Facts and Figures at Fifty  Summer 2007


Facts and Figures at Fifty


An Interim Report on the Status of the Alumni of The Wheatley School


June 24, 2007

Since opening its doors in the fall of 1956, The Wheatley School, in Old Westbury, New York, has seen 50 graduating classes (1958 through 2007) pass through its portals. In conjunction with our Alma Mater's 50th Anniversary Celebration, held over the weekend of October 20 through 22, 2006, the following statistical portrait of its graduates has emerged from (1) examining the Official Class Lists for those years, and (2) surveying as many graduates as time and circumstances permitted.


Data Culled from The Wheatley School Official Class Lists, 1958 through 2006.

Approximately 7,866 people have attended The Wheatley School, chronologically and alphabetically from Chris Abernethy, 1958, to Deeba Zivari, 2007. The most common last names (all those 20 and over) are as follows:

Cohen 40
Weiss 38
Levine 34
Miller 28
Schwartz 26
Smith 25
Goldstein 21
Horowitz 20
Lee  20
Shapiro 20

All six of the most common first names (all those over 120) are male:
 
Michael 187  
Robert 180  
Steven  162

  (Includes 98 "Stevens" and 64 "Stephens")

David  144  
Richard  132  
John  121  

The six most common female names are as follows:
 
Susan 117  
Barbara 83  
Nancy  62  
Linda 59  
Jennifer  56  
Karen 56  

The Classes of 1967, 1971, 1984, and 2002 each have a David Shapiro, apparently the most common single name.


The gender breakdown is as follows:
 
Males

3,971

 approx. 50.56%
Females

3,883

 approx. 49.44%

Based solely on the Official Class lists, without considering any add-ons, the ten largest classes, reflecting the post-war baby boom, spanned 1964 to 1975:
 
1967  251
1965 239
1970 221
1969  215
1966 214
1971 208
1964  207
1974 207
1975 207
1968 202

The smallest class, by a considerable amount, was 1992, which had a mere 78 graduates.

Through 2006, twins comprised 188 (94 sets) out of 7,727 graduates, or approximately 2.4%. The Class of 1973 had 16 twins (eight sets) out of 201 graduates, or approximately 8.0%! There was one set of triplets: Andrew, Michael, and Matthew Lee of the Class of 2001.


Wheatley students lived in five distinct communities:
 
Albertson

525

 
East Williston

2,070

 
Mineola  

1,101

 
Old Westbury

1,247

 
Roslyn Heights 

2,432

 (Including East Hills)
 
Community camaraderie was enhanced by the number of students who lived on certain major streets:
 
Roselle St. MI 258
Bengeyfield Dr. EW 257
Brown St. MI  205
Arlington St.   MI  185
I.U. Willets Rd.   OW/RH/AL 178 
Parkway Dr.  RH 155
Charles St.  MI/EW 139
Westwood Ci. RH 133
Bacon Rd.  OW  128
Shepherd Ln.  RH 127
Roslyn Rd.     RH/AL/EW/MI  122
 
Certain "all-American" names appear more than once:
 
Arbor Lane and Road in RH
Carriage Drive in OW; Lane in RH
Horseshoe Lane in RH; Road in OW
Meadow Lane in EW; Road in OW
Ridge Drive in OW; Road in EW
Summit Avenue in EW; Lane in RH
Tredwell Drive in OW; Road in MI
Wheatley Avenue in EW; Road in OW
 
EW has an Orchard Drive and an Orchard Meadow Road.
School Street is in EW, near the North Side School.
Schoolhouse Lane is in RH, near the Willets Road School.
Bacon Road, on which Wheatley is situated, is contributing increasing numbers of students as more housing is developed along its curves.

 
Data Culled from the Survey Conducted Late 2006 and Early 2007

After an extensive search, greatly aided by approximately 100 Class Captains, every graduate was assigned into one of the following six categories:
 
Found

 4,511

 - E-mail address ascertained.
Lost 

2,732

 - E-mail address not ascertained.
Low-Tech

108

 - Does not use e-mail; other contact information obtained.
Refusenik

93

 - Refused to address inquiries and/or provide information.
Incapacitated

13

 - Debilitated or jailed.
Deceased

269

 - Confirmed, to a reasonable degree of certainty, as dead.

As of this writing, approximately 1,081 people responded to the survey. In many instances, information was obtained from other sources.


