Admissions

For the 2025-26 school year Thaden will offer Grades K-2 and 5-12. By the 2026-27 school year Thaden will offer Grades K-12.

"A student who is open to new experiences." - Anna S. '23

A student who wants to become a well rounded person. - Hadley W. '23 

"A student who is really committed to learning." - Anna R. '23

"A Student who wants to become better at all aspects of their educational journey." - Aiden M. '23

More than 370 students are enrolled at Thaden School for the 2025-26 academic year. The school will grow incrementally, the campus and its structures will support more than 500 students, although the size of each instructional section will remain small. 

Our 113 alumni in our four graduating classes have now enrolled at more than 60 different colleges and universities in 26 states spread evenly across the nation and two international universities. While this list includes many highly selective institutions (Cal Tech, Princeton, Amherst, Air Force, Northwestern, Carleton, Middlebury, Georgia Tech, and many more), what most inspires us is the broad representation across all sectors of higher education: public and private, arts and tech, urban and rural. Visit our College Counseling page or read our College Profile to see a full list of acceptances.

Most of our core departments and programs, including English, Mathematics, Computer Science, History, Social Sciences, World Languages, and Visual and Performing Arts, offer advanced courses that are especially challenging and comparable to college-level work. Of the more than 100 courses offered at Thaden School, over 20% are accelerated or equivalent to college-level; these advanced course offerings are denoted on the transcript.

To learn more about our curriculum, visit the Academics page or view our Middle School or Upper School Curriculum Guides.

Each year our students earn international, national, and regional distinctions.

• Three graduates earned full four-year scholarships through the QuestBridge National College Match program. Another earned the prestigious Jefferson Scholarship, covering the full cost of attendance plus expenses at the University of Virginia.
• Five students participated in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth summer programs. Another earned a full scholarship for The Paideia Institute’s Living Latin in Rome High School program.
• One student auditioned for and was selected to perform in a small mixed choir at the Sydney Opera House.
• Two students won first place and a third won second place for art pieces entered in the Arkansas Young Artist Association Competition.
• One student was one of only two students out of 500 participants recognized for Excellence in Leadership and Ethics at the West Point Summer Leader Experience.
• Five students formed the world’s first competitive high school gravel cycling team.  
• One student was recruited as a Division I NCAA Track and Field athlete and earned a scholarship to compete at the University of Montana.
• Two students were among the top 20 finalists in a field of 6,000 submissions for the 2019 NPR Student Podcast Challenge.

Thaden School cannot modify the curriculum, but can make some accommodations for students with documented needs. 

Examples of Classroom Accommodations:

• Assistive Technology: Calculators, Google Read&Write, or Audiobooks

• Extended Time (150%)

• Noise-canceling Headphones

• Peer Notetaker

• Preferential Seating 

• Copy of Class Notes/Slides

• Breaks as Needed

• Break Assignments into Manageable Steps

• Frequent Checks for Understanding

• Redirection to Task

Examples of Testing Accommodations:

• Preferential Seating

• Extended Time (150%)

• Small Group Testing (Our classes are considered small groups, so we would not test students in a group other than their class)