 Despite high intelligence and academic achievements , Said proved a troublesome student and was expelled from Victoria College in 1951 , and was sent from Egypt to the eastern U.S. , where he attended Northfield Mount Hermon School , Massachusetts , an elite college @-@ prep boarding @-@ school where he endured a psychologically difficult year of social alienation . Nonetheless , Said excelled academically , and achieved the rank of either first ( valedictorian ) or second ( salutatorian ) in a class of one hundred sixty students . 
