The Brearley School is an all-girls
private school in New York City, located on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
neighborhood in the
borough of
Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9–12) schools, with approximately 50 to 60 students per grade.
In addition to being a member of the
New York Interschool
The New York Interschool Association Inc., is a consortium of eight independent schools in Manhattan that serves students, teachers, and administration.
Overview
The Interschool is designed primarily for the coming together of the eight Manhatta ...
Association, Brearley is considered a sister school of the all-boys
Collegiate School, the all-girls
Spence School and the nearby all-girls
Chapin School
Chapin School is an all-girls independent day school in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan.
History
Maria Bowen Chapin opened "Miss Chapin's School for Girls and Kindergarten for Boys and Girls" in 1901. The school origi ...
, with which it shares an after-school program and some classes.
History
Samuel A. Brearley founded The Brearley School in 1884, and remained the head of school until 1886, when he died of
typhoid fever. James G. Croswell was the next head until his death in 1915. Since 1926, Brearley has been headed by women, first by
Millicent Carey McIntosh. In December 2011, Jane Foley Fried replaced former headmistress Stephanie J. Hull who had resigned for undisclosed reasons. Jane Foley Fried became Brearley's 15th head of school.
In the early 1900s, Brearley moved from East 45th Street to West 44th Street and then in 1912 to
Park Avenue and East 61st Street, where the primary program was added. The school then moved to a new building in 1929 on East 83rd Street. Brearley opened a new building at 590 East 83rd Street in Fall 2019, one block away from its existing building at 610 East 83rd street. Brearley plans to renovate 610 during the summers. For the most part, the lower school will reside in 590 and the middle and upper schools will be in 610, although older students may go from building to building for different classes.
Academics
The school's curriculum is based on the
liberal arts. The student-to-faculty ratio is 6:1.
Language instruction is offered in Ancient Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.
Students have access to two computer
laboratories — one serving the Lower School, the other the Middle and Upper Schools. In addition, there are three smaller computer workrooms, one for middle schoolers and two for upper schoolers, as well as the science-projects room and laptops for use in the library and classrooms. Students in grades 7 and 8 are given iPads for the school year to aid with work in classes and assignments at home. In high school, students are expected to bring their own device, such as a laptop or iPad.
Rankings and college attendance
In 2008, Brearley was ranked number two in the country by ''
The Wall Street Journal'' based on its ranking of students matriculating to eight selected colleges and universities.
It was ranked second-best prep school in the United States and best all-girls school by ''
Forbes'' in 2013. A 2019–20 survey concluded that Brearley was the second-best girls school in the country and the fifth-best private K-12 school in the country.
Student body
As of 2019, Brearley enrolled 724 students in K-12. Students of color represented approximately half of the student body. The 2018–19 tuition was $49,680. Approximately 20% of the students received the $6.1 million that was available for financial assistance.
Sports facilities
A separate building, the "Field House" on East 87th Street, has facilities for
physical education and
athletics including track,
soccer,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
,
tennis,
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
,
volleyball,
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
and
field hockey.
Brearley fields varsity teams in 13 sports.
The school's team colors are
red and white, and its mascot is a
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are ...
.
Notable alumnae
*
Mabel Choate, Gardener, collector and philanthropist
*
Abiola Abrams
Abiola Abrams is an American author, podcaster, motivational speaker and spiritual life coach. Abrams has penned three books, including ''African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy'', her first book from self- ...
, filmmaker, author, and television personality
*
Modupe Akinola, psychologist and academic
*
Genevieve Angelson
Genevieve Rose Angelson is an American actress, best-known for playing Indigo on '' The Afterparty'', Patti Robinson on ''Good Girls Revolt'', and Ruth on '' Flack''.
Early life and education
Angelson was born in New York City to lawyer and busin ...
, actor
*
Blue Balliett
Blue Balliett (born 1955 in New York) is an American author, who lives with her husband, three children, a grandson, and a cat. She is best known for her award-winning novel for children, ''Chasing Vermeer''. She was born Elizabeth Balliett, but h ...
