Show Hotchkiss the character and independence you already have.
Hotchkiss has 633 students on an 827-acre campus in Lakeville, Connecticut. Start here to picture daily life and prepare each part of your application.
Nearly every Hotchkiss student boards, and classes run six days a week.
Hotchkiss offers more than 200 courses in seven departments. It calls its grades preps (9), lower mids (10), upper mids (11), and seniors (12). Postgraduate (PG) students join for one year after finishing high school.
IN CLASS
Expect your heaviest course load in grades 9 and 10.
Preps and lower mids normally take six credits a year, plus Human Development, which carries no credit. Upper mids and seniors take five.
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IN YOUR DORM
Belong to a dorm, even as a day student.
Every student has a room assignment in one of 13 dorms. Dorms pair younger and older classes, with faculty and student proctors. Most rooms are singles, though new students are encouraged to have a roommate.
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IN THE AFTERNOON
Join an activity every season.
Every student takes part in an afternoon activity in each of the three seasons. Preps and lower mids spend at least two of them on a team.
Weekly check-ins with your adviser, and a dean who stays with your class.
You check in with your faculty adviser every week, and your adviser is your family’s link to the school. Class deans stay with the same class as it moves up.
What you need to graduate, by the grade you join
Entry points: Boarding and day students can join in grades 9 through 12 or for a PG year.
Credits: Under the 2026–27 Almanac, you need 19 Hotchkiss credits if you join as a prep, 14 as a lower mid, 9 as an upper mid, and 4 as a senior or PG. A yearlong course normally earns one credit, and a semester course half.
If you join as an upper mid: You need U.S. History and one more humanities credit, which can be credit you’ve already earned. Waiving U.S. History takes another year of history or art history and a paper that meets Hotchkiss’s standards.
If you join as a senior or PG: You must pass every senior course. PGs can petition to waive Senior English and don’t need math or a language, and completing U.S. History removes the humanities requirement. Ask the admission office whether you’ll need science.
Who looks after you: health, counseling, and help with your work
Health care: While school is in session, the health center is staffed around the clock, with overnight beds and a clinician on call. Sharon Hospital is five miles away.
Counseling: Licensed counselors offer short-term counseling at no charge, with someone on call for a crisis.
Help with schoolwork: Teachers and fellow students help with study skills, time management, reading, and writing.
Accommodations: Your current school’s accommodations don’t carry over automatically. Hotchkiss reviews each request, needs current documentation from a professional, and doesn’t apply accommodations retroactively. Test accommodations are a separate process.
Hotchkiss recommends an interview, on campus or online.
Homeschooled applicants must interview before the admission committee reviews their file. Interviews run from mid-September to mid-January, with none over Thanksgiving or winter break.
Tour and interview
A campus tour and an interview with the admission staff
Online interview
A virtual interview with the admission staff
Tour only
A student-led campus tour, without an interview
Start with the inquiry form, and submit your Gateway Candidate Profile before the interview if you can. Hotchkiss suggests signing up by December 1, and slots fill quickly, especially on Saturdays.
Hotchkiss also travels to U.S. cities and, in fall 2026, to Singapore, Taipei, and Bangkok. It offers a limited number of fall 2027 applicant interviews at most of the places it visits.
Regular visits don’t include sitting in on classes or staying overnight; admitted students are invited to a day program in the spring.
Which tests to take, and how scores reach Hotchkiss
WHAT HOTCHKISS SAYS
Every applicant tests, and the accepted tests depend on your grade.
Grades 9 and 10
The SSAT or the ISEE.
Grade 11
The SSAT, PSAT, or SAT.
Grade 12 and PG
The SAT or ACT.
Hotchkiss prefers November or December test dates.
Score codes: SSAT 4012; ISEE 070335; TOEFL 8199; and 070335 for the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. Ask the admission office for help with test fees, and the financial aid office for an SSAT fee waiver.
