Harvard-Westlake: Two Campuses, Exceptional Breadth, and a Workload Families Should Model Honestly

Testing without folklore

One ISEE administration enters the file

Every Fall 2027 applicant must submit the ISEE. The testing level follows the grade sought: Middle Level for Grade 7 and Upper Level for Grades 9 and 10.

Register Harvard-Westlake as a recipient using school code 052135. The school accepts paper, online-site, or at-home formats and requires the result to come from a test taken between August 1, 2026, and January 15, 2027.

Harvard-Westlake accepts results from only one administration and does not superscore. If a student tests more than once, the family must tell admission which sitting to use before the deadline; otherwise, the most recent result enters the file.

The school explicitly says it neither recommends multiple sittings nor tutoring or special preparation.

Holistic review does not make the score irrelevant, and a required score does not reveal a cutoff. Harvard-Westlake publishes no admitted-student range, section weighting, or rule for reconciling the ISEE with classroom performance.

Prepare the student for the format, arrange testing accommodations early if needed, and resist inventing a target stanine from applicant chatter.

Los Angeles logistics

Grade 10 changes the campus and the shape of the day

Grades 7–9 attend the Middle School at 700 North Faring Road in Holmby Hills, just north of Sunset Boulevard and east of Beverly Glen. Grades 10–12 attend the Upper School at 3700 Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City, south of Ventura Boulevard.

A Westside home may simplify the first campus while a Valley home may simplify the second; a crosstown family may trade one canyon or ridge-crossing pattern for another. The child changes site, traffic pattern, daily schedule, and advising structure just as academic choice grows.

Harvard-Westlake says it operates 27 routes only where ridership covers cost. Stops sit on major arteries rather than at homes, with early and late returns.

Published service areas stretch from San Vicente/Sunset and Westchester/Ladera Heights/Cheviot Hills to Los Feliz/Hancock Park, Agoura/Calabasas, Chatsworth/Northridge, and Arcadia/Pasadena. Some games and events finish after the late bus.

Current route schedules sit behind parent-facing links and can change annually, so regional coverage is not a promise for one address.

Test both trips on typical school days: the Grade 7 morning to Holmby Hills and the Grade 10 morning to Studio City. Repeat the trip after the latest likely rehearsal, practice, or help session.

Families need the actual stop, pickup, return options, missed-bus plan, away-game plan, sibling handoff, and annual minimum-ridership risk—not a map pin or a tour-day drive.

Both campuses typically begin at 8:00 a.m.; after-school teams and rehearsals begin at 3:15 p.m. Cafeterias operate from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., accept student-ID purchases billed monthly, and allow brought lunch. That makes the real family day potentially much longer than classroom hours.

Price breakfast or lunch habits, identify who retrieves a child after a missed late bus, and decide how many late evenings the household can absorb before choosing two serious activities.

The current public phone rule is unclear. A 2024 administration email, reported by the student Chronicle, announced a full Upper School school-day restriction beginning in 2025–26, but current handbooks are now behind login.

That reporting is evidence of direction, not the operative 2026–27 policy. Ask where phones are stored, whether smartwatches count, how students check the rotating schedule, contact family, pay, authenticate accounts, or manage a medical device, and what happens after a violation on each campus.

The six-year academic path

Five core classes leave room for breadth, but not unlimited room

Seventh grade begins with English, American history and government, placed mathematics, Integrated Science I, Chinese, French, Latin, or Spanish, physical education, information literacy, advisory, service, and arts requirements. Eighth grade continues the chosen language and Integrated Science II while adding human development and a choice among debate, ethics, or public speaking.

Ninth grade uses English I, ancient-to-early-modern history, placed mathematics, biology or Honors Biology, language, advisory, service, arts, and physical education.

Tenth grade opens with English II, modern world history, placed mathematics, chemistry or Honors Chemistry I, continued language, sophomore advisory and seminar, arts, physical education, and service. Juniors move into American literature and United States history choices.

Seniors retain English, an upper-level laboratory-science requirement across Grades 11–12, and a five-academic-course minimum while drawing more heavily from electives and independent work.

The catalog supports unusually deep routes in mathematics, computer science, laboratory science, languages, humanities, visual and performing arts, interdisciplinary work, Directed Study, and Senior Independent Study. Families should map the likely pathway from this child’s placement, prerequisites, and campus rather than compiling a fantasy schedule from the most advanced endpoints.

All courses in one schedule must be based on the student’s campus.

Post-AP rigor and workload

The AP label is gone; the pressure to choose rigor has not vanished

Harvard-Westlake stopped offering AP-designated courses in 2025–26 but continues to offer AP exams. The prior 2025–26 school profile identifies Honors courses, post-AP-level work, Directed Study, and Kutler Center research, while the current curriculum lists the operative 2026–27 courses.

Removing the AP name does not mean eliminating advanced content or college-facing course differentiation.

Current 2026–27 rules cap sophomores at three Honors courses and juniors and seniors at five. The current curriculum does not state a freshman maximum.

