College-preparatory school

United States[edit]

In the United States, there are public, private, and charter college-preparatory schools that can be either parochial or secular. Admission is sometimes based on specific selection criteria, usually academic, but some schools have open enrollment.^[2] In 2017, 5.7 million students were enrolled in US private elementary or secondary schools, constituting 10% of total school enrollment. Of those, 1.4 million students were enrolled in a secular (nonsectarian) school.^[3]


Public and charter college preparatory schools are typically connected to a local school district and draw from the entire district instead of the closest school zone. Some offer specialized courses or curricula that prepare students for a specific field of study. In contrast, others use the label as a promotional tool without offering programs different from a conventional high school.^[2]


Preparatory schools began before the Civil War, when there were no public schools above the grammar school or elementary level anywhere in the US. Their graduates were not ready for college study, so many colleges set up "preparatory academies" to prepare them for college study. The preparatory division could dwarf the college enrollment, as at New York Central College. There were also preparatory schools unaffiliated with colleges, especially for girls, such as the Columbia Female Academy. At the time, men and women did not study together at any level, and there were no women's colleges. Some of the female preparatory schools became women's colleges after the Civil War.


Free high school level education for all became available in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Since then, the surviving "prep schools" in the US are primarily private, elite institutions that have very selective admission criteria and high tuition fees, catering to students in the 13–18 age range.^[4] Little financial aid other than loans is available. Prep schools can be day schools, boarding schools, or both, and may be co-educational or single-sex. Currently, day schools are more common than boarding, and since the 1970s, co-educational schools have been more common than single-sex.^[5] Unlike the public schools which are free, they charge tuition ($10,000 to 40,000+ a year in 2014).^[6] Some prep schools are affiliated with a particular religious denomination. Unlike parochial (Catholic) schools, independent preparatory schools are not governed by a religious organization, and students are usually not required to receive instruction in one particular religion. While independent prep schools in the United States are not subject to government oversight or regulation, many are accredited by one of the six regional accreditation agencies for educational institutions.^[7]