Peddie School

The week

A Blue Saturday, and the week around it

On a Blue Saturday, blocks C, D, and E run from 8:30 to 11:20. A Gold week has no Saturday classes.

The 2026–27 schedule alternates Blue and Gold weeks. Periods are 50 or 75 minutes.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday generally run from 8:30 to 3:10. Tuesday and Thursday begin at 8 and end at 2:35.

Conference, chapel, community, advisory, lunch, and flexible blocks are built into the day. Chapel is multifaith and meets Monday and Friday mornings, with student and faculty talks, music, and guest speakers.

Class ending at 11:20 does not empty the weekend. The tentative 2026–27 calendar lists four no-class Saturdays in each term and six weekends when boarders must stay through Saturday night: September 4–6, November 13–15, December 4–6, February 19–21, May 7–9, and May 28–30.

A game, a rehearsal, or a trip can still claim time on a Gold Saturday. A school story describes movies, crafts, snacks, fall arts trips, and Culture Bus outings, and students can walk into Hightstown.

Academics

Five or six courses, and a shared ninth grade

Students typically take five or six academic courses in a trimester system with seven blocks. The 2025–26 profile lists 22 AP courses and 35 AP or honors subject areas, plus two post-AP mathematics options.

Students generally take no more than three APs in a year, with exceptions. Mathematics reaches multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and calculus-based statistics, and the academics page says the catalog exceeds 150 courses.

Ninth grade is largely shared. In the 2025–26 profile, students took Humanities 9, then English 10–12 and Modern Global History 10 at the same level; most began with Mathematical Problem Solving I and II, which combine algebra and geometry, and all ninth graders have taken physics since fall 2024.

Ninth graders also complete one foundation term each in music, theater, and visual arts, and later take at least two more arts electives. A grade 10 or 11 entrant should get a written transfer-credit reading before enrolling, since the shared tenth-grade humanities and sequenced math can create placement friction.

For 2026–27, online math and language placement began the week of May 4, ninth-grade course placements were set June 23, and new grade 10–PG course requests were due July 6.

Boarding or day

The boarding room, and the day student’s evening

A boarding room comes with an extra-long twin bed, a dresser, a desk, a chair, and a closet. One refrigerator is allowed, no larger than five cubic feet.

Cooking appliances stay in the shared lounges, and summer storage is limited. Peddie also describes all-gender housing.

For 2026–27, roommate information was due May 1, and room assignments arrived in August. Student life includes a director of residential life and grade-level deans.

Peddie says 90% of faculty live on campus. About 40% of students are day students, by the 2025–26 profile.

Tuition includes three meals a day for everyone, plus Saturday-night activities and specified trips, so a day student can stay through dinner and the evening activity; the school does not publish buses or late-pickup arrangements, so the ride home is the family’s to plan.

Support, health, and safety

Who helps, and the health center after midnight

A student, parent, adviser, or teacher can make an academic-support referral, and the director can build an informal personalized plan and meet regularly around organization, time, study methods, and alternate strategies. Faculty conference is available four days a week and may include evening or group review.

Every student is assigned to a faculty-led advisory group.

Faculty staff the Math Center several times a week, day and evening. The Writing Center uses upperclass peer tutors.

Structured study hall runs Sunday through Friday, with expectations tailored by grade and need. It suits a capable student who needs reteaching, accountability, or help organizing work.

Peddie does not describe it as intensive remediation and does not promise scheduled one-to-one tutoring. The school may recommend an evaluation through qualified local providers and can arrange extended time when documentation supports it.

Hensle Health Center operates 24/7 with a full-time campus physician, a registered-nurse team, two exam rooms, eight beds, and overnight capacity. Nurses dispense all prescription and over-the-counter medication.

Records are electronic, and the center coordinates concussion and athletic care. For a boarder sick after midnight, that is who the school says is there.

The Yu Center, next door, is described as three full-time psychologists and counselors. The staff directory names four counseling titles: a director, an associate director, a student counselor, and a counselor.

Peddie publicly describes a bias-reporting system and restorative protocol, but it does not post a student handbook, so dorm duty, phones, leave, and room-entry rules come from the school on request. On June 30, 2025, a plaintiff’s law firm reported filing a civil complaint two days earlier in New Jersey Superior Court.

It alleges that former coach, dorm supervisor, and adviser Frank Schermerhorn sexually abused a boarding student beginning at age 14, and that the school failed to prevent, detect, or respond. These are allegations, not findings, and we found no public disposition or Peddie response as of September 3, 2026.