Graduates are dispersed all around the country. The following states have the largest contingents:
 
New York 1,079
Florida 191
California   157
Massachusetts 100
New Jersey 100
Connecticut  61
Virginia  59
Maryland 55
Pennsylvania   44
Texas 41
Colorado 35
Arizona   25

Dispersion around the globe (and recognizing that those who opted for foreign climes were less likely to be reached) was not nearly as pronounced:
 
United States

2,329

Canada  10
France 9
England 5
Italy 5
Spain 4
Germany   3
India  3
Puerto Rico  3
China 2
Israel  2
Argentina 1
Australia   1
Belgium  1
Ireland 1
Norway 1
Scotland 1
Switzerland    1
The Netherlands 1

The foregoing results are the more striking as a few of those on foreign soil may have been one-year exchange students.
 

Surprisingly enough, the college that has graduated the most Wheatley alumni (judging by the survey results, at least), is not in New York State. A list of all of those in double digits is as follows:
 
U of Pennsylvania 41  
Cornell   39  
Hofstra  34  
U of Michigan 34  
NYU  33  
Syracuse U 26  
SUNY Binghamton 24   (recently renamed Binghamton University)
SUNY Buffalo   22  
Washington U 20  
Tufts 19  
CW Post   17  
Brown  16  
Yale     16  
Harvard 14  
NYIT    14   (New York Institute of Technology)
SUNY Stony Brook 14  
Brandeis      13  
Columbia 13  
Adelphi      12  
Boston U 12  
Barnard   10  
MIT 10  

Graduate schools and highest degrees obtained will have to await future iterations of this survey.

But not so the major areas of matriculation (undergraduate and graduate):
 
Law 108
Business  85
Education 78
Medicine 64
Psychology 41
Economics 27
Engineering 26
Art   18
English Literature 17
Social Work 17
Communications 15
Political Science 12
Accounting  11
History 11
Computers 10

Not surprisingly, those areas of study are reflected in the occupations and careers of the responders:
 
Lawyer  126
Teacher  115
Doctor  83
Business  47
Entrepreneur 42
Psychologist 37
Sales  36
Finance   34
Computers   33
Real Estate 25
Marketing 23
Accountant  22
Writer  21
Social Worker    20
Engineer 16
Banking   15
Advertising  14
Nurse  13
Scientist   10

Some of the more unexpected or exotic vocations are air traffic controller, airline pilot, blacksmith, customs agent, foreign service officer, organic farmer, patent examiner, vintner, and free spirit.


Notes on Methodology

Data culled from the Official Class Lists is objective and complete. Data culled from the survey, conducted from early November 2006 through late February 2007 (and ongoing), is somewhat subjective and incomplete. Who is found and who responds are subject to a large degree of self-selection; the results are skewed towards people who are sociable; nearby; and, perhaps, consider themselves socio-economically successful. The survey was conducted via e-mail, skewing the results towards the computer literate.

Interpreting whether a particular career should be considered as finance or banking or business; or social work or psychology; or engineering or science or computers; can be as arbitrary as formulating those overlapping categories in the first place. Furthermore, the survey data will evolve over time, especially for more recent graduates, but also for a surprising number of older alumni as well, who are still "trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up" (a phrase recently used by a Class of 1962 graduate). However, we have tried to find everyone, listen to everyone, and present everyone as the facts dictate.

The Official Class Lists do not include the many people, probably over a hundred, who went directly from junior year of high school to first year of college. Whether such people officially graduated was subject to administrative discretion and not always officially recorded. Presuming that the reader is less concerned with meticulous accuracy than a broad representation of the people who attended Wheatley, the survey includes so-called add-ons, to wit, people who attended Wheatley (or even, in a very few instances, one or both of its two East Williston School District feeder schools, the North Side School and the Willets Road School), but are not on the Lists.

The survey assumes the truth and accuracy of its responses; proof was not required, and statements were not checked.


Conclusion

This is an interim report because students are still graduating; graduates are still evolving; and data is still being collected. Thanks go to the survey responders, the Class Captains, and Principals Walter Wesley Wathey (1961-1979) and Rick Simon (1995-present). Feedback is welcome at ARTENGORON@AOL.COM or 646-872-4833. Future Interim Reports will appear periodically. If you have not already responded, please do so.


Wheatley Alumni Survey

1. From what college did you graduate (or are you attending)?

2. From what graduate school did you graduate (or are you attending)?

3. What college and/or graduate degrees do you have?

4. What was your primary area of study?

5. What was/is your career?

6. What state or foreign country do you call home?

7. What was your name at Wheatley (will be kept confidential)?

8. What year did you graduate from high school?


 

 

The Wheatley School Alumni Association / 2007

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