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Founded in 1888 by William Lee Cushing, Westminster School was first located in Dobbs Ferry, New York. At the turn of the century, the School was moved to its present location in Simsbury, Connecticut. Westminster began admitting girls in 1971 and now has an equal number of boys and girls.

Westminster is a school with a strong sense of identity and tradition. Members of the School community recognize the importance of duties and obligations, not only to other people, but to one’s own aptitudes, strengths, and opportunities as well. There is a sense of the importance of trust and of living up to one’s responsibilities, and there is agreement on the importance of living cheerfully within the limits a society sets and of respecting its ceremonies and symbols. These agreements support a coherent social pattern with opportunities for many different kinds of people.

Westminster is situated on 230 acres of wooded plateau overlooking the scenic Farmington River valley, 13 miles northwest of Hartford. It is 20 minutes from Bradley International Airport and a little more than a 2-hour drive from New York and Boston.

A 30-member Board of Trustees is the governing body. Westminster’s current endowment is valued at $88 million. In 2007–08, the School received $2.4 million in Annual Giving and $8.6 million in capital gifts.

Westminster is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. It has memberships in the National Association of Independent Schools, the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, the Secondary School Admission Test Board, the Educational Records Bureau, and the Council for Religion in Independent Schools.

Westminster offers a liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes balance and depth. Eighteen credits are required for graduation; however, the vast majority of students accumulate 20 or more credits. The minimum department requirements for graduation include 4 credits of English, 3 credits of mathematics, 2 credits of laboratory science, 2 credits of Latin or a modern foreign language, 2 credits of history (including 1 credit in U.S. history at the Fifth- or Sixth-Form level), and 1 credit in the creative arts.

Each of the academic departments offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The English program culminates with a final trimester of electives, which have included Frost and Cummings, the American Dream, Children’s Literature, Modern Literature, and Modern Drama. Three trimester electives are offered for Sixth Formers in creative writing. Students can continue mathematics course work through AP calculus, AP computers, and AP statistics. Latin, French, and Spanish are offered through the AP level, with tutorials available for sixth-year study. Chinese was added to the curriculum for the 2008–09 academic year. The history department provides advanced courses in twentieth-century American history and ethical philosophy as well as AP courses in economics, United States history, comparative government, modern European history, and art history. In addition to the basic courses in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and geology, students can choose from AP courses in chemistry, physics, biology, and environmental science. Creative arts offerings include introductory and advanced art courses, a broad range of music and theater courses, and a noteworthy architecture program that begins with engineering drawing and leads to architecture II.

Independent-study programs may be undertaken by Fifth and Sixth Formers in lieu of athletics in any trimester, with the understanding that no student may participate in more than one such project a year.

A teacher acts as an adviser for each student. Advisers monitor both the academic progress and the social adjustment of their students, meeting regularly with them and maintaining communication with their families.

The School is on the trimester system. Students normally carry five courses per year. The grading system is numerical–60 is needed to pass and 85 to achieve honors. In order to earn promotion (and in the Sixth Form, a diploma), students must successfully complete at least four major courses and achieve a minimum general average of 70. At the end of each trimester, students’ parents and advisers receive grades and teacher comments; at each mid-trimester, interim grades are provided. In addition to receiving these fixed evaluations, students, parents, and advisers are alerted to any problems that might arise. The average class size is 12 students, and the student-faculty ratio is 5:1.

Of the 85 faculty members at Westminster, 45 are men and 40 are women. Master’s degrees are held by 58 of the 85, and 3 members have completed their Ph.D. degrees. The average tenure of faculty members at Westminster is twelve years (seventeen years in teaching). Virtually all live on campus, either in a dormitory or in one of the twenty-four houses on the campus.

Faculty turnover is minimal each year, and new members are selected for their dedication to teaching young men and women and for their versatility, richness of background, and professional preparation. Faculty members have access to an endowed fund that is intended for professional improvement in such areas as advanced study and traveling.

W. Graham Cole Jr. is Westminster’s seventh Headmaster. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College in 1966 and received his M.A. in history from Columbia University. Mr. Cole is in his sixteenth year at Westminster, following a twenty-year tenure at the Lawrenceville School.

