The Hotchkiss School
Location
11 Interlaken Road

Lakeville, Connecticut
06039

United States
Coordinates41°56′43″N 73°26′23″W / 41.94528°N 73.43972°W / 41.94528; -73.43972
Information
TypePrivate, day and boarding
MottoMoniti Meliora Sequamur
(Guided by each other, let us seek better paths)
Religious affiliation(s)Nonsectarian[1][2]
Established1891 (1891)[3]
CEEB code070335
Head of schoolCraig W. Bradley[4]
Grades9–12, post-graduate[3]
GenderCo-educational (since 1974)
Enrollment574
ScheduleSemester
Campus size827 acres (3 km2)
Campus typeRural
Color(s)Yale blue and white
  
Athletics19 interscholastic sports[3]
MascotBearcat[5]
RivalsTaft School[6][7]
NewspaperThe Record[8]
YearbookThe Mischianza[8]
Endowment$606.1 million (June 2021)
Annual tuition$68,370 (boarding)[9]
$58,110 (day)
AffiliationEight Schools Association[10]
Ten Schools Admissions Organization[11]
G20 Schools (founding member)[12]
Founders League[13]
New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC)[14]
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)[15]
The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)[2]
Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG)[16]
Round Square[17]
Green Schools Alliance[18]
Websitewww.hotchkiss.org

The Hotchkiss School is a private, coeducational prep and boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization, competing in the Founders League[13] and New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). Historically, it was a founding member of the G20 Schools[12] group (not to be confused with the G20 Summit), before six schools left ahead of the renaming to G30 Schools.

History

Postcard circa 1905

In 1891, Maria Harrison Bissell Hotchkiss, with guidance from Yale president Timothy Dwight V, founded the school to prepare young men for Yale University. In 1892, The Hotchkiss School opened its doors to 50 male boarding students for $600. Hotchkiss's endowment also precipitated scholarship aid to deserving students. In 1974, the school became coeducational.[6]

Number-one rule

George Van Santvoord (g. 1908, Yale 1912),[19] a headmaster hailed as the Duke with an honorary dorm, claimed there was only one school rule: "Be a gentleman."[20][21][22][23] In 1954, Time recognized in "Education: The Duke Steps Down", that "of all U.S. prep schools, few, if any, can beat the standards Hotchkiss has set."[24]

International relations and diversity

Maria Hotchkiss was uninterested in establishing "a school for the pampered sons of rich gentlemen". The school has enrolled international students since 1896.[25] In 1928, the school joined the English-Speaking Union and established the International Schoolboy Exchange. Established by the class of 1948, the Fund for Global Understanding enables student participation in summer service projects across the world.[6] In 1953, Hotchkiss alumnus Eugene Van Voorhis (g. 1951, Yale '55, Yale Law ‘58) incorporated the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation program to assist minority New Haven students with boarding school admission,[26] with Hotchkiss formally participating in addition to other recruitment initiatives from the 1960s onward,[6] such as A Better Chance (ABC),[27] Greater Opportunity (GO) summer program for inner-city students,[28][29] and Prep for Prep to foster minority leaders.[6]

The school has a 43% diverse student body[3] (21% international students),[6] offers a School Year Abroad program,[6] and is a member of the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG),[16] Round Square,[17] and Confucius Institute International Division (Hanban).[30] In 2010, Hotchkiss partnered with Peking University High School to establish its study abroad, international division called Dalton Academy.[31][32]

Women admitted in 1974

in September 1974, 88 young women entered Hotchkiss as preps, lower-mids, upper-mids, and seniors. Since that beginning of coeducation the student body has grown to approximately a 50–50 gender balance in the student body.

Faculty sexual misconduct

In 2015, a male student sued the school, alleging that he had been raped and sexually harassed in "an environment of well-known and tolerated sexual assaults, sexually violent hazing, and pedophilia." He said his dormitory master and instructor had drugged him and lured him to his quarters where he was raped.[33]

As a result of this complaint and others, the school's law firm interviewed more than 150 people and reviewed more than 200,000 pages of documents. They released a report in 2018, stating that seven former faculty members had abused students for years, yet school administrators took no action after receiving complaints.

