Establishment and founding date controversy In 1628, the Reverend
Jonas Michaëlius, the first minister of the
Dutch Reformed Church in America, arrived in the Dutch colony of
New Netherland. That August, he wrote to an Amsterdam preacher that he wanted "to place [Native American] students under the instruction of some experienced and godly schoolmaster, where they may be instructed not only to speak, read, and write in our language, but also especially in the fundamentals of our Christian religion." It appears that some form of Dutch "school" existed on Manhattan no later than 1632, when a marriage contract instructed a husband to "keep [his step-children] at school." In August 1637, the
Dutch West India Company and the Classis of Amsterdam, the supervising body of the Dutch Reformed Church, licensed Adam Roelantsen to open a state-funded school in Manhattan, which opened in 1638. The school has revised its founding date over the years. The school initially set the founding date at 1633, but later changed it to 1638, as archival research suggested that Roelantsen visited Manhattan in 1633, but was not teaching at that time. Based on this letter, the school announced in 1984 that it was changing the foundation date to 1628, allowing it to (somewhat controversially) claim the title of the oldest school in America. (
Boston Latin School, the nation's oldest public school, was founded in 1635, and
Harvard University, the nation's oldest university, was founded in 1636.) Collegiate asserts continuity with Michaëlius' tutoring work because "the minister's efforts later led to the founding of Collegiate"
Dutch bastion in English New York Collegiate traditionally catered to Manhattan's Dutch settler population, even after the
English conquest. Under English and later British rule, in the years before free, universal public education, the various religious denominations sponsored schools for their own communities.
Transition to college-preparatory school LeMuel C. Mygatt served as headmaster from 1887 to 1910. Under his leadership, Collegiate – which was challenged by declining financial support from the Collegiate Church and began charging tuition. a princely sum at a time when
Phillips Exeter charged day students $45–60 a year. The school generally stopped admitting girls in 1892, but operated a co-educational kindergarten from 1935 to 1961.) The school's original building at the West End location was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. Collegiate historically catered to an upper-class clientele – in 1972,
The New York Times wrote that "from its inception, Collegiate's student body has included the children of some of the best known families in New York" – and its middle school traditionally served as a feeder school to (mostly Eastern)
boarding schools with similarly affluent student bodies. However, in the 1960s, the American upper class increasingly leaned towards sending their children to day schools. From 1961 to 1970, the share of Collegiate students who left for boarding school declined from 75% to 9%. The school also offered an extensive financial aid program. In 1971, nearly a third of Collegiate's 518 students were on scholarship.
21st century Collegiate has had six Heads of School (including one interim head) in the 21st century. Kerry P. Brennan, the former head of the Upper School at Ohio's
University School, led the school from 2000 to 2004, succeeding Jacob Dresden. Following Brennan's departure, W. Lee Pierson served as interim head from 2004 to 2006. He was succeeded by David S. Lourie, the former head of Virginia's
St. Anne's-Belfield School, who served from 2020 to 2024. In 2024, Collegiate appointed Bodie Brizendine, the former head of New York's
Spence School, as its Head of School; she is the first female Head of School in Collegiate's history. On January 12, 2018, Collegiate opened a new 180,000-square foot building on 301 Freedom Place South, in New York's
Riverside South neighborhood. The school conducted two capital campaigns totaling $100 million to facilitate the move; its chairman had previously estimated the full cost at $125–$135 million. The Church set Collegiate a 2022 deadline to leave, A report noted that "many Jewish parents" believed that the school ought to have issued a statement condemning the
October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. (Collegiate was not the only New York school to face such turmoil;
Fieldston's head of school stepped down two months later.)
Student body In the 2021–22 school year, Collegiate reported that of its 662 students, 326 (49.2%) were white, 119 (18.0%) were Asian, 22 (3.3%) were Hispanic, 47 (7.1%) were Black, and 148 (22.4%) were multiracial. The school was not permitted to include students in two or more categories. The school is divided into Lower School (Kindergarten–Grade 4), Middle School (Grades 5–8), and Upper School (Grades 9–12). Each grade contains approximately 50–55 students. == Academics and reputation ==