Miss Porter's School, sometimes simply referred to as "Farmington" or "Porter's", is a highly selective private college preparatory school for girls, aged 14-18, located in Farmington, Connecticut. It was founded by education reformer Sarah Porter in 1843, with an eye to educating the elite young women of the Eastern seaboard.

From the school's earliest days, Miss Porter's School enjoyed a close affiliation with Yale University, and for many years the majority of Miss Porter's graduates attended Yale. Today, the largest numbers of graduates of the last four years now attend Brown University, Harvard University, Cornell University, and Tufts University.

History

Initially, the school began with only 25 students, but because of the school's expansive curriculum, including the sciences as well as the humanities, the daughters of the affluent soon made it their school of choice, and the school quickly expanded.

Miss Porter's School, still located in Farmington, today continues to operate as a private, college preparatory school for girls.

School endowment

The endowment had a market value of $103 million on June 30, 2007. On September 20, 2005, Miss Porter's launched a new campaign, Moonbeams Over Manhattan. The intention was to increase the school's endowment to $110 million.

Athletics

Miss Porter's School successfully competes in the Founders League with Avon Old Farms (all-boys), Choate Rosemary Hall, Hotchkiss, Kent, Kingswood-Oxford, Loomis Chaffee, Taft and Westminster schools. In addition, teams may compete in the New England Championships at the end of each season.

Fall Interscholastics

• Cross Country V/JV
• Field Hockey V/JV
• Soccer V/JV/III
• Volleyball V/JV/III
• BadmintonV
• Equestrian V

Winter Interscholastics

• Basketball V/JV/III
• Skiing V
• Squash V/JV/III
• Swimming V
• Equestrian V

Spring Interscholastics

• Crew V/JV
• Golf V
• Lacrosse V/JV/III
• Softball V/JV
• Tennis V/JV
• Ultimate Frisbee V
• Equestrian V
• Track V

Porter's Terminology

• Big-D - Formal Dress
• Daeges Eage - Yearbook
• Little-D - Semi-Formal Dress
• Milk Lunch - Morning Break
• P-lettes - Perilhettes, Senior Singing Group
• Prescott - Visiting Speaker Program sponsored by The Prescott Fund
• Salma - Salmagundy, School Newspaper
• Sit-Down Dinner - Semi-Formal Dinner

Campus room terminology

• Amphitheater - Outdoor stage
• Congo - Congregational Church used as a meeting house
• Cool House - Squash and Pool Building
• Daisy - Daisy Cafe and Common Room
• Hacker - Barbara Hacker Theater
• Hamilton - English Literature, History Building
• Nonie - Nona Evans Room
• Olin - Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, and Computer Sciences Building
• Timco - Timothy Cowles Archives Building

Notable alumnae

• Agnes Gund (1956) - Former president, Museum of Modern Art
• Alice Hamilton (1888) - First female faculty member of Harvard Medical School, founder of the field of industrial medicine
• Analisa Torres (1977) - Judge, New York City
• Anne Cox Chambers (1938) - Former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium
• Barbara Babcock (1955) - Emmy Award-winning actress, Hill Street Blues
• Barbara Hutton (1930) - American socialite, dubbed "Poor Little Rich Girl"
• Brenda Frazier (1939) - American socialite
• Dina Merrill (née Nedenia Hutton) (1943) - Actress and American socialite
• Dorothy Bush Koch (1977) - Philanthropist and First Family member
• Dorothy Walker Bush (1919) - Mother of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush
• Edith Bouvier Beale (1935) - "Little Edie", subject of the 1976 documentary Grey Gardens and the 2006 Broadway musical of the same name
• Edith Hamilton (1886) - Greek Mythology scholar and sister of Alice Hamilton
• Eliza Kimball (1969) - Senior political affairs officer, United Nations
• Elizabeth May (1972) - Leader of the Green Party of Canada
• Ellen Violett (1941) - Television scriptwriter, Emmy Award nominee for The Experiment and Go Ask Alice
• Heidi Ettinger (1969) - Tony Award-winning set designer, The Secret Garden
• Helen Coley Nauts (1925) - Founder of the Cancer Research Institute
• Gene Tierney (1938) - Academy Award-nominated actress
• Gloria Vanderbilt (1941) - Fashion designer and American socialite
• Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1947) - First Lady of the United States
• Laura Rockefeller Chasin (1954) - American socialite
• Letitia Baldrige (1943) - Etiquette and public relations advisor
• Lilly Pulitzer (née Lillian Lee McKim) (1949) - Fashion designer and American socialite
• Milbrey Rennie Taylor (1964) - TV producer, 3 Emmys for CBS news coverage, 6 Emmys and Peabody Award for "CBS News Sunday Morning"
• Pema Chodron (formerly Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) (1955) - Buddhist nun and author; resident director of Gampo Abbey
• Polly Allen Mellen (1942) - Editor with Vogue magazine
• Rebecca Miller Harvey (1959) - Co-founder of Crabtree & Evelyn Ltd.
• Ruth Hanna McCormick (1897) - First woman to run for the U.S. Senate.
• Sandy Erickson Golinkin (1973) - Publisher, Lucky magazine
• Suzannah Grant Hendrickson (1980) - Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Erin Brockovich, 28 Days, and Pocahontas: The Legend
• Theodate Pope Riddle (1888) - Architect
• Tina Shapleigh Schmid (1966) - Founder of Transition Systems, Inc., and president, Business Solutions Group at Eclipsys Corporation
• Victoria Mudd (1964) - Documentary filmmaker, Academy Award for Broken Rainbow

Miss Porter's in fiction

• In the movie Holiday, the lead female, played by Katharine Hepburn, went to Miss Porter's.
• In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, the record for Joan (played by Julia Stiles) shows that she attended Miss Porter's though the record incorrectly locates the School in Pennsylvania.
• In the movie, The Skulls, the lead female went to Miss Porter's.
• In the musical Rent, one of the leads, Harvard-educated lesbian lawyer Joanne, attended and learned to tango with the French ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's.
• In the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy's mother thinks it would be best to send Buffy away to school, she picks up an application to Miss Porter's. Buffy incorrectly believes it is a Catholic girls school.
• In the television show The Nanny in Mr. Sheffield's office, Fran suggessts Gracie attend the summer program at Miss Porter's.
• In the television series Dynasty Blake Carrington's headstrong daughter Fallon Carrington (Pamela Sue Martin) is a graduate of Miss Porter's.

External links

• Official website of Miss Porter's School]
• Learn about alumna/ancient Theodate Pope Riddle at Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut