Fay School Junior Boarding

The decision

A middle school that boards, then ends

Fay is a K–9 day school with a boarding program that runs only in grades 7, 8, and 9. School pages report 475 students in all and about 150 boarders, all in the Upper School.

Fay says it was founded in 1866 with seven students and was the first junior boarding school in the United States. Susanna Waters has been Head of School since July 2024.

The shape of the decision follows from that. A child who enters in grade 7 gets three years and then a second school search; a child who enters in grade 9 gets one year and starts that search on arrival.

Boarders come from across the United States and more than 20 countries, and roommates are usually paired across home countries or language backgrounds.

The weekday

Phones and lights out

Wake-up is 6:45 a.m. and lights out is 9:45 p.m. Between them sit classes, teacher extra help, afternoon sports, supervised time in the dorm, a family-style dinner, evening study hall from 6:45 p.m., and free time.

On a weekday the phone comes out twice: 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., then 8:30 to 9:15 p.m. Weekends are more open, and so is travel to or from campus. Every phone is registered with Residential Life.

Common-room phones in the dorm are there for calls home. Ninth grade promises a later technology turn-in.

Every student in grades 7 through 9 gets a school-issued Chromebook; personal phones and computers stay put away during the academic day, though a personal laptop or tablet may be used in the dorm during evening free hours.

Every Upper School student plays afternoon sports every day of the school year and must be on at least one interscholastic team each year; intramural and non-competitive options fill the other terms. Dress is formal: a navy or black blazer, specified tops and bottoms, and dress shoes, with ties for students identifying as male.

Budget for duplicates and growth.

Readiness

Is this the right age?

Your child should have a real say in this. A clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that younger age, little prior experience away from home, and having little say in the decision all raise the risk of homesickness.

The same report recommends practice stays away from home, getting familiar with the campus beforehand, concrete coping strategies, and sensible communication habits.

In practical terms, a ready middle schooler can shower, manage laundry pickup, organize belongings, wake up on time, share a room, name their medication, tolerate correction, and ask an unfamiliar adult for help.

Parents have their own adjustment: limited phone windows, school-managed weekend leaves, dorm staff handling minor illnesses, and emotional bedtime calls you cannot fix from a distance.

Do not use boarding as treatment for family conflict, severe school refusal, active substance use, unmanaged eating concerns, or clinical distress. Fay's counselors do not provide psychotherapy.

The adults

Who is in the building at night

About 40 faculty and staff live on campus. Dorms are separated by gender, and faculty apartments sit on every residential floor.

Dorm parents are the evening and weekend caregivers. Fay says each spends two or three days a week on the floor, with associated dorm parents adding coverage.

A Duty Administrator is available by phone for after-hours and overnight emergencies. Boys live in double or triple rooms; younger girls and many grade 8 girls have roommates.

Weekends and breaks

Wednesday's list, and the weeks the dorms empty

Weekend trips are announced every Wednesday. Most have room for everyone.

Limited tickets go first-come, first-served, and every boarder is expected to take part. Sundays include room cleaning and evening study hall.

Most regular outings are covered by tuition. Overnight and ski outings usually cost extra.

The first two weekends and the final weekend are closed, so everyone stays. After those first two weeks, a boarder may leave on a weeknight with local relatives or friends, with a parent's permission, and must be back for study hall.

The published 2026–27 calendar requires every boarder to leave for Thanksgiving, winter vacation, and spring break. Return dates that year are November 30, January 5, and March 22.

Dorms stay open for the shorter February 11–15 long weekend. The 2027–28 travel dates are not yet published, so plan flights and guardian stays once they are.

Optional Fay Adventures trips cost extra, use an application, and advertise a 7:1 student-to-chaperone ratio. They do not necessarily cover a whole closure: in 2026–27 the Ireland trip ran March 5–13 while campus reopened March 22, leaving more than a week for families to arrange.

Five-day and day

The ten-student five-day program

Five-day boarding is offered in grades 7 through 9, capped at ten students in the whole school, and open only to U.S. families. Students in the International Student Program cannot use it.

Fay recommends living within 150 miles.

They leave on Friday between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. and return on Sunday between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. During the week they live in the same dorms and often share a room with a seven-day boarder.

Two stays are required and carry no added fee: the second full fall weekend, and the Friday night of spring Founders' Weekend. The first full fall weekend is strongly encouraged.

Any other weekend on campus costs extra. A single term is possible only if space remains after full-year boarders are placed.

Day students and boarders share classes, lunch, afternoon teams, and traditions, and Fay says local families often invite boarders home for a day or weekend. For local day students, 2026–27 bus service is one morning-only route serving Chestnut Hill, Wellesley, and Natick.

The annual fee is $4,630 for one child and is nonrefundable; aid toward it is available on request only to families whose tuition assistance is at least 50%.

The work

The ninth-grade year that is also the exit

The Upper School runs a six-day rotating schedule across English, history, math, science, world languages, design and engineering, arts, music, wellness, and athletics. Math and world language classes are grouped by skill level.

From grade 3 onward, Fay sends home effort marks every two weeks; they track work habits, not grades, and can catch a study problem early.

For ninth grade, Fay states that it admits up to ten new students each year. A new ninth grader has nine months to make friends, adjust to dorm life, handle the classes, earn teacher recommendations, and complete secondary school applications.

Evening study hall begins at 6:45 p.m.

