Hotchkiss School

The Hotchkiss School is a private college preparation day and boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, it was one of the first English-style boarding schools in the United States and an early proponent of student financial aid, accepting scholarship students from the beginning. In the 1930s, Hotchkiss was the primary feeder school for Yale University, attracting more students than the combined public school systems of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Hotchkiss is part of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organisation, two groups of American boarding schools. It was a founding member of the G20 Schools Group, a global alliance of college-preparatory high schools. In 1891, Maria Hotchkiss, the heir to her late husband Benjamin's armaments business, founded Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. Mrs. Hotchkiss planned to build a free school for local boys, but her advisor, Yale University president Timothy Dwight, wanted to utilize her millions to establish a feeder school for Yale. He hired significant staff from Phillips Academy (Andover), a prominent Yale feeder school, and appointed several Yale community members to the board of trustees. In the early 1920s, Hotchkiss frequently outperformed Andover on the College Boards, since the school prioritized preparing pupils for Yale's entrance tests.