Facts & Figures
Origins
- Established in 1799 by the Philadelphia Quakers
- The oldest continuously operating co-educational boarding school in the country
- Began as a safe educational haven for Quaker children, one day's coach ride from Philadelphia
Size
- Total Student Body, Pre Kindergarten - 12th grade: 789
- 410 Upper School Students (306 boarding, 104 day), 9th through 12th grade
- 156 Middle School Students, 6th through 8th grade
- 223 Lower School Students, Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade
- Requisite boarding in 11th and 12th grades
- Average class size: 15 in Upper School, 18 in Middle and Lower Schools
Campus
- 600 acres located
- 25 miles west of Philadelphia
- 11 miles north of Wilmington, Delaware
- 120 miles northwest of Washington, DC
- just outside West Chester, Pennsylvania
- 14 acre lake with beach and boathouse
- Arboretum and natural forest
- 62 faculty houses and apartments
Financial Aid: $4.1 million awarded annually to
- 13% of lower school families
- 13.5% of middle school families
- 40% of upper school families
- The Sally Barton Leadership Scholar Grant is awarded to 35 Quaker boarding students annually
Athletics and Clubs
- Gymnasium
- Field house with 3 basketball courts and indoor track
- Wrestling Center
- Dance Studio
- Fitness Center
- 25 meter swimming pool
- Weight training center
- 13 playing fields, 10 multipurpose, 2 baseball, 1 softball
- Premier cross-country course
- Outstanding tennis stadium with 14 courts
- 27-element ropes course
- 14-acre canoeing and ice-skating lake
- 24 varsity teams
- 57 clubs including Model UN, Outing Club, Film Club, Japanese language Club, Literary Magazine
- 11 local social service agencies provide opportunities for community service
- Student leadership opportunities including Quaker Leadership Program, Work Program, Student Government and Dormitory Prefects
Facilities
- The Center for the Living Arts: 564-seat Barton-Test Theatre with computerized lighting system, a scene shop and costume shop, an art gallery, three art studios, a ceramics room, dark room, chorus room, orchestra room, four music practice rooms, and a recording/sound studio.
- The Mary Hutton Biddle Library: 33,000 books, 175 periodicals, microfilm collection, CD-ROM and online databases. Lower School Library contains an additional 12,000 volumes
- Historic Quaker Meeting House
- Computer facilities: more than 230 computers on campus available for student use, Over 40 Smartboards™ available in classrooms and labs, 4 technology-media labs, 3 wireless mobile lab with laptops for classroom use. E-mail for all Upper School students and high-speed (two T-1 lines) internet connection. Individual student telephone, voice mail, and network connections available in all dorm rooms.
- Griffith Science Center: with state of the art classroom and laboratory facilities
- Dormitories: Two 9th/10th grade dorms; upper class girls' dorm; upper class boys' dorm. All dormitories have been renovated within the past five years.
- On-Campus Archives containing original resources dating back 240 years

- John Baird, Head of School since 2002
Faculty
- 108 Total
- 90 full time (60 have advanced degrees)
- 73% of Upper School full-time faculty live on campus
- 33% of faculty are members of the Religious Society of Friends
Student Body Diversity
- 16% - Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
- 19% - Students of Color; 19% in the Upper School
- 13% - International (Upper School)
- Student representation is from 22 states and 13 countries
College Placement
- 100% college attendance
- The 115 members of the Class of 2008 are attending 76 different colleges and universities.
- Colleges most attended between 2005 and 2008
- Bard
- Boston University
- Brown
- Carnegie Mellon
- Colorado College
- Columbia University
- Dickinson
- Drexel
- Earlham
- Emory
- George Washington
- Gettysburg
- Guilford
- Haverford
- Johns Hopkins
- Lehigh University
- New York University
- Northwestern University
- Penn State University
- Pitzer College
- Sarah Lawrence
- University of Chicago
- University of Delaware
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Vassar College
- Wesleyan University