The inside story of how America’s premier prep schools abandoned merit for ideology and excellence for equity
I’m writing this because 35 years ago, I got a scholarship to the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Getting in — and the generosity that made it possible — quickly took a backseat to the more immediate challenge of surviving the place.
Shipley terrified me. And not because of the metaphorical blue-haired zombies now roaming the halls, an undead administrative and teaching army enforcing Soviet-level conformity to an ideology where race is destiny and gender is a ChatGPT jailbreak (customizable, unstable, and banned in Florida).
No, it scared me because it was hard. Brutally hard.
Shipley taught me how to think. How to interrogate ideas. How to write. And how to crank — whether that meant pulling all-nighters for exams or, in my professional career, spending long days and weekends building tech and data businesses that any sane person would’ve bet against.
But today, I wouldn’t stand a chance. At least not when it comes to the financial aid that once changed my life by allowing me to attend and set my path in motion.