A former headmaster who had been serving on the board of trustees resigned after cooperating with investigators. Board of trustee representatives said the information would be turned over to law enforcement officials.[34]

Academics

Operating on a semester schedule, Hotchkiss offers a classical education,[6] 224 courses, several foreign languages[3] and study-abroad programs.[35] In 1991, the New York Times recognized Hotchkiss' summer program as a "Summer School for the Very Ambitious."[36] The Deerfield Scroll has claimed that "many consider The Hotchkiss School to be the leader in environmental awareness among the top prep schools in the country."[37]

In 2007, The Wall Street Journal stated that Hotchkiss, compared to Choate and Deerfield Academy, had more students accepted at Harvard, Princeton, and six other universities, excluding Yale.[38]

Extracurriculars

Athletics

Hotchkiss fields 19 interscholastic sports teams[3] that compete in the Founders League,[13] Eight Schools Athletic Council,[10] New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC),[15] and Interscholastic Sailing Association's New England Schools Sailing Association (NESSA) district.[39] Its colors are Yale Blue and white, with the mascot being the bearcat.[5]

In 1933, Samuel Gottscho photographed the Hotchkiss baseball team, which appears in the Library of Congress' Gottscho-Schleisner Collection.[40]

Hotchkiss–Taft rivalry

Hotchkiss and Taft School (also in Litchfield County) have a long-standing rivalry. On the final Saturday of the fall sport season, the two schools compete against each other in every sport.[6][7] Similar boarding school traditions include the Andover–Exeter rivalry and Choate–Deerfield rivalry.[41]

Clubs

Hotchkiss offers more than 65 clubs, including The Record, a biweekly, student-run newspaper circulated on campus and among alumni, The Mischianza yearbook,[42] BaHSA, a club celebrating the culture and rich history of Black and Hispanic members of the Hotchkiss community, the Hotchkiss Chorus music ensemble, and extensive service organizations such as the St. Luke's Society. Other notable organizations include Calliope, the all-girls a cappella group; Bluenotes, the all-boys a cappella group; the Hotchkiss Speech and Debate Team; and Food for Thought, the school's philosophy club. The school also hosts an annual student-run film festival, The Hotchkiss Film Festival, that attracts student filmmakers from all over the world to compete for prizes and a scholarship.[8][43]

Campus

Main Building, academic and social center of Hotchkiss

The school overlooks the Berkshires on a rural, 827 acres (3 km2) campus featuring 12 single-sex dorms and one all-gender dorm,[44] two lakes, a nine-hole golf course, and one forest.[3] The Main Building serves as the academic and social center, featuring 30 SmartBoard classrooms, the Edsel Ford Memorial Library with 87,000-volumes occupying 25,000 square feet, and dining halls.[45]

An EPA Green Power Partner[46] and Green Schools Ally,[18] Hotchkiss requires all campus buildings to acquire LEED certification[47] and was renovated to achieve the second highest, LEED Gold certification in 2008[48] and use 34% green power[46] (ranked eighth largest, green K–12 school in 2009 by EPA),[49] while upholding the Georgian architecture tradition from Bruce Price, Cass Gilbert, and Delano and Aldrich.[50] The school renovation project earned Robert A.M. Stern Architects the 2010 Palladio Award, with Paul Rudolph[50] and Butler Rogers Basket[47] contributing elements of modern architecture.

Esther Eastman Music Center(2021)

Art facilities

In 2005, Hotchkiss opened the 715-seat Esther Eastman Music Center, equipped with a handmade Fazioli F308 piano, 12 Steinway pianos, 12 practice rooms, 3 ensemble practice rooms, a WKIS radio station, and Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) lab. Hotchkiss also has a 615-seat proscenium theater called Walker Auditorium.[45]

Athletic facilities

In 2002, Hotchkiss opened the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center, a 212,000 square-foot athletic center with multi-purpose playing surfaces, elevated indoor exercise track, rinks, natatorium with 10-lane pool and separate diving well, basketball court, wrestling room, suash courts, indoor tennis courts, and a fitness center.[51]

