The Preparatory school reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Preparatory school

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A preparatory school, or prep school, is, in the United States, usually a secondary school (high school) designed to prepare a student for higher education. Often, such schools are very highly selective, accepting only a very small percentage of applicants. Such schools often have very high admissions fees which are used to attract and hire the best teachers, and also used to provide enriched learning environments and services such as libraries, science laboratories, and computers. Graduates of preparatory schools are often actively sought by colleges due to the colleges' confidence that the students will be better educated.

Some well-known preparatory schools include:

In the United Kingdom and some parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, however, a prep or preparatory school is an independent primary school designed to 'prepare' students to enter a secondary school, normally a public school, which would be the closest approximation in British English to the American English term 'prep school'.

In France, some high schools offer special postgraduate classes, equivalent in level to the first years of university, for students who wish to enter Grandes Écoles (see this word).