Education: Exeter's 150th

In the extreme Southeast corner of New Hampshire, 50 mi. north of Boston, is the town of Exeter, where John Phillips in 1781 founded Phillips Exeter Academy. Twenty-five miles nearer Boston is Andover, where John's nephew. Samuel, founded Phillips Academy one year earlier. (His school later became "Phillips Academy at Andover" to distinguish it from his uncle's school at Exeter.) Exeter and Andover have flourished mightily, until today they are the twin giants of prep schools in size and in prestige. Other schools are certainly more fashionable, possibly more potent scholastically, improbably...