The Harrow and other British public school expansions are a sign of weakness. The top schools in the U.S. have enough support from their alumni and parents and through tuition so that they don't need to license their name. It's absolutely brand dilution.
Avenues is a for-profit model (which has never made sense to me.) Good private schools should not be set up to make a profit even if they own their real estate, which I'm pretty sure Avenues does not so they have to pay rent.
Sending your kids to *a* Harrow and not *the* Harrow is so tacky and would probably get you laughed at if you ran into some noble in the Annabel’s or 5 Hertford Street bathroom.
American boarding schools convey sort of the same status as long as you go to one in the top 10 or so. Phillip’s Andover and Exeter are maybe exclusions to that, but honestly there’s no difference in reaction between telling someone you went to Deerfield or Milton or Thacher. (I went to one of these.) Eton and Harrow are like immediate imprimaturs of class position in the UK.
Admittedly I went to a name brand prep school so I'm absolutely biased but like...why would I send my kid to Fake Harrow instead of Real Hotchkiss or Real Exeter? Or even somewhere like Real Foxcroft?
This might be a me issue but I think I'd curl up into a ball and blow away if I ran across a parent from Real Harrow and had to admit that no, no, we pay all that money to go to Fake American Harrow and then deal with their pitying looks.
I love RH (Real Harrow) vs. FH (Fake Harrow). Going to need more Feed Me prep school students to come out of the closet and get into the comments today, because we all know my fiance is going to do it.
Former prep school kid here, they aren’t gonna stand a chance if they don’t establish top tier athletics because that’s what all the newer private schools have gone toward to make up for their lack of an alumni network, which in my experience is one of the most important parts and I’d argue what you are truly paying for besides a great education, so I don’t know why anyone would want to go to a school where that is lacking! It’s like all of the Ivys and top colleges— the real benefit is in the networking with alumni
Even the response to the lax question got me real nervous for these kids. Also the weekend programming being seeing Harry Potter on broadway...??? If I was a parent I'd be pissed.
An east coast prep school without lacrosse is a dire situation. And yes they shouldn’t be seeing Broadway shows they should be getting their entertainment the same way we all did living at school in the middle of nowhere: sneaking into the boys dorms to get “drunk” on one singular beer and finding a random hangout spot in the woods to play truth or dare and stash your booze!
Our major source of entertainment was via the son of a famous actress - she’d send him screeners and he’d take over the auditorium on Saturday nights. And we didn’t exactly have any ability to choose what she sent us so that’s how you ended up with the entire school watching a pre-release copy of The People Vs Larry Flynt on a random Saturday night.
Well, that and hiking into the woods to smoke cloves and pass around the 3 warm Zimas someone’s brother at Dartmouth obtained for us.
The woods were such a classic. Our hangout was these huge rocks called Devils Alter in what we thought was sooo deep into the woods but in reality we were like 10 feet from the headmasters house
“The reality is, they’re likely not going to get the cream of the crop when it comes to who applies.”
Absolutely true, but they’ll be fine considering the number of people who will pay for a name or image.
In a more rational world we’d all be driving economical, reliable Toyota Corollas but Land Rover can still sell a vehicle that will technically fail after 50k miles because people want to be seen in one and the connection to British aristocracy doesn’t hurt. Those are the people who will send their kids there, people who want to look like landed gentry even if their child needs remedial English.
British international schools in Asia (like Shanghai, where I attended school until I was 9) made sense because they offered a starkly different type of education than that of the strict/ monolithic Chinese public school system, which appealed to parents who wanted their children to be immersed in a “global” school and eventually study overseas- so even if diluted, it’s still substantially better than the alternative. Those kinds of international schools inevitably set their students up to go abroad, whether US or UK. I will say that even with all that preparation, when I moved to New York in middle school, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for being in an “actually” international environment. I guess it doesn’t make sense to me why someone who send their children to a “fake” harrow when they could go to a Real New York school.
As a Brit, I like that you’re covering this, although you’re very generous with the column inches given to it. Harrow is pretty C-list these days, and presumably another of its expansions points to an ever shrinking local market, particularly now that 20% VAT has been applied to UK private school fees.
Tom….. have you seen the other thing I give this many inches to? Flamingos in the Hamptons, a podcast called Call Her Daddy, interviews with investors who most of my readers will never think about or interact with.
If there’s a school that deserves this many inches, please drop the name lol. I decide what gets coverage around here!
