The 9 most elite prep schools in New York City
Andrea Cihlarova,
Gossip Girl would've only been half the show that it was if its major plotting hadn't taken place in the hallowed halls of sadly fictional Constance Billard and St. Jude's. Remember Headmistress Queller's empty threats to Queen B (who would go do whatever she wanted after leaving the office anyway)?
Or that time the Class of 2009 had to navigate networking with representatives from Harvard, Columbia, and Yale? Or what about that infamous bus ride Chuck Bass took to school once? It was a hard high school life for the members of the Non-Judging Breakfast Club. Of course, attending posh private schools is nothing new for the city's elite.
GG's ivy-covered, red-brick institutions may have been made up, but these following prep schools are the real deal (and where you send your kids if you don't want to ship them off to Phillips Exeter just yet).
A photo posted by Dalton Communications (@daltonschoolnyc) on Apr 15, 2015 at 10:23am PDT
Grades: K-12
Enrollment: 1,300 students
Location: Upper East Side
Notable Alumni: Anderson Cooper, Claire Danes, Chevy Chase, Jill Stuart, Christian Slater, Dylan Lauren
Trinity School
A photo posted by Marina R 😎 (@merfleur) on Oct 3, 2014 at 5:40am PDT
Enrollment: 998 students
Location: Upper West Side
Notable Alumni: John McEnroe, Craig Kallman, Reed Diamond; plus the ones who didn't graduate: Yo Yo Ma, Truman Capote, Humphrey Bogart, Oliver Stone, and most currently Ansel Elgort
A photo posted by mirage (@serapyk) on Nov 21, 2013 at 10:59pm PST
Location: Riverdale, The Bronx
Notable Alumni: Jack Kerouac, Eliot Spitzer, William Carlos Williams, Ira Levin, Jennifer Fleiss, Jon Rubinstein
The Spence School
A photo posted by Zoë Elizabeth Lerner Bibb (@zoebibb) on May 3, 2014 at 9:23am PDT
Notable Alumni: Gwyneth Paltrow, Emmy Rossum, Kerry Washington, Dawn French, Nancy Hopkins, Edith Bouvier Beale
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School
A photo posted by @weirdobear on Apr 16, 2013 at 4:42pm PDT
Notable Alumni: Herman Melville, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gary Winick, The Postelles, Steve Ross
Nightingale-Bamford School
A photo posted by André Robert Lee (@autodidacticism) on Feb 25, 2014 at 2:06pm PST
Location: Upper East Side Notable Alumni: Cecily von Ziegesar (Nightingale-Bamford was the setting for Constance Billiard in GG!), Olivia Palermo, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, Mandy Grunwald
The Chapin School
A photo posted by The Chapin School (@thechapinschool) on Nov 19, 2012 at 4:47pm PST
Notable Alumni: Jackie O, Sigourney Weaver, Vera Wang, Lilly Pulitzer, Sam Ronson, Queen Noor of Jordan, Ivanka Trump
Regis High School
A photo posted by JL Briguet (@nycarchitect) on Sep 20, 2014 at 5:56am PDT
Notable Alumni: Bill Condon, John D'Agostino, John O'Keefe
Lycée Français de New York
A photo posted by Julie Thompson (@julpal03) on Aug 30, 2013 at 6:04pm PDT
Grades: P-12
Notable Alumni: Julian Casablancas, Nikolai Fraiture, Mira Schor, Danielle Steel, Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
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