Final 2012-2013 High School Rankings

Which high school Model UN teams are the best in North America? We devised a rankings system to recognize the successes of the best high school Model UN teams.

Purpose

We want top teams to be recognized for their accomplishments in a centralized location and we want other teams to aspire to become a top team. We believe sharing this information will be interesting and valuable to the community and that it will foster discussion among high school Model UN teachers, conference organizers, and delegates on bigger issues that affect the activity such as the lack of a standardized awards criteria and transparency, creating the proper competitive or educational experience, and the sharing of best training methods.

There are many definitions of success in Model UN. We do not believe that awards are the purpose of Model UN — rather, awards are a way to recognize Model UN teams for their hard work and leadership in committee. Awards should support the greater purpose of Model UN, which is to be an educational experience that helps today’s students become tomorrow’s leaders, discover their passions, and change the world.

Philosophy

It is important to understand that rankings inherently reflect the publisher’s philosophy and values. Best Delegate’s mission is to grow the Model UN activity in terms of both quality and size. Therefore, we ultimately value both the ability to win and the ability to win at more conferences – we believe the best teams are those that can perform consistently well across many conferences and especially so at the most competitive conferences.

Our ideal rankings would reward success for winning at more conferences without a cap on number of scores and would not penalize teams for losing so-called “head-to-head matchups” at a single conference. It would reward teams for absolute success rather than relative success; it would use total weighted score of awards won instead of an awards-to-delegate ratio. This system would also reward teams that did well even if they did not win a delegation award.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough awards data at the moment for most high school MUN conferences beyond the largest ones and have to rely on delegation awards information for now when creating our rankings. In the future, we hope to improve our methodology to look more like our College Rankings methodology where we have full awards data from almost all the conferences.

Methodology

The rankings for high schools in North America are determined by the sum of the four highest scores achieved per team at conferences held in North America. A score for each conference is determined by converting delegation awards won or the total number of awards won (when information is available) into points and then multiplying those points by a conference competitiveness weighting. Greater weighting is given to awards won at the more competitive conferences. We decided to cap the number of conferences at four for this year since there is a disparate availability of Model UN conferences across geographic regions, although we anticipate to change this cap in the future. Conferences that did not submit awards data are excluded. One-day novice conferences hosted by high schools are also excluded since they focus more on training than on competition.

Essentially, the formula used for the rankings is the sum of the four highest scores when multiplying Delegation Award Score by Conference Weighting.

• Delegation Award Score: Delegation awards are converted into points. We valued delegation awards in this order: Best Large, Outstanding Large, Best Small, and Outstanding Small. Some conferences feature other types of delegation awards and we converted them appropriately depending on if that award is considered more or less prestigious than the aforementioned four awards. When data is available, teams that won numerous awards but did not win a delegation award will have their scores converted to be equivalent of placing “3rd,” “4th,” and so on.

• Conference Weighting: Every conference is assigned a competitiveness multiplier based on our internal algorithm that takes into account total size of the conference, the number of award-winning teams present, the distribution of awards among teams present, the delegate-to-committee ratio, the number of days of the conference, the number of pages in the background guide, whether it was hosted by a university/non-profit organization or a high school, and other information.

Lists of example conferences are included in each region’s description. Some of the most highly weighted conferences include in alphabetical order:

• Harvard HMUN, U.Penn ILMUNC, Georgetown NAIMUN
• Berkeley BMUN, U.Chicago MUNUC, Nationals NHSMUN, Princeton PMUNC
• Boston University BosMUN, Chicago CIMUN, Johns Hopkins JHUMUNC, George Washington WAMUNC, William & Mary WMHSMUN, Yale YMUN
• UCLA BruinMUN, Brown BUSUN, Columbia CMUNCE, Cornell CMUNC, Global Classrooms GCIMUN, Georgia Tech GTMUN,  Houston HAMUN, San Antonio MUNSA, Rutgers RUMUN, McGill SSUNS, Virginia VAMUN, among many others.

Regional Rankings

In addition to the North America Top 25, we decided to create Regional Top 25 rankings this year instead of combining the rest of the teams outside of the North America Top 25 into a national ranking. There are two reasons for this. First, teams outside the Top 25 or Top 50 tend not to travel to other regions so it makes it difficult for teams to put their success into a national context; a regional Top 25 ranking would be seen as more beneficial than a North America Top 75 or Top 100 ranking. Second, regional rankings help even out the disparity of Model UN conferences in different regions and makes it more fair for teams to be assessed against opportunities available regionally and other teams that they consistently encounter at the same conferences. Taking geography, competitiveness, number of conferences, and number of delegates into account, we divided the United States into five balanced regions: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, and West. We also included an International region for schools outside of the fifty US states that participated at the same conferences.

