The name of the boarding school Holden attends at the start of the novel is Pencey Prep.
Pencey Prep is a fictional boarding school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, where Holden Caulfield is a student at the beginning of J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. Holden has just been expelled after failing nearly all his subjects, except English, and the opening chapters describe his final days there before he leaves early for New York City.
Holden presents Pencey as an elite but hypocritical institution. Its slogan claims that the school develops “strong, clear-thinking young men,” yet Holden sees many students and adults there as “phony.” His roommate, Ward Stradlater, and his friend Robert Ackley help establish the social tensions that drive Holden away.
Pencey is fictional, although Salinger’s own experience at Valley Forge Military Academy is often cited as a possible influence. Exeter and Groton are real preparatory schools, but neither is Holden’s school.