GROUP OF SEVEN: THE MOST EXCLUSIVE AND PRESTIGIOUS BOARDING PREP SCHOOLS IN AMERICA

The Group of Seven is a term for a selective group of elite New England boarding schools which have long regarded one another as peer schools and have a history of collaboration. The term refers to an informal association between the schools and as a collective noun for the schools themselves. The Group of Seven was formally instituted with the creation of the Eight Schools Association, with the seven members extending an invitation to another school with whom they each shared a close relationship.

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The seven schools that make up the Group of Seven have generally been considered to be amongst the upper crust of American college-preparatory boarding schools and bastions of the old money elite. Moreover, they are considered to be amongst the most challenging and academically-successful schools in the world. They are: Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville and St. Paul’s. These schools are amongst the oldest in the country and have, for generations, been the preferred destination for the most capable scions of great dynastic families, particularly those of old Boston Brahmin, Knickerbocker New York and Mainline Philadelphia stock. That reputation still stands with many famous names counted amongst the current and past pupil lists. Furthermore, many of these schools have seen a number of children from aristocratic and royal family lineages from across the world making their home within their hallowed halls. Many US Presidents, current and former world leaders are alumni of a Group of Seven school.

The seven schools are the archetype of the rigorous American college-preparatory school model, with many having been shaped by early American puritanism and the drive towards scientific education and a liberal arts foundation. This approach was advocated by reformed Protestants as better-suiting the needs of the emergent United States and its modern economy as opposed to the Latin and Grammar model preferred by their European peers. The latter model being favoured, to some extent, by those rival schools that were established in the muscular Christianity tradition of the English Public School (such as the Eton Group or Rugby Group schools)- especially so by Catholic and Episcopal schools in the United States. The college-preparatory model of the American academy is now very much the dominant pedagogy and most elite schools, even those of the Catholic and Episcopal traditions, tend to follow it such that many of these schools are now considered on a par, if not even more exclusive than the Group of Seven schools (particularly the so-called “St. Grottlesex” schools and Episcopal which were, historically, more fashionable choices for the grandest of families and certainly more socially-exclusive than most of the Group of Seven, with Groton and Middlesex, today, often operating even more selective admissions policies and seeing higher Ivy League matriculation rates than some of their Group of Seven rivals). The academic programme on offer, together with the athletic and extracurricular opportunities available rival many small liberal arts colleges to boot, not to mention the impressive facilities that these schools have.

The Group of Seven schools have close, historic relationships with various universities and liberal arts colleges and were viewed as the preferred traditional feeder schools to the Ivy League. Andover, Exeter and Lawrenceville share particularly close relations with their nearby Ivies, namely: Harvard, Yale and Princeton. These three Ivy institutions are commonly known as the “Big Three”, which resulted in those schools being called the “Little Three”. So close was the relationship, the heads of these schools would meet with admissions officers at those colleges to discuss which pupils would be offered places and how to develop best models for admissions generally. Deerfield, too, had such a relationship with Princeton. Even today, these schools still send a number of pupils to Ivy League universities and highly-selective liberal arts colleges as well as their peer institutions around the world (owing, in part, to the large international cohort at each school).

These schools have endowments and alumni lists that exceed that of many of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. Indeed, such is the size of the funds available to many of these schools that many operate a needs-blind admissions policy with some 40-50% of pupils attending on full financial aid packages. This has allowed the schools to become academic powerhouses, operating highly selective admissions policies. Furthermore, this has ensured that the schools have significantly increased representation from minority backgrounds and differing wealth demographics. Similarly, the Group of Seven and other schools of their ilk are heavily targeted by external scholarship funds and diversity associations that seek to identify capable scholars and secure them a place within these schools. The schools are founding members of the Prep 9 Consortium, creating pathways to admissions for ethnic minority pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, in addition to being partner schools of other such scholarship schemes, including: A Better Chance (ABC), Gateway to Prep, Reach Prep and the Wight Foundation (WF).

These schools also share close relationships with a select cadre of elementary and middle schools which have a legacy of feeding pupils to these schools, particularly the members of the Junior Boarding School Association, as well as a number of renowned day schools in New York City, Boston and across New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

The Group of Seven is the forerunner for the Eight Schools Association (ESA) which also includes Northfield Mount Hermon, a similarly revered school whose head, at the time the association was founded, was particularly close to the heads of the Group of Seven schools. These schools also share close relationships with other highly-selective, famous boarding schools, particularly through the Ten Schools Admission Organization (TSAO) (which includes all of the Group of Seven alongside Hill, Loomis Chaffee and Taft). These schools all form part of a wider network of exclusive schools which have had close relationships over many decades. Prior to the creation of the Eight Schools Association or the Ten Schools Admission Organization, they cooperated throughout the 1970s and 1980s (and even into the early 1990s) as an informal association of elite boarding schools. This 15 school group, which discussed common admissions matters, included: Andover, Cate, Choate, Deerfield, Exeter, Hill, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis Chaffee, Milton, Northfield Mount Hermon, Taft, Thacher, St. Andrew’s and St. Paul’s. Thacher and Cate are often regarded as being the West Coast’s equivalent schools. Many of these schools are members of the Gateway to Prep Schools consortium which affords prospective applicants with a single admissions portal from which they can apply to many of the schools with a single candidate profile. All seven of the schools are members of the Independent School Innovation Consortium (ISIC), a consortium of more than twenty of the most renowned schools in the country which was created to advance standards in schools innovation and establishing metrics to support college admissions.