Tiering

Teams in the North America Top 25 are tiered into Top 5, Top 10, Top 15, Top 20, and Top 25. Regional Top 25 lists are tiered into a single Top 25. The reason for the tiering is to de-emphasize competition on the circuit after feedback from many top-25 teams (teachers and students) that the rankings have caused the circuit to become too competitive. The rankings should not be the end goal of teams. Instead, the rankings should merely be a reflection of the accomplishments that teams have already experienced throughout the season and the peers that have achieved similar success.

Disclaimer

We can only use data that is available to us. This ranking is not meant to capture all of high school MUN as some good teams participate at conferences that do not value the competitive aspect of Model UN or did not have available data, and that some top-quality programs excel in other aspects besides fielding a travel team (e.g. hosting a conference, having a MUN class, traveling abroad, doing outreach to middle schools, etc.). Please note that rankings are relative to other teams’ results, and it is also best to compare year-over-year rankings (i.e. Final 2013 vs. Final 2012) rather than against the mid-season Fall 2012 rankings.

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North America Top 25

Top 5 (alphabetical order)

Cerritos High School (California)
Cerritos moves up to the top five with its strongest performance in recent years and won the most delegation awards of any team this year. Besides a split weekend success of a Best Class Delegation at BMUN and an Award of Excellence at NHSMUN, Cerritos won Best Large Delegation awards at BruinMUN, UCIMUN, DavisMUN, Surf City MUN, and EHSMUN. The team also won awards at NAIMUN, MVHSMUN, and McKennaMUN and attended RHSMUN. The team also hosted CHSMUN which has rapidly increased in size.

Dalton School (New York)
Dalton may have the most prestigious traditional resume this year after winning Best Large Delegation awards at both HMUN and NAIMUN within a few grueling weeks of each other. The team also received the Outstanding Large Delegation award at PMUNC and CMUNC and a Best Delegation at the novice HoMMUNC. Dalton hosted its inaugural DMUN conference this Spring.

Horace Mann School (New York)
Horace Mann is practically undefeated again as its top team won the Best Large Delegation award at ILMUNC, PMUNC, WMHSMUN, and CMUNC and could be considered the best team in the nation based on that record. Don’t expect a drop-off next year — its novice team also took home an Outstanding Large Delegation award at CMUNCE. Horace Mann also hosted HoMMUNC, the largest high school-hosted conference on the East Coast.

Mira Costa High School (California)
It’s somewhat easier to put the Outstanding Large Delegation at ILMUNC “debacle” behind them when the team is able to win the Award of Distinction at NHSMUN and Best Class Delegation at BMUN (both equivalent to first place) with a split team on the same weekend. The team also finished first at BUSUN, Surf City MUN, and EHSMUN, second at RHSMUN, attended McKenna MUN, traveled to Paris for the THIMUN-affiliated PAMUN, and attended other novice conferences. Mira Costa also hosted LAIMUN.

University of Chicago Laboratory School (Illinois)
Chicago Lab made two trips to Boston this year and won the Outstanding Large Delegation at HMUN and the Best Large Delegation at BosMUN. The team also received the Best Small Delegation at PMUNC and WUMUNS and the Best Large Delegation at NUMUN.

Top 10 (alphabetical order)

Centennial High School (Georgia)
Centennial is back in the top ten after winning a pair of nationally prominent awards. The team received the Award of Distinction at NHSMUN and added a second Northeast trip for the first time ever to HMUN where it won the Best Small Delegation award. In addition, Centennial won delegation awards at GTMUN and SUSMUN.

Huntington Beach High School (California)
Huntington Beach put together another solid season. Highlights include a Best Class Delegation award at BMUN, a Best Small Delegation award at WMHSMUN, and Award of Distinction at RHSMUN, a Best California Delegation at BruinMUN, a Best Large Delegation awards at MVHSMUN and EHSMUN. They hosted two conferences: Surf City MUN and HB Novice.

J.P. Stevens High School (New Jersey)
Although JP Stevens may not have that Best Large Delegation award at HMUN this year, they did have a stronger overall resume than last year and a story of resiliency after Hurriance Sandy in the Fall. Their second-half successes included a third place finish at HMUN, the Outstanding Large Delegation at NAIMUN, and the Best Small Delegation at CMUNC. The team also hosted JPSMUN.

