The Rankings — 2026/27
Next update in 360d 23h 42m 08s
Independent · Unpaid · Editorial
World's Top Schools, Ranked.
Every ranked and candidate school in the directory, one continuous list from #1 down. Use this view when you want the full picture without switching between tiers.
This ranking is locked. The next ranking update will be on September 1, 2027. How the ranking cycle works · Why this ranking exists
Penny's picks
Canada · Ontario
Upper Canada College
Modelled on Eton in 1829, this all-boys Toronto institution pairs IB rigour with 450 acres of wilderness learning at Norval.
79.7
Score
Canada · Ontario
University of Toronto Schools
Admission decided purely by competitive exam at Canada's only university-affiliated prep school, embedded in U of T's downtown Bloor Street campus since 1910.
79.2
Score
Canada · British Columbia
St. George's School
Vancouver's only boys' boarding house pairs BC's diploma with IB and AP courses, then swaps desks for weeks in the backcountry.
74.4
Score
Canada · Ontario
Appleby College
A lakeside Oakville campus where every senior boards by tradition, and leadership training unfolds on a private island in Temagami.
72.6
Score
Canada · Manitoba
St. John's-Ravenscourt School
Founded in 1820 on a Red River oxbow, Western Canada's oldest independent school built its name on debate and public speaking.
72.1
Score
Canada · Ontario
Lakefield College School
On 315 lakefront acres in the Kawarthas, Canada's first Round Square school pairs Ontario academics with expedition-based leadership training.
71.6
Score
Canada · Ontario
Hillfield Strathallan College
A 1901 boys' school and a 1923 girls' school merged atop Hamilton Mountain into the city's only Pre-K-12 independent campus.
71.0
Score
Canada · Ontario
Trinity College School
Predating Confederation itself, this Lake Ontario campus anchors ten storied houses around one of Canada's few AP Capstone diplomas.
70.8
Score
Canada · Ontario
St. Andrew's College
A century-old Highland Cadet Corps still drills on this all-boys Aurora campus, a founding member of Ontario's Little Big Four.
70.3
Score
Canada · Quebec
Bishop's College School
A 19th-century Eastern Townships campus once dubbed the 'Eton of Canada,' now blending IB rigor with eight-house boarding life.
70.1
Score
Canada · Ontario
Ridley College
St Catharines day-and-boarding school blending Ontario's OSSD with the full IB continuum
69.8
Score
Canada · Quebec
Selwyn House School
One of only two all-boys schools left in Quebec, its name and ethos borrowed from a Cambridge college back in 1908.
69.4
Score
Canada · Ontario
The Bishop Strachan School
Founded in 1867 in Forest Hill, this Anglican school remains Canada's oldest continuously operating girls' day and boarding institution.
69.2
Score
Canada · Ontario
Pickering College
Canada's only Quaker-founded school pairs a bespoke Global Leadership Diploma with its own student-run campus radio station.
69.0
Score
Canada · Ontario
St. Clement's School
Century-old Anglican girls’ school under one Toronto roof
68.9
Score
Canada · Manitoba
Balmoral Hall School
On the Manitoba prairie, a century-old girls' school pairs IB rigor with the province's longest-standing prep hockey program.
68.5
Score
Canada · New Brunswick
Rothesay Netherwood School
A 1877 boys' collegiate and a 1894 girls' school merged into one Kennebecasis River campus of IB rigor and boarding tradition.
68.4
Score
Canada · Ontario
The York School
First English-speaking school in Canada certified for the full IB continuum, JK to Grade 12, on midtown Toronto's Yonge Street corridor.
67.1
Score
Canada · British Columbia
Mulgrave School
On Cypress Mountain's forested slopes, one of only two full IB continuum campuses in Vancouver runs preschool through diploma.
65.5
Score
Canada · Quebec
Lower Canada College
Rooted in an 1861 boarding-school lineage, the only English-language Quebec school running both IB Middle Years and Diploma Programmes side by side
65.4
Score
Canada · British Columbia
Crofton House School
West of Toronto's oldest independent school, a Kerrisdale campus builds IB scholars through its four-quadrant Ivy Compass program.
65.0
Score
Canada · Quebec
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
Once a Jesuit seminary, now a secular Francophone college spanning secondary school and CEGEP, IB-authorized since 1982.
64.9
Score
Canada · British Columbia
Collingwood School
Greater Vancouver's only Round Square school, its AP program stretching into second-year university math and chemistry.
