Seven Hills School ranked No. 1 private high school in Ohio by Niche. How others ranked

Which is the very best private high school in the Cincinnati area? According to Niche, a school ranking and review site, the No. 1 spot goes to The Seven Hills School for the second consecutive year.

The Madisonville school topped other high-ranking private programs in the region as part of Niche’s 2026 Best Private High Schools in the Cincinnati area ranking, including Cincinnati Country Day School. The coeducational school in Indian Hill fell from its No. 2 spot last year to the third rank this year. Filling out the top schools in the No. 2 spot this year is The Schilling School for Gifted Children.

Seven Hills School was also named the No. 1 best private high school in Ohio and No. 1 among private K-12 schools statewide.

Seven Hills School pre-kindergarten students on the Doherty Campus running the Doherty Mini Pig.

Factors like student-teacher ratio, culture and diversity and overall experience were evaluated using a mix of hard data from the National Center for Education Statistics as well as over 100 million reviews and survey responses from students, parents and residents to produce the private high schools rankings.

The measure with the most weight toward a school’s rank at 20% is college enrollment, or the percentage of seniors who go on to a four-year college. Following closely behind with 19.5% weight is the top popular colleges score, or the average Niche Best Colleges rank of schools that students are interested in.

The site once again excluded SAT/ACT scores from the rankings to reflect a “general de-emphasis on test scores in the college admissions process,” per its website.

Here are the top 25 private high schools in Greater Cincinnati according to Niche’s 2026 list.

Top 25 private high schools in the Cincinnati area

Rank	School	Niche grade	Student population	Student-teacher ratio
1.	Seven Hills School	A+	1,003	5:1
2.	The Schilling School for Gifted Children	A+	50	3:1
3.	Cincinnati Country Day School	A+	855	9:1
4.	The Summit Country Day School	A+	1,076	8:1
5.	St. Xavier High School	A+	1,365	11:1
6.	Ursuline Academy	A	492	13:1
7.	Archbishop Moeller High School	A	921	12:1
8.	Saint Ursula Academy	A	651	11:1
9.	Villa Madonna Academy	A	481	10:1
10.	Mars Hill Academy	A	354	13:1
11.	Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy	A	1,352	11:1
12.	Liberty Bible Academy	A	277	7:1
13.	Roger Bacon High School	A	540	12:1
14.	Cincinnati Christian Schools	A	797	11:1
15.	McNicholas High School	A	710	11:1
16.	La Salle High School	A-	481	12:1
17.	Covington Latin School	A-	93	7:1
18.	Miami Valley Christian Academy	A-	1,183	10:1
19.	Notre Dame Academy	A-	526	11:1
20.	Mercy McAuley High School	A-	348	13:1
21.	Covington Catholic High School	A-	520	13:1
22.	Mount Notre Dame High School	A-	727	15:1
23.	Royalmont Academy	A-	195	9:1
24.	Purcell Marian High School	B+	404	10:1
25.	Aldersgate Christian Academy	B+	209	16:1