Elite Preparatory Academy

Elite Preparatory Academy (EPA) is an independent liberal arts boarding and day school in Hopatcong, New Jersey, for students ages 13 to 18 in grades 8 through 12. The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) private school survey reports 41 students and 9.6 full-time-equivalent teachers for 2023-24; the school is coeducational and nonsectarian. The school says it operates two campuses: the Hopatcong campus is a 65,000-square-foot building with more than 50 classrooms, a music studio, cafeteria, gym, science lab, weight rooms and four student lounges, and the Southington, Connecticut campus covers 32 acres with seven buildings totaling 113,000 square feet, including classrooms, labs, dormitories, a café, a bookstore and athletic facilities. Boarders do not live in the Hopatcong academic building: the 2024 brochure places student housing at the Tamaracks Country Villa in Byram Township, and the 2023 dormitory guidelines show students riding a school bus to class each day. The Hudson School of Music operates under the school’s umbrella, and the school also offers an online program that leads to its diploma. The website does not state a founding year; the Head of Schools is Yi Qian. The letterhead of school documents such as the refund policy states that the school is accredited by NJAIS (New Jersey Association of Independent Schools) and registered with the New Jersey State Education Department, while the NCES record lists no association.

Elite Preparatory Academy offers courses at the Foundational, Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) levels. The course catalog lists 29 AP courses across English, science, mathematics and computer science, social science and the arts, plus the AP Capstone program; world languages are Spanish, French, Latin, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and mathematics runs through multivariable calculus and linear algebra. The school brochure also states that courses are offered according to the interests of current students and that some may run only every other year when demand is low. Students follow Signature Academic Tracks, seven high school majors: STEM Innovation and Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Technology, Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Environmental Studies and Sustainability, Creative Arts and Design, Humanities and Global Leadership, and Music and Performing Arts. Students declare a major by 10th grade, may add a secondary concentration, and finish each major with a Capstone Project. On August 18, 2026, the school registered as a Cambridge International School (registered school U0404). The 2026-27 year runs on trimesters, with classes beginning September 14, 2026, and graduation on May 28, 2027.

The school brochure gives a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio. The college acceptances page lists colleges that admitted graduates from 2005 to 2025, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Columbia University, Cornell University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and UC San Diego, but it gives no counts by college or year and no SAT score range.

Domestic applicants to Elite Preparatory Academy apply through the online application form with a $50 registration fee and can upload transcripts, test scores, essays and a passport. No entrance test is required: the school states that TOEFL, SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) or SLEP (Secondary Level English Proficiency) scores are helpful but not required. After enrolling, students take an English assessment that determines whether an ESL (English as a Second Language) course is required, plus a placement test for any makeup classes. The school asks families to email the admission office to schedule a personal interview and tour or to attend an open house during the school year, and scholarship applicants must audition and interview.

Elite Preparatory Academy has not published an application deadline, decision date or acceptance rate for fall 2027 entry, and it does not state how many ninth-grade boarding places are available. The school is approved by SEVP of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue the I-20, the school document an international student needs for an F-1 visa; international students must wire the first year’s tuition and boarding fee within two weeks of receiving the visa, or the I-20 may be terminated.

Elite Preparatory Academy publishes tuition of $45,000 for grades 8 through 11 and $49,000 for grade 12. Room and board is charged by room type: $24,000 for a room of four to five students, $26,000 for three, $28,000 for a double and $35,000 for a single. A ninth-grade boarder therefore pays $69,000 to $80,000 a year in tuition plus room and board, and a day student pays tuition of $45,000. The website does not state which school year these rates apply to; the figures were checked in October 2026.

Elite Preparatory Academy offers financial aid to domestic students based on demonstrated need, and states that requests for aid affect neither admission decisions nor a current student’s place in the school; families complete the school’s financial aid application form. Scholarships are awarded on a combination of merit and need, require a completed admission application, and require an audition and interview. The school does not publish the share of students receiving aid or the average award. Its refund policy states that tuition is not refunded once the I-20 has been issued and an international student has been admitted to the United States, though the deposit is refundable if the student’s visa is refused twice by the U.S. consulate.

Elite Preparatory Academy is very small, with 41 students in the 2023-24 NCES count, so a California family should not assume from a ranking alone that it resembles a traditional boarding school. Visit before applying and confirm four things in writing: the school’s accreditation, the AP courses actually offered this year, the dormitory location and evening supervision, and the makeup of the student’s grade. New Jersey is three hours ahead of California and Hopatcong is about 2,400 miles from Irvine in a straight line; in 2026-27, holiday break begins December 14 and the dormitories do not reopen until January 9, so the student needs to fly home or have somewhere else to stay. The school does not use SSAT scores, but if the student is also applying to traditional boarding schools, SSAT preparation should still follow those schools’ deadlines. EDUBUS is based in Irvine and works on school comparison, essays and interview preparation; for the overall timeline see high school planning.