There is no doubt that Regis, due to their free tuition, and very highly structured selection process and marketing attempts to reach all corners of the metro area, attracts the best students top to bottom.
Like Monte, my son went to Xavier, where he was part of the Ignatian scholars program. I would say that the top end of Xavier compares very well to Regis grads. It's interesting that Chaminade isn't as high on the list as they would like to have been.
My son applied to Regis, and we were told that part of the reason he wasn't accepted was that although his exam score was in their accepted range, Kellenberg's Latin school refused to recommend him because he had left there after the 7th grade. The vindictive nature of that school annoys me to no end. When he applied to Catholic high schools, he did put Kellenberg down as a second or third LI choice and they rejected him despite very good grades there in the 7th grade because he opted to go back to public school for the 8th.
All in all a lot of very good schools on this list, and it speaks well for Catholic secondary education. On Long Island at least, some parents will opt out of some very good public high schools to send their kids to a Catholic HS.
Cathollc High schools worked well for my kids, with 2 Villanova grads and a Boston College student. Of course there are some really great public colleges that are often mentioned on here, but Catholic HS educations, and especially a Xavier education, worked well for my kids.
I don't think my son would have traded his Xavier experience for any school on that list. They have built a great community among active students and have a generous and involved alumni. You can't rate the atmosphere of a school easily, but I think Monte would agree that Xavier is a great school.
