The Official Preppy Handbook, 1980 (Archival Information)

[Anonymous]

The Wall Street Journal had an article a few months ago about how popular the Preppy Handbook is, with the resurgence in interest in the preppy style -- it's gone out of print and used copies are/were going for pretty high amounts on eBay. I think the issue with not re-printing it had to do with it not being sufficiently politically correct, but maybe that'll change now that people feel freer to speak out against all the woke idiocy.

Such a great book! The Lisa Birnbaum college guide was awesome, too -- I read it multiple times in high school

[Anonymous]

The book tossed this in:

THE TOP 10 DRINKING SCHOOLS

1. Dartmouth College
SATs: V620, M665

2. Bowdoin College
SATs: V550, M570

3. Lafayette College
SATs: V533, M626

4. University of Colorado
SATs: V520, M570

5. University of North Carolina
SATs: V516, M564

6. University of New Hampshire
SATs: V477, M539

7. Duke University
SATs: V593, M633

8. Southern Methodist University
SATs: V480, M535

9. Holy Cross College [sic]
SATs: V575, M600

10. University of Southern California
SATs: V545, M495

[Anonymous]

What I find remarkable is how low these SAT scores were 45 years ago compared to today, where 1400+ is not good enough to get into the Ivy Plus. Test score inflation!

[Anonymous]

SAT scores have been rescaled a couple of times since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised Dartmouth isn't on the original list.

Beyond the 20 schools included in "The College of Your Choice," other colleges were mentioned in the book. In the case of Dartmouth, it was mentioned a few times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being preppy was not cool in the 80’s or ever.

said a plaid wearing gen x-er.

That book was great. My favorite part was the rules on s3x. Basically BJs only = prep. I think there were rules on all the way but blocked them out apparently.

Where did they talk about bjs in the preppy handbook? It would be interesting to see that quote.

[Anonymous]

There's no such mention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SAT scores have been rescaled a couple of times since then.

+100

1200-1300 was a very competitive score in the 80s. It was a completely different test. Vocab was very difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's no such mention.

I didn’t think so. That wasn’t something that was really talked about back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT scores have been rescaled a couple of times since then.

+100

1200-1300 was a very competitive score in the 80s. It was a completely different test. Vocab was very difficult.

Right. I’ve looked up my score from back then on the rescaled charts. Those scores you see listed in the book are equivalent to the much higher scores of today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had an original copy and it was my bible

But it was never meant to have anything to do with academics for crying out loud.

It was tennis and finishing and boarding schools and Speery topsides, monograms, LL Bean duck boots, duck phones, etc

Sweet Briar almost shut down completely from lack of funds and enrollment lags. Hopkins is all female too.

Let me guess : you are the same poster that turned to Vogue magazine for a historical article on “prestige” colleges (a fashion magazine) and now are going to a preppy parody book.

I suggest you look for academic literature.

In that the Preppy Handbook lacks any underlying literary work as its implicit basis, I wouldn't classify it as a parody.

DP. It's a parody of Prep Culture. Good grief. The pedanticism is exhausting.

Yikes — no.

[Anonymous]

I believe some Japanese are really into the Preppy Handbook and follow the rules to a T. I don’t think they understand it’s satire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe some Japanese are really into the Preppy Handbook and follow the rules to a T. I don’t think they understand it’s satire.

No, you’re thinking of Take Ivy, mostly for men’s style. The Preppy Handbook careless drinker ethos (I’m talking about the mentality - rumpled, dog hair everywhere, F you pants, etc) is anathema to UC Japanese culture so hasn’t really taken on there

[Anonymous]

Went to college in the early 80s with lots of NE boarding school preppies as well as non-preppies. It was a humor book but there were definitely people who used it as a guide. I remember this one guy telling me this in all seriousness. I knew he was kind of dumb because of this admission.

It was also in fashion for people that age to wear preppy clothes at the time. Everyone wore LL Bean snow boots and Ralph Lauren was popular. A few years later came JCrew. It was a look for non-preppies too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, this book was humor.

Those rankings were supposedly of the “preppiest” schools, not the best schools. It was meant to be funny! I was in college at the time and we all thought it was a very funny book- almost as funny as the movie “Animal House,” which is also comedy.

We know this. Not sure why you are feeling such a need to point it out.