West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (New Jersey)
NorthMUN ended its season on a strong note by taking home the Best Large Delegation at WAMUNC and the Outstanding Large Delegation at BosMUN. The team was also among the top performers at two of the most competitive conferences in the Mid-Atlantic, ILMUNC and PMUNC.

West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (New Jersey)
SouthMUN competed primarily as a small delegation this year and not only won delegation awards at highly competitive conferences but scored as if it were a large delegation. The three Best Small Delegation awards were from NAIMUN, ILMUNC, and RUMUN. The team was also among the top performers at PMUNC.

Top 15 (alphabetical order)

American Heritage School (Florida)
There soon could be a new top team from Florida, and this time they’re from the Miami side of the state. American Heritage burst onto the national scene with a 1st place finish at MUNUC, an Outstanding Small Delegation WMHSMUN, an Award of Merit at NHSMUN, and a Best Large Delegation at MICSUN. It’ll be interesting to see if they will encounter the established Southwest Florida powerhouses next year.

Gulf Coast High School (Florida)
Gulf Coast continues to upgrade its national schedule and was very successful with an Outstanding Small Delegation at ILMUNC. Within the Southeast, Gulf Coast won Outstanding Large Delegation awards at GatorMUN, GTMUN, and SWFLMUN. They did not beat rival Port Charlotte this year, but a closer look at the individual award results show that they have mostly caught up to them this year.

Langley High School (Virginia)
Langley significantly improved this year with an expanded schedule, and the result is the team moving up the rankings after strong performances at competitive conferences including third place at ILMUNC, Best Large Delegation at WMHSMUN (second place overall), Best Large Delegation at DUMUNC, and Best Large Delegation at TechMUN and Chantilly MUN.

Port Charlotte High School (Florida)
Port Charlotte’s strength of schedule was lower this year than in previous years, but it still went undefeated and should be recognized as a top team. The team won the Best Large Delegation award at SSUNS, GatorMUN, SWFLMUN, and GTMUN, and it took home the Best Small Delegation award at NUMUN.

Stuyvesant High School (New York)
Stuyvesant is among the most improved teams this year and collected several prominent delegation awards including the Best Large Delegation at JHUMUNC, the Outstanding Large Delegation at WAMUNC, equivalent to second BUSUN, and an Outstanding Delegation at the novice HoMMUNC. The team also hosted StuyMUNC.

Top 20 (alphabetical order)

New Canaan High School (Connecticut)
New Canaan might have one of the most prestigious schedules in the nation as it only attends Ivy League-hosted conferences domestically. The team continues to improve and received the Outstanding Large Delegation award at YMUN and DartMUN and won numerous awards at HMUN, PMUNC, BUSUN, and CMUNC. The team also traveled abroad to THIMUN and attended several local novice conferences. New Canaan would probably be ranked higher if the methodology did not have a cap of four conferences.

Radnor High School (Pennsylvania)
Radnor built a strong resume this year highlighted by an Award of Distinction (first place) at NHSMUN and a Best Large Delegation at PhilMUN. The team also won an Outstanding Medium Delegation at RUMUN and had a solid performance at NAIMUN.

St. Ignatius College Prep (Illinois)
St. Ignatius had a national schedule and finished second at CIMUN, won a Best Club award at BMUN, Best Large Delegation at WUMUNS, and was among the top teams at BosMUN. The team also hosted SIMUN and co-hosted SILTMUN.

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology (Virginia)
TJ continues to maintain a high ranking as its large delegations obtain high absolute scores at competitive conferences. This included a fourth place finish at ILMUNC and an Outstanding Large Delegation award at WMHSMUN (third overall) this year.

Upper Canada College (Ontario, Canada)
UCC is the top team from Canada after taking home the Best Large Delegation at CMUNCE. The team also finished second overall at SSUNS and first place at UTMUN.

Top 25 (alphabetical order)

Bergen County Academies (New Jersey)
BCA breaks into the end-of-season top 25 with strong performances including a Best Large Delegation award at YMUN and a Best Medium Delegation award at RUMUN. The team also hosted Academy MUN.

Franklin High School (New Jersey)
Franklin maintains its top-25 ranking with results such as an Award of Excellence at NHSMUN and a Best Large Delegation award at RUMUN. It also hosted its FHSMUN conference.

Liberty Public Schools (Missouri)
Liberty Public Schools broke into the Top 25 after barely missing it last year. Highlights include an improved second place finish at MUNUC, an Outstanding Large Delegation at WUMUNS, and first and second place finishes at MKCMUN as it sought to expand its schedule this year.

