Groton School

The week

Class ends, and the day keeps going

Chapel begins at 8:00 a.m. on four weekday mornings, and classes begin at 8:30. Conference Period at 10:15 is the set time to see teachers and advisers.

After lunch, classes run until about 3:15 on a full day. The color-block cycle spans six school days, with half days on Wednesday and Saturday.

Beyond four weekday Chapels, students must attend one weekend gathering each week, choosing among traditions and forms that include Episcopal services, Shabbat, Muslim prayer and study, Hindu Satsanga, Buddhist Sangha, and local Roman Catholic Mass.

At 3:45 every student starts a required afternoon activity for the term. Team sports are a large part of it.

Theater, dance, visual art projects, and community engagement can fulfill it too. More than forty clubs are listed, and they often meet after dinner.

Structured study begins at 8:00 for Second, Third, and Fourth Forms, grades 8 through 10. Check-in follows around 9:45.

Groton reports that 16 percent of its 380 students are day students. Day applicants use the same Grade 8–11 routes, and the published tuition is $48,850 plus the $600 technology fee for 2026–27, or $49,450 in fixed published charges.

There is no separate day-admission deadline. A current day student’s school-hosted diary describes arriving before Chapel, using an affiliated dorm between commitments, then either leaving around dinner or staying for evening events.

The same student says day students may sleep in a dorm on Saturdays.

Entry

The grade you enter changes the courses and the room

Fall 2027 is open to grades 8, 9, 10, and 11. No Grade 12 route is published, and the school does not say how many seats open at each grade.

Eighth grade, Second Form, takes English, mathematics, science, Latin, a modern language—Chinese, French, or Spanish—and arts. The three arts terms are steel drums, visual art, and theater, with little room for electives.

In the dorm, these students live in cubes: individual spaces closed by curtains around a common room, with closely supervised study and strictly enforced lights-out. A cube is a place to sleep and to study.

It is not a room with a solid door.

An incoming Third Former, or ninth grader, takes English, mathematics, art, and Latin. The current page then describes two choices from Biology or Ecology, Foundations of Global History, and a second language.

Graduation rules still require English through Sixth Form expository writing, mathematics through trigonometry or Fifth Form, language study, Modern Global History, U.S. History, laboratory science, and three arts credits in Upper School. A student entering in grade 10 or 11 should ask for a written transfer-credit review before accepting.

Dorms

A small dorm, and a greeting every night

Dorms hold 12 to 24 residents. Check-in gathers the dorm with the adult on duty, often around a snack or a conversation, and each resident greets that adult before the night ends.

A faculty dorm head lives in an adjacent apartment and supervises three nights a week. Virtually every other faculty member affiliates with a dorm, covers the other nights, and rotates Saturday duty.

More than seventy heads and affiliates take part. Sixth Form prefects run much of it.

A prefect writing on the school site describes students arriving tired and then warming into conversation.

Third Formers live in doubles. Grade 10 and 11 entrants join mixed Upper School dorms where Fourth through Sixth Forms live together, mainly in doubles, with some singles and occasional triples.

Extra furniture is not allowed in a Lower School cube, and an Upper School room may have one approved extra item. Laundry machines in the dorms are free.

An optional service costs extra, and storage is limited. Each student receives a school-managed Mac, supported from arrival through Sixth Form.

A phone is not required, though most students carry one. Some dorms bar phones from rooms after lights-out, which is why the packing list recommends an alarm clock.

Televisions, game systems, and large monitors are prohibited.

One piece of history belongs here. In 2005, Groton pleaded guilty to failing to make a mandatory report about 1999 allegations of student-on-student abuse and paid a $1,250 fine.

That is a settled historical fact, not evidence of a current problem. The current Student/Parent Handbook sits behind the myGroton login, so ask the reporting question in the list below and request the child-protection policy in writing before you enroll.

Applying

January 15, 2027, and two test lists that do not match

For Fall 2027, the application and $50 application fee are due January 15, 2027.

The required file includes candidate and parent statements; a principal or counselor recommendation; the first marking period of the current year plus two prior years of grades; current English and mathematics recommendations; a personal and/or special-interest recommendation; a graded writing sample; and test results. Groton prefers a current-year nonfiction paper written in English.

Use Groton’s page for the tests, and do not assume Gateway agrees. Grade 8 may submit a middle- or upper-level SSAT, or the ISEE.

Grade 9 uses the upper-level SSAT or ISEE. Grades 10 and 11 may use the PSAT, SAT, ACT, upper-level SSAT, or ISEE.

SSAT and ISEE scores must come from the testing service. November or December dates are preferred, and January is accepted.

The codes are SSAT 3598, ISEE 220930, and TOEFL 8224.

Gateway’s list is tighter. It shows grade 10 as upper-level SSAT or ISEE only, and grade 11 as SSAT, PSAT, ACT, or SAT, with no ISEE.

If you are applying to grade 10 with the PSAT, SAT, or ACT, or to grade 11 with the ISEE, get Groton’s confirmation in writing before you pay for a test or let a date pass.