The Hotchkiss Golf Course is a nine-hole golf course of approximately 3,000 yards, designed by Seth Raynor in 1924 and rated by Golf Digest as one of the 25 best nine-hole courses in America.[52] Hotchkiss also has the Baker Complex, including synthetic Sprole Field and many tracks, courts, and fields; three ponds; and extensive hiking trails.[53]

Tuition

Tuition and fees for the 2023-2024 academic year are $69,820 for boarding students and $59,360 for day students.[54]

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

  • In 1947, Time made a piece of Hotchkiss graffiti famous by publishing it twice: "In Lakeville, Conn., someone penciled in the Hotchkiss School lavatory: "Schuyler van Kilroy 3rd was here,"[56][57] a humorous variation of the popular expression "Kilroy was here."
  • Archibald MacLeish's last interview (1982) in American Heritage magazine disclosed, "God, how I did not like Hotchkiss!"[58]

References

  1. ↑ "PSS Private School Universe Survey". U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "School Profile: The Hotchkiss School". The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS). 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "About Hotchkiss: Who We Are". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on January 1, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  4. ↑ "About Hotchkiss: Administration - Craig Bradley, 15th Head of School". The Hotchkiss School. 2014. Archived from the original on February 14, 2010. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Athletics: Bearcat Athletics". The Hotchkiss School. 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "About Hotchkiss: History & Traditions". Hotchkiss School. 2014. Archived from the original on November 20, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
    • a "With the guidance of then President of Yale University Timothy Dwight, Maria Hotchkiss established the School in 1891 to prepare young men for Yale...Hotchkiss offers a classical education, finding strength in a traditional approach that has worked well and stood the test of time." — ¶ 2 (Strengthened by Time)
    • b "The week leading up to and including “Taft Day," the Saturday in the fall when Hotchkiss teams compete against the Taft School. From kickoff night to the Friday night pep rally and bonfire to Taft Day itself, blue and white rule." — ¶ 14 (Sprit Day, right sidebar)
    • c "When the Hotchkiss School opened its doors in 1892, the first 50 boys were charged a boarding tuition of $600--more than many families could afford. But fortunately, Maria Hotchkiss had insisted on something unique in allocating the funds to establish the School: Hotchkiss would offer scholarship aid to deserving students." — ¶ 3 (A 123-Year Policy)
    • d "Three years later, in September 1974, 88 young women entered Hotchkiss as preps, lower-mids, upper-mids, and seniors. Today, the number of boys and girls attending Hotchkiss is roughly equal." — ¶ 4 (Coeducation)
    • e "As early as 1912 students from China have come to Hotchkiss...He also enabled Hotchkiss students to study abroad by having the School join the English-Speaking Union program and through the inception of the International Schoolboy Exchange in 1928. Today, the Hotchkiss student body includes students from 34 countries, and on average 5 to 10 students study abroad each year with the school year abroad program. Begun by the Class of 1948, The Fund for Global Understanding provides grant support for students participating in summer community service projects throughout the world. Hotchkiss is also a member of Round Square and Global Connections..." — ¶ 5 (Globally Connected)
    • f "From the beginning, Maria Hotchkiss was not interested in establishing “a school for the pampered sons of rich gentlemen.”...In the 1960s Hotchkiss began its first formal participation in minority student recruitment programs such as the U.S. Grant Program – begun by Hotchkiss graduates attending Yale – as well as A Better Chance (ABC) and the Greater Opportunity (GO) Program. The Hotchkiss connection with Prep for Prep, an organization that helps prepare minority students for academically demanding independent schools, began in the early 1980s. Today, 43 percent of Hotchkiss students identify themselves as students of color." — ¶ 6 (Lessons of Differences)
    • g "Of our 600 students, 21 percent come from countries other than the U.S."— ¶ 8 (Hotchkiss Today)
  7. 1 2 "Taft-Hotchkiss Rivalry Heats Up: Saturday is Hotchkiss Day: Show your spirit!". Taft School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
    • a "It is Spirit Week on campus as the excitement builds for Hotchkiss Day this Saturday, November 12. It will be an exciting day for Taft sports, as many of our teams travel north in the hopes of extending their winning records and defending Taft’s name against our perennial rival." — ¶ 1