Lyons Township High School (Illinois)
Lyons Township is in the end-of-season national top 25 for the first time after an upset first-place victory at CIMUN, an Outstanding Large Delegation award at NUMUN, and awards at NAIMUN. The team also co-hosted the SILTMUN conference.

Richland Northeast High School (South Carolina)
Richland Northeast continues to be a top-25 mainstay thanks to another Award of Distinction at both NHSMUN and SUSMUN. This is the team’s 24th delegation award in 31 years at NHSMUN.

The five teams closest to the top 25 are (in alphabetical order): Bishop Strachan School (Ontario, Canada), Canterbury School (Ft. Myers, Florida), East Brunswick High School (New Jersey), Highland Park High School (Illinois), and Oceanside High School (New York).

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Here are the Regional Top 25 rankings. Teams in the National Top 25 are included in each regional ranking.

Northeast Top 25

The Northeast region consists of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hamsphire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Notable conferences in the Northeast include HMUN, NHSMUN, GCIMUN, BosMUN, YMUN, CMUNC, CMUNCE, BUSUN, CNYMUN, and DartMUN among others. The top 25 is determined by each team’s top four aggregate scores across all conferences nationwide. New York teams are the most represented in this region. Here is the Northeast Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• Bay Shore High School (New York)
• Bedford High School (New Hampshire)
• Boston University Academy (Massachusetts)
• Bromfield School (Massachusetts)
• Brooklyn Friends School (New York)
• Choate Rosemary Hall (Connecticut)
• Concord Academy (Massachusetts)
• Dalton School (New York)
• Dana Hall School (Massachusetts)
• Elmont Memorial High School (New York)
• Horace Mann School (New York)
• Hunter College High School (New York)
• Kew Forest School (New York)
• Manlius Pebble Hill School (New York)
• New Canaan High School (Connecticut)
• Oceanside High School (New York)
• Phillips Academy (Massachusetts)
• Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire)
• Poughkeepsie Day School (New York)
• Scarsdale High School (New York)
• St. John’s Prep (Massachusetts)
• St. Luke’s School (Connecticut)
• Stuyvesant High School (New York)
• Trumbull High School (Connecticut)
• Ward Melville High School (New York)

Mid-Atlantic Top 25

The Mid-Atlantic region consists of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, and West Virginia. Notable conferences in the Mid-Atlantic include NAIMUN, ILMUNC, PMUNC, WAMUNC, JHUMUNC, WMHSMUN, RUMUN, VAMUN, ODUMUNC, and SHUMUN among others. The top 25 is determined by each team’s top four aggregate scores across all conferences nationwide. New Jersey teams are the most represented in this region. Here is the Mid-Atlantic Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• Bayard Rustin High School (Pennsylvania)
• Bergen County Academies (New Jersey)
• East Brunswick High School (New Jersey)
• Franklin High School (New Jersey)
• Henrico High School (Virginia)
• J.P. Stevens High School (New Jersey)
• Langley High School (Virginia)
• Lawrenceville School (New Jersey)
• Leonardtown High School (Maryland)
• Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School (Virginia)
• Mt. Lebanon High School (Pennsylvania)
• Newark Academy (New Jersey)
• Princeton High School (New Jersey)
• Princeton Day School (New Jersey)
• Radnor High School (Pennsylvania)
• Rutgers Preparatory School (New Jersey)
• Salesianum School (Delaware)
• School Without Walls (Washington DC)
• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology (Virginia)
• Thomas S. Wootton High School (Maryland)
• Upper Merion Area High School (Pennsylvania)
• West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (New Jersey)
• West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South (New Jersey)
• Winston Churchill High School (Maryland)
• Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School (Pennsylvania)

Midwest Top 25

The Midwest region consists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Notable conferences in the Midwest include MUNUC, CIMUN, MUNUM, MSUMUN, NUMUN, MKCMUN, WUMUNS, Topeka MUN, GLIMUN, and IHSMUN among many other mid-sized conferences. The top 25 is determined by each team’s top four aggregate scores across all conferences nationwide. Illinois teams are the most represented in this region. Here is the Midwest Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Illinois)
• Blake School (Minnesota)
• Cambridge-Isanti High School (Minnesota)
• Chicagoland Jewish High School (Illinois)
• Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School (Michigan)
• Culver Academy (Indiana)
• Deerfield High School (Illinois)
• Edina High School (Minnesota)
• Glenbard West High School (Illinois)
• Glenbrook South High School (Illinois)
• Highland Park High School (Illinois)
• Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy (Illinois)
• Lahser High School (Michigan)
• Latin School of Chicago (Illinois)
• Liberty Public Schools (Missouri)
• Lyons Township High School (Illinois)
• Mattawan High School (Michigan)
• Miami Valley School (Ohio)
• Rock Bridge High School (Missouri)
• Royal Oak High School (Michigan)
• St. Ignatius College Prep (Illinois)
• Troy High School (Michigan)
• University of Chicago Laboratory School (Illinois)
• University of Detroit Jesuit High School (Michigan)
• Verona Area High School (Wisconsin)

