Article originally published in Columbus Business First by Hayleigh Colombo

Several Central Ohio high schools are among the best in the state for sending students to Ivy League schools Harvard, Princeton and MIT.

Upper Arlington High School, The Columbus Academy, New Albany High School and schools in the Dublin and Olentangy districts all clinched spots in the top 25, according to new data from PolarisList, which ranks the best high schools in America based on one metric: the number of students they sent to those three elite colleges.

Looking at just 2018, Dublin Jerome High School led the state with five students accepted.

The data analysts at PolarisList said they chose Harvard, Princeton and MIT to study based on “a combination of their selectivity and their accessibility to lower income students.”

“Selectivity is important to us because it means these schools have their pick of the lot when it comes to applicants,” according to PolarisList. “If a high school is able to send students to one of these three schools, it means that the school has created an environment to support high achieving students, whether it’s in academics or extracurriculars.

“Accessibility is just as important to us because we believe a college is only as good as its student body, and a student body is at its strongest when it encompasses a diversity of experiences,” according to the firm. The three colleges are among those with the highest number of students receiving Pell Grants, meaning their parents are low-income.

The ranking takes into account student matriculation, not simply the number of students who were accepted, as top students are often accepted into multiple institutions.

PolarisList also publishes a national ranking. In that group, Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, sent 96 students over the past four years, and Stuyvesant High School in New York City sent 94 to lead the country.