Sumeet, as someone I consider a Feed Me friend from our shared love of Casa Susanna I really need to let you know you’re missing a big opportunity by not changing your name to $umeet $hah
Emily send Julien to the Yale club gym and squash courts and ask people wearing prep school sweats what they think, definitely the highest concentration and easily spotted contingent of prep school alums in town.
Wife of an Old Radleian here (you haven’t heard of Radley because they don’t want you to know about them). Harrow has long been a running joke amongst the English who sent their kids to public schools. The fact that they’re opening it in NYC isn’t surprising to me - thanks to Starmer’s introduction of 20% VAT on schools, they’re struggling with admissions. I feel like the US does have an obsession with the Brit-code culture so it can possibly succeed; but I’m not sure what the actual demographic of this will be.
Also, much easier to get into this than the real deal - my husband’s parents had to put him on Eton / Radley waiting list when he was 1..
The new Harrow sounds tacky and I feel like we’ve passed peak nightgown and are returning to pajama culture. Little House on the Prairie chic not hitting the same now that tradwives are mainstream
I would just like to say i made a tiktok last of year of things that are not in the Hamptons but should/ or will be and mentiomed Nobu Montauk in place of scarpetta but near bilboquet in Sag would be everything too. Glad they are listening lol
It's like a gussied-up Trump University -- if you look at that website (I would love to know what this "campus" was originally -- a convent? A defunct girls' school? A sanitarium?) there's a lot of squirrely language about keeping to the spirit of Harrow (which has sold its name and crest) and zero about the curriculum. It's smells (and probably is) for-profit, which is a thing in NYC with Avenues and Dwight, but . . .
Hahah you're on the money -- it was originally the home of Frederick Gilbert Bourne (president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company) and then an overpriced wedding venue.
It's wild how many locations the school has in Asia, it's as if they treat the school more like a Hyatt franchise than a school.
The big story on Newsmax is not the competitive landscape in news at all. It’s the way that conservatives are willing to put their dollars behind causes and businesses they like (or take them away from Budweiser and Snow White), and the scarcity of media businesses in particular with explicitly conservative values (there’s obviously no shortage of these on the progressive side of the ledger), which creates the necessary conditions for meme-like moves
Essentially no. They are doing their best, but production and talent when I last checked in is closer to local news caliber. The equity valuation is pure meme. The last show format of theirs I've seen is the news desk debate/discussion style, and they'll have one token liberal like CNN has Scott Jennings (who I rode the Acela with yesterday), but less talented. I suspect anyone from MSNBC would struggle similarly when faced with common sense, so maybe I'm not being fair to the token liberal.
If Newsmax can implement an At-The-Market (aka "ATM") equity offering program to monetize the craze – like many meme favorites such as AMC and GameStop have done – the quality is likely to improve. The real talent pool for conservative voices is in the podcast world though, as I think your readers know all too well. See The New Yorker "The Battle for the Bros" (3/17/25) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-battle-for-the-bros
The Harrow and other British public school expansions are a sign of weakness. The top schools in the U.S. have enough support from their alumni and parents and through tuition so that they don't need to license their name. It's absolutely brand dilution.
Avenues is a for-profit model (which has never made sense to me.) Good private schools should not be set up to make a profit even if they own their real estate, which I'm pretty sure Avenues does not so they have to pay rent.
I heard that Avenues is opening in the Hudson Valley but most of my readers are probably not ready for that conversation.
Dear Lord, no!
Can we please keep it to the Lower Hudson?
I'd like to still have Mid-Hudson-cred when I'm dead.
Trust, I'm all for a British moment, but like any good 6-hour-flight-fuck, this situationship needs boundaries.
Sending your kids to *a* Harrow and not *the* Harrow is so tacky and would probably get you laughed at if you ran into some noble in the Annabel’s or 5 Hertford Street bathroom.
This is the take
American boarding schools convey sort of the same status as long as you go to one in the top 10 or so. Phillip’s Andover and Exeter are maybe exclusions to that, but honestly there’s no difference in reaction between telling someone you went to Deerfield or Milton or Thacher. (I went to one of these.) Eton and Harrow are like immediate imprimaturs of class position in the UK.
Admittedly I went to a name brand prep school so I'm absolutely biased but like...why would I send my kid to Fake Harrow instead of Real Hotchkiss or Real Exeter? Or even somewhere like Real Foxcroft?