South Top 25

The South region consists of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Notable conferences in the South include HAMUN, MUNSA, GTMUN, GatorMUN, FIMUN, SWFLMUN, DUMUNC, CTMUN, SUSMUN, and Arkansas MUN among others. The top 25 is determined by each team’s top four aggregate scores across all conferences nationwide. Florida teams are the most represented in this region. Here is the South Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• American Heritage School (Florida)
• Belen Jesuit High School (Florida)
• Canterbury School (Ft. Myers, Florida)
• Cape Coral High School (Florida)
• Centennial High School (Georgia)
• Clark High School (Texas)
• Cypress Bay High School (Florida)
• DeSoto Central High School (Mississippi)
• Early College at Guilford (North Carolina)
• Fulton Science Academy (Georgia)
• Gulf Coast High School (Florida)
• Hardaway High School (Georgia)
• Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School (Florida)
• Hillsborough High School (Florida)
• McCallie School (Tennessee)
• Oasis High School (Florida)
• Pope John Paul II High School (Tennessee)
• Port Charlotte High School (Florida)
• Richland Northeast High School (South Carolina)
• Ronald Reagan High School (Texas)
• Saint Petersburg High School (Florida)
• Spanish River High School (Florida)
• Theodore Roosevelt High School (Texas)
• William P. Clements High School (Texas)
• Woodlands College Park High School (Texas)

West Top 25

The West region consists of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Notable conferences in the West include BMUN, BruinMUN, SMUNC, UCIMUN, DavisMUN, RHSMUN, Surf City MUN, MVHSMUN, THSMUN, and EHSMUN among others including conferences outside of California. The top 25 is determined by each team’s top four aggregate scores across all conferences nationwide. California teams are the most represented in this region. Here is the West Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• Boulder High School (Colorado)
• California High School (San Ramon, California)
• Capistrano Valley High School (California)
• Cerritos High School (California)
• Chaminade High School (California)
• Edison High School (Huntington Beach, California)
• Henry M. Gunn High School (California)
• Huntington Beach High School (California)
• Iolani School (Hawaii)
• League of Creative Minds (California)
• Marymount High School (California)
• Mira Costa High School (California)
• Mission Viejo High School (California)
• Mountain View High School (Arizona)
• Northgate High School (California)
• Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (California)
• Santa Margarita Catholic High School (California)
• Santa Teresa High School (California)
• Spring Valley High School (Nevada)
• St. Mary’s Academy (Colorado)
• Tustin High School (California)
• University High School (Arizona)
• University High School (Irvine, California)
• Whitney High School (California)
• Wood River High School (Idaho)

International Top 25

The International Top 25 is meant to recognize teams from outside the 50 US states for the successes at competitive American conferences. It is not meant to measure the entire team’s success throughout the year as they most likely attend local conferences that were not included in the methodology. Note that teams from Canada and Puerto Rico are listed here instead of being integrated into a North American lists since almost all of those teams only attend one American conference per year and did not fit into the five geographical regions. Here is the International Top 25 in alphabetical order:

• Academia Merici (Venezuela)
• Aitchison College (Pakistan)
• Alpha Partners (China)
• American Institute of Monterrey (Mexico)
• American School of Brasilia (Brazil)
• Baldwin School of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico)
• Bishop Strachan School (Canada)
• Cathedral and John Connon School (India)
• Colegio Puertorriqueño de Niñas (Puerto Rico)
• Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola (Puerto Rico)
• Doon School (India)
• École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel (France)
• Instituto Andes (Venezuela)
• Instituto Cumbres de Caracas (Venezuela)
• Liceo Statale Danta Algheri (Italy)
• Lyceum School (Pakistan)
• Oakville Trafalgar High School (Canada)
• Robert College (Turkey)
• Saint John’s School (Puerto Rico)
• Sanskriti School (India)
• Skinner’s School (United Kingdom)
• Strathcona Tweedsmuir School (Canada)
• Taipei American School (Taiwan)
• Unidad Educativa Academia Washington (Venezuela)
• Upper Canada College (Canada)

Posted in: Final 2012-2013 High School Rankings