Tell Me About Phillips Academy Andover

What am I, chopped liver?

They let anybody in these schools now. It’s a free-for-all.

There were selective up until about 50 years ago.

As if

Like all of the old school New England schools, it bears little to no resemblance to the Eldergay Fantasy expressed by OP.

Rather, it has a sizeable population of Asian-Americans (Indians and Chinese) a decent sized Black and Latino population, a decent sized international population (and not from Europe, Canada or Australia) along an odd mix of the white children of alumni and wealthy kids from areas where the local public and day school options were not very good.

I knew kids who went there about 20 years ago and it was starting to change even then, the schools were all trying to be more diverse. Lots of the kids my age became druggie-granola types, at least until they graduated, at which point they decided that B-school or a job in tech was more interesting than following Phish around.

The kids I knew either had parents who went there, parents with strong social ambitions (usually Jewish) or were messing up in their Manhattan day schools and their parents (and shrinks) thought "a different environment" would help.

"and their parents (and shrinks) thought "a different environment" would help."

And did it?

The good ole days! 1960's!

Both Exter and Andover have "transgender" dorms.

The Cabots and Lowells must be spinning in their graves.

"Hot-Kiss" or go home. The biggest teen cocks.

Prep schools today are full of Chinese, Indians and blacks on scholarship.

The WASP world that our eldersisters hold dear is long, long gone.

I think many WASP kids who back in the day would have been sent off to the elite preps, go to local schools. Today's parents are very close to their kids.

I worked in that area for about 4 years and loathed the area and the people. Garbage.

And Andover Ma (the municipality) is a real old school "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" town as my company learned..

Hated that fucking place and not a fan of that part of Massachusetts- Lowell/Andover/N Andover/Methuen.

Its generally ugly as balls and too haves/have not-ish

But yes, Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter, as well St Pauls School (not as much after scandals) are very good schools.

I doubt if the Chinese foreign nationals need money.

The difference with Andover over the other top ten private schools in the country, is that this school has created programs that benefit the wider program of education. They have a program for under represented leaders in education that is developing into well respected center. Past heads of gone on to be leaders in different programs like Brown...Ted Sizer started the Coalition for Essentials Schools and the most recent past head , John Palfrey, is now the head of the MacArthur Foundation. Right now their current head is a gay man with a partner. and I believe a family.

Most of the white men who graduated from the top ten schools in the past...Bush and the like...would never survive in these institutions. They are top notch schools, your name might get you in, but if you aren't a good student, you won't last.

The thing they are struggling with now is making things inclusive, not only involving race...but financially inclusive. All private schools were at one time only for the rich and the few scholarship students, now they have a huge amount of scholarship students, but the culture is still geared to the wealthy.

I have worked in private schools for over 30 years, maybe at the beginning of my career I would have loved to have worked at one of the top ten, but now they are mini colleges and the communities are no longer the same...very competitive and not community orientated...this is from a teacher/admin perspective.

Like the Ivy League - that old money fantasy is dead. Still rich - but not the important social marker it once was. No reason to ship kids off now. Useful for minority and underprivileged to learn the social habits and nuances of behavior to integrate with the 5%.

Yes I ironically they have really turned into free ride finishing schools for the underclass.

Which was the elite prep with the woke dean who helped a black boy on scholarship (and with a single mom) secretly and medically trans to girl?

All a fella needs to know.

One of my suite-mates in freshman year of college had gone there. He was a Black guy from Chicago. He really enjoyed his experience and said it helped him become comfortable around white people.

Exeter and Andover were always the most diverse and the most akin to “top public high schools” even in my gen. St Paul’s was always the polar opposite and would be the closest (of any of the boarding schools) to the old school ways these days.

My paternal grandfather went to Andover and so did my great-grandfather (on both sides).

Dad wasn't able to continue the "legacy" because Andover went co-ed when it was his time. My grandparents frowned upon sending their kids to co-ed schools before college because that was the thinking that time.

Dad went to St. Alban's instead and so did I. Come to think of it, maybe if I went to a co-ed school I wouldn't have ended up gay.

The WASP pipeline isn't what it was but it's still around.