This might be a me issue but I think I'd curl up into a ball and blow away if I ran across a parent from Real Harrow and had to admit that no, no, we pay all that money to go to Fake American Harrow and then deal with their pitying looks.
I love RH (Real Harrow) vs. FH (Fake Harrow). Going to need more Feed Me prep school students to come out of the closet and get into the comments today, because we all know my fiance is going to do it.
Former prep school kid here, they aren’t gonna stand a chance if they don’t establish top tier athletics because that’s what all the newer private schools have gone toward to make up for their lack of an alumni network, which in my experience is one of the most important parts and I’d argue what you are truly paying for besides a great education, so I don’t know why anyone would want to go to a school where that is lacking! It’s like all of the Ivys and top colleges— the real benefit is in the networking with alumni
Even the response to the lax question got me real nervous for these kids. Also the weekend programming being seeing Harry Potter on broadway...??? If I was a parent I'd be pissed.
An east coast prep school without lacrosse is a dire situation. And yes they shouldn’t be seeing Broadway shows they should be getting their entertainment the same way we all did living at school in the middle of nowhere: sneaking into the boys dorms to get “drunk” on one singular beer and finding a random hangout spot in the woods to play truth or dare and stash your booze!
correct. the traffic into the city on the weekend is going to be so rough for those kids.
Our major source of entertainment was via the son of a famous actress - she’d send him screeners and he’d take over the auditorium on Saturday nights. And we didn’t exactly have any ability to choose what she sent us so that’s how you ended up with the entire school watching a pre-release copy of The People Vs Larry Flynt on a random Saturday night.
Well, that and hiking into the woods to smoke cloves and pass around the 3 warm Zimas someone’s brother at Dartmouth obtained for us.
The woods were such a classic. Our hangout was these huge rocks called Devils Alter in what we thought was sooo deep into the woods but in reality we were like 10 feet from the headmasters house
Clove cigarettes… memories 🥹
Totally
“The reality is, they’re likely not going to get the cream of the crop when it comes to who applies.”
Absolutely true, but they’ll be fine considering the number of people who will pay for a name or image.
In a more rational world we’d all be driving economical, reliable Toyota Corollas but Land Rover can still sell a vehicle that will technically fail after 50k miles because people want to be seen in one and the connection to British aristocracy doesn’t hurt. Those are the people who will send their kids there, people who want to look like landed gentry even if their child needs remedial English.
British international schools in Asia (like Shanghai, where I attended school until I was 9) made sense because they offered a starkly different type of education than that of the strict/ monolithic Chinese public school system, which appealed to parents who wanted their children to be immersed in a “global” school and eventually study overseas- so even if diluted, it’s still substantially better than the alternative. Those kinds of international schools inevitably set their students up to go abroad, whether US or UK. I will say that even with all that preparation, when I moved to New York in middle school, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for being in an “actually” international environment. I guess it doesn’t make sense to me why someone who send their children to a “fake” harrow when they could go to a Real New York school.
Spence - but I also went to avenues for 2 yrs
Wow you must have some STORIES
Where did you go to high school in New York?
As a Brit, I like that you’re covering this, although you’re very generous with the column inches given to it. Harrow is pretty C-list these days, and presumably another of its expansions points to an ever shrinking local market, particularly now that 20% VAT has been applied to UK private school fees.
Tom….. have you seen the other thing I give this many inches to? Flamingos in the Hamptons, a podcast called Call Her Daddy, interviews with investors who most of my readers will never think about or interact with.
If there’s a school that deserves this many inches, please drop the name lol. I decide what gets coverage around here!
Oh shitttt- this isn't fully tucked away from the riff raff in Locust Valley or the Hamptons--Oakdale isn't too far from proper Four Loko Long Island.
Can't wait for my people to destroy any last modicum of class that the Brits have left.
Remember, George Washington endured Valley Forge so we could have Boardy Barn
I don't know if I'll ever go to Boardy Barn. It's like a mythical place far away to me.
We honor the flag and you crap on it when you don't have 14 Natty Lights on a rainy Sunday in a nondescript shack on the side of Montauk Hwy.
(yes this is a veiled Other Guys reference which proves I'm 10+ years too old to be anywhere near Boardy Barn)
Strong Island 💪🏼
My guess with Joey Bada$$ coming to CU is through Talib Kweli (who has deep ties to the university since both his parents are professors there).
