The Peddie School

The Peddie School is a coeducational, nondenominational boarding and day school in Hightstown, New Jersey, enrolling grades 9 through 12 and a PG (post-graduate) year. It was founded in 1864 as the Hightstown Female Seminary, a Baptist preparatory school, and admitted boys later that year; in 1872 it took its current name in honor of philanthropist Thomas B. Peddie, who gave the school $25,000. Peddie admitted only boys from 1908, and girls returned in the fall of 1970. The 2025-26 school profile reports 540 students from 19 U.S. states and 25 countries, with 60 percent boarding and 20 percent holding citizenship outside the United States; the senior class numbers 141, including nine postgraduates. Ninety percent of faculty live on campus. In 1993 Walter H. Annenberg, class of 1927, gave Peddie $100 million, which the school describes as the largest gift ever made to an independent school, largely to endow financial aid; the profile lists an endowment of $493 million. James A. Hamilton became the school’s seventeenth head of school in 2025.

The Peddie School’s profile lists 150 academic courses, including 22 Advanced Placement courses in English, history, math, music, world language, visual arts and the sciences. With exceptions, students take no more than three AP classes a year, and two post-AP math courses go beyond the AP curriculum. The admission page reports an average class of 12 and an 8:1 student-faculty ratio. Peddie runs on a trimester calendar with a seven-block schedule, classes meet Monday through Saturday, and a typical load is five or six academic courses; the school does not rank students or report a GPA. Ninth graders take Humanities together, all ninth graders have taken physics since the fall of 2024, and most students follow the problem-based Mathematical Problem Solving I and II sequence in their first two years. The Signature Experience lets selected students pursue independent work with faculty mentors in art, creative writing, language (Asian studies, French, Latin or Spanish), computer science or research science (STEM-EXP), and it is noted on the transcript. Students take part in three afternoon activities a year, across 47 interscholastic teams in 15 sports, 17 arts ensembles and a robotics team.

The school profile reports that in 2025, 292 students sat 724 AP exams, 98 percent scored 3 or better and 88 percent earned a 4 or 5; with the exception of AP English, every student in an AP course is required to take the May exam. The class of 2025 averaged 720 on SAT reading, 730 on SAT math and 32 on the ACT composite. The class of 2026 matriculation list includes Cornell University (7); Columbia University, the U.S. Naval Academy, Bucknell University and the University of Southern California (4 each); UCLA (3); and Harvard University, Princeton University, Stanford University and UC Berkeley (2 each).

The Peddie School application has three steps: interview, test and apply. The interview is required, and every applicant completes an inquiry form before scheduling it; slots run Monday through Saturday and are booked through admission@peddie.org or by phone. Interviews last 45 to 60 minutes, with 30 to 40 minutes for the student and a 10 to 15 minute follow-up with a parent. Students who live at a distance can interview by Zoom or phone, and the school states that it makes no distinction between a campus interview and a Zoom interview. Applicants for grades 9 and 10 submit the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test) or the ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam), while applicants for grade 11 or a PG year may also submit the ACT, PSAT or SAT. Applicants for whom English is not the primary language submit the TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo English Test, a requirement that may be waived after three years in an English-medium school.

Families apply through the Standard Application Online (SAO) or Gateway to Prep Schools, and the deadline is January 15. Required items are the student profile, essays, transcripts for the current year (including the first quarter or trimester) and for 2025-26 and 2024-25, recommendations from the current English teacher, the current math teacher and a principal or guidance counselor, and the Peddie supplement; applicants for grade 11 and PG also send a graded writing sample. A parent statement, a personal recommendation from a mentor, teacher or coach, and the Character Skills Snapshot are optional. Admission decisions are released on March 10. Campus tours run Monday through Saturday and last about 40 minutes, and the fall 2026 Admission Fall Preview days are October 17, which is full, and November 14. Fee waivers are granted on the basis of demonstrated need through FA@peddie.org; the school does not publish the fee amount or an acceptance rate.

The Peddie School publishes 2026-27 tuition of $81,000 for boarding students and $69,300 for day students. The school states that the following are covered at no additional cost: a laptop with tech support, all meals, Saturday night activities, a Health Center open around the clock and a strength and conditioning coach, trips to museums, Broadway and concerts in New York City and Philadelphia, and college counseling. Families can pay in full by July 15 with a 1 percent discount, pay in two interest-free installments due July 15 and December 15, or pay monthly through FACTS.

Need-based grants are calculated from household income, expenses, assets and family size, range from $5,000 to full tuition, are designed to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need and never have to be repaid. The tuition page reports $12 million in financial assistance allocated this year, with an average grant of $57,000 covering about 70 percent of tuition, and the school profile reports that 39 percent of students receive aid awarded by need and merit. Applications are reviewed without regard to ability to pay, and the committee becomes need aware only in the final phase of selection. Families apply through Clarity, complete IRS Enhanced Tax Verification (ETV) and submit all materials by January 15; decisions arrive with the admission letter on March 10, and families reapply each year. The school states that aid for international applicants is exceptionally limited.

The Peddie School also awards three merit scholarships regardless of financial need. Every application completed by January 15 is considered without additional materials, recipients are notified with the admission decision, and all three require SSAT or ISEE scores. The Armellino Scholarship, an estimated $300,000 over four years, covers tuition, boarding, required fees and a travel stipend and is open to new domestic boarding applicants, with priority for ninth grade; the Annenberg Scholarship, an estimated $250,000 over four years, covers full tuition but not room and board; and the Potter Scholarship provides $30,000 a year, or $120,000 over four years. The school reports more than $1.6 million in merit scholarships awarded over the last four years.

The Peddie School’s January 15 deadline pushes the last usable SSAT sitting into December, and because all three merit scholarships look at test scores, book a seat about two months ahead and leave room for a retake. The school gives Zoom and campus interviews equal weight, so an Irvine family does not need a trip east for the interview; to meet the admission team in person, the October 15 high school information fair at Harbor Day School in Corona del Mar is close to home. New Jersey is three hours ahead of California and about 2,400 miles from Irvine in a straight line, with Newark and Philadelphia airports serving travel. Monday through Saturday classes, a three-AP yearly cap and a campus where about 40 percent of students are day students differ clearly from an Irvine public high school, so talk it through as a family before applying and identify a trusted adult on the East Coast. EDUBUS is based in Irvine and works on school selection, SSAT preparation and high school planning around this school’s published dates.