The 10 Most Legendary Prep Schools in America: Part 1

The 10 Most Legendary Prep Schools in America

Posted on Tuesday May 22, 2012
by Staff Writers from bestcollegesonline.com

While many students set their sights on top colleges by toiling away at public schools, a select few are able to afford the luxury of studying at highly exclusive prep schools. Many of these schools were established as feeders for renowned universities like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, and are designed with the express goal of high-level college in mind. Often, the students at these schools are the sons and daughters of government figures, celebrities, business magnates, and even royalty. Many go on to fill these types of roles themselves. Naturally, there is a major air of prestige, history, and even legendary status when it comes to these schools. We’ve highlighted 10 of the most legendary of college prep schools, full of history, famous alumni, and even a few interesting stories.  Below are the first two prep schools:

1 Phillips Exeter Academy

Founded in 1781 as a feeder school to Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy is considered to be one of the most prestigious prep schools in existence. Exeter has, hands down, one of the largest endowments of any U.S. prep school at $1 billion. The school boasts the largest secondary school library in the world with 160,000 volumes on nine levels and is recognized as one of the Masterworks of Modern American Architecture. Alumni of Exeter include U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, members of Congress, Attorney Generals, notable writers, business figures, and celebrated artists, including Mark Zuckerberg, John Irving, Gore Vidal, and members of the Rockefeller family.

2 Phillips Academy

Commonly referred to as Andover, Phillips Academy was founded by Samuel Phillips Jr., the nephew of Phillips Exeter founder John Phillips. Andover was established just three years prior to Exeter, and the two schools have enjoyed an intense rivalry from the beginning. The academy established a pedigree of excellence early on: Paul Revere himself designed the school’s seal, and upon visiting the campus, George Washington was so impressed that he encouraged his nephews to attend (and they did). The school’s articles of incorporation boast the signature of John Hancock. The Andover campus is home to not one, but two museums featuring major works; The Addison Gallery of American Art boasts more than 16,000 works in all media, and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology is one of the foremost Native American archaeological collections. Andover has educated two American Presidents — both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — as well as inventor Sam Morse and actor Humphrey Bogart (who was expelled). Graduates of Andover typically matriculate to top-tier colleges including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia, as the school was originally set up to send its students to Yale. Like Yale, Andover has secret societies, although officially, they were terminated in the 1940s.

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