Learning support

Help during the day, and where it stops

Learning Services includes learning specialists, a reading specialist, and a speech-language pathologist. In the Upper School, support focuses on executive functioning, big projects, math, writing, separate testing locations, and extended time.

One-to-one sessions with a learning specialist happen during the school day, require documented learning needs, and cost extra.

Health

A sick night, and three versions of the hours

Counselors help with everyday middle-school worries, friendship conflicts, family stress, and the move to boarding. They do not provide ongoing psychotherapy.

Students who need that are referred to outside clinicians. Fay coordinates with private therapists.

The Health Office has four overnight rooms. Registered nurses work under a local doctor's supervision, medications are given through the office, and on-call nurses cover when it is closed.

A boarder who wakes up sick tells the dorm parent on duty, who can call the on-call nurse. Fay may ask a local guardian or emergency contact to collect a student who needs care off campus.

Specialist visits may be arranged locally, with transport and charges billed to the student account.

Weekend coverage is written three ways. The Health Office page lists 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The residential contact page lists 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with on-call nursing from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. The Boarding FAQ says a registered nurse is on duty daily from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and overnight when necessary.

International families

Who meets the flight

Fay describes Southborough as 25 miles from Boston. For breaks, families book and pay one of two private companies, for Boston Logan or New York JFK, and enter the plan in REACH.

The Boarding FAQ says students traveling alone are met at local terminals by an adult chaperone, and that Residential Life coordinates transportation and unaccompanied-minor needs. The transport page tells parents to book the vendors themselves.

Ask in writing who owns each handoff.

Fay helps international families with student visa paperwork, travel planning, course scheduling, and secondary school placement. Students in the English Language Program take their own English, American history, and inquiry courses and join mainstream classes for everything else.

Most start in grade 7 or 8 with the aim of joining mainstream humanities by grade 9.

Cost

The 2026–27 bill, with laundry on top

Seven-day domestic boarding tuition is $83,620 in grade 7, $85,880 in grade 8, and $88,130 in grade 9. Add the mandatory $1,422 laundry fee and the minimum billed total is $85,042, $87,302, or $89,552, before anything else.

Five-day domestic tuition is $75,200, $77,460, and $79,710 across those same grades. International boarding is $87,500, $89,760, and $92,010.

Students who also need the English Language Program pay $92,010, $94,270, and $96,510. Upper School day tuition is $49,550, $51,810, and $54,060.

Tuition includes books and supplies, meals, local and programmatic trips, athletics, dorm housing, supervision, and regular evening and weekend activities. Still outside that bill: the laundry fee for seven-day boarders, ski and overnight weekends, break trips, extra five-day weekends, travel, uniforms, learning-specialist or medical charges, and personal spending.

Private music lessons are $63 for 45 minutes, once per ten-day rotation, in place of a study hall, and they require a full term. Aid recipients are eligible for lesson aid.

An international student whose own coverage Fay's carrier does not approve must buy the school medical plan.

Aid is need-based. For 2026–27 Fay says it will award more than $5.5 million, with grants from 5% to 95% of tuition.

No family receives full aid, and international aid is limited.

The form is Clarity, which charges $60 unless a family qualifies for a waiver. In a divorce or separation, custodial and noncustodial parents file separately, and stepparent assets are considered.

Returning recipients have priority. Late aid is described as rare.

New families applying for Fall 2027 file by January 15, 2027. If both the admission application and the aid application are complete by then, Fay says both decisions arrive by March 10.

The returning-family FAQ still says December 15, 2024.

International families are told to cover travel and other school expenses on top of tuition. A separate $20,000 Waldo B.

Fay Scholarship is offered to an accepted grade 7–9 boarder whose parent works for an accredited U.S. college or university.

The enrollment deposit is 10% of tuition after aid, credited to the first bill. An optional Tuition Refund Plan covers some withdrawals or dismissals.

Applying

Fall 2027: the dates and the narrow doors

For Fall 2027, boarding applications are open in grades 7, 8, and 9. Grade 7 is the first year a Fay student can live on campus.

Fay reviews boarding applications on a rolling basis. International applicants seeking the first priority round must complete their full file by December 15, 2026; after that, review depends on space.

The general Fall 2027 page accepts grades 7 through 9. The mainland China page still reflects 2026–27, limits entry to grades 7 and 8, and requires a TOEFL of 95 or a TOEFL Junior of 860 before an interview can be booked.

The boarding application page also still refers to the passed Fall 2026 deadline, and the junior-boarding overview still carries an Apply for Fall 2026 link.

You can apply through Fay's portal, the Gateway to Prep Schools application, or the Standard Application Online. Fees are $50 for domestic families and $100 for international families.

The file includes parent and student questionnaires, a student personal statement, official transcripts from the current and prior years, and confidential recommendations from an English teacher, a math teacher, and an administrator or counselor.

SSAT and ISEE are optional for all Upper School applicants. International applicants whose primary language is not English, or who have been educated primarily outside the U.S., must submit TOEFL or TOEFL Junior.

Duolingo and IELTS are not accepted. Interviews for Fall 2027 begin on September 15, 2026, after the Family and Student Profile is in.

The prior-cycle mainland China page describes a student-only Zoom of about 30 minutes, then an optional parent conversation.

Fay offers one-hour campus tours on weekdays, available both in person and virtually. Weekend tours are not offered.

Overnight care, specialists and weekend health cover at Fay

Fay boards young students, so the essentials are who is on the floor at night, what support it provides, and who covers health gaps on weekends.