Ask the school for the case status, what it reviewed, and what changed.

Cost and aid

The posted price, and the aid rules that change it

Peddie’s live affordability page lists 2026–27 tuition at $81,000 boarding and $69,300 day. The posted 2026–27 tuition includes a laptop, software and technical support, three meals a day, Saturday-night programming, specified New York and Philadelphia trips and cultural outings, 24/7 health services, a strength coach, and college counseling.

It does not show books and course materials, private lessons, uniforms and sports equipment, health insurance, tuition-refund insurance, testing, optional travel, or storage as included.

Pay in full by July 15 for a stated 1% discount. Or pay in two installments, on July 15 and December 15.

Or use a FACTS monthly plan. Tuition-refund coverage is optional.

Grants run from $5,000 to full tuition and are designed to meet 100% of demonstrated need, meaning the need Peddie calculates. Review is need-blind until the final phase, when ability to pay can matter, so the decision is need-aware.

Nearly 40% of students receive need-based or merit assistance. Among recipients, the school reports an average grant of $50,000 and coverage equal to 70% of tuition.

The affordability pages put total assistance at $11.2 million; About says $11.8 million. Admission says 37% receive financial assistance, and the aid page says almost 40% including merit.

Awards take a new application every year and are expected to stay consistent when finances do. A change in income, employment, tuition, or siblings can change the result.

Aid goes through Clarity, with tax verification. Non-U.S. households upload their national records.

Each divorced or separated household submits a complete application. Materials are due January 15, and on-time decisions come out with admission decisions on March 10.

Current students applying for aid for the first time are considered after new applicants and returning recipients. If you need a grant, apply with the admission file.

Armellino, Annenberg, and Potter merit scholarships need no separate application. On-time applicants are considered automatically.

Peddie describes Armellino as full tuition and board plus books, travel, and a Signature Experience. International need-based aid stays “exceptionally limited.”

Applying

Applying by January 15, 2027

Use Gateway to Prep Schools or the Standard Application Online. The file is due January 15, 2027, for grades 9, 10, 11, and PG.

Gateway asks for a candidate profile, student essays, current and prior grades, a principal or counselor recommendation, and current English and mathematics recommendations. A graded paper is required only for grade 11 and PG.

The parent statement, a personal recommendation, and the Character Skills Snapshot are optional, and Peddie has its own supplement. Peddie’s checklist still names 2025–26 and 2024–25 transcripts.

The interview is required. Submit an inquiry before you can schedule it.

Appointments run Monday through Saturday. An older Peddie article says Zoom or phone may be possible if you cannot travel.

Applicants in mainland China complete Vericant before the Peddie interview. Grades 9 and 10 submit the SSAT or the ISEE.

Gateway lists school codes 5716 and 571501. Grades 11 and PG may send the ACT, PSAT, or SAT to admission@peddie.org instead.

Scores are read holistically and do not affect aid. A test is required.

The fee is $50 domestic and $125 international, with a school-approved waiver.

From abroad, and getting home

Coming from abroad, and getting home on breaks

Peddie counts an applicant as international if they will need an F-1 visa, or if the family’s primary home is outside the United States, regardless of citizenship. The international page reports 17% international students from 16 countries.

The 2025–26 profile reports 20% holding citizenship outside the United States, across 25 countries. Those counts cover different groups or periods.

Read them apart.

If English is not the primary language, submit TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo. A TOEFL must be from the current academic year or the one immediately before.

Three years in an English-medium school may waive the test. Peddie offers no ESL program.

The school is SEVIS-certified and issues the I-20 after enrollment, once the paperwork is done. Application-completion emails go out only after January 15.

Until then, Peddie recommends the SAO checklist. Every on-time, fully interviewed applicant is considered for merit aid.

Need-based aid for international students remains “exceptionally limited.”

Directions name Newark, Philadelphia, JFK, and Trenton-Mercer, plus Amtrak at Trenton and NJ Transit at Princeton Junction.

On the tentative 2026–27 calendar, dorms close at noon on November 20 for Thanksgiving, noon on December 19 for winter break, 7 p.m. on January 30 for a long weekend, noon on March 6 for spring break, and noon on June 5 after the final academic week.

Reopening is a 7 a.m. opening and an 8 p.m. return. A boarder cannot stay because a flight is expensive or home is far.

Peddie's AP limit, dorm duty and break plans

Peddie caps AP courses and closes for breaks, so ask who approves exceptions, who is on duty overnight and what happens during closures.