Roxbury Latin School

The Roxbury Latin School, which was founded in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England, is the oldest school in continuous existence in North America. Since its founding in 1645, it has educated boys on a continuous basis.

Roxbury Latin School
Address
101 Saint Theresa Avenue

West Roxbury
,
MA
02132

USA
Coordinates42°16′32″N 71°9′27″W
Information
TypePrivate, Boys, Day, College-prep
MottoMortui Vivos Docent
(The dead teach the living)
Established1645 (1645)
Sister schoolWinsor School
HeadmasterKerry P. Brennan
Faculty47
Grades7–12
GenderBoys
Enrollment300
Average class size13
Student to teacher ratio7:1
CampusUrban, 120 acres
Color(s)              
Jewel red, white, Sable black
Athletics10 sports
32 teams
Athletics conferenceISL
MascotFox
RivalsNoble and Greenough School
Belmont Hill School
Tuition$34,550
Websitewww.roxburylatin.org
Rev. John Eliot (1604–1690) Puritan missionary and founder of the Roxbury Latin School
The escutcheon of the School with the Pine Tree (a symbol of New England since the Pine Tree Riot before the American Revolution) and the Bible with the Christian symbol Alpha and Omega
The seal the Roxbury Latin School
Full coat of arms of the school
The school in 1899
Statue of alumnus Joseph Warren in front of the School

Located since 1927 at 101 St. Theresa Avenue in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, the school now serves roughly 300 boys in grades seven through twelve. Eliot founded the school "to fit [students] for public service both in church and in commonwealth in succeeding ages," and the school still considers instilling a desire to perform public service among its principal missions.

The school's endowment is estimated at $189 million,[1] the largest of any boys' day school in the United States. The school maintains a need-blind admissions policy, admitting boys without consideration of the ability of their families to pay the full tuition.

Its previous headmaster, F. Washington Jarvis, who retired in the summer of 2004 after a 30-year tenure, published two books about Roxbury Latin: a history of the school and a collection of his speeches to boys at Roxbury Latin (With Love and Prayers). The title of the former, Schola Illustris, was the phrase Cotton Mather used to describe the school in 1690, following John Eliot's death. In addition to those books, Richard Walden Hale published Tercentenary History of the Roxbury Latin School in 1946.

Roxbury Latin is a member of the Independent School League and NEPSAC. It has an unofficial sister school relationship with the Winsor School in Boston as well as an African brother school, the Maru a Pula School.

Rankings

According to the school's website, the median Roxbury Latin student of the class of 2015 scored 2210 out of 2400 on the SAT.[2] Roxbury Latin has among the highest median SAT averages of any private school. A 2004 piece in The Wall Street Journal noted Roxbury Latin for its acceptance rates at the most competitive universities, despite maintaining a low tuition relative to its peers ($26,100 in 2013–2014). In 2003, Worth magazine ranked Roxbury Latin as the #1 "feeder school" for elite universities, with a larger portion of its graduating class attending Princeton University, Harvard University, or Yale University than any other school.[3]

In 2008, the website PrepReview.com[4] extended and updated the earlier survey by Worth magazine. Despite using more inclusive criteria in place of Worth's narrow focus on Princeton, Harvard, and Yale, Roxbury Latin again topped the rankings. PrepReview.com looked at the number of matriculants to all eight Ivy League undergraduate colleges as well as to MIT and Stanford University. Roxbury Latin placed nearly half (45%) of its recent graduates among these institutions, the highest rate of any secondary school in the world. The 2008 rankings by PrepReview.com placed Roxbury Latin first in all of the following categories: America's Top 50 High Schools, America's Best High Schools Ranked by SAT, and America's Best Private Day Schools. Additionally, PrepReview.com ranked Roxbury Latin first in the world among secondary schools for its students' success at gaining admission to Harvard University: in 2009, 20% of the graduating class at Roxbury Latin matriculated at Harvard. In 2010, Forbes magazine ranked Roxbury Latin fifth in a list of the top 10 prep schools in America.[5] In 2015, TheStreet ranked Roxbury Latin among Top US Private Schools with the Most Graduates Getting Into Ivy League Universities.[6]

