ADMISSION POLICY

Kinkaid seeks to enroll intelligent and motivated students of high character with diverse talents and backgrounds who can benefit from the school’s program and whose talents and interests can contribute to the school as a whole. Kinkaid also looks for students who have both the ability and desire to further Kinkaid’s Mission which is to “promote educational excellence, personal responsibility, and balanced growth, and thereby to help its students to discover and develop their talents and to fulfill their best potentials.”

It is vital that Kinkaid attract and retain students who are up to the most rigorous and demanding curriculum; however, Kinkaid does not accept only students who fall within a narrow range of academic performance. Kinkaid emphasizes the importance of balanced education that prizes academics as well as athletics and the arts. Kinkaid educates the whole child, not only a child who is academically gifted in ways measured by tests or grades. Kinkaid considers both the most academically gifted applicants, as well as those who are capable of the work needed at a school of Kinkaid’s caliber, but whose strengths are also focused in other areas. The admission committee makes its decisions on the basis of achievement testing, previous school records, and personal interview. Candidates are considered without regard to race or creed.

Among qualified applicants, preference is given to alumni children, siblings of currently enrolled students, and children of current faculty and staff, collectively called Priority Applicants. It is the school’s policy, however, that approximately twenty percent of students accepted each year be from families which are new to Kinkaid.

Preference is given for applicants who:

• have intellectual, athletic, artistic, creative, leadership and other capabilities.
• along with their family, have high character and will support the philosophy, mission, core values, policies, and goals of the school.
• create an approximate balance of gender, talents, and interests within each grade.
• have families with the willingness to engage with the school and the school community.