Harvard Westlake and Crossroads are very different types of places. Both can be good for the right kid, but very wrong if it doesn't suit your child. So take a look at both, but likely only one of the two would be a fit for your child. I went to one of them. Harvard Westlake is much more academic and intense, but is larger and can attract lots of kids with different interests. Crossroads is more artsy-fartsy and a better place for a very creative, free spirit type (teachers go by their first names, etc). It would not be as good of a place for a more serious academic type. Both have the celebrity types and wealthy. I think that is the case at most of the schools being discussed here. Brentwood is the only option mentioned where you can send all of your children to the same place and with a reasonable commute from the Palisades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will see that both Harvard Westlake (Studio City) and Polytechnic (Pasadena) are in the top 20 of Business Insider's list of the top private schools in the country.

http://www.businessinsider.com/smartest-private-high-schools-in-the-us-2015-3?op=1

You do realize this is one of the group rankings. That has been widely criticized for its methodology on this board and elsewhere.

Don't disagree that all rankings systems have their particular issues. In this case, though, they generally got the outcome right, as many Angelenos consider Harvard Westlake and Polytechnic top tier L.A. private schools.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the Palisades and attended Marymount Los Angeles, which was amazing preparation for college.

I'd consider Corpus Christi and St. Matthews for elementary in the Palisades. Brentwood school or St. Martin of Tours in Brentwood.

For high school I'd recommend Marymount (obviously), Marlborough, Brentwood, Harvard-Westlake, Archer, Loyola, and Crossroads.

FWIW, it's possible to do well going to Pali, but most of my friends who stayed in public encountered significant distractions before graduating high school.

Having grown up in that idyllic neck of the woods, do you ever plan to return?

What about Buckley?

I grew up in the Palisades and attended Marymount Los Angeles, which was amazing preparation for college.

I'd consider Corpus Christi and St. Matthews for elementary in the Palisades. Brentwood school or St. Martin of Tours in Brentwood.

For high school I'd recommend Marymount (obviously), Marlborough, Brentwood, Harvard-Westlake, Archer, Loyola, and Crossroads.

FWIW, it's possible to do well going to Pali, but most of my friends who stayed in public encountered significant distractions before graduating high school.

Anonymous wrote:You will see that both Harvard Westlake (Studio City) and Polytechnic (Pasadena) are in the top 20 of Business Insider's list of the top private schools in the country.

http://www.businessinsider.com/smartest-private-high-schools-in-the-us-2015-3?op=1

You do realize this is one of thoNiche group rankings. The company has been widely criticized for its methodology on this board and elsewhere.

You will see that both Harvard Westlake (Studio City) and Polytechnic (Pasadena) are in the top 20 of Business Insider's list of the top private schools in the country.

http://www.businessinsider.com/smartest-private-high-schools-in-the-us-2015-3?op=1

Brentwood only has applications at K and 6th grade.
St Matthews looks amazing and they have a great summer program.
I would also consider le lycée francais de los angeles (not Lycee international - different beast).

They have a pre-k to 2nd in Palisades
Overland - 20 mins drive away has the 2nd-5th elementary, the middle and high schools.

But we do have the "tv / movie star" element at Le Lycee as much as anywhere (sadly).

Anonymous wrote:My sister's kids go to Harvard Westlake. It a great school. It goes 7-12 and has like 1,600 students. They have two campuses. She had to drive both kids to school each day to different campuses and that is a pain in the ass in LA.

Tom Hudnut the recently retired Head of Harvard Westlake was a St. Alban's teacher who went on to being the head of Norwood before his long much respected tenure at H-WL. His wife Deedie was a teacher at Beauvoir and is head of admissions at the top H-WL feeder Center for Early Education.

http://www.wmagazine.com/people/insiders/2009/06/hudnuts

HW FRP ?was not the OP. Still appreciated your answer, and it offered useful info to others headed to LA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can anyone speak to the differences between HarvardWestlake and Flintridge Prep besides size? Thanks.

You should consider Polytechnic School in Pasadena. It bridges those two schools in that it draws the top students, has the academic rigor, and college matriculation stats of, or even better than, Harvard Westlake, but has the intimate size (between 98-110 students in a high school class) of Flintridge Prep. Poly is more like Sidwell, I suppose, if you are looking for a local comparison, and I agree that Flintridge Prep is more like Maret, or perhaps the Potomac School (but with much more diversity, it is L.A. after all).

Not OP, but Pasadena is not a reasonable commute from Brentwood area.

I agree with you, but the question I am responding to appears to be from a poster who is considering Harvard Westlake (Studio City) and Flintridge Prep. Since Flintridge Prep is located in La Cañada - which in turn is located next to Pasadena - I assume that the poster who posted that question is either (1) not the original poster; or (2) is the original poster, who has now decided to live outside Brentwood, and is therefore considering schools farther afield. Because you are right, neither Pasadena nor La Cañada, are a reasonable commute from the Brentwood area.

Here are some links on west coast schools from another thread on the subject.

http://www.hercampus.com/high-school/applying-college/10-high-schools-send-most-students-top-colleges

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-west-coast-ivy-league-hook/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can anyone speak to the differences between HarvardWestlake and Flintridge Prep besides size? Thanks.

You should consider Polytechnic School in Pasadena. It bridges those two schools in that it draws the top students, has the academic rigor, and college matriculation stats of, or even better than, Harvard Westlake, but has the intimate size (between 98-110 students in a high school class) of Flintridge Prep. Poly is more like Sidwell, I suppose, if you are looking for a local comparison, and I agree that Flintridge Prep is more like Maret, or perhaps the Potomac School (but with much more diversity, it is L.A. after all).

Not OP, but Pasadena is not a reasonable commute from Brentwood area.