Checks out
Sumeet, as someone I consider a Feed Me friend from our shared love of Casa Susanna I really need to let you know you’re missing a big opportunity by not changing your name to $umeet $hah
🤝
HAH!! That's def tempting. Also after spending a good amount of time in Hong Kong I switched my FB name to Sumeet Yum Cha Shah
I’d be so interested to see who you got meetings with once you added the dollar signs.
Deal.
VHS acquires Rap Snacks
Emily send Julien to the Yale club gym and squash courts and ask people wearing prep school sweats what they think, definitely the highest concentration and easily spotted contingent of prep school alums in town.
Wife of an Old Radleian here (you haven’t heard of Radley because they don’t want you to know about them). Harrow has long been a running joke amongst the English who sent their kids to public schools. The fact that they’re opening it in NYC isn’t surprising to me - thanks to Starmer’s introduction of 20% VAT on schools, they’re struggling with admissions. I feel like the US does have an obsession with the Brit-code culture so it can possibly succeed; but I’m not sure what the actual demographic of this will be.
Also, much easier to get into this than the real deal - my husband’s parents had to put him on Eton / Radley waiting list when he was 1..
the involvement of people in the UK school system in this comment section is so funny
target audience you didn’t know you had - we’re delighted
https://www.ssense.com/en-us/women/product/laura-andraschko/gray-my-boyfriend-went-to-eton-baby-t-shirt/17381701
going to be so honest i thought this was an april fool’s joke
come onnnnn
The new Harrow sounds tacky and I feel like we’ve passed peak nightgown and are returning to pajama culture. Little House on the Prairie chic not hitting the same now that tradwives are mainstream
I think it's seasonal, people love to walk around in a nightgown and heels for an 8pm dinner res
Thanks for the shout-out on our Upstarts news. We are honored for the coveted Feed Me mention and welcome to Substack :)
Of course! Welcome to Substack.
I would just like to say i made a tiktok last of year of things that are not in the Hamptons but should/ or will be and mentiomed Nobu Montauk in place of scarpetta but near bilboquet in Sag would be everything too. Glad they are listening lol
You're an oracle
An Erewhon pop up in Amagansett or Sag Harbor would be amazing
I wonder if Happier Grocery will return to The Row.....
Time will tell!
Provisions customer base in Sag is loyal AF, but the local tourism and traffic in just for Erewhon would be out of control
I was hoping you’d enter the comments on todays story
I'm a little more shy on your free days. I like to support the PAID version!
Comment section is always paywalled
Like they would need a drawbridge to a dirt lot. Like the jam packed seemingly casual one we have in Silverlake that’s actually a cage fight.
"Harrow International School." Ick. "Business of education" vibes.
Elaborate
It's like a gussied-up Trump University -- if you look at that website (I would love to know what this "campus" was originally -- a convent? A defunct girls' school? A sanitarium?) there's a lot of squirrely language about keeping to the spirit of Harrow (which has sold its name and crest) and zero about the curriculum. It's smells (and probably is) for-profit, which is a thing in NYC with Avenues and Dwight, but . . .
Hahah you're on the money -- it was originally the home of Frederick Gilbert Bourne (president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company) and then an overpriced wedding venue.
It's wild how many locations the school has in Asia, it's as if they treat the school more like a Hyatt franchise than a school.
The big story on Newsmax is not the competitive landscape in news at all. It’s the way that conservatives are willing to put their dollars behind causes and businesses they like (or take them away from Budweiser and Snow White), and the scarcity of media businesses in particular with explicitly conservative values (there’s obviously no shortage of these on the progressive side of the ledger), which creates the necessary conditions for meme-like moves
Do you engage with Newsmax at all
Essentially no. They are doing their best, but production and talent when I last checked in is closer to local news caliber. The equity valuation is pure meme. The last show format of theirs I've seen is the news desk debate/discussion style, and they'll have one token liberal like CNN has Scott Jennings (who I rode the Acela with yesterday), but less talented. I suspect anyone from MSNBC would struggle similarly when faced with common sense, so maybe I'm not being fair to the token liberal.
If Newsmax can implement an At-The-Market (aka "ATM") equity offering program to monetize the craze – like many meme favorites such as AMC and GameStop have done – the quality is likely to improve. The real talent pool for conservative voices is in the podcast world though, as I think your readers know all too well. See The New Yorker "The Battle for the Bros" (3/17/25) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-battle-for-the-bros