Hi, R19! This is R20. You are spot-on with your observation of Exeter and Andover. I went to my closest cousin's commencement a decade ago. We're about the same age. I was surprised how diverse the student body in Exeter is compared to mine in St. Alban's. I imagine both Philips schools would be more "diverse" now.

Now St. Paul's. I do have a lot of colleagues from there. Also in college I made some friends from that school and they're very good squash players. They were almost half of the club on campus during my time.

In the 80s, my rich limousine-liberal cool friends had gone to Northfield Mount Hermon School. It was the "Brown" of the prep schools. Still true?

R23. Brown grad here. NMH was very well represented when I was at Brown. Your depiction is right on. Uma Thurman went there. And the ones at Brown were all dead heads and hippies. But good school

None of you matter.

Saint Grottlesex

^ and per the earlier comment, I venture to say at Brown, the entire mens squash team was either St Paul’s or Groton. Groton also dominated crew team.

R23 Cornell here. Yes the NMHs were Dead Heads and hippy-artsy-fartsies. Pleasant and fun. Scratch a bit and you learned about the 5 million dollar trust funds (hey, it was the 80s) and rambling beach houses, the organic farm, the gentleman cabinet maker father, the anthropologist granny. etc.

Just wondered if this type even exists anymore.

R25, I love that you could produce that post!

At Phillips Academy Andover all seems to breathe freedom and peace and to make forget the world and its sad turmoils.

But what of the Groton School? Is it considered lower rung compared to the ones talked about here? I visited home for the summer a few years ago (pre-COVID) and started fucking a Northwestern junior who had gone there. He was an adorable WASP and certainly from a LOT of money but I hadn’t really met many people who went there as opposed to the ones named already.

As per my comment at R4, these sorts of things become a flywheel.

As the New England prep schools develop a reputation for being a place for the children of overly ambitious Chinese and Indian immigrants , the less appeal they have to white American parents, who are already skeptical of prep schools, even if they are alumni, the more the schools need to reach out to wealthy Middle Easterners and Asians to fill slots, the less white Americans want to send their kids there and so on.

That flywheel is also helped along by the fact that Ivy admission is all over the place and it's conventional wisdom among the upper middle classes that for white kids with college educated parents--even alumni parents-- getting into any Ivy, Duke, Stanford, et al has become a crap shoot as those schools all look for more and more diversity....

And then the flywheel spins again: as the Managing Directors at Goldman, McKinsey, Google et al have come to understand that their kids and their friends aren't getting into the Ivies in the numbers they used to, they've expanded the list of places where they recruit from to include schools like Vanderbilt, Wash U, Northwestern, USC et al which are still happy to take a dozen smart white kids from New Canaan, Scarsdale and Horace Mann every year.

PS: And thank you R28 for acknowledging that your memories are almost 40 years old

What in the Sam Hill is a flywheel?

^ RIGHT? Private school kids seem like they were raised on another planet to me, and I went to a public school in a wealthy area, so I thought I had dealt with the apex of odd and snotty rich kids.

This thread prompted me to look up what the Groton/Northwestern kid is up to (he sends me a meme on Instagram once in a blue moon - he was really quite sweet but too blue blooded for me to seriously date - I was born and raised a middle class Jew) and he's a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. Maybe he's now a rice queen?

R32 I am one of those prep school grads that didn't make it to the Ivies. Applied to Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Yale.

Academies for boys are so overrated.

Why didn’t you apply yourself r35?

One of the most charming things about DL is how many of you didn't understand that Lisa Birnbach's Official Pretty Handbook was satire. Your idea of the WASP lifestyle and prep schools is from a far distant past.

LOL, yes R38.

My mother grew up with Birnbach--she did not know her very well, as they were a few years apart in age, but they were both part of the same Jewish-UES-private school crowd. And yes the book was intended as satire and Birnbach was allegedly shocked that people took it as a how-to guide instead.

R33/R34 - The "flywheel effect" is a popular business term. It means, essentially, when a number of similar small things combine to create a wave that is bigger than all of the small things combined and that then causes more of the small things to happen.

So lots of people start buying iPhones which then causes app manufacturers to make more apps for iPhone (vs Android) which then creates the impression that iPhone has all the good apps first, which gets even more people to buy iPhones, which gets even more app manufacturers to make apps for iPhone first, etc.