The prior 2025–26 profile listed a two-Honors cap in Grade 9, but families should not assume that older number controls Fall 2027 scheduling. Ask for the current Grade 9 rule, placement standards, appeal route, and how advanced courses are described to colleges after the AP transition.

The Middle School now runs an eight-day cycle with 55-minute classes and no more than five classes daily. The school says Middle School homework is capped at 30–45 minutes per academic subject per night and averages 1.5–2.5 hours, with some work completed in free periods.

These are school-reported norms, not an independent time study. They also do not establish the current Upper School workload.

The Upper School runs a six-day weekday cycle; most courses meet for 75 minutes every other day, with a recurring late start. Longer blocks may reduce daily transitions while creating larger preparation and assessment cycles.

The school does not publish ordinary Upper School homework hours, sleep results, collision rules, or the distribution of workloads by course combination. Ask students to show a real week rather than describe whether the school is simply “rigorous.”

Support with boundaries

There are multiple doors to help; families still need the service level

In the Middle School, two deans serve each of Grades 7 and 8 and three serve Grade 9. The school describes deans as advocates coordinating academic, social, emotional, family, and teacher concerns.

The Middle School Learning Center is open to all students from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and offers a learning specialist and academic-support teacher for study strategies, executive function, homework, learning differences, ADHD, medical effects, and accommodation questions.

The Upper School Learning Center is also open to all students as a work and help space, while its stated academic-support mission gives particular attention to identified students. It coordinates educational-testing referrals and accommodations, offers learning and writing specialists, and links peer tutoring and subject support.

Public pages do not disclose recurring appointment frequency, caseloads, documentation timelines, remediation, missed-class tradeoffs, or which needs the school cannot serve.

School counselors provide short-term counseling, not therapy. Harvard-Westlake says they do not diagnose, test, or create treatment plans and may refer students to outside clinicians.

That boundary is appropriately clear, but it means a family managing ongoing anxiety, depression, eating concerns, trauma, or another clinical need must understand outside-provider cost, coordination, parent-notification rules, urgent coverage, and what school participation remains feasible.

The current health page publicly names three Middle School psychologists, three Upper School counselors, a Head of Peer Support who is also an Upper School counselor, a director and assistant in sport psychology, and a schoolwide Director of Wellness. Titles do not reveal full-time equivalence, availability, caseload, confidentiality limits, or response time.

The school tells families to use 911 or an emergency room for psychiatric emergencies off campus; ask separately who covers each campus during the full academic and activity day.

For medication, the public authorization form requires parent and, where applicable, physician signatures; medication must remain in its original labeled container and be delivered to the relevant campus office, with a copy and medication also supplied to Sports Medicine for athletes.

Current public pages do not provide a complete nursing roster, illness-exclusion policy, allergy or diabetes protocol, emergency-action workflow, or after-hours athletic coverage. Families managing a health condition should obtain the 2026–27 medical handbook and write the day from bus pickup through late return.

At the Upper School, each sophomore is assigned one of 12 deans who remains the student’s academic adviser and later college counselor. This continuity can give one adult a long view across academic choices and college planning.

Ask how dean caseloads work, what proactive monitoring each family receives, and what happens when the student is high-performing enough to avoid attention but not functioning sustainably.

Participation versus inventory

Breadth is real; access must be tested activity by activity

Arts are part of graduation, not merely an after-school showcase. The curriculum requires Middle School performing and visual arts work plus an additional year in Grades 10–12.

Public offerings span dance, drama, instrumental and choral music, painting, sculpture, photography, film, glass, and other media. The school highlights a Middle School theater and an Upper School glass-blowing studio.

Harvard-Westlake says at least one no-cut sport is available each season on each campus, and its athletic principles promise opportunity across grades, genders, abilities, and time commitments. It also openly recruits qualified applicants with unusual athletic talent.

Those statements can coexist: some route exists for broad participation while particular varsity teams, roles, travel squads, or playing time may remain selective.

Inventory is not access. Ask which ensembles, productions, studios, publications, clubs, teams, and leadership roles are capped, auditioned, cut, scheduled at the same time, or incompatible with a bus.

For a student who wants two serious commitments, request last season’s actual rehearsal, practice, travel, and weekend calendar and ask how often students had to choose.

River Park may materially change Upper School athletics, but it should not yet be modeled as settled access.

The school’s plan adds fields, a track, eight tennis courts, a 52-meter pool, gymnasiums, training and community space on Whitsett Avenue; official updates still described active construction in late August 2026 and did not publish a student opening date or transport timetable.

Before enrollment, ask which Fall 2027 teams will actually use it, how students move between Coldwater Canyon and Whitsett, whether the late bus waits, and whether added capacity changes cuts, playing time, or only venue quality.

Current price, future unknown

Build from 2026–27 costs, then wait for the enrollment-year bill

Published 2026–27 tuition is $54,900, plus a one-time $2,500 new-student fee. Optional bus service is listed at $3,800–$4,000, with a stated 50% fee credit subsidy for Upper School service.

