United World College-USA (UWC-USA)

United World College-USA (UWC-USA) is in Montezuma, New Mexico. Founded in 1982 as the fifth school in the UWC (United World Colleges) movement, it is the movement’s campus in the United States. The campus was a founding gift from Armand Hammer, made at the request of then-Prince Charles (now King Charles III), who was president of the UWC movement; the buildings had been a luxury resort hotel built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway, then a Baptist college and a Catholic seminary. The 200-acre campus is anchored by the historic Montezuma Castle and borders the Pecos Wilderness and the Santa Fe National Forest. The school enrolls only grades 11 and 12: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data for 2023-24 report 222 students, 114 in grade 11 and 108 in grade 12. The school profile states that about 25 percent of students are from the United States and about 75 percent represent roughly 80 other countries, that every student lives on campus, and that every student transfers in from another school. The class of 2028, which arrived in August 2026, has 117 first-year students from 54 countries, including 41 from the United States. Dr. Andrew Mahlstedt, previously Interim Head of School, was appointed President on June 2, 2026.

UWC-USA enrolls every student in the full International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), and graduates earn both the IB Diploma and the UWC-USA high school diploma; the school is accredited by the State of New Mexico and the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest. The courses listed in the school profile are all IB courses, with no separate Advanced Placement (AP) offering; the academic FAQ explains that students who have taken an AP course will find the two-year IB course in the same subject goes deeper and includes distinctive non-exam components. The IB requires a Language A and a Language B course, and English need not be one of them, but every subject except languages is taught in English and the school strongly recommends taking English. For Language A, the school supports self-taught mother tongue study in 55 languages; individuals and societies courses include economics, global politics, history, digital society and social and cultural anthropology, and the arts include dance, theater and visual arts. The IB core comprises 100 hours of Theory of Knowledge over two years, a 4,000-word Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS). The school profile lists a standard class size of 14 and a 5.5:1 student-faculty ratio.

In 2025, UWC-USA’s IB Diploma pass rate was 90 percent, against 81.3 percent worldwide, and its average diploma score was 33.7, against 30.5 worldwide; 40 percent of the diplomas awarded that year were bilingual. Every UWC campus limits each student to no more than eleven university applications. The school profile’s list of acceptances and matriculations for 2022 through 2025 includes Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Diego. Merit and need-based aid covered $4.74 million of first-year college tuition for 2025 graduates. UWC graduates may also receive support from the Davis United World College Scholars Program, which provides need-based scholarships at around 100 U.S. colleges and universities.

UWC-USA has two application routes, depending on the applicant’s status. U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents apply through the UWC U.S. National Committee, using UWC-USA’s admissions portal; the application for August 2027 entry is open, with an early deadline of November 1, 2026 and a regular deadline of January 1, 2027. Every U.S. applicant applies for IB Year 1 (UWC Year 1), and the school profile states that all students arrive with at least two years of high school completed, which in California means enrolling after tenth grade, at the equivalent of grade 11. The National Committee, a group of volunteers, reads nearly a thousand documents, teacher recommendations and applications each year, interviews about 150 semi-finalists, and invites finalists to campus in February for a weekend of small group activities and conversations; the 2026 finalist weekend ran February 13 to 16, and the 2027 dates have not been published. Students selected through this route may attend UWC-USA or one of the 17 other UWC schools worldwide.

Applicants who are not U.S. citizens, or who are temporary residents of the United States, have two paths: students seeking financial assistance apply through their home country’s national committee and rank their top three campuses, which the committee weighs against available scholarship funding, while students who do not need aid can apply as full fee-paying students and choose UWC-USA directly. The school’s published selection criteria are intellectual curiosity, active commitment to UWC values, social competence, resilience and independence, personal responsibility and integrity, and the academic robustness to handle the IB. The published application requirements do not list the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test), the ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) or any other admission test, and the school does not publish an acceptance rate or application fee. The admissions office holds a virtual information session on October 13, 2026 at 4 PM Pacific covering eligibility, the application process and financial aid.

UWC-USA tuition for 2027-28 is $59,800. Because every student boards, there is a single rate. Costs at the other 17 UWC schools vary widely, from just under $25,000 to a little over $75,000 a year. About 85 percent of UWC-USA’s revenue comes from philanthropy rather than tuition, and the school states that about 85 percent of its students receive financial assistance. U.S. citizens applying through the National Committee are automatically considered for the Davis Scholarship, a merit award of $25,000 a year applied to tuition at whichever UWC the student attends; 25 places are reserved for UWC-USA, and typically two are reserved at each other campus. The school also states that a limited number of full-tuition places at UWC-USA are available for students who are not awarded a Davis Scholarship. Families can apply for need-based aid to cover any balance; School and Student Services (SSS) calculates the family contribution from assets, income and tax history, and students who qualify for significant aid may also receive travel reimbursement and spending money.

The school profile reports that students in the class of 2026 were awarded $3.8 million in aid for tuition, room and board over their two years; 37 percent received full cost-of-attendance aid, 42 percent received partial need- or merit-based aid, and 21 percent paid the full cost. Because the school describes the Davis Scholarship as being for U.S. citizens, green card holders should confirm their eligibility with the admissions office in writing.

UWC-USA admits only two-year IB students, which means an Irvine student leaves their local high school after tenth grade, a very different timing from a four-year boarding school that admits ninth graders, so talk it through as a family before applying. The application is completed in the fall of tenth grade: the early deadline is November 1 and the regular deadline is January 1, so essays, teacher recommendations and a record of activities need attention as soon as tenth grade begins. There is no SSAT or ISEE, and the interview and the small group activities of the finalist weekend are the decisive steps, so practice explaining, in English, how the student thinks about global issues and what they have actually done. New Mexico is on Mountain Time, one hour ahead of California, and the campus is about 725 miles from Irvine in a straight line, about a two-hour drive from Albuquerque International Sunport and one hour from Santa Fe Regional Airport. The campus is closed at the start of each school year, and first-year students may receive visitors only after Southwest Studies ends in mid-October, so plan family visits around that. EDUBUS is based in Irvine and works on school selection, essays and interview preparation, scheduled backward from this school’s published dates; see our high school planning guide for the overall timeline.