Make sense?

Ils this you, R39?

In college, I had the hugest crush on a boy who went to Andover. Tall, handsome, such a sparkling smile and twinkly blue eyes, athletic, popular, and out and proud in high school. To me, he truly was the prep school fantasy of a Separate Peace. Never could seduce him, although I later slept with his ex-boyfriend and at least earned a couple higher marks.

The crush was severe because I went to prep school too, yet it was total anathema. I went to St. Albans as a day student in the 1990s, but in my time I didn't know a single gay (Where were you R20 ?), except there was one lad who announced his sexuality by posting a flyer on the corkboard in the hall and within months transferred to the progressive Quaker school down the road.

Every time I hear stories of homoerotic behavior in prep schools, I feel that I definitely did not get my parents' money's worth. Perhaps I was too late for the crazy 70s boarding school anarchy and too early for today's openness.

R20 - I'd be interested to know if you found any hot mischief during your time at STA.

I went to Lakeside, the Seattle equivalent in the late 70s and Stanford in the early 80s. Even back then the white legacy power structure was crumbling.

Birnbach's Official Pretty Handbook

I went to Avon Old Farms (yes I know, not as prestigious) in the 1990s and as far as I know there was ZERO hanky panky going on between the male students. Believe me, I looked for it!

Avon Old Farms must be the tweeist looking prep school of all.

I received a wonderful education r45.

But there were several guys I was so in lust with it was very frustrating!

Does someone die in A Separate Peace? I was supposed to read it in junior high but never did.

I was only commenting on the uber-ersatz Ye Olde Worldy campus. Though I haven't seen it in 50 years. I supposed it's vastly built up by now.

I wouldn't call it ersatz at all, it's quite lovely and doesn't look like an inferior copy of something English.

Did I get molested on a visit to Andover? Or was it Miss Porter's?

Avon is a Cotswold wet dream. You're not very worldly, are you?

It’s nothing compared to Upper Richmond. It’s top drawer. Really top drawer.

r51 I merely said it not ersatz, which means an inferior copy.

JFC don't get into a pissing contest about "breeding."

a question of taste then, carry on.

Alright r54. You don't know as much as you think you do, but we'll just leave you be.

[quote] Though I haven't seen it in 50 years.

Stay gold, Datalounge.

Stay gold.

What about the little Ivies? My understanding is that 20 years ago, places like Williams was filled with Phillips-types.

An Ivy degree isn't as prestigious as it used to be.

Will it be like The Sneeches? Now that all races have access to private high schools and Ivy League colleges, will it still be as sought after?

One thing I’ve been fascinated with is it must be one of the few boarding school with its own art museum. And it’s not like a museum of student works, but a real art museum, one that most universities would be envious to have with a world class collection.

I always thought it weird that parents sent their kids away to boarding school. It’s like people have kids. It don’t want to actually see or raise them.

In college, there were many kids from these elite boarding schools. Half were totally normal. The other half were completely screwed up. They had too much independence at an early age. The tales of sex and drugs at these schools were ubiquitous

R61

Harks back to Europe, in particular England (or Britain if you will), where for ages tradition dictated boys were sent off to boarding school. Nearly all of great public schools of Great Britain began as boarding schools for sons of well off families. Some took day students (those who lived in area close enough to commute).

.,.,

As for the rest, Mr. Babcock as trustee for Patrick Denis in play/book "Auntie Mame" lays out common enough thinking that went on in certain families well past WWII.

Leaving aside tradition families wanted their sons or to have a quality education but also surrounded by the child's peers. That is other boys and girls from their own social class, this wasn't always possible locally, so kids got shipped off to boarding schools.

Of course shipping kids off to some school far away from urban areas meant they grew up in sort of a cocoon, less exposed to riff-raff and so on. For Catholic families sending girls away to convent schools was something that also came from Europe (notably France). Education was one goal, but the other was to preserve their chastity until fetched out, brought out (debutante), then promptly married off.

It's where the baby illuminati go

Whit Stillman's 1990 film "Metropolitan" captured the last gasps of old WASP prep/boarding school/Ivies world. An insular world where everyone knew everyone else (or at leas their families).

