Deerfield AcademyDEERFIELD ACADEMY · PRIVATE SCHOOL GUIDE
Deerfield has 658 students in rural western Massachusetts, and from fall 2027 every student will board. Start here to picture daily life and prepare each part of your application.
Fall 2027 entry
GET TO KNOW THE SCHOOL
Deerfield has 658 students in 2026–27, from 36 states, Washington, D.C., and 52 other countries. From fall 2027 it becomes a fully boarding school, and a new girls’ dorm opens that year.
IN CLASS
Deerfield runs on trimesters, with three 90-minute classes a day and no Saturday classes.
IN YOUR DORM
Ninth graders live together in the Ninth Grade Village, tenth graders have single rooms, and juniors and seniors share dorms. Each hall has two faculty members.
AT THE TABLE
Deerfield seats students and adults together for family-style meals, and phones stay in rooms during the class day.
Every student has a faculty adviser, assigned by late summer, who writes a report each term and is your family’s main contact. After your first year, you choose your adviser.
To graduate: If you spend three or four years at Deerfield, you take English every year, math through Algebra II, one language through the third level, two history courses (one on the United States and one beyond it), two lab sciences, two terms of the arts, and a term of philosophy or religious studies. Ninth and tenth graders also take a health seminar.
Languages: If English is your second language, you can ask to count your native language toward the requirement. Apart from Latin and Arabic, language classes are taught only in the language itself.
AP courses: Deerfield teaches official AP courses only in math and the arts, plus AP Seminar, though you can still take other AP exams.
In your dorm: Seniors serve as proctors in the ninth- and tenth-grade dorms. Sixteen peer counselors, all juniors and seniors trained by the health center team, live across campus.
Health care: While school is in session, a nurse is on duty around the clock. The health center also has a physician, a nurse practitioner, and a 16-bed infirmary.
Counseling: Licensed counselors help with homesickness, conflicts with friends, anxiety, and more. Counseling is confidential and free, and crisis support is available at any hour.
Extra help: Teachers offer extra help, peer tutors hold evening drop-in hours, and ninth and tenth graders sign up for nights in a quiet study hall.
If you’re coming from abroad: Deerfield introduces international students to their advisers online before the year starts, then gathers them for monthly teas.
Entry points: Deerfield admits students to grades 9 through 12 and for a postgraduate (PG) year, for September entry only. You can also apply to repeat a grade, which Deerfield calls reclassifying; it suggests raising this with your admission officer at your interview.
Testing: Grade 11 applicants send the ACT, PLAN, PSAT, SAT, or SSAT. Grade 12 and PG applicants send the ACT, PSAT, or SAT. Before you book a test, confirm the accepted tests with Deerfield for your entry year.
One-year students: New seniors and PGs take three terms of English.
An evening for you: Deerfield holds an online session for new 11th grade, 12th grade, and PG applicants on December 7, 2026.
UNDERSTAND WHAT DEERFIELD LOOKS FOR
Deerfield reviews applications holistically and publishes no checklist of criteria. Its essays ask for your perspective, voice, and hopes, and its graded essay shows how you respond to feedback.
YOUR VOICE
Deerfield says its essays are a chance to share your perspective, your voice, and your hopes for the future.
Letrado’s adviceWrite the way you think when you’re not trying to impress anyone. Specific details will carry your voice.
YOUR GROWTH
For the graded essay, Deerfield values how you engage with writing and revision more than a high grade alone.
Letrado’s adviceChoose a paper where your teacher’s comments pushed your thinking, even if the grade wasn’t your best.
YOUR PART IN CLASS
An optional extra recommendation can come from any teacher, past or present, who can speak to your best qualities in class.
Letrado’s adviceChoose a teacher who has seen you ask questions, take a risk, or change your mind, not only earn a top grade.