Your application and your aid application are both due January 15, 2027.
You apply through Gateway to Prep Schools, an online application many boarding schools share. Hotchkiss sends decisions online and by mail on March 10, 2027, and the reply date is April 10, 2027.
Start with the Candidate Profile, which includes your activities. The fee is $75 for every applicant, including international ones. For a fee waiver, contact the admission office.
Four recommendations and your grades
From your principal or counselor, your English and math teachers, and a personal recommender. Your school sends your grades from this year and the two years before. For grade 9 applicants, that means grades 6 to 8.
Two essays and a parent statement
A short essay and a long essay from you, and a parent statement.
Interview
Recommended, on campus or online, from mid-September to mid-January. Homeschooled applicants must have one.
Testing
Required for every applicant. Which tests count depends on the grade you’re applying for.
Optional extras
Arts portfolios go through SlideRoom, which Gateway asks you to start by January 15. Athletes can send an interest form and video, and anything else goes to admissionmaterials@hotchkiss.org.
How Gateway works, and what you can change later
Three parts: Part 1, the Candidate Profile, can go to several schools, and you can unlink a school’s copy to change it. Submit Part 1 and the fee first, then Part 2, Hotchkiss’s essays and parent statement. In Part 3, you request recommendations and school records.
Which teachers to ask: Ask your current English and math teachers. If you’d rather ask last year’s teacher, or send a special-interest letter instead of the personal one, check with the admission office first.
Boarding or day: Day students need a primary residence within 30 miles. Settle boarding or day before you apply, because Hotchkiss may not allow a change after admission.
Updating your profile: Email the admission office with all your Candidate Profile changes at once.
English tests: If English isn’t your first language, Hotchkiss asks for a TOEFL, Duolingo English Test, or IELTS score, unless you’ve had at least three years of school taught mainly in English. If English is your first language but you haven’t had those three years, ask whether you still need a test. There’s no ESL program, and students are expected to be fluent.
Minimum scores: Hotchkiss asks for at least 100 on the TOEFL’s old scale. The TOEFL moved to a 1–6 scale in January 2026, so ask what that means now.
Form I-20: The admission office handles the I-20, the form you need to apply for an F-1 student visa, and the international programs office supports students from abroad.
Health insurance: You need comprehensive coverage accepted locally, not a travel or emergency-only plan. If your contract address is outside the 50 states, Hotchkiss enrolls you in its international student insurance.
School breaks: Dorm rooms aren’t available during mandatory breaks. Ask the director of residential life about arriving early or leaving late, and confirm orientation dates and any guardian arrangements before booking flights.
Getting here: Bradley International (Windsor Locks) and Albany International airports are each about 1.5 hours away.
Late applications: If space remains, Hotchkiss may consider applicants over the summer.
Homeschooled applicants: Along with the formal application, testing, and the required interview, send references from your main teachers (a parent, when that applies), a statement of your educational philosophy, and syllabi from the past two years. Hotchkiss encourages letters from other adults too.
Read Hotchkiss’s published questions, then write every word yourself.
Outside help stops at proofreadingHotchkiss asks you to certify that you “did not rely upon outside support beyond proofreading to prepare and present responses.”
Hotchkiss posts its fall 2027 application as a PDF, so you can read its questions without signing in to Gateway.
Letrado’s adviceWrite every draft yourself, and leave the parent statement to your parents. For your essays, Hotchkiss allows outside help only with proofreading, so our mentors stop there too, and we count AI as outside help. We still help with choosing schools, planning, and interview practice.
Describe a change or big decision that called for resilience.
Then say what you learned and what you would do differently. About 1,500 characters.
Your long essay · 300–500 words
Choose one question from Hotchkiss’s list.
The four questions cover standing up for other people or a value, a hard decision that was the right one, an activity you enjoy whether or not you succeed, and a trait. Grade 11, grade 12, and PG applicants get a fifth, about their hopes for Hotchkiss. Read the exact wording in the PDF before you choose. About 3,000 characters.