Three college guidance counselors work closely with students and their parents throughout the college application process. Students begin the process by taking the PSAT in the fall of the junior year, followed in the winter by an on-campus College Day, which exposes them and their parents to all aspects of the college application process. In the spring and continuing through the following year, students and parents schedule frequent individual conferences with their college guidance counselor. Students take the SAT and the SAT Subject Tests in the spring of the junior year and again in the fall of the senior year. In 2007–08, the average scores on the SAT were 604 verbal and 616 mathematics.

Westminster sends all of its graduates to four-year colleges or universities. Colleges and universities attended by the class of 2008 include Amherst, Boston College, Bowdoin, Brown, Colby, Cornell, Duke, Middlebury, Notre Dame, Tufts, Williams, and the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

In 2008–09, Westminster’s student body was composed as follows: Third Form, 36 boys and 30 girls; Fourth Form, 53 boys and 52 girls; Fifth Form, 60 boys and 50 girls; and Sixth Form, 56 boys and 48 girls. Of the total of 385 students, 144 were boarding boys, 71 were day boys, 110 were boarding girls, and 60 were day girls. Students came from twenty-six states and twenty other countries. About as many students came from independent schools as from public schools.

Seniors assume responsibility in the dorms, extracurricular programs, and work squad program. They inherit responsibilities and privileges that make them the leaders of the student body. The members of the Student Council are elected from every grade but are led by a board of prefects chosen from the senior class. Students and faculty members work together on ad hoc and standing committees to determine and enforce disciplinary standards.

Westminster believes that by entering into the life of a coherent and purposeful community, students are able to develop a point of view that makes sense of the opportunities and obstacles they face. To this end, Westminster inspires young men and women of promise to cultivate a passion for learning, to explore and develop their talents in a balanced program, to reach well beyond the ordinary, to live with character and intelligence, and to commit to a life of service beyond oneself.

Baxter Academic Center is the hub of academic life. It contains twenty-six classrooms; six science laboratories; computer facilities that include an equipped classroom, a working laboratory, and science computers; a greenhouse facility equipped with aquariums and terrariums; a spacious library containing more than 24,000 volumes; an auditorium; and a bookstore. Students taking astronomy make use of the School’s astronomical observatory, which features a computer-guided 14-inch telescope. The Centennial Performing Arts Center has a theater that seats 400, a dance studio, and rooms for music courses, private music lessons, and practice sessions. There are also studios and classrooms for art and architecture. The School’s new LEED-certified 85,000-square-foot academic center is scheduled to be ready for the 2009–10 academic year.

There are six dormitories, all of which underwent complete renovations in 1996, as well as one dorm that opened for use in that same year. All dorm rooms and dorm study spaces have wireless computer access to the local campus network as well as the Internet. Computers are provided in the common study spaces of each dorm. Every student receives a phone number that rings to a phone in the student’s room or to a voice mail system. Each student normally has a roommate, but there are singles available for upperclass students. Corridors have between 10 and 15 students, and a faculty member and his or her family reside on each corridor. In addition, each floor has at least 2 Sixth Formers who help in supervising the underclass students.

Students spend some of their free time in the School’s bookstore or student center. The bookstore, the Martlet’s Nest, sells school and personal supplies and has a small café. The Timken Student Center, which was originally built by students and faculty members, has recently undergone a complete renovation. The student center contains a snack bar, an extension of the School’s bookstore, a game room, and a lounge that is equipped with networked computers. The School also has a well-equipped and fully staffed infirmary.

Westminster considers athletics to be part of the School’s curriculum and requires participation by every student. The School fields fifty-two teams in sixteen different sports: cross-country, field hockey, football, and soccer in the fall; basketball, hockey, paddle tennis, squash, and swimming and diving in the winter; and baseball, golf, lacrosse, softball, tennis, and track in the spring.

Westminster’s athletic facilities include 30 acres of playing fields, a 400-meter synthetic track, two clay and twelve all-weather tennis courts, twelve squash courts, two weight-training rooms, two paddle tennis courts, two full-sized basketball courts, a hockey rink, a swimming pool, locker room facilities, and two athletic training rooms.

In 2004, Westminster completed an $11-million, state-of-the-art athletic complex that includes an indoor pool, a fitness center, and a health and counseling center. The facility houses an eight-lane, 25-yard pool complete with locker rooms, an overnight health complex, and a 4,500-square-foot fitness center with the latest fitness equipment. The building is the second of four major additions to an already significant athletic complex.