, author of ''
Chasing Vermeer
''Chasing Vermeer'' is a 2004 children's art mystery novel written by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Set in Hyde Park, Chicago near the University of Chicago, the novel follows two children, Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee. Af ...
''
*
Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress, star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Emmy.
A granddaughter of Frank ...
, actor
*
Mary Ellin Barrett, novelist
*
Mary Catherine Bateson
Mary Catherine Bateson (December 8, 1939 – January 2, 2021) was an American writer and cultural anthropologist.
The daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, Bateson was a noted author in her field with many published monographs. A ...
, writer and anthropologist
*
Devika Bhise
Devika Bhise is an American actress, best known for her performance in ''The Man Who Knew Infinity'', starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons.
Early life
Bhise was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, and is of Indian descent. She attended ...
, actor
*
Jenny Bicks
Jenny Bicks is an American television producer and screenwriter, most notable for her work as a television writer on the HBO series, ''Sex and the City'' and the creator and writer of the ABC series, ''Men in Trees''. Her production company is Pe ...
, screenwriter, ''
What a Girl Wants'' and ''
Sex and the City''
*
Susan Berresford
Susan Vail Berresford (born 1943) is an American foundation executive. She was the president of the Ford Foundation from 1996-2007. Since November 2008 she has worked as a philanthropy consultant out of the offices of The New York Community Trust ...
, foundation executive
*
Henrietta Buckmaster, author
*
Mary Steichen Calderone, physician and public-health advocate
*
Oona, Lady Chaplin, social leader
*
Eva Chen
Eva Yi-Hwa Chen is a Taiwanese businessperson and the co-founder and CEO of Trend Micro, one of the world's largest software security firms. In 2010, ''CRN Magazine'' named her as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Executives in the Industry". ...
, director of fashion partnerships at
Instagram
*
Lucinda Childs, dancer and choreographer
*
Jill Clayburgh, actor
*
Emily Cross
Emily Ruth Cross (born October 15, 1986) is a U.S. foil fencer who was a member of the 2008 Olympics U.S. Women's foil team. She is best known for helping win the team foil silver medal for the U.S. at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, along with teamma ...
, fencer. Olympic silver medalist.
*
Alexandra Daddario
Alexandra Anna Daddario (born March 16, 1986) is an American actress who had her breakthrough portraying Annabeth Chase in the ''Percy Jackson'' film series (2010–2013). In 2021, she starred in the first season of the HBO series ''The White L ...
, actress and model
*
Fernanda Eberstadt
Fernanda Eberstadt (born 1960 in New York City) is an American writer.
Early life
She is the daughter of two patrons of New York City's avant-garde, Frederick Eberstadt, a photographer and psychotherapist, and Isabel Eberstadt, a writer. Her pat ...
, novelist, essayist, critic.
*
Anne d'Harnoncourt
Anne Julie d'Harnoncourt (September 7, 1943 – June 1, 2008) was an American curator, museum director, and art historian specializing in modern art. She was the director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), a post she held from 19 ...
, museum director
*
Elizabeth Fishel, journalist and writer, ''Reunion: The Girls We Used to Be, the Women We Became''
*
Lacey Fosburgh
Lacey Fosburgh (October 3, 1942 – January 11, 1993) was an American journalist, author, and academic best known for her controversial book, '' Closing Time: The True Story of the Goodbar Murder'' (1977).
Early life
Fosburgh was born in Manhat ...
, journalist and author, ''
Closing Time: The True Story of the Goodbar Murder''
*
Virginia Kneeland Frantz
Virginia Kneeland Frantz (November 13, 1896 – August 23, 1967) was a pathologist and educator credited with a series of discoveries in the study of thyroid, breast and pancreatic tumors.
Early life and education
She was born in New York City, ...
, pathologist, pioneer in the study of pancreatic tumors
*
Betty Furness
Elizabeth Mary Furness (January 3, 1916 – April 2, 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate, and current affairs commentator.
