Compare two schools.
A candidate interviewing at two schools doesn’t want two separate reports. A sitting Head doesn’t read about Phillips Andover alone — they read it alongside Lawrenceville. Pick two and read them in parallel.
The Westminster Schools is a day school; The Lawrenceville School is a boarding school. Day and boarding schools run on different financial models — they hold reserves differently, dorms and dining change the cost base, and lining up two different types can make a fair one look worse than it is. You can still read them side by side below; just keep the type difference in mind.
The Westminster Schools
The Lawrenceville School
On the money side, The Lawrenceville School looks the stronger of the two: its finances read as stable, against stable but worth keeping an eye on for The Westminster Schools.
The Lawrenceville School sits on the deeper reserve cushion — about 9.1 years of operating expenses set aside, against 4.2 years at The Westminster Schools.
The Lawrenceville School is the larger institution — $102.4M in annual revenue against $88.6M at The Westminster Schools (enrolling roughly 818 and 1,900 students, respectively).
One contrast worth flagging: The Westminster Schools leans far more on tuition — about 79% of its revenue comes from tuition and fees, versus 60% at The Lawrenceville School — so a soft enrollment year would hit it harder.
A quick read of the biggest differences. Every number behind it is in the columns below, each with a plain-English note on what the gap means.
The Westminster Schools is burning the cushion faster than the 4.2-year buffer suggests. Expenses are outpacing revenue 5.8% vs -3.9% per year over three years, and the latest operating margin is -13.6% on a 79% tuition-dependent revenue mix. Covering the deficit at today's rate, it would take more than a decade to exhaust reserves — the full budget, by contrast, is covered for about 4.2 years if every revenue line stopped. The board conversation here is the recovery plan for the operating model and the timeline to break-even. NACUBO Composite Financial Index: 2.7 / 10, watch.
The Lawrenceville School is burning the cushion faster than the 9.1-year buffer suggests. Expenses are outpacing revenue 4.6% vs -4.9% per year over three years, and the latest operating margin is -10.6% on a 60% tuition-dependent revenue mix. Covering the deficit at today's rate, it would take more than a decade to exhaust reserves — the full budget, by contrast, is covered for about 9.1 years if every revenue line stopped. The board conversation here is the recovery plan for the residential model and the timeline to break-even. NACUBO Composite Financial Index: 3.9 / 10, adequate — monitor.
Segment note · The Lawrenceville School. The Lawrenceville School is a residential boarding school. Boarding schools operate full residential programs on top of academics, which shifts how to read the financials: (a) reserve coverage is typically longer — 5-10 years is normal vs 1-3 for day schools, because dorms, dining, and residential plant carry capex obligations no day school has, (b) revenue per student is higher because tuition covers room and board, (c) tuition dependency can be high without being concerning if the endowment cushion is deep, (d) staff comp is often higher because residential faculty carry housing and benefits beyond salary. Read the percentiles below against same-segment peers, not the full K-12 cohort.