Transportation

The school provides school bus service for some students who live in the Dorchester, South Boston, Hyde Park, Mattapan, and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. The school charges a nominal fee for the bus usage.[7]

Athletics

The school has varsity, junior varsity and lower-level teams in football, cross country, soccer (fall), basketball, ice hockey, wrestling (winter), baseball, tennis, lacrosse, and track and field (spring). The school has a notable wrestling program, with the former varsity coach Steven E. Ward recently being inducted into the wrestling hall of fame in 2009.[8] The varsity soccer team was co-champions with Rivers in the NEPSAC tournament in 2012. The Track & Field team has won the NEPSTA (New England Prep School Track Association) Championship in nine of the last eleven years, including five in a row from 2011–2015. The Track Team also won the ISTA (Independent School Track Association) Championship in 2012 and 2013. The Tennis team has won the ISL Championship in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and has been invited to the NEPSAC Class B Tennis Championship nine years in a row, winning the tournament in 2013 and finishing as runners-up in 2015.[9]

Extracurriculars

The school has a wide variety of extracurricular activities for its students to partake in. The Model United Nations program and the Debate and Public Speaking program are especially popular, with approximately a hundred students in each. The school participates in many Model United Nations conferences and debate tournaments every year. Another moderately popular activity is Botball, an annual interscholastic robotics competition. The school team has done exceptionally well in recent years, placing 5th in the New England Division in 2009.[10] In 2010, it placed 2nd out of 19 teams, a school record. The school also boasts several language clubs and a chess team that has won or shared the South Shore Interscholastic Chess League title in 2 of the last 5 years, as well as community service clubs, such as Habitat for Humanity.

Music

The school has an extensive music program, available to students of all grades. There is junior chorus for seventh and eighth graders, and a glee club for high schoolers. There is also a small a cappella group consisting of about fourteen singers called the Latonics that requires an audition. Additionally, there is a jazz band and several halls a year devoted to instrumental performances by students and faculty.

Notable alumni

Colonists

Business

Sciences

Arts, literature, and music

Politics, military, and public service

Sports
  • William Welles Hoyt (1894), medal winner in the pole vault at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens
  • Malcolm Whitman (1895), tennis star, U.S. open champion in 1898, 1899, and 1900, member of original Davis Cup team and of Tennis Hall of Fame
  • Stuart McNay (2000), member of Team USA's sailing team in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics[12]
  • Aaron Maund (2008), MLS soccer player
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See also

References
  1. Roxbury Latin School Fact Sheet
  2. http://www.roxburylatin.org/page/About/RL-Fact-Sheet [retrieved June 14, 2016]
  3. "The Worth Magazine Rankings of Top US Private Schools with the Most Graduates Getting Into Ivy League Universities". Worth Magazine.
  4. "PrepReview.com Rankings". PrepReview.com.
  5. "Forbes 2010 America's Best Prep Schools Rankings". forbes.com.
  6. "TheStreet 2015 Rankings of Top US Private Schools". thestreet.com.
  7. "Directions." Roxbury Latin School. Retrieved on May 23, 2010.
  8. Kessler, Jody. "Roxbury Latin's Ward inducted into Wrestling Hall of Fame". wickedlocal.com.
  9. "Latin wins New England Div III Track & Field championship". Roxbury Latin School.
  10. "Botball Team Places 5th in Regional Tourney". Roxbury Latin School.
  11. Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI « PC World. Retrieved on 2014-05-26.
  12. Stuart McNay Goes For The Gold In London « CBS Boston. Boston.cbslocal.com (2012-08-01). Retrieved on 2013-07-15.

Further reading
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