FAQs

A tour and interview are required parts of the admission process and must be scheduled by December 15, 2023. Tours and interviews are offered from October 2, 2023, until January 15, 2024. Once you have started an application you can schedule your interview through Ravenna. If all appointments are booked please call the Admission Office at (617) 738-2725.

The deadline to complete the application, which includes the application and interview is January 15. Financial Aid applications are due February 1.

We are test-optional for this Admission season.

6th, 7th, and 9th grades are “entry years,” enrolling 30-35 students for 6th grade, 15-18 students for 7th grade, and 35-40 students for 9th grade. All other grades will accept new students if space is available but are not typical entry years.

The Middle School numbers are about 140 students total and the Upper School has about 360 students. We aim to have about 30 students in 6th grade and about 50 each in 7th and 8th grades, but some years these numbers vary by a few students. In the Upper School (grades 9-12) our goal is about 85 students per grade.

All kinds! We seek students who have demonstrated academic potential and intellectual curiosity, along with interests and talents in athletics and the arts. We are looking for strongly motivated and creative students, students who are willing to try new activities and who enjoy collaborating with others, students who come from diverse family backgrounds and cultures, and students who will become good friends and leaders in our community. There is no one typical Beaver student, rather we seek to build a close community of strong individuals.

We look at the whole student, not simply grades. We are interested in what current teachers say about a student’s academic potential, motivation, strengths, and in what a student’s interests and goals may be (students have an opportunity to describe these during the interview and in the written application). The application and interview notes are reviewed and discussed by a group of current faculty and staff.

Siblings or “legacy” applicants are considered first on their own merits and second on their relationships to current or former Beaver students. We do have quite a few siblings and alumni children, but we urge families to consider each child as an individual in deciding whether Beaver would be the right fit, just as we do in evaluating siblings and alumni children.

While not required, an additional letter of reference may be helpful, but only if the writer knows the student well in an academic or co-curricular context. For example, if the applicant is a competitive athlete outside of school, the coach might be in a position to comment on the student’s dedication and teamwork. Or if the applicant plays in an orchestra, the music director might write a letter stating their level of commitment and describing any special talents.

Please see our guidelines for home-schooled students. You will need to submit a detailed syllabus and transcript, a sample writing assignment, a typical weekly schedule, a list of extracurricular activities, and recommendations from your Math and English instructor. If you have further questions, please contact the Admission Office.

Tuition for the 2024-2025 school year is $62,970. Tuition covers nearly all expenses including lunch, sports uniforms, and any required school trips. The family is responsible for purchasing all required materials and the student’s laptop computer (not included in tuition).

All aid is need-based, as demonstrated by the Financial Aid and tax forms the family submits to Clarity by February 1. A committee determines how to apportion the available Financial Aid funds among the families who apply. About 25% of our families receive some Financial Aid. To learn more about how to apply, please go to the Tuition and Financial Aid section of this site.

Decisions are published on Ravenna on March 10 (if you met the January 15 application deadline). You will learn about any Financial Aid in the acceptance packet sent in the mail following the release of decisions online. The deadline to submit the enrollment contract and deposit is April 10.

Being placed on the waitlist means that we may be able to offer you enrollment if space becomes available. Normally, we will know if any spaces are available shortly after the April 10 enrollment deadline, but sometimes space may open up during the spring and summer. The Admission Office will contact you if a space becomes available, provided you have requested to stay on the waitlist. The list is not ranked.

Yes, there are Revisit days for admitted students in late March and early April. If you are admitted you will be notified of your assigned Revisit Day in your acceptance packet, during which admitted students attend classes with a current student. Parents are also invited to attend classes and information sessions.

Please contact us after April 10, the date by which accepted students must notify us if they plan to enroll next year. At that time we will have a better idea of the length of the waitlist associated with each grade. An interview is still required if you apply out of the regular cycle. The Admission Office is open during the summer but staffing is limited and there are no Beaver students on campus between early June and Labor Day.