The Hotchkiss School

The Hotchkiss School is a boarding school at 11 Interlaken Road in Lakeville, in the northwest corner of Connecticut, founded in 1891. The school describes a community of about 600 students in grades 9 through 12 plus a PG (post-graduate) year. It also runs Fairfield Farm, a 287-acre working farm used for teaching and outdoor programs. The setting is rural, between hills and a lake, roughly two to three hours by car from both New York City and Boston, with no major airport nearby.

Hotchkiss publishes an average class size of 12 and more than 200 courses across seven departments, taught mainly in small seminar format. The academics pages do not publish a student-teacher ratio, and they do not give a single statement about whether courses carry Advanced Placement (AP) designations, so families who care about AP alignment in a particular subject should ask the academic office during a visit or interview.

One policy deserves emphasis before anything else. The admission FAQ states that Hotchkiss does not offer any ESL support and that all students must be fluent in English. There is no language ramp after enrollment. A student who is still building academic English will be asked to contribute to discussion-based classes and to write at length from the first week, and families should treat that as a screening question for themselves rather than something to solve later.

Applications to The Hotchkiss School go through Gateway to Prep Schools with a candidate profile and a $75 fee, waivable on request. The file also includes candidate essays, a parent statement, official transcripts from the current school, a principal or counselor recommendation form, English and math recommendation forms, and a personal recommendation written by an adult who knows the student well. The admission FAQ states that an interview is not required but is recommended; interviews run from mid-September to mid-January and can take place on campus or virtually. Testing is required of all applicants, by grade level. The school prefers November or December test dates; January testers are still read in the regular round, but only once scores arrive. Applications and financial aid materials are due January 15, 2027, decisions are released March 10, 2027, and student replies are due April 10, 2027. No acceptance rate is published.

There is no easy route from Orange County to The Hotchkiss School: expect a flight into New York or Hartford and a one- to two-hour drive, which makes each trip a full day. Add a three-hour time difference, four or more journeys a year, and a 14-year-old handling laundry, sleep and sick days without a parent nearby; arrange an adult in the Northeast who can reach campus quickly. EDUBUS works from Irvine on school selection, SSAT preparation, essays and interview coaching, scheduled backward from the school’s published deadline.