R41 - Hello there! These might not be mischievous enough for your taste, but here goes.

There was a trendy prank in our Form V class where the guys would shuck someone's pants baring cock and balls to the world. I fell victim to this but it only made me popular because I was larger than average even when soft. This was put to a stop quickly by HM Vance haha.

Lots of crotch grabbing and butt pinching (as a joke)

Some guys masturbating together to porn before chapel.

In Form VI, an NCS girl caught a guy from the ice hockey team making out with her brother (who goes to G Prep).

As for me, I only had "fun" when my older brother graduated from STA and I was "free" to play with a classmate but still super discreet. We were each other's first experiences and he was truly my first boy crush. His family lived in Petworth but his parents are always away so I always stayed over, cramming SAT review and sucking each other off.

I went there late 2000s - early 2010s, and boy let me tell you, STA was still quite behind the times. There were no "out" gay guys, but there are a few who we know hooked up with guys (usually Hoyas) or each other outside of school.

PS, R41: I was also a day student, so this might not be representative enough for all "homoerotic" stuff that went on in STA during my time.

I also am curious to hearing other experiences from more "open-minded" boys school.

Phillips Andover is strictly top drawer.

Top drawer? But there's no winter session in Gstaad!

Chapel? What's that?

God know any jerking off would've been welcome but at Avon Old Farms we had no Jesus and no circle jerks. Godamnit.

[quote]I went there late 2000s - early 2010s, and boy let me tell you, STA was still quite behind the times. There were no "out" gay guys, but there are a few who we know hooked up with guys (usually Hoyas) or each other outside of school.

Isn't that sad, though? Even at this late date you couldn't express yourselves and be who you were. All of it is sad. From the prep schools to the redneck public schools in the Godforsaken hinterlands.

It's all tragic. Sorrowful.

[quote]Top drawer? But there's no winter session in Gstaad!

DARLING. Pat Buckley adjusted the oxygen tank and made sure I had a WONDERFUL TIME.

Until she and I both asphyxiated. Of course.

Pat smoked Merits. I smoked Parliaments.

And fucking hell we're both glad we're dead and not here to see it.

You understand.

Ypir wouldn't be caught dead sending her children to the Avon Lady school.

Wealth was the way to get in historically. These schools were feeders to the ivy league, mainly because everyone had money.

Let’s not pretend everyone was also very intelligent

R75

That is correct, until post WWII with GI Bill and subsequent government financial aid there wasn't much of it about. Families or persons paid for higher education out of their own pockets, and or received some sort of scholarship.

Ironically it was males themselves by 1960's for forced many Ivies and other top (but all male) colleges to go co-ed. Young men were voting with their feet and made it clear they didn't wish to attend all male universities. This wasn't obviously 100%, but enough numbers were making that decision so powers had to listen. One by one barriers to female admissions began to fall.

As for not all students at Ivies not being bright, well that goes back to Oxford and Cambridge.

Young men went up to those colleges and remained maybe two years even though they were not academically gifted. But since they were sons of peers or other influential men.... Eventually they either got sent down for poor grades or something else, or like Charles Ryder left of their own accord to pursue other things.

Even the not so bright who managed to graduate could count on family connections to find employment of some sort. Like Patrick Denis they could be slipped into a berth at some investment bank, publishing firm, finance, even government/civil service.

Until well past 1960's white/WASPS on both sides of Atlantic ran entire industries such as advertising, publishing, law, certain areas of civil service (notably diplomatic core), various industries, etc... So there was usually someplace to stick an idiot son, nephew, grandson, son in-law either one's own or that of a friend.

Some of the ivies didn't need to "force" their campus to go CO-ED because there were women's undergraduate schools affixed. Harvard Radcliffe, Columbia Barnard, Brown Pembroke, and Cornell was long co-ed.

Radcliffe had a relationship with Harvard, but it was not same as today's modern co-ed institution.

Similar relationship existed between Columbia and Barnard, though full merger between the two schools was far more of a battle.

Barnard maintains it's independence as an undergraduate college in Columbia. As you all know. A female can apply to Barnard or to Columbia College of Columbia University and they are not the same "schools".

