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Market guide

Dallas–Fort Worth schools

Dallas–Fort Worth isn’t one school market. A girls’ school in North Dallas, a Catholic boys’ school in Irving and a Fort Worth consortium school can all land on the same family’s list, and each has its own calendar, tests and commute. Start with the entry grade and the drive home. Reputation can wait.

Where Dallas lists start

Five very different schools that share one decision date

Updated October 7, 2026

Many Dallas–Fort Worth private schools send decisions on March 12, which makes the market look more uniform than it is. Greenhill is coed PK–12 in Addison, Hockaday is all-girls on Welch Road, and St. Mark's is a nonsectarian boys' school starting at Grade 1. Cistercian is a small Catholic boys' school in Irving built around Grade 5 entry, and Jesuit Dallas is a boys' high school where every freshman is new.

The entry grade decides how wide the door is. Greenhill publishes about 32 Kindergarten openings and 30–35 at Grade 9, but only about 5–8 at Grade 6. St. Mark's lists about 6–8 at Grade 6 and 20–25 at Grade 9. Cistercian takes about 40 in Grade 5 and fills Grades 6 and 9 only through limited vacancies. The Dallas schools compared page has the grid.

Calendars start well before March. Greenhill's application form closes December 11 and Hockaday's December 14, and Dallas ISD's Choice window runs November 1, 2026 to January 31, 2027 for families keeping a public option. The admissions guide covers testing, applications and interviews, and its calendar section lists the dates school by school.

Plan the drive home as carefully as the application. Greenhill and Jesuit have no general daily bus, and St. Mark's publishes family driving as the plan, so ask what happens after a late practice. Texas's Education Freedom Accounts may also matter for the budget; the aid and decisions guide explains where the program stood when we checked.

Recently researched

Start here: Fall 2027 Dallas–Fort Worth admissions, school by school

Which entry grades have real openings, how testing differs from school to school, and what the application year looks like. Dates are current where schools have posted them, and labeled where they haven’t.

Open the DFW admissions guide →

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Five schools comparedChoose the community before the reputationGreenhill, Hockaday, St. Mark’s, Cistercian and Jesuit side by side: entry grades, support, faith, cost and commute.Calendar and processFour clocks, one MarchDallas independents, Catholic high schools, Fort Worth consortium schools and public choice each run their own clock. See how they overlap, from Dallas ISD’s March notices to the private-school decisions many schools send on March 12.List, fit, and commuteMatch the entry grade, school model, and late drivePublished seat signals, support limits, transportation and public alternatives, used to build a list a family can actually live with.Aid and family decisionsCompare full cost, contracts, TEFA, and timingHow Clarity, Ravenna and FACTS work, what first-year fees and deposits look like, and where Texas’s Education Freedom Accounts fit a Fall 2027 budget. As of early October 2026, the state lists a 2027–28 interest list and has not published a Fall 2027 application window.Dallas coed school guideGreenhill: match the entry year to the whole family dayKindergarten, Grade 6 and Grade 9 openings, workload, support, the Addison drive, complete cost and aid.Dallas girls’ school guideHockaday: test the entry year and the whole dayEntry at PK–K and Grades 5–11, all-girls academics, workload, support, commute, cost and aid.Dallas boys’ school guideSt. Mark’s: separate grade eligibility from seat realityEntry points, boys-school culture, chapel, workload, support limits, commute, cost and aid.Dallas Catholic boys’ school guideCistercian: Grade 5 is the real entry doorLater-grade transfer paths, the school’s own entrance exam, monastic life, the all-honors curriculum, Irving logistics, cost and aid.Dallas Jesuit high-school guideJesuit Dallas: judge the whole four-year formationGrade 9 and limited transfer entry, Catholic all-boys life, the rotating day, workload, support, service, commute, cost and aid.