America’s Prep School Presidents
Many influential people have attended North America’s wide range of independent schools. Six of them have become president! Let’s take a look at these prep school Presidents.
- Franklin Pierce (1853-57) – Franklin Pierce’s days at Phillips Exeter Academy were arguably more successful than his one term as president, during which his anti-abolitionist policies helped to precipitate the Civil War.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-45) – The second Franklin on our list is a big improvement over the first. FDR was one of the many Roosevelts educated at the prestigious Groton School in northern Massachusetts. Theodore Roosevelt was an early financial backer and sent his sons to the school.
- John F. Kennedy (1961-63) – JFK wins top honors for president who went to the most SSAT/ISEE schools. Throughout his childhood in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut, Kennedy attended Noble and Greenough, Riverdale Country School, Canterbury School, and Choate.
- George H.W. Bush (1989-93) – Prior to his service as an aviator during World War II, Bush the First attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
- George W. Bush (2001-09) – George W. Bush’s childhood took him from Texas to the Northeast, and he attended a prep school in both places. His first competitive private school was The Kinkaid School in Houston. Following in his father’s footsteps, W. attended Phillips Academy, where he was a student, baseball player, and cheerleader.
- Barack Obama (2009-) – Rounding out the list is our current president. Barack Obama attended Honolulu’s Punahou School, America’s largest independent school by population today. The future President Obama helped his team to a state basketball championship at the school. Thanks, Obama.