Barnard apparently is the "safety school" at Columbia.

Vassar got openly gayish when it went coed. The trustees got sick of this and asked admissions to degay it around 1980. Recruit happy soccer and lacrosse jock boys, etc. I got into 4 Ivies yet Vassar rejected me because I flamed form outer space. Later on they no longer needed to do this because the trustees died and gay became so blasé again.

Remember too that in days of yore, the upper and upper middle classes did not live in separate communities the way they do now.

Take, for instance, the set-up of Riverdale (Archie comics) where Veronica Lodge was a rich girl who lived in the same town as, and went to school with, very middle class kids. Show that to kids today and it almost makes no sense--suburbia is very economically segregated and the formerly blue collar sections of towns like Greenwich, CT have been "gentrified" by white collar professionals.

Point being that prep school was once a place where wealthy families could send their kids to ensure they met others of their social class. That's not a big issue now as they all live together in the same towns where they go to the same public or day schools This is a very Northeastern thing as in the Northeast, school districts are by township, not by county and so if you get a town that is 95% upper middle class, the school will reflect that.

Ditto Manhattan--in the 60s and 70s it was pretty seedy and families worried about their kids being out and about, both because they could be mugged or because they'd fall in with "a bad crowd" and so sent them off. (This is my mother's explanation, anyway) But today it is super gentrified and families no longer worry about their kids in those ways.

Why isn’t Pembroke (Brown for lady scholars) considered one of the Seven Sisters?

Pembroke was very small and very much a part of Brown from the get go. Also, I think Pembroke never had much money poured into it, nor for that matter did Brown for a century. Brown was the poorest Ivy.

R83

Which explains why Frasier and Niles Crane (from decidedly middle class background) ended up at prep school. Both went on to Ivies (IIRC) for graduate and doctorate studies, and emerged two of the most pretentious snobs and first class bores.

Hi fellow Albanian R20 ! I'm envious you had classmate-boyfriend-blowbuddy, even though it's crazy there were still no out gay guys just a decade ago. I never touched another dick, let alone swallowed one, until college. Spent 25 years making up for it, yet I will never be sated. I suppose it's not the worst kind of childhood damage.

I have to chuckle that the closeted gay boys in your time slutted around with the Catholic boys at Georgetown Prep, because of course my classmates all believed (and bragged) that the Catholic girls at Visitation (Georgetown's sister school) would put out when the wasp girls at NCS (our sister school) would not.

The whole thing was so toxic, in retrospect. The class size was only 80-odd boys, so how realistically is diversity going to flourish, and how are young men in that environment supposed to conceive of a healthy way to interact with women? In real life, as opposed to my teenage wet dreams, this lead not to a bukkake encircling me in the varsity lacrosse locker room but to deeply misogynistic and gently homophobic behavior.

As the poster from Avon Old Farms mentioned, and I'm sure other prep schoolers on here would agree, the education was excellent. I loved learning in that environment and was super prepared for college and grad school, and yes, socialization with rich people is easy (And I am no Auchincloss). One under-advertised joy of a privileged background is you have the luxury to run against it. A one bedroom North Hollywood apartment as an act of courage!

The teachers were amazing, almost without exception. I would never, ever send my own son to an (all boys) prep school, but I think the true value in these places is not the snobbery stuff, but being in a place that is safe and insular and affluent enough that the teachers have the space and support to know and to care about each student, and you feel like you actually matter in the scheme of the universe. Yes, life disabuses that conceit, and it breeds sociopaths and assholes. But it also instills self-worth, which as a scrawny, unathletic introvert I doubt I would have realized in a different educational environment.

[quote] One under-advertised joy of a privileged background is you have the luxury to run against it. A one bedroom North Hollywood apartment as an act of courage!

Very, very true R87, and something DL's "Thingz Klassy People Do" fans do not quite understand.

For people from a privileged background it is viewed, as you note, as an "act of courage" or a mildly amusing quirk, not a sign that we are secretly from a trailer park outside of Altoona.

Has anyone been to Holderness in New Hampshire?

Speaking of, those Auchincloss boys are snarky and sulky but they sure do they have big fat cocks.