64.9
Score
Canada · British Columbia
York House School
Born of seven women's Depression-era gamble in Shaughnessy, this girls' day school still pairs Reggio Emilia roots with AP rigor
64.6
Score
Canada · Nova Scotia
Halifax Grammar School
Delivering the full IB Diploma since 1993, this Halifax day school has anchored Atlantic Canada's college-prep landscape since 1958.
64.3
Score
Canada · British Columbia
West Point Grey Academy
On an 18-acre Jericho Lands campus above English Bay, a compulsory third language meets a student-run Model UN conference.
63.4
Score
Canada · Ontario
Crescent School
Century-old boys’ school on 30 acres in midtown Toronto
63.4
Score
Canada · Ontario
Branksome Hall
Toronto's only all-years IB girls' school, spanning PYP to Diploma with a sister campus on South Korea's Jeju Island.
63.0
Score
Canada · British Columbia
Brentwood College School
On a kilometre of Vancouver Island shoreline, a century-old rowing programme has sent two dozen crews to the Olympics
62.7
Score
Canada · Ontario
Havergal College
A 22-acre Anglican foundation since 1894, where ten storied houses anchor a rigorous, wellbeing-driven liberal arts curriculum for girls in midtown Toronto.
62.6
Score
Canada · British Columbia
Shawnigan Lake School
On a 270-acre Vancouver Island campus, ten boarding houses hold Canada's largest full-time boarding community, a tradition since 1916.
62.1
Score
Canada · Ontario
Ashbury College
Tucked among Rockcliffe Park's embassy residences, this century-old IB pioneer turns diplomatic proximity into a genuine global classroom.
62.0
Score
Canada · Alberta
Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School
A 220-acre foothills campus anchors Alberta's only K-12 continuum IB day school
61.1
Score
Canada · British Columbia
St Michaels University School
On Vancouver Island, a AP pioneer school pairs Canadian, IB and American pathways with its own rowing centre on the Gorge Waterway.
61.1
Score
Canada · Ontario
St. Michael's College School
Toronto’s Basilian Catholic boys’ school with a storied hockey tradition
60.0
Score
Canada · Ontario
TFS – Canada's International School
Since 1962, Canada's first French immersion school, now the country's only full-continuum bilingual IB institution across two Toronto campuses.
59.0
Score
Canada · Saskatchewan
Athol Murray College of Notre Dame
On the Saskatchewan prairie, hockey, faith and academics share equal billing beneath the campus's landmark Tower of God
58.8
Score
Canada · Alberta
Alberta Ballet School
The only boarding school of its kind in western Canada, splitting each school day evenly between pointe work and the classroom.
54.9
Score
Canada · Alberta
Edge School
West of Calgary, sport blocks are built into the timetable, pairing hockey, dance, golf and soccer academies with core academics.
52.2
Score
Canada
Canterbury High School – Arts Canterbury Visual Arts
51.3
Score
Canada · Ontario
Canada's National Ballet School
Talent is the sole entry ticket to this Toronto campus fusing full-time ballet training, academics, and boarding life under one roof.
50.4
Score
Canada · Manitoba
Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division
A Russian-method training ground on the Prairies, feeding a ballet company where three in four dancers are its own graduates.
49.6
Score
Canada · Alberta
National Sport School
Classrooms embedded inside WinSport's Olympic Park let student-athletes train by day and study around competition travel by design
48.8
Score
Canada · Ontario
Etobicoke School of the Arts
Canada's oldest freestanding arts high school pairs audition-only majors in dance, film and music with a full OSSD academic load.
47.9
Score
Methodology
How we rank
Our composite weights eight categories. Each is scored 0–100 by our editorial panel and audited against 30 sub-criteria drawn from school records, university placement audits, alumni surveys, campus visits and parent interviews. Schools cannot pay for placement or preview scores.
Weighting
- Academic Outcomes20%
- University Placement17%
- Prestige & Heritage13%
- Alumni Network13%
- Facilities13%
- Transparency & Communications8%
- Peer & Industry Review10%
- Admissions Selectivity & Demand8%
Score key
Reading the scores
Bands out of 100
Every category, sub-criterion and composite total across this issue uses the same six-band editorial palette. Bands are calibrated against the full 300-school cohort — a "Distinguished" mark is meaningfully harder to earn than a "Strong" one.
- Exceptional90–100
Top of cohort
- Distinguished80–89
Elite tier
- Strong70–79
Consistently high
- Solid60–69
Reliable performer
- Average50–59
Room to grow
- Below par< 50
Underperforming
The same colour bands are used inside each school profile, on category chips, radar charts and the annual score-history line — so a colour glimpsed on the Rankings page always means the same thing everywhere else.