Buckingham Browne & Nichols: The Fall 2027 Parent Guide

Fall 2027 entry

The doors that open: Beginner, Grade 7, and Grade 9

Beginner, BB&N’s PreK year, is the early door, with approximately 32 spaces. Kindergarten has about eight openings.

That smaller estimate fits continuation from Beginner. If you want an early start, apply for Beginner rather than waiting on Kindergarten.

For older students, three entry cohorts are planned. Grade 6 adds about 20 students, Grade 7 adds about 25, and Grade 9 is the largest intake, at about 45.

Grade 6 is the last year of Lower School. A sixth-grade entrant spends one year at Buckingham Place, then packs up for Middle School on Sparks Street.

Grade 7 is the entry with the cleaner divisional transition, and families focused only on Grade 6 and Grade 9 can miss it.

Academics in practice

Five core courses, coordinated Middle School tests, and no class rank

On all three campuses, the work centers on inquiry, project work, and discussion. Lower School introduces coding and robotics alongside foundational skills.

Middle School is a two-year bridge for Grades 7 and 8. Upper School is a pre-college program, with electives, Global Online Academy courses, and a senior project.

Upper School students normally take five core academic courses, and a sixth requires permission. Most Advanced Placement work begins in Grade 11, and a Global Online Academy course generally counts as that sixth subject.

Mathematics and computer science run through AP Computer Science A, Statistics, and Calculus AB or BC.

Upper School uses trimesters and does not calculate GPA or class rank. Graduation requires English, history, mathematics, language, science, the arts, athletics, service, Bivouac, and the senior project.

In the prior 2025–26 handbook, Middle School teachers coordinated major tests and projects so that no more than two fell on one day. Traditions connect the three campuses: senior tiles, Homecoming, Head of the Charles activities, and a circus supporting financial aid.

Grade 9 orientation

Bivouac: two mandatory weeks in the New Hampshire woods

Every Grade 9 student begins Upper School with Bivouac, two weeks outdoors at BB&N’s Camp Marienfeld in New Hampshire. The school presents it as orientation and integration for new and continuing students, built around responsibility, unfamiliar challenges, interdependence, and environmental awareness.

Two residential weeks are a real obligation for the student and the family. Financial aid covers school-sponsored trip costs in proportion to the tuition discount; confirm whether Bivouac travel, clothing, and equipment get the same treatment.

Arts and athletics

Required sports across three seasons, and arts on each campus

Athletics are required in Grades 6 through 8, and that program spans 17 sports over three seasons. Across the school, BB&N advertises more than 75 interscholastic programs in 25 sports; Upper School teams compete in the Independent School League and NEPSAC, based at Upper School and the Grove Street fields in Watertown.

Visual art, music, theater, and dance run on all three academic campuses. Upper School adds specialized spaces and deeper coursework, so the arts sit beside the academic day and the athletic requirement.

The daily map

Four destinations across Cambridge and Watertown

BB&N is not one campus. Lower School is at 10 Buckingham Place, Middle School at 80 Sparks Street, Upper School at 80 Gerry’s Landing Road, and the fields at 165 Grove Street in Watertown.

The fields are the stop that is not in Cambridge.

A student who enters early moves campuses twice: after Grade 6 to Sparks Street, and after Grade 8 to Gerry’s Landing Road. A Grade 6 entrant gets one academic year at Lower School before the move to Middle.

With children in different divisions, a family can be managing two or three drop-offs and pickups at once, across separate Cambridge neighborhoods and Watertown. Visit every campus that would be part of your week before you plan the day.

Transportation and care

Intercampus shuttles, transit passes, and care after dismissal

School-owned buses and vans move students between academic sites, athletic facilities, parking, and field trips. The school also offers fee-based morning and afternoon bus routes, Harvard Square shuttle connections, discounted MBTA and commuter-rail passes, and a Boston-funded transit pass for qualifying Boston residents.

Daily bus passes are available on regular routes when seating permits.

After Care runs from dismissal until 5:30 p.m. for Beginner through Grade 6, as a semester plan, an older-sibling plan, or a drop-in. Families can pair it with ASAP, an optional program of one-hour enrichment activities.

Grades 7 and 8 use MSX after athletics for homework, outdoor activity, social time, and pickup. Upper School does not advertise aftercare.

Classes, sports, arts, and clubs fill the afternoon, and they are not a guaranteed care plan.

