Castilleja School

Castilleja describes its teaching approach as emphasizing how girls learn as much as what they learn, with an academic program grounded in care, confidence-building, and resilience. The school highlights interdisciplinary problem-solving, real-world engagement, and experiential learning that helps students deepen understanding through reflection, hands-on application, collaboration, and ethical leadership.

Castilleja’s admissions process starts in Ravenna, where families create an account, register for events, submit the application, and track required materials; the school says the Fall 2026 application opened on September 1, 2025, the application and $100 fee were due January 8, 2026, and decisions are mailed March 19, 2026 and posted in Ravenna on March 20, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. (castilleja.org) Applicants are asked to attend events, submit the preliminary application, complete a required interview/campus visit step, and complete student and parent questionnaires/essays; middle school interviews are about 15 minutes after a campus visit, while high school interviews are about 20 minutes on Zoom. (castilleja.org) Required materials include an online writing sample, recommendations, and transcripts, while standardized testing is not considered. (castilleja.org) Recommendation requirements differ by division: middle school applicants need principal/counselor, current teacher, and previous-year teacher recommendations; high school applicants need current principal/counselor, English teacher, and math teacher recommendations, and schools are asked to send 2024–25 and 2025–26 first-period transcripts, with late-January flexibility for fall grades. (castilleja.org) I did not find a published admissions waitlist policy or admissions priority categories on Castilleja’s admissions pages; the only explicit priority language I found was in tuition assistance, where families already receiving aid are prioritized before new aid commitments, and Castilleja also says tuition assistance applications do not affect admission decisions. (castilleja.org)