Private School Admissions for Fall 2027: Deadlines, Tests, and Open Grades

If you want your child in a private school next fall, the application is open now and most of it closes in January. Of 49 selective schools we checked, in the Bay Area, Seattle, the Northeast, Texas, Georgia, and Florida, 44 name a January deadline. The four schools whose pages we read this week close between November 13 and January 28. Your first step today is one phone call: ask each school which grades have seats for fall 2027. Every school fills its entry grades, the grades where it plans new seats, and most take a child into any other grade only when a family leaves. Then the file: the school's online form, report cards from your current school, recommendations the school requests from your child's teachers, a visit or an assessment, and, from about grade 2 up, usually a test score. The dates, the pieces, the test by grade, and the seats question are below, in the schools' own words, with a link to each school's page.

The calendar, August to March

The four schools here are The Harker School in San Jose, Lakeside School in Seattle, The Dalton School in New York, and Sidwell Friends in Washington, DC. Applications open in late summer: Dalton's kindergarten application on August 13, Harker's on September 1. October to January is the visiting season. Lakeside's All-School Open House is October 25, its middle school admissions activity runs from early October to the end of January, and Dalton's school visits run October to early December. Sidwell will not accept a teacher recommendation form received before November 1.

Then the deadlines. Dalton's kindergarten application is due at noon on November 13. Sidwell asks for every step for its entry grades by December 31, 2026, and for its other grades by January 30, 2027. Harker's deadline is January 5, 2027. Lakeside takes the preliminary application and family forms by January 14, 2027, and everything else, test scores included, by midnight January 28. Financial aid has its own dates: Dalton's aid application is due December 1 for new families, and Sidwell's is due February 1.

Decisions come in late winter. Dalton posts its kindergarten decisions in February on the New York schools' shared timetable, with a reply due one week later. Harker releases decisions March 12, 2027, at 4 p.m., with the contract and deposit due March 19 at noon. Lakeside's middle school enrollment deadline is March 26, 2027.

What goes in the file

The four schools ask for the same five kinds of thing, each with its own rules.

1. The school's online form and a fee. Each school starts with a short preliminary application on its own application system. Harker, Dalton, and Sidwell use one called Ravenna; Lakeside uses one called Aryval.
2. Records from your current school. Harker wants this year's first-semester or trimester report and last year's full transcript, sent by the school, not by a parent. Sidwell wants last year's report cards and, by December 31, this year's first-quarter or trimester report.
3. Recommendations the school names. Harker takes one from the current classroom teacher for lower school. For middle and upper school it wants "your current English teacher, math teacher and principal or counselor," which it calls "the only three we accept." Lakeside wants two teacher evaluations, a personal reference, and an administrator form. Sidwell asks the current math and English teachers for grades 6, 7, and 9. Dalton takes the Confidential School Report from the current school for kindergarten; for middle and high school it wants forms from the English and math teachers and a counselor or administrator. It says personal letters of recommendation "are not a part of our application process."
4. A visit, an assessment, or an interview. Dalton's kindergarten applicants come for a 75-minute small-group visit while parents tour, and the parents return another day for an interview of about 30 minutes. Lakeside's middle school applicants attend an after-school admissions activity that counts as the interview; there is no parent interview. Harker runs student visits for lower school and activity sessions for older grades, and asks parents to record a video interview. Sidwell runs a group visit for the younger grades and its own school assessment for grades 6, 7, and 9.
5. A test score, from about grade 2. The next section covers it.

The test, by the grade you apply to

The two tests are the ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam), for students applying to grades 2 through 12, and the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test), for students currently in grades 3 through 11. Which test a school names is the school's call. Of the 49 schools in our file, 20 take either, 12 name the ISEE, 4 name the SSAT, 5 use neither, and the rest do not say or give a mixed answer. The school-by-school list is on our SSAT or ISEE page.

For the youngest applicants the test is not an entrance exam. Harker asks applicants to transitional kindergarten (TK) through grade 2 for a cognitive assessment, an IQ-style test given by a psychologist (the WISC-V or the WPPSI-IV, depending on age), and says plainly that "IQ tests don't measure academic achievement." Dalton and Sidwell run a group visit for kindergarten instead.