Learning support and wellness

Campus specialists, three health educators, and a hard line on tutors

Learning specialists, counselors, and nurses work on every academic campus, and Upper School adds peer tutoring. Counselors see students by appointment or drop-in, with confidentiality limits when safety or wellbeing is at risk, and they coordinate with outside providers rather than replacing longer-term treatment.

Three trained health educators teach across the divisions, with health embedded in Grades 7 and 8 and a required health course in Upper School.

Under the prior 2025–26 handbook, an accommodation requires an unredacted evaluation from the past three years, a qualifying diagnosis, and specific recommendations. The school does not grant an accommodation that would fundamentally alter academic standards or create an undue burden.

Outside tutors are barred from the Middle School campus entirely. Upper School allows them on campus only between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., and only when space is available.

School-recommended short-term tutoring is reviewed every marking period.

Tuition and aid

Books and lunch are included; aid is need-based

For 2026–27, tuition is four bands: $49,000 for Beginner through Grade 3, $54,500 for Grades 4 and 5, $67,200 for Grade 6, and $69,800 for Grades 7 through 12. Books and lunch are included for every student.

At 2026–27 rates, held still, Beginner through Grade 12 totals about $840,000 before tuition increases and incidentals. Kindergarten through Grade 12 is $791,000, Grade 6 onward is $486,000, and Grade 9 through graduation is $279,200.

Transportation, after-school care, and technology are extra.

BB&N distributes over $12.5 million in need-based financial aid a year, and 25% of students receive grants that do not have to be repaid. The school says it meets demonstrated need for every admitted aid recipient.

Supplemental aid is proportional to the tuition discount. Eligible categories include bus service, Grades 7–12 technology, school trips, after-school programs, school-recommended tutoring, and summer camp.

Aid is need-aware only at the final admission stage, after initial review without family finances. That policy can affect an applicant’s chance even though the academic review begins separately.

Families who enter without aid generally cannot apply later without a qualifying financial change. Prospective families submit Clarity by January 10 and 2026 taxes and W-2s by February 11.

Both legal parents usually provide information, and the school may impute $30,000 in income for an employable parent who is not working. Aid decisions arrive with admission decisions on March 10.

Build a multi-year plan with our admissions planning resources.

The application

January 10, a required classroom visit, and a waitlist with no rank

Applications and prospective-family financial aid forms are due January 10, 2027. Decisions are released on March 10.

First you submit an inquiry, which opens the Veracross portal. Book the tour and the interview there before the times fill.

Open houses run in late October. On October 24, 2026, Lower School is 9:00 a.m. to noon and Middle School is noon to 3:00 p.m. Upper School is October 31, 9:00 a.m. to noon.

Elementary applicants then have a mandatory classroom visit. Beginner visits are 90 minutes, on November 14, January 9, or January 22.

Kindergarten visits are 90 minutes, on January 9 or 22. Grades 1 through 5 have a two-and-a-half-hour classroom visit on January 22.

Applicants for Grades 6 through 11 must submit an SSAT or ISEE taken during the application academic year. Grades 10 and 11 may also submit PSAT, SAT, or ACT scores.

The admissions FAQ says all applicants submit testing, while the application guide limits the SSAT or ISEE rule to Grades 6 through 11, so families applying below Grade 6 should ask for written clarification.

A waitlist place has to be accepted in Veracross. The list is unranked.

When a space opens, the committee selects the student it considers the best current fit, not the earliest applicant and not the next number. BB&N asks for materially new information only.

BB&N keeps the list until enrollment is complete, and requires a fresh application the next year.

The public record

A former Lower School music teacher faces federal charges

In January 2025, the Boston Globe reported that Joshua DeWitte, a BB&N Lower School music teacher, was arrested on state child-sexual-abuse-material charges. He pleaded not guilty.

The school placed him on leave and issued a campus no-trespass order. BB&N said he had passed criminal checks and three prior-employer reference checks before hiring.

In October 2025, a federal grand jury indicted DeWitte on nine counts involving alleged exploitation, trafficking conspiracy, distribution, and possession. An indictment is an allegation, not a finding of guilt.

The Globe reported that police then had no indication the identified victims were BB&N students, and the reviewed sources show no disposition as of September 1, 2026. BB&N hosted a parent forum and cooperated with investigators.

BB&N's campus moves, testing rules and Bivouac costs

BB&N spans several campuses, so ask how a new Grade 6 or Grade 9 student moves between them and what testing and trips the year requires.