WHAT DEERFIELD DESCRIBES
A student-led tour, then a one-on-one interview; about two hours
A one-on-one interview, plus time for parents; about one hour
Deerfield’s application page calls the interview required, while its Gateway listing says it’s strongly encouraged, so plan to interview. You book it after completing your Candidate Profile, and slots fill up in December and January.
WHAT DEERFIELD SAYS
Deerfield’s admission pages don’t publish an AI rule for applicants. Its own students may not use generative AI tools for schoolwork, even for editing, except in a few AI-integrated courses and its AI Lab. That policy also covers their personal essays and college applications.
2026–27 SCHOOL PROFILE
Deerfield doesn’t publish a current student-to-teacher ratio or admission rate.
PLAN THE APPLICATION
Deerfield uses Gateway to Prep Schools, then its own Admission Portal for extra items. Your application and financial-aid application are due January 15, 2027, and decisions arrive on March 10.
Application and aid
Jan 15, 2027Decisions
Mar 10, 2027Deerfield calls January 15 its priority deadline. It makes every effort to consider later applications but can’t promise them a March 10 decision, and later offers depend on the places left after April 10.
Start with the Candidate Profile. The fee is $60 if you live in the U.S. or Canada and $125 elsewhere, and need-based waivers are available until January 31.
Gateway’s checklist isn’t complete. After your Candidate Profile, Deerfield emails a portal login for its extra items, including your activities.
From your principal or counselor and your current English, math, and one other academic teacher. Ninth-grade applicants send this year’s first marking period and last year’s grades; others send all high school grades.
Required. Grades 9 and 10: the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) or ISEE (Independent School Entrance Examination). Grade 11: ACT, PLAN, PSAT, SAT, or SSAT. Grade 12 and PG: ACT, PSAT, or SAT. Before you book a test, confirm the accepted tests with Deerfield for your entry year.
Required on Deerfield’s own page: on campus with a tour, or on Zoom.
A short answer, a personal essay, and a graded essay from a current course, with your teacher’s comments.
Gateway to Prep Schools: An online application that many private schools share. Part 1, the Candidate Profile, is a common form about who you are, what you’ve done, and where you’ve been. Part 2 holds each school’s own essays, and Part 3 sends requests to your teachers and school.
Seeing the questions: Part 2, with Deerfield’s essay questions, opens only after you submit Part 1, which Deerfield asks you to send with the application fee.
Recommendations: You send each request through Gateway, and Deerfield suggests doing it in the fall. If you aren’t taking English or math this year, ask last year’s teacher and tell the admission office.
When: Deerfield suggests testing in October, November, or December, and registration closes well before test day. A January score still counts, but Deerfield reviews your file only once it arrives.
Sending scores: SSAT, ISEE, and TOEFL results, including your writing sample, go straight from the testing organization to Deerfield: codes 2770 (SSAT), 220685 (ISEE), and 9577 (TOEFL). PSAT, SAT, and ACT results can come on your transcript; if they aren’t there, email a copy to the admission office.
Fee waivers: Qualifying U.S. families can ask Deerfield for an SSAT or ISEE fee waiver after submitting the Candidate Profile and the Clarity aid application.
If you can’t meet a requirement: Deerfield wants applying to be open to anyone who could benefit, and asks you to contact its Chief Enrollment Officer.
English tests: If English hasn’t been your main language of instruction for at least three years, or isn’t the main language spoken at home, send an IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, or Duolingo score, taken between January 2026 and January 2027, with your other test. Deerfield prefers a TOEFL score of 5.0 or higher.
Fees and waivers: The application fee is $125 if you live outside the U.S. and Canada. SSAT and ISEE fee waivers are for U.S. applicants only, and there are no waivers for English tests.
Testing abroad: If test dates aren’t available in your country, contact the admission office.
Financial aid: If admitted, international students have their full demonstrated need met, up to full tuition. A current bank statement, salary verification, or non-U.S. tax filing is due in Clarity on January 15, 2027.
