Where to Prep: Senior Edits Guide to Schools

Quick: what percentage of Harvard students attended prep schools?

A lot is an understatement.

And next question: what do a bunch of Harvard prep school graduates do when they're gathered in a room together?

Reminisce, a lot.

Third and last question: what's the best thing to do with a bunch of Harvard prep school graduates reminiscences?

Write a book.

Which is exactly what Christopher J. Georges '86-'87 and James A. Messina '86 decided to do. The two college roommates compiled and edited "The Harvard Independent Insider's Guide to Prep Schools" which aspiring preppies can purchase in bookstores throughout the country.

Written in a light, entertaining style, the guide lists more than 200 prep schools and selective admission public high schools throughout the nation. Each entry includes a discussion of the school's academic quality, the atmosphere, tuition and financial aid, sports and social life. About 200 Harvard students wrote the entries for their high school alma mater.

"All these college books were out, but nothing like this for parents of grade school kids or the kids in preps themselves," Georges says.

Two years ago Georges and a friends conceived of the book as a way to raise money for the Crimson. They contacted over 70 publishers with a proposal for the book and a sample entry based on George's alma mater, Poly Prep in Brooklyn. Much to their amazement the response was quite positive. "They [the publishing companies] almost all responded," Georges says, "a lot of big ones--and that started a bidding war."

Eventually Georges and Plume Books, a division of the Penguin Publishing Company, decided on one another. "We liked the fact that it [the book] was going to be written by graduates of the schools," says Luann Walther, the company representative, "which made it different from reference tomes that only give the school's official view of itself."

Almost immediately Georges set about finding experienced authors for the write-ups. "We took three years of freshman face books and made a list of who went where, which ended up as 20 pages of printout, and just called down the list" in quest of someone to write up the schools, he says. "By the end of that school year we had 75 entries, which wasn't enough, but was a good base," Georges says.

However, during this time, the Crimson decided not to go through with the plan, and some of his friends who had been helping him moved on to other things, so Georges stopped working on it. "I was stuck with the lists of people, the interested publishers, and 75 write-ups of schools, but I did nothing with it that summer," Georges says.

The next year Georges tried again to get the Crimson to lend its name to the book, but again the Crimson decided against sponsoring the project. Georges wanted to go through with the book, however, and approached the Independent staff, who accepted his proposal.

"Publishers weren't going to want 'The Chris Georges Guide,' but 'Harvard Guide' would sell," Georges says. "However, you can't use the Harvard name unless you're with an organization. The Independent was willing, well-equipped, and associated with writing."

David Yarowsky, who was president of the Independent when the paper decided to lend its name to the book, says, "We get royalties, and own the publication rights, the staff editors and writers get satisfaction and we all get national exposure We provided substantial institutional support."

"Our main problem originally was the potential elitist connotation," Yarowsky says. "We didn't want a 'Guide to Muffy and Chip's Prep School.' We worked with Chris and were satisfied that it conveyed the information and tone in an acceptable way."

Independent editors contributed to the writing and editing of the entries, says Yarowsky. Georges also convinced Messina, his roommate, to help him compile, edit and layout the book. "I got involved because I thought it would be interesting, and I felt we could do a better job than the Yale Book [a similar publication], and because it was the kind of writing I like to do--as funny as possible, but informative," says Messina, who did not attend a prep school.

Last June Georges and Messina began the project in earnest and Georges and his sister Gigi spent the entire summer working on it. The two updated the entries Georges already had, found volunteers to write others, and interviewed alumni for entries on the remaining schools.

The trio worked out of a summer house on Long Island and then in Brooklyn, where the Georges reside. They spent up to 14 hours a day, six days a week working on the book on two Macintosh computers. "With 150 write-ups done by different people, all with different writing styles, the publishers wanted lots of style revisions. We also edited to make them accurate, interesting, entertaining, and non-libelous," Georges says.

"I loved writing," Messina says. "It was a real challenge coming up with 200 different beginnings to entries," Messina says.

In September, Gigi, a junior at Wellesley, had gone to England to study and Messina had started a job in Cambridge, so the project slowed down. Georges, however, took the semester off, so he could work on the book almost full-time.

In December the trio printed out the flats for the book on a Macintosh laser printer and the completed project was delivered to the printer at the end of the month.

Although no one knows how much the book will make, everyone expects it to do reasonably well. "It was not done as a bestseller, but it was an interesting project and it's useful to some people," Georges says. Walther says that Plume Books has already received orders for the books.

Georges says that he received money approximate to the salary of "a good summer job." He adds, "But it wasn't done for the money--all revenues were originally planned to go to the Crimson." The Independent will put their share towards upgrading their technology, Yarowsky says.

Monetary aspects aside, everyone involved with the book says that it will be a success. "It came out fulfilling what we had in mind," Walther says. "The entries were very lively, had personal voice and were written with a lot of style. I don't expect many people will buy this book unless they're considering a prep school, but we just wanted it to sound real."

"The goal was to present a range of selective national high schools and focus on the interesting aspects--what makes them worth or not worth attending. We're very pleased," Yarowsky says.

"It was a good experience," Messina says "Being able to write and have it published is a great thing and we were very fortunate. If we didn't have an idea so easily marketable, I can't even imagine the difficulty in trying to get something published."

"I had a lot of biases against private schools wishing I had gone to one," Messina says.

"It probably won't change my life at all," Georges says. "I'm not going into publishing, but publishers have asked me to do another project next year. It took away my impression that books are impossible projects. I wouldn't hesitate to do another."