List of Boston Latin School alumni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boston Latin School is a public exam school located in Boston, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1635. It is the first public school and the oldest existing school in the United States.[1][2][3][4]
The school's first class included nine students; the school now has 2,400 pupils drawn from all parts of Boston. Its graduates have included four Harvard presidents, eight Massachusetts state governors, and five signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, as well as several preeminent architects, a leading art historian, a notable naturalist and the conductors of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Pops orchestras. There are also several notable non-graduate alumni, including Louis Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam. Boston Latin admitted only male students at its founding in 1635.[4] The school's first female student was admitted in the nineteenth century. In 1972, Boston Latin admitted its first co-educational class.[5]
Admission is determined by a combination of a student's score on the independent school Entrance Examination and recent grades, and is limited to residents of the city of Boston.[6] Although Boston Latin runs from the 7th through the 12th grade, it admits students only into the 7th and 9th grades. In 2007, the school was named one of the top twenty high schools in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[2][7]