Boston Latin School

Overview

Boston Latin School is a selective exam public school in the Fenway-Longwood area of Boston, part of Boston Public Schools -- a district of 108 schools total per NCES data. It is the oldest public school in continuous existence in the United States, founded in 1635, and admits students via the citywide exam-school entrance process.

Academics

No independently verified Massachusetts state assessment data (via the state's official school-and-district profiles system) was located for this profile; check the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's site directly for current school-level results.

Neighborhood

The school is located near the Longwood Medical Area, close to several Boston hospitals and Northeastern University, in Suffolk County.

Crime & safety

Boston shows unusually strong, consistent agreement across sources toward the favorable end -- a contrast to many cities profiled earlier in this directory: multiple sources describe Boston's overall crime rate as below the national average (roughly 24-30% below per two sources), a citywide neighborhood safety rating of B with 93% of individually analyzed neighborhoods grading A or B, and specific, officially cited historic lows in homicides (24 in 2024, the lowest since 1957, per multiple sources citing Boston Police Department data) alongside a modest uptick to 31 in 2025 that still remained the second-lowest total in two decades. One source's "25% above the national average" overall-crime figure is a notable outlier against the general below-average framing from most other sources.

Our calculated rating

We don't publish a single proprietary score. Based on the 1 of 3 possible components we could source for this school (safety, unusually consistent and favorably documented here), we're still not showing a partial numeric rating -- 1 of 3 remains below our threshold regardless of how strong that one component is. See our ratings methodology.

Sources