From grade 2 the rules are about timing and count. Harker requires the ISEE for grades 2 through 5 and accepts either test for middle and upper school. It wants the test taken after August 1, 2026, with scores in by January 5, and it counts only the first set of scores you send. Lakeside takes either test for grades 6 through 9, one set of scores, from a test taken between September 1, 2026, and January 28, 2027, and tells families to register no later than December. Dalton wants the test taken between August and the first week of January. Sidwell makes the admissions test optional and requires the in-school standardized testing instead. The test's level follows the grade you apply to, not the grade your child is in. Our ISEE levels page lays that out, and our scores page explains the report that comes back.

Transferring in: which grades have seats

Moving from a public fifth grade into a private sixth grade is an entry-grade application, and the schools treat it as one. A transfer, as the schools use the word, is an application to a grade that is not an entry grade. Harker lists its typical lower school openings: TK (24), kindergarten (57), grade 2 (7), grade 3 (22), grade 4 (15), grade 5 (6). Grade 1 openings "depend entirely on attrition," which means a seat opens only when a family leaves. Its middle school opens at grade 6 with 45 to 50 spaces; grades 7 and 8 are "limited and depend on attrition." Its upper school opens at grade 9 with 50 to 55 spaces. Grades 10 and 11 take inquiries, with a spring application "though this is rare," and it does not admit into grade 12. Its section for international applicants also says it does not accept midyear transfers.

Dalton says middle school, grades 4 through 8, "is not a standard entry point for September 2027" and takes applications there only if openings come from "significant attrition," through a form it calls the closed-grade inquiry form. Sidwell's entry grades are PreK, kindergarten, grades 3 and 4, grades 6 and 7, and grade 9. For every other grade, "spaces are only available when there is attrition," and the school adds that "spaces may not become available."

So the first question for any transfer is not the test. It is whether the school has a seat in that grade for next fall. Ask the admissions office before you prepare anything else.

Where Cuemath fits

The schools say the test is one piece of the file, and for middle and upper school Harker says it reads the rest first. The free evaluation below is a live, one-on-one session that shows where your child's math stands before the test date. It cannot move an admissions decision.

FAQs

When are private school application deadlines?

Mostly in January. Of the 49 schools we checked, 41 name January, 1 says January (rolling), 2 say December or January, 4 say February, and 1 says December. The early ones are the ones to watch: Dalton's kindergarten application closes November 13, and Sidwell wants everything for its entry grades by December 31, 2026.

Does a kindergarten applicant take a test?

Not the ISEE or the SSAT. The ISEE begins with applicants to grade 2 and the SSAT with students in grade 3. For kindergarten, Harker asks for a cognitive assessment, the WISC-V or WPPSI-IV by age, while Dalton and Sidwell run a group visit.

Can my child transfer to a private school in the middle of the year?

At these four schools, rarely. Harker's page says, in its section for international applicants, that it does not accept midyear transfers. Dalton and Sidwell fill a grade that is not an entry grade only when a family leaves, and Sidwell says it will contact families about visits and interviews when that happens. Other schools set their own rules, so ask each one.

How many times can my child take the test?

The ISEE once per season, across three seasons, so up to 3 times in a school year. The SSAT's cap depends on the format, paper, at home, or at a test center, and the organizer's page lists each one inside an August 1 to July 31 testing year. The cap that matters is the school's: Harker and Lakeside each read one set of scores.

What if the January test scores arrive after the deadline?

Often the school still takes them, but ask before you register. The SSAT's organizer says scores from a January test may come out soon after the common January 15 deadline and that most schools accept them several days late. Lakeside wants scores by January 28 and tells families to register no later than December so they arrive in time.

What math is on the ISEE and the SSAT?

The ISEE's Lower, Middle, and Upper Levels each carry Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematics Achievement, two of the four scored sections. The SSAT scores verbal, math, and reading, plus an unscored writing sample. The level, and so the math, follows the grade your child is applying to.

Do schools read the test score first?

Harker does not, for middle and upper school. It says it reads every application there first without looking at test scores and welcomes a range of scores. Sidwell makes the admissions test optional. For the other schools on your list, the honest answer is on their own pages, and the ISEE's organizer sends families to each school's admissions office for how each school reads a score.