Saying yes: Enrollment contracts and parents’ acceptance of any aid grant are due April 10, 2027. You confirm your place by signing the contract and paying any tuition deposit, which isn’t refundable but counts toward your first bill.
Paying tuition: Families can pay in one installment due August 1, two due August 1 and December 1, or monthly through FACTS. Monthly plans begin in July and carry a $55 enrollment fee per family.
Aid each year: Families on aid reapply every year, and Deerfield aims to keep support steady unless circumstances change.
WRITE IN YOUR OWN VOICE
A short answer, a personal essay, and a graded essayYou choose from Deerfield’s prompts inside Gateway, where they appear after you submit your Candidate Profile. Deerfield doesn’t publish the prompts or word limits on its website.
Deerfield’s timeline suggests submitting your essays in October or November. It wants your perspective, voice, and hopes for the future, and your graded essay shows how you respond to a teacher’s feedback.
Letrado’s adviceChoose the prompts you find most interesting, as Deerfield suggests. You’ll write better about a question you actually want to answer.
Whichever you choose, build your answers from real moments in your own life.
Submit an essay from a current course with your teacher’s comments. Deerfield says how you respond to feedback matters more than a high grade alone.
If you take the SSAT or ISEE, Deerfield receives your writing sample with your scores. Plan briefly, answer the question asked, and write in your own voice.
Any teacher, past or present, can write about your best qualities in class. Add one only if it tells Deerfield something new.
Performers can send an optional portfolio through SlideRoom, and athletes can add video links in the portal. Deerfield says most applicants don’t need supplements.
MAKE ROOM FOR THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
Deerfield meets 100% of demonstrated need with grants, not loans, and 38% of families receive aid. Its aid budget is limited, so applying for aid can affect admission.
U.S. INCOME UP TO $150,000
for families who live and work in the U.S., with two years of W-2 income only and assets in line with their income.
U.S. INCOME ABOVE $150,000
of total income per student for tuition and fees, under the same conditions.
INTERNATIONAL FAMILIES
If admitted, international students have their full demonstrated need met, up to full tuition.
In 2026–27, 35% of aid recipients pay nothing, and the average boarding grant is $68,235. Deerfield offers no merit aid.
Deerfield’s financial aid (opens in a new tab)PUBLISHED 2026–27 TUITION · BOARDING
$79,940Tuition covers room and board, textbooks, a MacBook Air, and the health center. Day students, who live at home, pay less until full boarding begins. From fall 2027, Deerfield will charge one all-inclusive rate, which it hasn’t published yet.
For fall 2027 entry, use the new 2027–28 all-inclusive rate when Deerfield publishes it.
Tuition and aid (opens in a new tab)Letrado’s adviceIf your family might qualify for the $0 or 10% commitment, check the conditions carefully: two years of W-2 income only, with assets in line with income.
Some students also receive help with airfare, health insurance, music and dance lessons, and travel for athletics or global studies.
What aid can cover (opens in a new tab)ADMITTED TO DEERFIELD · J.P.
He was a South Korean day-school student with strong grades, seven years of cello, and a love of physics, but his first interview answers sounded memorized. We helped him answer naturally and compare schools that were genuinely different.
He answered the same question from different starting points, asked for clarification when he needed it, and took a short pause before responding.
It connected tuning a cello with a lab result that went wrong, and admitted that he sometimes gave up on an idea too quickly.
He compared class size, music, science, residential life, and geography, including smaller schools in the West.
Deerfield’s interview is a one-on-one conversation with an admission officer, so natural answers will serve you better than memorized ones.
Deerfield AcademyHIS DEERFIELD OUTCOME
Offered a place at Deerfield AcademyHIS CHOICE: CATE
He weighed size, access to nature, the science program, and the chance to keep playing cello without making it his whole identity. His parents supported the choice after reviewing travel and living arrangements.
ALSO ADMITTED TO
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Bring your questions to a free 45-minute introduction with your proposed mentor. Afterward, we’ll email a personalized plan with recommended next steps.
