) are buses.
Year after year, the geographical distribution remains relatively unchanged.
The best MA schools are still in the suburbs.
The best MA schools are not within reasonable walking/running/biking distance to Cambridge, Downtown Boston or the Seaport, with the exception of Brookline this time.
What does it mean if you need to work in the city?
It means:
You need to drive to work.
Your commute will be no less than 30 mins in peak traffic. It takes me 1.5 hours to get from Littleton to downtown Boston in morning traffic (which starts at 6:15am). I buffer 2 hours for accidents on the highway.
If you’re not willing to deal, the commuter train is an option. But it runs on an hourly schedule and you’ve got to get to the station ahead of time to secure limited parking. Littleton to North Station (TD Garden) takes approximately 1hr on the commuter train. Plenty of seats; relatively conducive for sleeping, reading, or working.
Still no deal? Unfortunately, you’d have to consider changing your job. Most living in the suburbs work remotely.
Notable schools that dropped out of the Top 20 list in 2025
Five Top 20 regulars dropped out of this year's list, some by a wide margin:
Littleton: #7 → #43 (the steepest fall on the list)
Hingham: #8 → #22
Acton-Boxborough: #9 → #23
Westborough: #12 → #34
Winchester: #18 → #29
Part of the story is a change to how Boston Magazine ranks schools this year - they dropped "Attending College %" and "Educator Evaluations" from the formula, and added three new categories: Access to the Arts, Access to Digital Literacy/Computer Science, and Advanced Coursework Completion.
Reminder of the definition of “Schools in Boston”
We use “Boston” loosely here.
It’s actually a reference to a broad geographical area - Greater Boston - and does not specifically point to downtown Boston, or the 23 neighborhoods of Boston as defined by Boston City.
Here’s a helpful visual of Greater Boston:
Websites to research elementary and middle schools in Boston
There are a couple of resources that I point my clients to for their research of schools in Boston, especially the lower level schools, since these aren’t ranked.
A popular one is GreatSchools.org, which comes with a neat search bar for the level of schooling plus specific area that one is looking at. There’s a Likert scale for each school and a map of schools nearby.
Overall, a pretty nice UX!