The school estimates another $2,500–$3,500 for books, meals, activities, and similar items. On those line items, a new Middle School bus rider lands at $63,700–$64,900; a non-rider at $59,900–$60,900.

The Upper School bus credit changes that arithmetic. These are planning calculations, not a quoted 2027–28 bill.

Fall 2027 entrants will pay the still-unknown 2027–28 price. The current amount is a floor for planning, not a promise.

One official FAQ separately calls the 2026–27 true cost ‘roughly $59,900’ including books, lunches, transportation, and other costs; that figure does not reconcile cleanly with the itemized bus range and new-student fee. Ask for tuition, deposit, application fee, transportation, meals, devices, trips, arts, athletics, payment-plan charges, and expected giving in one written estimate before signing.

Test increases across all six years for a seventh grader.

For 2026–27, the tuition page reports $16.8 million in aid, 340 recipients, 21% of enrollment, an average grant covering 71% of tuition, and average family tuition responsibility of $16,000. The current ‘At a Glance’ page instead displays 72% and $14,700.

That is an unresolved official conflict, not a range to average. Grants include specified support for books, a computer, meals, reduced transportation, required athletics, trips, test preparation, and some summer or travel opportunities; an individual award may differ substantially.

Aid is need-based, customized, and budget-limited; Harvard-Westlake says it strives to meet 100% of demonstrated need for students it enrolls but cannot fund every qualified applicant. There are no merit or athletic awards.

A student who does not request aid at admission generally cannot receive it later except after a dramatic, unforeseeable reversal, and recipients reapply annually. Apply by January 15 even if need feels borderline.

The published formula considers both parents, may include stepparent or household-adult resources, may impute tuition-sized income to a nonworking parent subject to listed exceptions, and considers other K–12 and undergraduate tuition only if aid is sought at those schools too.

Clarity opened for the cycle on August 24, 2026; the school schedules an applicant-family aid workshop for December 16, the January 15 deadline, and awards with decisions on March 12.

Current tuition can be paid annually, semiannually, quarterly, or in ten monthly installments, but the posted due-date table is for 2026–27 and even contains an apparent semiannual date error. Confirm 2027–28 dates, deposits, refundability, and any plan fees in the enrollment contract.

Grades 7, 9, and 10

Grades 7 and 9 are real intake; Grade 10 is a small path

For Fall 2027, the school’s main entry points are Grades 7 and 9. Harvard-Westlake says approximately 215 spaces are available in Grade 7 and approximately 90 new students enroll in Grade 9.

The Grade 7 applicant must be at least 11 by June 30, 2027. The school says siblings and other family members receive consideration but are not guaranteed admission.

These are meaningful cohorts, although application totals, offer counts, yield, and the number of places remaining after connected applicants are not published.

Grade 10 is different. Depending on total enrollment, the school says it admits approximately five to ten students.

That is a genuine published path, but it is too small and enrollment-dependent to treat like Grade 9. Ask whether the current cycle expects the low or high end, how many applicants were considered recently, and how a new sophomore enters a campus where continuing students arrive with three shared years behind them.

Grade 8 admission depends on rare attrition. Grades 11 and 12 are generally considered only in special circumstances such as a family relocation to Los Angeles.

International students must relocate with and live full-time with a parent or guardian; the school offers neither boarding, homestay, nor ESL. Continuing Grade 9 students with satisfactory academic and behavioral records automatically move to the Upper School, so the Grade 10 opening is not a general re-admission gate for the existing cohort.

The current application

The interview clock begins before the file deadline

Submit the admission application form by November 13, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific to guarantee an invitation to interview for Grade 7 or 9. This is not the complete-file deadline.

The student questionnaire, current English and mathematics recommendations, current administrator recommendation, transcript authorization, ISEE result, and any aid application are part of the later work. Recommendations should be completed between November 1 and January 15.

The complete admission and prospective-family financial-aid deadline is January 15, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Grade 7 and 9 interviews occur on weekdays during school hours, in person or by Zoom.

The school asks families to accept the appointed time and says it cannot guarantee another interview if an offer is declined or rescheduled. The student questionnaire is due at least two days before the interview.

Public pages do not disclose the questions, scoring rubric, whether format affects evaluation, or the Grade 10 and special-circumstance interview process.

Decisions and aid awards are scheduled for the portal on March 12, 2027. The common LAIS reply deadline is March 19 at noon.

Harvard-Westlake says late applications are generally considered only for the waitlist. Save the portal instructions and timestamps: the tuition page currently contains one stray reference to January 16 even though the live application page and the same aid timeline use January 15.

The required file is substantial but optional material is bounded: the school accepts one supplemental recommendation and permits an arts or athletics link, image, PDF, or video of no more than five minutes.

The official checklist says to submit an application fee and waives it for aid applicants but does not display the amount; Niche lists $150, so confirm the live portal before budgeting.

More material is not necessarily a stronger file; use an optional item only when it adds evidence the transcript, required recommendations, questionnaire, and interview cannot.