The best thing about private education is that it's not a factory and the teachers aren't teaching memorization to get students through the next bunch of standardized tests.

R87 I am happy to report that there had been a few STA-NCS couples during my time. But I agree that the NCS girls are a bit stuffy and snobby. They will like your pfp on Facebook but will never talk to you seriously IRL. As for the Visitation girls, we had an informal out-of-school mixer once and I found them very charming, a bit carefree even.

And yes the teachers in STA are unmatched. I had a teacher in AP Calculus who would go over every wrong answer on my exam and would guide me how to solve them correctly and elegantly. Also imagine the school making you read Italo Calvino at the tender age of 16? No wonder I was prepared for my World Lit college class. I've never had the same level of care from my profs in university.

Not to mention that the sports clubs were super fun. And there were a few cute guys too (including me haha)!

I do get what you're saying that it has potential for toxicity. Like you, I'd love to have seen more "diversity" during my time there - like it is in the Phillips schools now. Nevertheless I spent happy days in STA.

I laughed at your bit about the ironic joy of renting one-bedroom apartments. What a too real insight.

R60 The Addison Gallery is a lovely museum. I go there about twice a year. Cool to get up close to a Pollock or Warhol that’s exhibited without any fanfare.

Follow up question to R87 - how many guys came out of the closet after STA? Just curious.

R90 - That is the true mark of gentility! Knowing how big an Auchincloss cock is. That, sir, is top drawer.

R88 - The dark side is of course that when I pull off I-99 for an Altoona grindr hookup, I feel above it all. I suppose that increases the eroticism when my face is shoved into a stained Dollar General pillow.

[Quote] Barnard apparently is the "safety school" at Columbia.

Barnard is suddenly hot and, being smaller, is now harder to get in than Columbia

I got waitlisted at Columbia but ended up being able to afford NYU on a private organization scholarship 17 years ago. I didn’t even apply to Vassar (too small, I like options) but it was still overwhelmingly gay in the early 2000s - so my mom still tried to push me into sending in an application.

Vassar is in a shitty town (Poughkeepsie, NY)

Used to work with someone who went to Vassar.

Whenever it came up he would immediately add "I was recruited to play soccer" the way other guys might say "No Homo!"

It was very funny.

R90 Is this about Hugh at Hotchkiss or Burr at St. Albans/Hotchkiss?

I grew up decades ago in a blue collar family in a blue collar town that bordered the community of Andover. I was pretty clueless back then and had no idea that there were extremely exclusive high schools with expansive, idyllic ivy league-like campuses and was shocked to learn that Phillips Andover was not a university.

In mid-adulthood, I happened to live three blocks away from Andover (the school) for several years in a nice colonial, built circa 1830. Andover students were always passing in front of the house, and I remember envying them and thinking what the lives of those people must be like for the ones who were fortunate to have a highly privileged uber-wealthy upbringing.

Despite having a diverse student body, there were still quite a few wealthy white kids attending Andover, and their style of dress was unmistakably WASP-esque. No died hair, no skin piercings, no saggers, no hoodies with rapper graphics, but a lot of khaki pants, collared shirts, and cargo shorts. They typically had a very arrogant, lofty air about them; when I would pass small groups of them on the sidewalk, they would frequently and ignorantly refuse to share the way and I’d have to walk around them. Finally, I told myself fuck that and stopped doing it, which forced them to partially concede the way as a simple matter of courtesy.

Poughkeepsie really does suck.

City of Sin

R47 of course, someone died in “A Separate Peace”; even repressed homosexual desire had to be severely punished ( generally , death) -it was, you know, the late 1950’s. As a midwestern, public school kid, I was probably more acutely aware of this than the Andover/ Phillips queers, etc !

What’s worse, the closet case basically causes the death of the hottie he loves because of his confused feelings of desire and jealousy. So gayness doesn’t just kill, it kills the object of your love and simultaneously twists your heart with guilt and loss. And yet… given the dearth of anything else representing gay love (they skipped that reading of Huck Finn at my school) a Separate Peace was something I treasured. Countless times I jerked off to my image of Finny.

And I would add that even though I knew nothing of gay culture whatsoever, my pubescent vision of narrator Gene somehow basically anticipated Leonard Frey as Harold in the Boys in the Band.

