Apply to Harpeth Hall

Inquire Online & Create An Account

When you inquire, you provide us with your household information and year interested in applying. With that inquiry, you will be added to our mailing list and receive information about upcoming admission events and our monthly electronic newsletter.

Our system will send you an email with a login name and link to create a password. This login information will allow you to create an account and access the admission portal, where you will be able to sign up for tours, admission events, ISEE testing, and apply for admission.

*Current families, please proceed to the Access the Admission Portal/Apply button and use your already-existing user name and password to access the admission portal.

The admission application process begins the year before a student would like to enter Harpeth Hall. If you are looking to begin at Harpeth Hall in the fall of 2021, your process begins in September of 2020, and your application is due on or before January 4, 2021. 

Inquiring online is the best way to begin the admission process at Harpeth Hall. This ensures we have your current contact information and allows you to receive communication from the Admission Office. Inquire here.

Join us on Sunday, November 1 for Admission Preview Day! This year's event will be a virtual experience for prospective students and their families. Hear from our Head of School, division directors, faculty, coaches, and students about our academic, co-curricular, and leadership programs such as Winterim, SEEK, and College Counseling. Admission Preview Day is your opportunity to learn about Harpeth Hall and explore areas in which you have specific interests. We look forward to sharing our campus and community with you. Registration information will be available on our website. Please check back soon.

The required current math and current English teacher recommendation letters are very helpful to the Admission Committee as it seeks to build a cohesive and diverse group of girls each year. However, teacher recommendations are only one part of an applicant’s file. The committee takes into account all pieces of an admission file to assess if a student will be well-served by Harpeth Hall.

Recommendations are to be completed by the current math and current English teachers either electronically using the link provided in the admission portal or printed, completed, sealed and returned directly to Harpeth Hall on or before January 22, 2021. If your student has the same teacher for both math and English, your teacher will be asked to fill out just one recommendation form.

Please contact the Office of Admission and Financial Aid at 615.346.0126 if your school does not provide teacher recommendations.

Additional letters of recommendation are not necessary.

Given current restrictions in place due to COVID-19, Harpeth Hall will be hosting several small group ISEE test dates. These test dates are available to Harpeth Hall applicants only and will comply with school policy and CDC guidelines.

For the greatest selection of dates and to ensure that we can accommodate all applicants who want to test at Harpeth Hall, we encourage you to complete Part I of the application as soon as possible.

Upon completion of Part I, applicants will have access to available ISEE dates hosted by Harpeth Hall. After selecting a date for your student in your admission portal, our office will send you a link via email with an invitation code to register through the ISEE website. You will not be able to register for testing at Harpeth Hall without this code. If you prefer, you may register to test at another location, including your current school, if offered. Please understand that test locations are limited this year. 

Harpeth Hall is offering testing with accommodations. For eligibility information, consult the ISEE Accommodations webpage and contact Lisa Hall for further information.

ISEE fee waivers are available to Harpeth Hall applicants. To request a fee waiver, families must complete the Parents' Financial Statement portion of the School and Student Services financial aid application. Upon completion, notify the Office of Admission and Financial Aid for your request to be considered.

The ISEE is a required part of the Harpeth Hall application. Harpeth Hall strongly discourages test preparation outside of the ISEE website and accepts only one ISEE score per admission cycle.

For questions concerning the ISEE, please be in touch with Lisa Hall via email or at 615.346.0139.

Standardized test scores from the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) are helpful to the admission committee as it seeks to build a cohesive and diverse group of girls.

The ISEE is offered multiple times throughout the year; therefore, the expectations for student comprehension varies. ISEE scores are based on the number of correct answers a student gives. It benefits the student to make an educated guess by eliminating answers that are likely incorrect and choosing a response from what remains. A wrong answer and an omitted answer count the same. 

It is important to keep in mind that students in multiple grades take each test level. For example, students currently in 4th and 5th grades take the Lower Level ISEE. Naturally, there will be material on the test that is unfamiliar to students, and no student is expected to know the answer to every question.

With scoring, your student is compared only to other independent school applicants who tested for the same grade during the past three years. Your student is not compared to students applying to a different grade who are taking the same level of the test. 

As educators, our admission committee is well versed in interpreting an applicant’s score report. In each of the four sections of the score report, subsections of specific concepts are measured. When reviewing a student’s report, the committee takes into consideration the concepts with which an applicant is not as proficient or have not yet been introduced to the student. 

The ISEE is a required part of the Harpeth Hall application, yet is only one aspect of our holistic application review. The admission committee reviews the ISEE within the context of a student’s entire file including her application essay, interview, transcript, teacher recommendation. Harpeth Hall strongly discourages test preparation outside of the ISEE website and accepts only one ISEE score per admission cycle.

ISEE scores are due on or before January 22, 2021. Harpeth Hall discourages any paid test prep prior to taking the ISEE. Please consult the ISEE website for practice tests and tips.

Each year the Admission Office receives more applications than there are spaces available, so we strongly encourage prospective families to apply to more than one school.

Applicants with a complete file are admitted, placed on the wait list, or denied. Students initially placed on the wait list have the option to remain on the wait list until a space becomes available or decline a place on the wait list. Should a space becomes available, the Admission Committee considers all of the students who have chosen to remain on the wait list.

For the 2020-21 school year, there are 719 total students, 304 in the middle school and 415 in the upper school.

In 2000, Harpeth Hall became the first school in Middle Tennessee to initiate a laptop program. The school has a state of the art wireless network, innovative classroom tools, and a variety of software to support this program. Students use school owned laptops and pay a technology fee each year. Harpeth Hall provides need-based financial aid for technology fees.

Middle school tuition is $30,385, and upper school tuition is $30,815. Financial aid is available. Seventeen percent of Harpeth Hall students receive need-based financial aid. For more information on tuition and fees, financial aid and tuition payment plans, visit the Tuition & Financial Aid page.