Type Private, coeducational President Ryan Maher Grades 9-12 Phone +1 570-941-7737 Colors Purple, Gold | Religious affiliation(s) Roman Catholic, Jesuit Principal Matthew Bernard Tuition 13,400 USD Motto Ad Altiora Natus | |
 | ||
Established 1944; 73 years ago (1944) Address 1000 Wyoming Ave, Scranton, PA 18509, USA Profiles | ||
Scranton Preparatory School is a Jesuit, Catholic, college preparatory day school for boys and girls in the Diocese of Scranton. It enrolls 835 students and is fully accredited by the Pennsylvania State Department of Public Instruction and by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Scranton Prep is a member of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association, the National Association of Independent Schools, and the National Catholic Educational Association. Tuition (fees included) is $13,400 per year, which is among the lowest of Jesuit prep high schools in the United States. A full program of athletics and extracurricular activities is offered to all students. Admission is by examination and interview by the Admissions Committee.
Contents
History
Scranton Prep opened its doors in 1944. At the request of the Scranton diocese and of Catholic families in the area, the Jesuits who had recently assumed ownership of the University of Scranton began preparations to open a college preparatory school in the Scranton area. Led by the University's President, the Very W. Coleman Nevils, the Jesuits renovated a building known as the “Annex” on the corner of Mulberry Street and Wyoming Avenue for the high school. The Annex, formerly the Dr. Charles E. Thomson Scranton Private Hospital, was acquired by Bishop William J. Hafey in 1941. Although he had intended for it to be used by the university to expand its facilities, the Second World War in Europe had caused the college’s enrollment to decline precipitously and made such expansions unnecessary. After renovations were completed, the high school was opened in 1944 for young Catholic men. The Annex served as the high school’s home until 1961 when the construction of an expressway necessitated a move to a new location. After making the Old Main Building of the University of Scranton its temporary home for two years, Prep moved to its permanent location, the former Women’s Institute Building of the International Correspondence Schools, at 1000 Wyoming Avenue.
Although founded as a boys' school, Scranton Prep became co-educational in 1971 when a disastrous fire destroyed Marywood Seminary, a local girls’ academy conducted by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters.
Although the Prep's staff and operation were for the most part distinct from the university, it was owned by the university and under its corporate control from 1944 until 1977, when it received its official charter of separate incorporation in 1977.
Scranton Preparatory School is one of 52 Jesuit secondary schools in the United States. In 1986, Prep was named a National Exemplary School by the United States Department of Education.