  8. 1 2 3 "About Hotchkiss: Life At Hotchkiss - Clubs & Activities". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Tuition and Payments | Private School CT | The Hotchkiss School". www.hotchkiss.org. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  10. 1 2 Kim, Josh (May 14, 2010). "The Eight Schools Association: Who? What? When? Where? Why?". Choate Rosemary Hall. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  11. ↑ "About: Member School Directory". Ten Schools Admissions Organization. 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  12. 1 2 https://www.thestreet.com/markets/the-25-most-expensive-private-high-schools-in-america-12966955
  13. 1 2 3 "Founders League: Member Schools". Founders League. Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  14. ↑ "ABOUT NEPSAC: Member Schools". New England Preparatory School Athletic Council. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  15. 1 2 "About Us: CIS Directory of Schools". New England Association of Schools and Colleges. 2014. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Member Schools". Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG). 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  17. 1 2 Vassallo, Damien (August 2011). "RSIS South Africa Project - July 2011: Leader's Report" (PDF). Round Square. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  18. 1 2 "Membership - School Profiles: The Hotchkiss School". Green Schools Alliance. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  19. ↑ Bowen, John G. "Alumni Accomplishments - A Closer Look: George Van Santvoord '08". Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  20. ↑ Kolowrat, Ernest (1992). Hotchkiss: A Chronicle of an American School. Hotchkiss School. ISBN 9781461700180. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
    • a "Be a gentleman! That was the only rule, the Duke always liked to say, that the school truly had."— Pg. 33, ¶ 2
  21. ↑ Birmingham, Stephen (1987). "America's Secret Aristocracy". Little, Brown and Company. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
    • a "His school, the Duke used to say (Hotchkiss) had only one rule, and that was "Be a gentleman," How he defined what a gentleman was he did not say, but what a gentleman was usually became clear when you discovered what a gentleman wasn't. A gentleman didn't cheat. he didn't lie. A gentleman wasn't petty. A gentleman wasn't intolerant of others' shortcomings. A gentleman wasn't a whiner, wasn't a gossip, wasn't a boor, wasn't inconsiderate of others' feelings..."
  22. ↑ "American Legends Interviews - Louis Auchincloss: The Rector of Justin". American Legends. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
    • a "George Van Santvoord (1891-1975), whose distinguished bearing earned him the nickname the Duke. Van Santvoord, and his predecessor who was known as the King, claimed that at Hotchkiss there was only one rule for students to follow: Be a gentleman."— ¶ 2
  23. ↑ Shields, David D. (Summer 2014). "Hotchkiss Magazine: Summer 2014". Hotchkiss School. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
    • a "And the number-one rule in the Blue Book—Be a gentleman."— Pg. 24, last ¶
  24. ↑ "Education: The Duke Steps Down". TIME. November 1, 1954. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
    • a "Of all U.S. prep schools, few, if any, can beat the standards Hotchkiss has set. — ¶ 2
  25. ↑ "Jose A. Camprubi, Newspaper Owner". New York Times. New York. March 13, 1942. p. 19.
  26. ↑ Branch, Mark Alden (October 2002). "A Firm Foundation: How does an ever-changing cast of undergraduates keep an educational program for New Haven schoolchildren going for 50 years? For the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, the answer is adaptability". Yale Alumni Magazine. pp. 2, 6. Retrieved November 19, 2014. But Eugene Van Voorhis '55, '58LLB remembers when things were different. When Van Voorhis came to Yale from Hotchkiss in 1951, reaching out to New Haven "wasn't the 'shoe' thing to do," he recalls. Undaunted, Van Voorhis started a group to tutor middle school-aged African American students with an eye toward getting them admitted into elite boarding schools at a time when African American applicants were virtually unheard of in such places. Two years later, he incorporated his venture as the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation."... "After two years of tutoring, the first "graduate," Barry Loncke, was admitted to Hotchkiss. Four years later, he was admitted to Yale College in the Class of 1962; he is now a Superior Court judge in Sacramento, California.