In schools admissions circles and the wider educational commentariat, a number of acronyms, monikers and terms exist which are used to refer to the perceived elite tier of American schools. Terms such as “GLADCHEMMS” (an acroynm for Groton, Lawrenceville, Andover, Deerfield, Choate, Hotchkiss, Exeter, Middlesex, Milton and St. Paul’s), includes all of the Group of Seven whilst the term “HADES” includes only a handful (Hotchkiss, Andover, Deerfield, Exeter and St. Paul’s). This demonstrates that even within this exclusive group there is an idea of a hierarchy. Andover and Exeter are always considered to be at the top of this perceived hierarchy. St. Paul’s, Hotchkiss and/or Lawrenceville have historically been considered to be close behind. Deerfield is viewed by many as outperforming those three in recent times and, therefore, to be more prestigious. Similarly, outside of the Group of Seven, Milton had long-been viewed as the top school in America in many quarters, with Groton being regarded as a contender for best today. Of course, these rankings tend to focus on the academic standing of these schools rather than the perceived social standing, which has tended to place the St. Grottlesex schools on a higher footing, albeit that, collectively, there is little variance between them.

The commonly-used term “Elite Eight” includes Groton alongside the Group of Seven. The “Select 16“, as coined by renowned commentator E. Digby Baltzell (“Philadelphia Gentleman: The Making of a National Upper Class” [1958]), is a widely-used term for the upper echelon of American boarding schools that includes the Group of Seven alongside the St. Grottlesex schools (Groton, Middlesex, St. George’s and St. Mark’s and, sometimes, Kent), Hill, Kent, Taft, Episcopal and Woodberry Forest. Vance Packard argues that Milton should have been included too (“The Status Seekers: An Exploration of Class Behaviour in America” [1959]). Episcopal’s Mid-Atlantic Boarding School Group (MABS) stablemate, St. Andrew’s, is also regularly included in discussions of peer schools of the Group of Seven. So too, occasionally, are the other MABS schools Blair, Mercersburg and Peddie, with MABS being a consortium of similar stature to the ESA and TSAO. Other schools that are often considered to be peers or alternatives to the Group of Seven and those mentioned above include the members of The Boarding School Consortium (BSC) and the Great Boarding Schools (GBS) coalition. Of course, there are a number of very highly-ranked and prestigious day schools that offer as good, if not better, education to the Group of Seven and their peer boarding schools. Indeed, many of the elite schools in Eastern metropolises such as Boston, New York (particularly the Interschool consortium), Philadelphia and Washington, DC, have a more successful track record of placing pupils with Ivy League and equivalent universities in recent years (particularly Columbia and Penn). A number of faith-based schools, particularly those established as Quaker schools, have also been attracting significant numbers of applications from the traditional pools typical to Group of Seven and St. Grottlesex schools.

In a study of corporate America by Michael Useem (“The Social Organization of the American Business Elite and Participation of Corporation Directors in the Governance of American Institutions” [1979]), the Group of Seven were found to be the most commonly listed schools in the educational backgrounds of the C-Suite of America inc., along with Groton, Hill, Milton, St. George’s, St. Mark’s and Taft.

A study of society weddings by Hatch and Hatch [1947] found that the schools most likely to have been attended by the groom included: St. Paul’s, Groton, Hotchkiss, Andover, Taft, Pomfret and Exeter, indicating the status of the Group of Seven and their peer schools. Interestingly, they also recorded the schools most commonly producing Society brides: Masters, St. Timothy’s, Ethel Walker, Westover, Miss Porter’s, Foxcroft, Abbot, Chatham Hall, Baldwin or Madeira. Marlborough was the West Coast equivalent for girls. These schools were often considered to be the feeder schools to the Seven Sisters and other women’s colleges. With many of the Group of Seven having become co-educational, it is unclear what impact this has had on the social standing of these leading girls’ schools. Abbot Academy merged into Andover in 1973.

It is worth noting that these schools represent the upper tier of boarding schools in the United States and that there are many day schools which are as equally revered and socially acceptable amongst America’s ruling classes. In particular, the great day schools of New York City, such as those that comprise the core membership of the New York Interschool consortium and the various members of the Guild of Independent Schools of New York City – schools such as Brearley, Browning, Chapin, Collegiate, Dalton, Fieldston, Grace, Horace Mann, Nightingale, Riverdale, Poly Prep, Spence and many of their peers. Indeed, so too are a number of great day schools dotted around the Capitol Region and historic cities like Boston and Philadelphia, borne of the progressive education movement and the Country Day School movement.

The Group of Seven schools are all accredited members of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), with the exception of New Jersey based Lawrenceville, which is accredited by the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS). They are all accredited by The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) and are members of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). In addition, all of the Group of Seven are members of the National Network of Schools in Partnership (NNSP) and are approved by the Parents league. Many are also members of the Headmasters Association (HMA) and the 1911 Group (FKA Head Mistresses Association of the East) (HMAE). These schools are widely regarded as amongst the greatest in the world and many have been invited to participate in prestigious associations and conferences including the Global Connections Foundation, Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG), the G30 Schools, the Leading Schools of the World (LSW), Research Schools International (RSI), Round Square and the World Leading Schools Association (WLSA).

If you would like to learn more about the Group of Seven, please contact your preferred member school as listed below.

If you attended one of the schools listed below, please do share your experiences here to help inform prospective parents. Any specific insights or details that might give a better picture of life at such a school would be very welcome. Similarly, if you taught at any of these schools, we would be very keen to hear about your experiences.