A testing waiver is not automatic. Complete a Candidate Profile and a Clarity application, then email prior-year household income.

After November 1, include the prior-year transcript. Waiving the $50 application fee is separate, by email or phone.

A Candidate Profile has to be in before an interview can be scheduled. On campus, a student-led tour comes immediately before the interview.

Remote interviews are available. If you know you cannot visit, Groton encourages a summer slot, because school-year space is limited and in many cases requires English-proficiency testing.

After November 15, a remote request must include standardized results and/or a School Report with the first-term transcript. A direct video of no more than five minutes can replace the interview.

Groton wants interests and aspirations said plainly, even on a phone, rather than a heavily edited production.

If English is not the applicant’s native language, and the prior two years were not spent in an English-medium school, also send Duolingo, IELTS, or TOEFL iBT. Groton says admitted international students “tend to score above” 5 on the TOEFL, 7.5 on IELTS, and 125 on Duolingo.

Since January 21, 2026, TOEFL reports use a 1–6 scale and also show a comparable 0–120 estimate during a two-year transition, so a 5 can belong to the current scale.

Groton’s current aid FAQ says admission and aid decisions are released March 10.

Cost

Ask for aid on the first application

For 2026–27, boarding tuition is $62,740. The current fast-facts page separately lists a $600 technology fee and $400 boarding health fee, producing $63,740 in fixed published charges.

Day tuition is $48,850 plus the $600 technology fee, or $49,450 in fixed published charges. Neither figure is the Fall 2027 price.

If you might need help in any later year, request aid with the first application. A family admitted without aid will not be considered later unless circumstances change significantly.

Even then, Groton says it will make “every effort,” which is not a guarantee of funding. New Clarity applications and the $60 fee are due January 15, 2027.

You reapply every year. If biological parents are separated or divorced, both are expected to submit financial information.

Beginning in 2025–26, families with income of $150,000 or less receive free tuition, room, and board when assets align with the income profile. The policy applies to domestic and international families.

Income alone is not enough. Groton also considers assets, family size, other tuition obligations, debts, and both biological parents’ resources.

Admission is need-blind and handled separately from aid. Domestic and international families may apply.

Awards follow demonstrated need, not merit. For some students the grant can cover more than tuition, including travel, books and laptop-related supplies, a spending account, global or summer study, and a parent’s trip to Parents Weekend.

Those are examples.

The current headline and fast-facts figures say 40 percent of students receive aid, the average boarding grant is $52,639, and the budget is $7.6 million. Lower on the same tuition page, Groton says 44 percent of 385 students and $7.9 million.

The 40-percent/$7.6-million set is explicitly labeled 2026–27. An average grant is not the likely award for any particular income or asset profile.

Incidental expenses are additional, and Groton publishes few of the prices. Budget separately for travel at every closure, airline unaccompanied-minor services, health insurance and uncovered care, optional laundry, bedding, clothing, personal spending, equipment, instrument or voice lessons, storage, and family travel.

Families may preload a student debit card. Cash withdrawals are capped at $30 a day and $50 a week.

Support

An adviser on Thursday, and counseling on campus

Every incoming student receives an adviser. The group checks in on Thursday mornings.

Most advisers also meet students one-to-one, and sometimes for a meal or an outing. They communicate grades, help with courses and day-to-day problems, and point toward other help.

For parents, the adviser is the first contact the school names. A student may stay with that adviser or request a change for a later year.

The Academic Skills Office is open to all and offers one-to-one help with organization, time management, planning, prioritizing, studying, notes, writing, self-advocacy, and test-taking. For documented disabilities, the office writes Student Learning Plans, discusses goals and accommodations with students, and coordinates reasonable academic accommodations and standardized-test requests.

Groton reports three licensed clinicians and a health and well-being educator. Individual counseling on campus is available to every student at no additional charge.

A referral can come from the student, an adviser, a teacher, a peer counselor, or the family. Peer counselors are trained and professionally supervised.

They are not therapists.

Getting home

The campus closes, and the bus is not the whole trip

The campus closes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter Long Weekend, and March vacation. Students cannot remain or return early, and an early departure or a late return merely for convenience is not allowed.

Groton will not release a student early for an overseas flight, and it cannot provide the adult airport escort some airlines require for a traveler under 15. Parents who live nearby may volunteer as hosts.

The school describes that as friendship, advice, an occasional refuge, or a home-cooked meal, not a guaranteed place for the break.

At vacations and long weekends, buses go to New York City, Connecticut, Boston, Logan Airport, and Manchester airport, and return buses run from those stops afterward. Breaks often begin at 11:30 a.m. Do not schedule a departing flight before 2:00 p.m. A game can still delay a student.

Weekend faculty taxis and local excursions are a different system. The school advertises local shuttles, excursions, and faculty “date-night taxis.”

NYC families should distinguish vacation buses from routine access.

Groton's rooms, testing rules, aid timing and safeguarding

Groton is small and fully residential, so ask about rooms and phones, which tests count, and how concerns about conduct are handled.