With the recent season finale of Gossip Girl, and the upcoming Bravo reality show NYC Prep, we've had the reality of New York City prep school on our minds lately. Was the Gossip Girl depiction of graduation accurate, what with the caps and gowns, church setting, distracting text messages, and all? The Observer's Irina Aleksander went to a series of ceremonies across the city to find out. Turns out that, as a whole, they were pretty much as imagined: somber, impressive, even elegant. Except, of course, the graduation for Saint Ann's in Brooklyn, which was, it seems, realer than the rest:

The St. Ann's graduating class elects five student speakers, the most memorable of which was a smiley young girl in a floor-length, sleeveless cream gown and weighty diamond earrings named Kimi Lee. Ms. Lee, whose father teaches print-making at the school, struggled to describe her unique education at St. Ann's. Maybe it was like a carnival, or maybe … "It can be an orgy, because, after all, the St. Ann's ethos has always been uninhibited, experimental, gratifying and incestuous," she told the audience, before offering that perhaps the best adjective to describe her education was "delicious!" Another speaker, Sam Sullivan, a student of poetry, said some very romantic things about "enchanted gardens" and "childish frolic" and the importance of "fantasy!" ... Mr. Sullivan then pulled out a guitar and led those gathered in a swaying, earnest rendition of ABBA's Dancing Queen.

Actually, this is probably exactly how the writers of Gossip Girl would have portrayed a Brooklyn graduation.

Private-School Poppets Welcome Ferrell, Hugh Grant, Reality-Show Cameras [NYO]