Los Angeles Private-School Admissions: Fall 2027

First build the right list

Kindergarten, Grade 6, and Grade 9 are not interchangeable.

What schools say about their own intake

The most useful capacity signal is a school’s own language about main, natural, or largest entry grades and, rarely, a published estimate of new students. When a school publishes only a process, capacity remains unknown.

Editorial inference: A balanced list begins with grade structure, not perceived prestige. For every capacity-unknown option, add a school that explicitly describes the grade as a larger or major intake. That is risk management, not a prediction about any child. A 30-seat intake can still have many applicants, and a small opening can still be the right one for a particular child.

Dates and deadlines

The dates live on the timeline page.

LAIS sets a common decision and reply week in March, not a common application deadline, so every school’s fall gates differ. The Los Angeles timeline has the month-by-month plan and each school’s exact dates.

The school-by-school reality check

Thirteen schools, thirteen versions of “complete.”

The table is deliberately literal. “Not served” is different from “not an entry point.” “Testing unknown” is different from “test-free.” Policies are Fall 2027 unless a cell says otherwise; each school’s deadlines are on the timeline page.

“Applications open” means the official page provides a process for that grade. It does not mean a published seat count, expansion, or probability. Portal instructions can be more specific than public pages; save them with a timestamp.

Testing without folklore

There is no Los Angeles testing rule.

For the same Grade 9 applicant, Harvard-Westlake and Windward require the ISEE. Archer will not accept standardized scores. New Roads will not review ISEE or SSAT.

Campbell Hall requires some recent standardized result. Marlborough and Chadwick require the Character Skills Snapshot. Crossroads’ public testing FAQ has not been rolled forward to Fall 2027. These are different policies, not contradictions.

Where the ISEE is required, ERB lists at-home, at-school, office, and Prometric options, with availability varying by level and site. Campbell Hall’s Grades 7–12 rule accepts ISEE, SSAT, HSPT, CTP, or another standardized exam from the past calendar year.

Editorial inference: The lowest-stress plan is to test only where the list requires it, choose one appropriate test date with a genuine retake buffer, and stop when the file is credible. Testing can inform a school; it should not colonize the family’s fall.

If accommodations are needed, begin the testing agency’s documentation process early. Separately ask each school how accommodations work in its own assessment. Test windows and score deadlines are on the timeline page.

The application file

Organize the adults so the child does not carry the project.

A preliminary application may be only the gate. The complete file can include student responses, parent responses, current and prior transcripts, administrator forms, English and math recommendations, a preschool or elementary teacher form, testing evidence, aid documents, and an interview or assessment.

LAIS hosts common role-based forms for administrators, English and math teachers, elementary teachers, preschool and Kindergarten recommenders, and transcripts. That does not mean every school wants every form or uses the same due date.Windward’s current Fall 2027 page links the LAIS Administrator, English, Math, and Transcript Release forms, which makes it a useful live source for the current common forms.

Portals: there is no single Los Angeles system

Ravenna is a real shared dashboard for profiles, applications, and enrollment tasks, but only for schools using it. Crossroads and Marlborough route applicants to Ravenna; other schools run their own systems.

Parent writing: specific, proportionate, recognizable

Answer the question asked. Describe the child with one or two concrete examples, name a real need without turning it into a sales pitch, and explain the match using a program or practice the school actually publishes.

Do not assign a five-year-old a brand identity. Do not turn a ninth grader’s growth edge into a disguised superpower. The useful voice is the one a teacher would recognize.

Student writing: protect authorship

Schools that request student work are asking to meet the student. Adults may clarify the prompt, schedule time, and proofread at the level the school permits; they should not replace vocabulary, ideas, or tone.

Archer explicitly publishes parent-proctored, 30-minute at-home writing and math exercises.Crossroads publishes student questions and a small-group interview for Grades 6–12. New Roads asks Grades 6–12 for a student essay or questionnaire. Buckley’s second application part has two parent/guardian questions and two student prompts for Middle and Upper School, and Harvard-Westlake asks for a student questionnaire before the interview. None of these should be copied into one generic answer.

Recommendations: choose recency and context, not advocacy

Follow each school’s role and timing rules. Harvard-Westlake asks for current English, math, and administrator recommendations after November 1; Archer asks Grade 6 for one elementary teacher plus an administrator and older applicants for English, math, and administrator forms. New Roads asks secondary applicants for current math, English, and administrator forms. Campbell Hall requires one preschool form for K, different elementary combinations by grade, and three secondary recommendations.

District policy can change the file. Archer waives teacher and school recommendations for candidates in Beverly Hills Unified and Santa Monica–Malibu Unified because those districts do not provide them. Buckley publishes a separate Character Skills Snapshot route when a school or district does not provide recommendations.

Count components, not school logos

Editorial inference: The workload rises with components, not linearly with schools. Five schools using different portals, tests, and visit formats may be heavier than seven schools sharing a portal and current-school forms. Set the list only after making that component map.

Interviews, visits, and child activities

Prepare for the format—not an invented answer key.

The published formats are genuinely different. Crossroads K uses a family conversation and child observation. Brentwood K publishes a parent interview and tour. Campbell Hall lists a K one-to-one readiness assessment and mini-day. Chadwick separates a K parent Zoom from a child evaluation. Sierra Canyon schedules a student assessment or interview for Pre-K–6.

At older grades, Crossroads publishes a small-group student interview. Archer interviews the student and parent or parents separately, then pairs the student with an ambassador tour.Buckley describes a 90-minute middle/upper group experience. It includes collaborative activity, improvisation, problem-solving, and a parent interview.

Some events help the family evaluate the school; others are part of the evaluation. New Roads says its admission events are optional and do not affect decisions. Archer’s optional day visit also does not affect decisions, although space is limited. Chadwick offers optional Grades 7–12 shadow days, and Harvard-Westlake gives in-person interview families a student-led Middle School tour.

These are verified formats. The exact questions, rubrics, and preferred answers are not public facts.

Cost and aid basics

Aid follows each school’s rules, not one regional form.

LAIS says member-school aid is need-based, that schools may require different documents and platforms, and that each family must follow the individual school’s procedure and deadline. Open the aid file alongside the application, not after an offer.

Tuition, aid platforms, renewals, and contracts are compared in the Los Angeles financial-aid and decisions guide. Aid deadlines sit in the timeline’s school-by-school table.

Offers, waitlists, and the reply week

An offer is permission to compare—not an instruction to rush.

LAIS member schools share one notification and reply week in March. Newly admitted revisits are discretionary, so ask about them promptly and respectfully. How to use that week day by day is on the timeline page.

For a waitlist, respond in the requested channel, state continued interest truthfully, send only material updates the school permits, and secure another workable option by its deadline. Waitlist movement is an unknown; this guide will not invent odds or turn silence into a signal.