Early years
Furness was born in Manhattan, the daughter of wealthy business executive George Choate Furness ...
, actress, consumer affairs activist, current affairs commentator
*
Virginia Gildersleeve
Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (October 3, 1877 – July 7, 1965) was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States ...
, dean, Barnard College, statesperson
*
Jane Ginsburg, law professor
*
Betsy Gotbaum
Elisabeth A. Gotbaum (née Flower; born June 11, 1938) is an American civil servant, politician and a former New York City Public Advocate. She was elected Public Advocate for New York City in 2001 and reelected in 2005. She was the third woman el ...
,
Public Advocate for the City of New York
*
Isca Greenfield-Sanders
Isca Greenfield-Sanders (born 1978) is an American landscape painter based in New York City.
Early life
Greenfield-Sanders was born in New York City to lawyer, Karin and photographer, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. She grew up in New York City's E ...
, artist
*
Emily Hoffman, socialite
*
Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg, publisher
*
Winifred Holt, sculptor, welfare worker. Founder of the nonprofit that is now
Lighthouse International
Lighthouse Guild is an American charitable organization, based in New York City, devoted to Vision Rehabilitation, vision rehabilitation and advocacy for the blind. Its mission statement is "To overcome vision impairment for people of all ages thr ...
*
Nora Johnson, novelist, ''
The World of Henry Orient
''The World of Henry Orient'' is a 1964 American comedy film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Peter Sellers, Paula Prentiss, Angela Lansbury, Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth, Phyllis Thaxter, Bibi Osterwald and Tom Bosley. It is based on ...
''
*
Judith Jones, editor and food writer
*
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, attorney, and diplomat serving in the Biden administration as the United States Ambassador to Australia since 2022. She previously served in the Obama administration as the ...
, diplomat, author and philanthropist
*
Nancy Krieger, epidemiologist
*
Maude Latour
Maude Latour is an American singer-songwriter.
Early life and education
Latour was born in Sweden. Her father is Almar Latour, former executive editor of ''The Wall Street Journal'' and CEO of Dow Jones & Company, and her mother is a journal ...
, singer-songwriter
*
Téa Leoni, actress
*
Bethel Leslie
Jane Bethel Leslie (August 3, 1929 – November 28, 1999) was an American actress and screenwriter. In her career spanning half a century, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurel Award in 1964, a Tony Award in 1986, and a CableA ...
, actress
*
Sarah Lewis, Professor at Harvard University, Art Curator, and TED Talk presenter
*
Priscilla Johnson McMillan
Priscilla Johnson McMillan (born Priscilla Mary Post Johnson) (July 19, 1928 – July 7, 2021) was an American journalist, translator, author, and historian. She was a Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Har ...
, journalist, translator, author, historian
*
Caryn Marooney, business executive
*
Ruth Messinger
Ruth Wyler Messinger (born November 6, 1940) is a former American political leader in New York City and a member of the Democratic Party. She was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City in 1997, losing to incumbent mayor Rudy Giuliani ...
,
Manhattan Borough President
*
Sara Moulton
Sara Moulton (born February 19, 1952) is an American cookbook author and television personality. In an article for ''The New York Times'', Kim Severson described Moulton as "one of the nation’s most enduring recipe writers and cooking teach ...
, chef, author and television personality
*
Elisabeth Murdoch, media executive
*
Victoria Newhouse, architecture critic
*
Diane Paulus, opera and theater director. Artistic Director,
American Repertory Theater
The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to ne ...
*
Mary Louise Perlman, musician
*
Kathleen Ridder
Kathleen Culman Ridder (October 2, 1922 – April 3, 2017) was an American philanthropist, educator, writer, and feminist. She graduated from University of Minnesota Duluth as a teacher, advocated for women's athletic programs at the University ...