  27. ↑ "Participating Schools: Independent Boarding Schools - Connecticut". A Better Chance Program. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  28. ↑ Miller, Chloe (July 19, 2013). "Reunion Held For Hotchkiss School's GO Program: Inner-City Kids Spent Summers At Private School". Hartford Courant. Retrieved November 19, 2014. The people that live up there would invite us on the weekends into their homes, to go to church with them and whatnot. There were a lot of families involved to take on all us inner-city kids, and the racial barrier was totally broken," Collins, who is black, said of the mostly white families who took the boys into their homes in Lakeville.
  29. ↑ "The Hartford-Hotchkiss Greater Opportunity Program: Interim Report to the State Department of Education and the Hartford Board of Education - Summer 1968" (PDF). U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. Summer 1968. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  30. ↑ "Confucius Classroom at Hotchkiss School". Confucius Institute International Division (Hanban). November 1, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  31. ↑ Xueqin, Jiang (August 11, 2010). "Beijing's Study Abroad Market: Beijing parents expect SAT cramming when selecting a high school. But what about the kids?". The Diplomat. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  32. ↑ Boughton, Kathryn (July 19, 2011). "Chinese Students Learn About America at Portals". Litchfield County Times. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  33. ↑ "Former Hotchkiss School Student Raped by Teacher: Lawsuit". February 5, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  34. ↑ "Connecticut Boarding School Says 7 Former Staffers Sexually Abused Students". HuffPost. August 19, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  35. ↑ "About Hotchkiss: International Programs". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  36. ↑ Judson, George (August 15, 1991). "Summer School for the Very Ambitious". New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  37. ↑ Woolf, Sarah (January 2010). "Are They Greener on the Other Side? Part Three: The Hotchkiss School". Deerfield Scroll. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  38. ↑ Gamerman, Ellen (December 28, 2007). "How the Schools Stack Up". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Trophy Case: District Championships". Interscholastic Sailing Association. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  40. ↑ "Schools. Hotchkiss School, baseball". Library of Congress. May 4, 1933. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  41. ↑ https://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2021/11/12/deerfield-and-choates-parallel-spirit-week-traditions/
  42. ↑ "Milestones". Hartford Courant. May 10, 1992. pp. H4.
  43. ↑ "Hotchkiss Film Festival". Hotchkiss Film Festival. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  44. ↑ "About Hotchkiss: Living at Hotchkiss - Dorm Life". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  45. 1 2 "Academics: Academic Resources". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  46. 1 2 "EPA Home > Climate Change > Clean Energy > Green Power Partnership > Partner List: Hotchkiss School". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  47. 1 2 "Reduce, Reuse, Rehab: Monahan Building, the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut". The Trust for Architectural Easements. February 17, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  48. ↑ "Projects: HOTCHKISS NEW RESIDENCE HALLS (LEED GOLD 2008)". U.S. Green Building Council. 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  49. ↑ Deegan, David (October 29, 2009). "Two Connecticut Schools Recognized by EPA for Green Power Purchases". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  50. 1 2 McDonald, Martha (June 2010). "Winsome Twosome". Traditional Building Magazine. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  51. ↑ "Athletics: Facilities - The Forrest E. Mars Jr. Athletic Center". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  52. ↑ Whitten, Ron (February 28, 2010). "Small Wonders". Golf Digest. Conde Nast. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  53. ↑ "Athletics: Facilities - Other Facilities". The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  54. ↑ "Tuition and Payments | Private School CT | The Hotchkiss School". www.hotchkiss.org. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  55. ↑ Osborn on Osborn. New Haven: Ticknor & Fields. 1982. p. 62.
  56. ↑ "Miscellany, Jan. 13, 1947". TIME. January 13, 1947. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  57. ↑ "Miscellany, Dec. 29, 1947". TIME. December 29, 1947. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  58. ↑ Cownley, Robert (August–September 1982). "America Was Promises". American Heritage. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2015. Vol. 33, Issue 5, Paragraph 12.
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