St. George's

Business Insider released their annual list of the 50 Most Elite Boarding Schools in America on February 17th.

[contextly_auto_sidebar] Portsmouth Abbey School came in at #46 on the 2016 list with an acceptance rate of 37%, endowment of $45 million and enrollment of 360.

The website had the following to say about the Portsmouth, RI school; “Portsmouth Abbey School boasts 1.24 miles of coastline along Narragansett Bay and houses 70% of its students. The Roman Catholic school is also home to a fully operational, on-campus monastery led by a community of Benedictine monks. The Benedictine ideal of a “community life of work and prayer” informs the school’s ethos, which teaches students to balance academics with social and physical activities.”

St. George’s School came in at #20 on the 2016 list with an acceptance rate of 25%, endowment of $138 million and enrollment of 365.

The website had the following to say about the Newport, RI school; “In addition to lively academic discussion and debate in the classroom, St. George’s School emphasizes experiential learning in the local community and around the world. Every semester the seaside Episcopal school sends students on one leg of a transatlantic voyage in a 69-foot marine-research vessel called Geronimo, where they get a firsthand education in marine biology.”

For the second year in a row, Phillips Exeter Academy earned the No. 1 spot on the list.

They relied primarily on data from BoardingSchoolReview.com, a website that collects information on boarding schools directly from the institutions. Gaps in the data were confirmed with individual schools or taken from Niche, another organization that researches and compiles information on schools.

Read on to see the rest of the 50 most elite boarding schools in America

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Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What's Up Newp. He took over the publication in 2012 and has grown it into a three-time Rhode Island Monthly Best Local News Blog (2018, 2019, 2020).

He was named LION Publishers Member of the Year in 2020 and received the Dominique Award from the Arts & Cultural Society of Newport County the same year. He has been awarded grants for investigative and community journalism, and continues to coach and mentor new local news publications nationwide.

Ryan is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Online News Association, and Local Independent Online News Publishers. He is committed to the codes of ethics of these organizations: accuracy, independence, accountability, and transparency.

In Newport, Ryan served on the boards of the Fort Adams Trust and Potter League for Animals, and hosted a daily radio talk show for four years.

In 2021, Ryan moved to Alexandria, Virginia, to support his wife Jen's career. He launched The Alexandria Brief in 2025, applying what he learned in Newport to a new community. With the help of some talented on-the-ground contributors, he still runs What's Up Newp — and always will.

Contact: ryan@whatsupnewp.com.