, philanthropist, educator, writer, equality for women activist
*
Mary Rodgers
Mary Rodgers (January 11, 1931 – June 26, 2014) was an American composer, screenwriter, and author who wrote the novel '' Freaky Friday'', which served as the basis of a 1976 film starring Jodie Foster, for which she wrote the screenplay, as ...
, children's author and composer
*
Anne Roiphe
Anne Roiphe (born December 25, 1935) is an American writer and journalist. She is best known as a first-generation feminist and author of the novel ''Up the Sandbox'' (1970), filmed as a starring vehicle for Barbra Streisand in 1972. In 1996, ' ...
, journalist, novelist
*
Katie Roiphe
Katie Roiphe (born July 13, 1968) is an American author and journalist. She is best known as the author of the non-fiction book '' The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism'' (1994). She is also the author of ''Last Night in Paradise: Sex and Mora ...
, writer
*
Niki de Saint Phalle, artist
*
Dorothy Schiff
Dorothy Schiff (March 11, 1903 – August 30, 1989) was an American businesswoman who was the owner and then publisher of the ''New York Post'' for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob Schiff. Schiff was interested in soc ...
, publisher of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''
*
Rose Schlossberg
*
Tatiana Schlossberg
*
Kyra Sedgwick
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (; born August 19, 1965) is an American actress, producer and director. For her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama ''The Closer'', she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Awa ...
, actor
*
Maggie Shnayerson, journalist and blogger
*
Helen Farr Sloan, educator, artist, philanthropist
*
Sarah Solovay
Sarah Solovay (born March 30, 1994) professionally known as Solly, is an American singer and songwriter from New York City, currently residing in Los Angeles. In 2018, Solovay signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Wide Eyed Entertainment ...
, singer-songwriter
*
Kim Stolz, fashion model and television personality
*
Marina Vaizey
Marina Alandra Vaizey, Baroness Vaizey, ( Stansky; born 16 January 1938) is an art critic and author based in the United Kingdom.
Vaizey is an Anglo-American broadcaster, exhibition curator and journalist. She was educated at the Brearley Schoo ...
, art critic and author
*
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (; born ) is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film ''Free Solo'', which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex ...
, Academy Award winner, director and producer of documentary films
*
Emily Vermeule
Emily Dickinson Townsend Vermeule (August 11, 1928 – February 6, 2001) was an American classical scholar and archaeologist. She was a professor of classical philology and archaeology at Harvard University.
Early life and education
Emily Dickins ...
, scholar and archaeologist
*
Erica Wagner
Erica Wagner is an American author and critic, living in London, England. She is former literary editor of ''The Times''.
Biography
Erica Wagner was born in New York City in 1967. She grew up on the Upper West Side and went to the Brearley Sc ...
, literary editor for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
''
*
Frieda Schiff Warburg
Frieda Warburg (February 3, 1876 – September 14, 1958) was a Jewish-American philanthropist and communal worker from New York.
Life
Warburg was born on February 3, 1876, in New York City, New York, the daughter of Jacob Schiff and Therese Lo ...
, philanthropist
*
Katharine Weymouth
Katharine Bouchage Weymouth (born May 28, 1966) is an American lawyer and businesswoman who from 2008 to 2014 was publisher of ''The Washington Post'' and chief executive officer of Washington Post Media.
Early life and education
Weymouth grew u ...
, former publisher of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''
*
Flora Payne Whitney, patron of the arts
Affiliated organizations
*
National Association of Independent Schools
The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boa ...
*
New York State Association of Independent Schools
The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) is an association of 201 independent schools and organizations, ranging from nurseries to high schools, in New York (state), New York State. Founded in 1947, NYSAIS is the second la ...
*
New York Interschool Association
References
External links
The Brearley School homepage
{{authority control
Educational institutions established in 1884
Private elementary schools in Manhattan
Private middle schools in Manhattan
Private high schools in Manhattan
Private K-12 schools in Manhattan
Preparatory schools in New York City
Girls' schools in New York City
1884 establishments in New York (state)