Westminster students have an opportunity to become involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, and students are encouraged to participate in at least one.

Activities vary from year to year according to interest, time, and student initiative. Those of an ongoing nature include the school newspaper, the Martlet (a creative arts magazine), and the yearbook; theater, with both acting and technical work; three choral groups; a jazz ensemble; instrumental and voice lessons; chapel services, which are conducted almost entirely by students and faculty members; and social service groups, such as a group that visits a local convalescent home each week. Clubs include the Environmental Awareness Group and the Debate and Women’s Issues Clubs. Off-campus activities, including trips into Hartford to see performances by the Hartford Stage Company and games at the Civic Center, take place whenever appropriate.

Classes are held six days a week, with half days on Wednesday and Saturday. An optional buffet breakfast is offered from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. on each school day. Classes begin at 8 and run until 2:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and until 11:40 on the other days. Students have one or two study periods during an average day.

Each class is 40 or 60 minutes long, and all major courses meet ten times in two weeks. A cafeteria-style lunch is served for 2 hours each day. Students perform assigned work squad tasks sometime during the day, either at 2:30 after classes, during a free period, or during the evening, amounting to a contribution of about 1½ hours per week. A required afternoon commitment is scheduled for approximately 1½ hours. Chapel is mandatory for all students on Tuesday and Friday at midmorning.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, dinner is a formal sit-down meal at which students dine with the faculty members and their families. Following these meals, Sixth Formers join faculty members for coffee and tea in the Hinman Reading Room. All other nights, dinner is served cafeteria-style. Study period is held from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Students study in their own rooms or the Baxter Academic Center or work in the computer labs.

After classes on Saturday, most students are involved in athletics; those who are not support the various teams by attending the games. There are always a couple of events planned by the Student Activities Committee for Saturday evenings. Typical activities include on- and off-campus dances and movies, skating parties, visits to coffeehouses, and trips into Hartford to attend plays or sports events.

Students are allotted a certain number of overnights or weekends, ensuring that there is a critical mass of students on campus every weekend. This keeps the community vibrant and active seven days a week. Day students are encouraged to participate in all activities, both during the school week and on the weekend. Students who want some time off campus to eat at one of the dozen restaurants, buy clothes or groceries, or browse can easily walk into the town of Simsbury.

Tuition at Westminster for 2008–09 was $41,700 for boarding students and $31,100 for day students. Students can expect approximately $1500 in additional expenses, which include such items as books, school supplies, dry cleaning, laundry, and personal needs. New students are expected to pay an initial deposit of $4000 by April 10. The balance is payable in equal installments on July 15 and December 1.

For the 2008–09 school year, approximately $3.5 million in need-based financial assistance was awarded to approximately 30 percent of the students. Financial aid is reviewed each year, and all families applying for assistance must submit the Parents’ Financial Statement to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid in Princeton, New Jersey.

Students are admitted to Westminster on the basis of their ability to contribute to the School community and, in a general sense, to society beyond Westminster. The admissions committee seeks students who show a willingness and enthusiasm to grow, to become involved, to work cheerfully with others, and to meet new challenges. Experience has shown that a record of accomplishment, whether in or out of the classroom, is the best evidence that a student has the potential, the will, and the imagination needed to do more things well at Westminster.

Requirements for admission include a personal interview, recommendations from English and math teachers, a school transcript, writing samples, and the results of the SSAT. The admissions committee considers each of these requirements an essential factor in establishing a complete profile of a candidate.

Most students come to Westminster as Third or Fourth Formers (grades 9 or 10), but the School accepts some students each year for grade 11 and for a postgraduate year.

An initial inquiry is welcome at any time. Scheduled visits are available from 8 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and from 8 to 11 on Wednesday and Saturday. The application deadline is January 15. Fees are $75 for domestic applications, $150 for international. Candidates with all credentials on file by the deadline are notified of a decision on March 10; students are expected to reply to acceptances by April 10.

Jon C. Deveaux, Director of Admissions
Westminster School
Simsbury, Connecticut 06070, United States
Telephone: 860-408-3060
Fax: 860-408-3042