Miss Porter's School

Miss Porter's School (also known as Porter's, Farmington, or MPS) is a private college preparatory school for girls located in Farmington, Connecticut. It is a selective school that excels in academics and athletics. Its acceptance rate is 20% with an average Secondary School Admission Test score in the 92nd percentile. It was named the number one girls' boarding school by U.S. News.

Porter's alumnae call themselves "Ancients."

History

Origins

Miss Porter's School was established in 1843 by education reformer Sarah Porter, who recognized the importance of women's education. She was insistent that the school's curriculum include chemistry, physiology, botany, geology, and astronomy in addition to the more traditional Latin, French, German, spelling, reading, arithmetic, trigonometry, history, and geography. Also encouraged were such athletic opportunities as tennis, horseback riding, and in 1867 the school formed its own baseball team, the Tunxises. In 1884, Sarah Porter hired her former student, Mary Elizabeth Dunning Dow, with whom she began to share more of her duties as Head of School. From then until her death in 1900, Miss Porter gradually relinquished her control of the school to Mrs. Dow.