Private boarding schools, despite their social amenities and allegedly tougher curricula, take a scholastic back seat to high schools. Research made public this week by a Grant Study anthropologist reveals that College students with a high school background consistently outrank their private school counterparts.

The survey, conducted by Carl C. Seltzer for the Department of Hygiene and recently published in the Journal of Psychology, is based primarily on studies of the Classes of 1943 and 1944. In these classes, the report states, "Students admitted from public schools presented markedly superior academic performances in the Freshman year than those admitted from private schools."

In general, twice as many high school students make the Dean's List than boys from other schools, while twice as many private boarding school boys wind up as academic failures.

Enter on Same Ground

"There was a striking similarity between the average Scholastic Aptitude Test and Mathematical Aptitude Test scores of the public, private day, and private boarding school students," the report continues. "There was no evidence that the groups of private school boys in the series were measurably different from public school students."