The only thing I remember from a Separate Peace was those Nelly pink shirts!

Separate Peace was filmed at Exeter.

R108 The Parker Stevenson one?

R94 - I know of only one guy from my class of 84 boys who came out later in life. I had no inkling he was gay at the time. Although he did have a fabulous and overbearing mother.

There was a rather flaming boy in the class below me, who came out right after graduation. My internalized homophobia was such that I didn't befriend him even though I had him figured.

I've often thought we should have a secret society for the gay alumni - I'm sure we are the most interesting of the whole lot. We could call ourselves the Gore Vidalias. Maybe recruit Alex Ross and Uzodinma Iweala as co-chairs to lend the affair some class.

There is a concerted effort from within to break down and or otherwise destroy whatever is left of old school conservative prep or boarding schools.

In many instances parents brought this upon themselves by not paying closer attention to what administration is up to.

It's no Choate. Kinda gross really, hear the whole place smells like farts, and everyone is too ugly to sodomize each other correctly.

BB&B was very slow out of the gate in adapting to changes in retail. Those huge stores with lots of square footage (like former store on UES in Manhattan, NYC), are expensive.

Meanwhile Amazon.com and Walmart.com became to huge gorillas in room selling nearly if not exact same merchandise, but at lower costs.

At other end of things Target (who also carries much of same merchandise mix as BB&B) has positioned itself well; taking advantage of both online and in store retail.

For BB&B to continue existing it has to give fraus and others reasons to shop. So far only thing one keeps seeing is those huge discount coupons that come in mail or in Sunday papers.

Oh bother, wrong thread.

Disregard R113 and carry on.

Didn’t Olivia Wilde go to Andover? Speaking of

R110, that sounds like a dandy idea haha. Where's our HQ?

R109, yes

Don't forget Haverford....

The Philips Academy Boys down the hall from me at NYU in1990 always had the best drugs, but never went to class. Both were scaldingly hot.

Deerfield Academy is truly the absolute worse place to send a young girl. Your daughter had better be a very sporty mean girl and wealthy or she will be abused all four years by the male jock culture. I was recruited to teach in order to receive a tuition free masters. I could not believe the misogyny which extended to the jock teachers. Very few of the scholarship kids were prepared to compete. I and many of my cohorts felt they were admitted because they were well behaved kids that knew ‘their place’ and would only reinforce the privileged students biases of poor minorities.

Interesting piece on how the "Big Three" ended up less bastions of WASPs

R121 It's been that way since our parents' time. During my commencement, my 79-y.o. grandpa remarked to me how much Yale has changed since he was an undergraduate (in the 60s).

I'm happy he's able to live to see more diversity on campus. Same for prep school. But admittedly I've seen more diversity in Yale than when I was a student in STA.

Yale is fake and gay. Skull and Manbones.

yale is into putting bones into peoples skulls. hence, Skull (singular( and Bones (plural). Many bones go into the same dudes skull.

You know, they say it’s not where you went to school!

What is the one in Lakeville, CT? My grandpa was groundskeeper there. That’s all I know about the NE boarding schools.

R126 Hotchkiss

R20 ought to know that there is no apostrophe in “Saint Albans.”

All prep schools went downhill when they made they coed.

People who went there - George Bush Sr and Jr, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon, Frederick Law Olmstead, JFK Jr

Back in the day, people who graduated from Phillips Academy Andover went to Yale and people who graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy went to Harvard.

Boys will be boys!

Lakeville also Salisbury which is a Grade B boarding school.

It's always sort of creepy when a thread from months ago pops up and a sizable number of the posts are redlined but the troll was not trolling in those posts, just contributing to the conversation like a regular old DLer

[quote] Seems like the *the* prep school, period.

One thing I can tell you about it--they mark down for typos there.

I know we're generally talking about modern days, but, having seen thousands of '30s and '40s films, I can't think of any that were set in these kinds of boys' schools. Military schools yes, but not private ones. On the other hand, there were lots of films set in private rich girls' schools, always with lots of horse stuff and snooty girls vs. poor ones. I wonder why that was?

[R128] Another Albanian on the DL? Sizemeat?