The parent statement · 350 words or fewer
Your strengths and room to grow, as a parent sees them.
A parent describes your strengths and where you can grow, in up to 2,000 characters.
Your Gateway certification
Everything you submit must be accurate.
Gateway’s Candidate Profile asks you to certify that all your materials are “factually accurate and honestly presented.” False information can cost you your place.
MAKE ROOM FOR THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
Hotchkiss meets 100% of demonstrated need, with grants rather than loans.
All aid is based on need. Applying for aid can affect admission: Hotchkiss admits students only when it can meet their need.
ON AID IN 2026–27
32%
of students receive financial aid, and 26% of those students pay no tuition.
AVERAGE INCLUSIVE GRANT
$67,413
with an average family contribution of $15,050.
FAMILY INCOMES
Under $50,000 to $400,000+
Aided families come from every income band Hotchkiss lists: about 20% earn under $50,000, and about 12% earn $400,000 or more.
Day students pay $68,700. Both totals include the technology and health fees, and every student gets a school-issued MacBook. Books and insurance can add to these totals, and the deposits are listed below.
See the published costs
Boarding tuition
$79,350
Day tuition
$67,450
Technology fee
$850
Health fee, boarding or day
$600 or $400
Books and supplies, yearly average
$850
Outside laundry service, optional, yearly
$740–$920
Spending money, monthly
$50–$75
International student insurance
$2,895
Domestic school insurance, optional, 10 or 12 months
$3,995 or $4,495
Enrollment deposit, with alternatives for aided families
$15,000
Security deposit, new students
$750
Tuition refund insurance, unless paid in full by June 1
1% of net tuition
For fall 2027 entry, use the 2027–28 costs when Hotchkiss publishes them.
Her family made aid part of the plan from the start.
She needed substantial aid, so every school on her list had to be affordable. She also had offers from Groton and Lawrenceville, compared the aid packages and travel plans, and chose Lawrenceville.
Clarity, the online aid applicationClarity asks for your 2025 finances. Its fee is $65, and Hotchkiss doesn’t waive it for international families.
Your documentsU.S. families send 2025 tax returns and W-2s, plus complete business returns where they apply. Canadian families send 2025 T1s, T4s, and assessments. Families elsewhere send a 2025 tax return or an employer’s earnings statement, plus their three latest bank statements.
Whose finances countBoth biological parents count, and Hotchkiss considers stepparents too. A sole-parent waiver is available. Hotchkiss assigns a wage to a parent who isn’t working, with exceptions such as childcare and caregiving.
In later yearsFamilies reapply each year, and support generally continues if finances haven’t changed. New aid later needs a significant change in circumstances.
Letrado’s adviceApply for aid with your application if there’s any chance you’ll need it at Hotchkiss, and don’t rule yourself out because your income seems high. Try the estimator linked from the aid page as a rough guide.
Aid can also help with books, travel, and other costs of taking part in school life.
K.T. gave fuller answers without pretending to be louder.
She was a Singapore-based IB student applying for grade 10, with strong grades, careful writing, and a modest activity list. Her early answers were correct but brief, so we helped her show how she thinks.
She practiced fuller answers out loud.
She moved from a factual answer to an example and then a reflection, finishing her thoughts in conversation as she already did in her writing.
Her activities appeared at their real size.
She described recreational swimming and a small recycling project that stayed within her grade as they were, not as formal leadership.
Her family compared daily life, not only names.
Her parents were drawn to famous names, so we helped the family compare learning culture, residential life, advising, and academic range, with a simple cost comparison.
If you’re quiet, you don’t have to sound louder to interview well.
She chose Choate, where she believed she could take part, stretch, and still feel known.
She compared advising, humanities classes, and the tone of student conversations at each school. Her choice was about where she would grow, not which name sounded most impressive.
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