Best Private Schools in Dallas – 2024
December 15, 2023
If you are raising kids in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area and find yourself considering private school, you are lucky to have dozens of quality options. For the teen in your family, selecting the right private high school will be of particular importance. Are you looking for a boarding school or day school? Are you looking for a school with a religious affiliation? In the end, your decision will need to balance your teen’s academic, emotional, and social needs with financial and logistical considerations. However, College Transitions’ list of the Best Private Schools in Dallas will focus primarily on our area of expertise—college admissions. As such, we will highlight the job that each of the schools fare at sending their graduates on to the region/nation’s premier 4-year schools.
Best Private Schools in Dallas
Here’s a quick preview of the best private schools in Dallas that made our list. Detailed profiles and stats can be found when you scroll below.
1) Cistercian Preparatory School
2) St. Mark’s School of Texas
3) The Hockaday School
4) Greenhill School
5) Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas
6) Parish Episcopal School
7) Fort Worth Country Day School
8) The Episcopal School of Dallas
9) Trinity Valley School
10) Alcuin School
Please note that inclusion on our Best Private Schools in Dallas list is a selective and criteria-based process. However, the order in which the schools appear is not representative of any further ranking; the numbering is solely intended to enhance the ease of navigating this resource. All of the schools profiled below have a history of sending graduates to the top colleges in the country. For each of the 10 schools, College Transitions will provide you with the:
- Location
- Tuition (9-12)
- Enrollment (9-12)
- Average SAT Score
- Average ACT Score
- Senior Class Size
- College Admissions Highlights
- Academic Highlights
Without further ado, let’s look at the best private schools in Dallas.
Cistercian Preparatory School – Dallas
- 3660 Cistercian Rd, Irving, TX 75039
College Admissions Highlights: From 2019-2023, students have been admitted at each of the following colleges: Boston University, Bucknell, Cornell, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, US Military Academy, US Naval Academy, UNC Chapel Hill, Penn, USC, UVA, Vanderbilt, WashU, and Yale.
Academic Highlights: All boys school. 87% of faculty have master’s degrees; 15% possess doctorates. 45% of students are ethnically diverse. 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Students take an all-honors curriculum; no AP courses are offered but many students take AP Exams. For the 2024 class, 134 AP exams were taken, 95% had average score of 3 or higher. Offer 8 sports with 13 teams. Community service is an important part of the learning environment.
St. Mark’s School of Texas – Dallas
- 10600 Preston Rd, Dallas, Texas 75230
College Admissions Highlights: From 2021-2023, students enrolled in UT Austin (37), Texas A&M (14), Harvard (10), Northwestern (10), Brown (9), Rice (8), UChicago (7), Santa Clara (7), Dartmouth (6), Georgetown (6), Vanderbilt (6), Penn (5), Columbia (4), John Hopkins (4), MIT (4), Princeton (4), USC (4), Villanova (4), Stanford (3), Duke (3), UVA (3), USAF (3), and Yale (3).
Academic Highlights: 22 AP Courses offered. 78% earned a 4 or 5 in 2022. 54% of the class of 2022 earned National Merit Recognition. Of 127 teachers, 86 hold master’s degrees and 11 earned doctorates. 8:1 Student-to-teacher ratio. The average class size is 15. 49% of those enrolled are students of color. 16 sports with 46 teams. 86% of upper school students play at least one sport. 56 fine arts courses and 2 Presidential Scholars in Arts over the past four years.
The Hockaday School – Dallas
- 11600 Welch Rd, Dallas, TX 75229
College Admissions Highlights: From 2020-2023, Hockaday grads have attended Brown, Claremont McKenna, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Colby, Cornell, Duke, Emory, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Rice, Stanford, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UChicago, USC, Vassar, WashU, Wellesley, Williams, and Yale.
Academic Highlights: Hockaday is an all-girls school. 65 of 121 teachers possess master’s degrees; 19 hold doctoral degrees. 51% identify as students of color. 94% of AP test-takers score a 3 or better. 25 National Merit Finalist. Hockaday has an Institute for Social Impact which offers courses and community service to teach students to lead lives with purpose.
Greenhill School – Dallas
- 4141 Spring Valley Rd, Addison, TX 75001
College Admissions Highlights: The Classes of 2020-2023 sent multiple students to UT Austin (40), WashU (16), Rice (12), UMichigan (11), USC (11), Northwestern (10), NYU (10), Penn (10), Purdue (9), Duke (9), Cornell (7), Barnard (6), Harvard (4), Emory (4), Carnegie Mellon (4), Brown (3), and Georgetown (3).
Academic Highlights: 56% self-identified student of color. The average class size is 18 in the upper school. 56.6% of faculty hold advanced degrees. 14 Honors courses and 14 AP courses are available. 24 athletic teams, over 10 art disciplines, and 19+ clubs for students extracurricular involvement.
Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas – Dallas
- 12345 Inwood Rd, Dallas, TX 75244
College Admissions Highlights: Many students go on to enter some of the nation’s top colleges such as Princeton, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, UMichigan, UT Austin, Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, Texas A&M, each year including Jesuit institutions such as Boston College, Georgetown, the College of the Holy Cross, Loyola Marymount, and Santa Clara University.
Academic Highlights: This is an all-male institution. 8:1 Student-Teacher ratio. 26 AP courses are offered with nearly 500 students recognized by the College Board in the last 5 years. 100+ Student clubs and extracurricular activities. 20 Varsity sports offerings with 127 state championships since 1954. 100% of student participate in extracurricular activities. 24 consecutive Years Debate has placed top 20 in the state. 22 graduates have received a Congressional appointment o attend on the nations five service academies.
Parish Episcopal School – Dallas
- 4101 Sigma Rd, Dallas, TX 75244
College Admissions Highlights: Students from the Classes of 2021-2023 went on to matriculate into American, Berklee College of Music, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, NYU, Northeastern, Northwestern, Pepperdine, Princeton, Rice, SCAD, Stanford, Tufts, UChicageo, UCLA, USC, Wake Forest, and Yale.
Academic Highlights: 30% identify as students of color. 15 students will become college athletes. 18 students will become college athletes. 17 AP classes are offered. 84% of students scored a 3 or higher on the AP Exams. 6 National Merit awards. Parish has a 55,000 sq ft performing arts center. There are over 50 teams participating in a wide array of sports from PreK-12.
Fort Worth Country Day School – Dallas
- 4200 Country Day Ln, Fort Worth, TX 76109
College Admissions Highlights: Multiple members of the 2020-2023 graduating classes are now attending UT Austin (29), South Carolina (13), SMU (11), Tulane (8), UGA (6), Washington & Lee (5), Colorado School of Mines (5), UVA (4), UChicago (3), Yale (3), Harvard (3), Purdue (3), George Washington (2), Cornell (2), Wake Forest (2), and UMiami (2).
Academic Highlights: 21 AP courses are available. 88% of test takers earned a 3 or above on AP exams. 17 members of the Class of 2024 achieved some degree of National Merit status. 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Average class size is 12 students. Senior Capstone Project allows an interdisciplinary student with faculty and mentor. 30 JV and varsity athletic teams. Full visual and performing arts program with ISAS arts festival each spring.
The Episcopal School of Dallas – Dallas
- 4100 Merrell Rd, Dallas, TX 75229
College Admissions Highlights: From 2020-2023, students enrolled at the likes of American, Barnard, Boston University, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Hamilton, Harvard, John Hopkins, NYU, Northeastern, Pepperdine, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Notre Dame, Penn, UVA, and Vanderbilt.
Academic Highlights: 84% of students score 3 or better on AP tests. 32 AP Courses offered. No classes are larger than 18 students. Upper school performing arts program has 3-4 performances annually. 21 AP Artists in the class of 2022. 60+ team fielded in 19 sports for grades 7-12 with 7 team championships in the last five years.
Trinity Valley School – Dallas
- 7500 Dutch Branch Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76132
College Admissions Highlights: From 2020-2023, multiple grads have matriculated into Barnard, Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, NYU, Northwestern, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Tufts, Notre Dame, UCBerkeley, Penn, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and Yale.
Academic Highlights: 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio. 73% of upper school faculty possess master’s degrees. The average faculty member has been teaching for 21 years. 81% of AP test-takers scored a 3 or better. 2 National Merit Finalists. Special Programs include Senior Projects, Trojan Outdoor Experience and Global Ambassadors & Citizens.
Alcuin School – Dallas
- 6144 Churchill Way, Dallas, TX 75230
College Admissions Highlights: Class of 2023 college acceptances included Boston College, Brandeis, Case Western, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, George Washington, GaTech, Northeastern, Ohio State, Pepperdine, Purdue, Rice, Texas A&M, Georgia, USC, UT Austin, Villanova, WashU, and William & Mary.
Academic Highlights: 54 staff members possess advanced degrees, 10 doctorates. Alcuin offers the full International Baccalaureate: for 9-10th Middle Years Programme and 11-12th in the Diploma Programme. Average class size is 13 students. 9:1 Student-Faculty ratio. 85% of age-eligible participate in athletics. Alcuin students have the opportunity to travel each year to further investigate their studies.
Best Private Schools in Dallas – Additional Resources
We hope you found our blog on private schools in Dallas to be helpful. All high school students and families may wish to explore further information regarding the college search and admissions process at our Dataverse, Blog, and List-Building Tool.
