Early Education
Jeffrey Epstein grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. He attended Lafayette High School, a public school in Brooklyn, where he demonstrated mathematical aptitude and worked his way into academic opportunities.
Academic Progression
Epstein was admitted to Cooper Union and later New York University as a student, though he did not complete a degree at either institution. Despite lacking formal credentials, he later claimed to have academic affiliations he did not actually possess.
The Dalton School
Epstein’s most significant educational connection was not as a student but as a teacher: he taught physics and mathematics at the elite Dalton School in Manhattan, which he obtained through a connection with Alan Greenberg of Bear Stearns. It was at Dalton that he met the connections that led to his entry into finance.
Early New York Context
Epstein’s Brooklyn background growing up in a working-class Jewish family was part of the biographical narrative he cultivated: a self-made man who had risen through intelligence and connections from modest beginnings to extraordinary wealth.