From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 10

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and its undemocratic admissions process:

“The exact percentage of whites in the questionnaire sample of 20 schools is 90.3, of blacks, 4.3, and of Asians, 5.3…Some boarding schools have as few as one percent black students and, on average, 4 percent of boarding-school students are black…29 percent of the black students in the sample had a relative who had attended boarding school…

“…Today [in 1985] one-quarter of all boarding-school students are now Catholic, close to the 27 percent of Catholic-Americans…Episcopal and progressive schools have the fewest Catholics…Today [in 1985] 11 percent of the students in our sample of 2,475 are Jewish, compared to less than 3 percent in the general population…In our sample there were no Jewish respondents at either the Episcopal schools or the Catholic schools. Jewish families have fewer legacies than any other group except blacks…65 percent of Jewish fathers own their own business, and 22 percent of Jewish mothers own their own business…

“In sum, boarding schools are overwhelmingly from high-income professional and managerial families…7 percent are non-citizen, 5 percent are Asian, and 4 percent are black. More than half (54 percent) of the students have one or more relatives who also attended boarding school…

“Boarding school students, by any reasonable standard, are elite…The select 16 boarding schools can be particularly selective in who they admit…”

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 9

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and its undemocratic admissions process:

“Foreign students are as affluent as the Americans, as are the Asian-American students in our sample. Among black students, there are also affluent families, 15 percent come from $100,000 or more [in 1981] a year homes…A wealthy group of students come from Jewish homes, 41 percent having incomes of $100,000 a year or more [in 1981]…

“…50 percent of the fathers are professionals and 40 percent are managers. Specifically, 12 percent of our sample’s fathers are doctors, 10 percent are attorneys, and 9 percent are bankers…Slightly more than one-third of…mothers are professionals and 1 in 8 are managers or administrators…

“…On average, 7 percent of American boarding school students are non-citizens…Many of these students come from high-income families in the Middle East, South America and Asia…

“…`Legacy’ students create a critical mass at many boarding schools, especially at the Episcopal, girls and academy schools whose student bodies are between 55 and 75 percent legacy students…”

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 8

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and its undemocratic admissions process:

“…Boarding schools must retain a firm grip on who they admit, because, if the `wrong’ students are admitted, then the historical mission of the schools to mold patrician and parvenu into an elite cadre will be jeopardized. The raw material must be suitable to the `treatment.’…

“46 percent of the boarding school families in our sample of 20 schools have annual incomes of more than $100,000 a year [in 1981]…By contrast, in 1981,…the median family income was slightly less than 24,000 a year [in 1981]. 41 percent of American families made less than $20,000 a year [in 1981]…

“…The families that send their daughters to girls schools are very well off indeed…58 percent have incomes in excess of $100,000 a year [in 1981]. Students al all-boys schools also come from affluent families; 53 percent have incomes in excess of $100,000 a year [in 1981]…”

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 7

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and its undemocratic and secretive admissions process:

“A school filled with `brains’ stands the risk of driving away the less brainy but wealthier families. A school that is entirely `prepped out’ may find its reputation…slipping. Too many `jocks’ make teachers unhappy…

“Part of the screening process is to weed out those who will not fit in…Merit is only part of the criteria for admission…Family wealth and social standing, also count for a great deal…

“…The admissions process remains relatively secretive…Children of alumni have certain advantages…”

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 6

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system:

"...It was not until 1856 that the idea of founding a great boarding school in New England was rekindled with the establishment of St. Paul's in New Hampshire.

"From the founding of St. Paul's until the end of the century, 61 elite boarding schools were established in the United States...By the beginning of the 20th century...10 percent of the high-school age populatiion was enrolled in private schools, of which less than one percent were in the elite boarding schools...

"The prep schools operated as exclusive clubs--Catholics, blacks, and Jews need not apply. From the 1880s onward the schools develooped their reputation for snobbishness, and that they were is undeniable...

"...Boys schools discovered the virtues of co-education in the late 1960s...The schools became more attractive to boys...and acquired a much larger pool from which to draw students...

"...54 percent of our sample of 2,475 students have at least one relative who attended a boarding school (the figure for Episcopal schools is as high as 73 percent). Among the 54 percent, 53 percent have one or more relatives who attended the same school...

"...The admissions director is the school's most important gatekeeper..."

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 5

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system:

“…Two schools alone possess land equal to 5 percent of the state of Rhode Island. If all the (often choice) real estate holdings of American boarding schools were added together, total acreage would measure in the hundreds of thousands from coast to coast…

“In effect, the combined real estate holdings of American boarding schools represent a `Prep National Park,’ a preserve free from state and local taxes…

“…Most prep schools can offer facilities and equipment that rival many small colleges…

“…Private schools, including boarding schools, are rarely democratic from the standpoint of admission. Like private corporations, country clubs, and cooperative real estate holdings, private schools have the right to choose whom they will or will not admit…Their student bodies have tended to be homogeneous in terms of family background, religion, and race…”

From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 4

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system:

“E. Digby Baltzell identified 16 boarding schools that `serve the sociological function of differentiating the upper classes from the rest of the population…’ Indeed, the 16 schools [Phillips Acdemy, Phillips Exeter Academy, Episcopal High School, Hill School, St. Paul’s School, St. Mark’s School, Lawrenceville School, Groton School, Woodbury Forest School, Taft School, Hotchkiss School, Choate School, St. George’s School, Middlesex School, Deerfield Academy, Kent School] strike one as predominantly `old, eastern, patrician, aristocratic and English.’ These are core schools of the elite tradition, and they play an important role in socializing their students for power. We refer to these schools as the select 16…

“Others besides Baltzell have developed lists of the most socially prestigious American boarding schools and although they differ on one or two schools, there is a consensus as to which schools are the most elite…

“Aldrich’s list excludes three schools with a heavy southern constituency (The Episcopal High School, The Hill School, and Woodberry Forest School) and includes two New England schools that Baltzell does not (Milton Academy and Brooks School). As Baltzell is interested in those schools that serve a national elite his list has the virtue of including more schools outside of New England.

“Compared to other leading schools, the select 16 schools tend to have been founded earlier, are larger, have many more alumni—and consequently are more heavily endowed, have more buildings and playing fields and are more likely to be located in New England or the Middle or South Atlantic states than other boarding schools…”