Hopkins School

Hopkins is no doubt one of the best college-prep schools in the nation. It provides an accelerated curriculum for its academically gifted students. Extra help is always available for those who are confused about a subject. While it is academically demanding, you never have to worry about social status. It is an extremely friendly environment. Swearing, bullying, or anything along those lines is absolutely not tolerated. It is not common anyways, since all students are hand-picked by the admissions committee to be "hopeful youths." There are no "cool kids" or "unpopular kids". Everyone is equal in social status. It was ranked #19 on Forbes Top college Prep schools, but I believe it deserves a much higher ranking. Its campus is absolutely gorgeous, located on a field overlooking the entire New Haven. The average class size is extremely small, just over ten students, so each teacher can focus on every student's strengths and weaknesses. Like the students, teachers are all hand picked to provide the best education. Still though, its courses are ultimately challenging. If you cannot adjust to having up to seven hours of homework a night, Don't apply.
--Submitted by a parent

Hopkins is one of the most academically rigorous schools in the country, and, no doubt, the best college preparatory school in CT, and maybe even in the country. (Was #19 on Forbes' Top Prep Schools List, beating out schools like Deerfield, Choate, Kent, Hotchkiss, etc.) The campus is gorgeous (the outdated building has since been replaced with Thompson Hall), the athletics program is top par, and while, yes, there are a few stinkers, the teachers are great. I assume most negative reviews are from kids and/or parents who could not keep up academically. A very competitive school strictly for the overachiever. Can't skate by on money or legacy here! A great school for any kid who wants an academically rigorous and challenging environment, as well as amazing college placement.

I liked the close-knit student body, the small class sizes and the personalized attention at Hopkins. The campus is great and not in a bad part of New Haven. The student body was driven but diverse

Hopkins is a small private school in New Haven, CT which is in the Westville section. The students here come from all over, mainly the shoreline of CT. The academics are on par with private high schools. Some of the facilities seem outdated. It is easy to get lost here if you are are not super competitive. Not a great fit for everyone.

small classes, academically challenging, beautiful facilities, lots of respect among a wide variety of gifted students, caring faculty and staff.
--Submitted by a parent

Definitely geared for students who are gifted and still prepared to work hard, athletics and the arts take a backseat. That said, the fencing, swimming, and football teams have produced a number of collegiate stars and a few students in my daughter's year went on to art schools. Some of the new faculty each year are not up to snuff, but the students do not tolerate incompetence and indirectly weed out the weakest links. The school forces students to build up a considerable work ethic- graduates often find the workload in freshman year of college easy by comparison.
--Submitted by a parent

After 4 years at Hopkins, the college placement was not great. The kids in my public school did better with similar grades. Alot of work and was it worth it in the end? The discipline also was an issue, for drinking especially. The athletics were ok , though. Consider Choate, Taft, Chase or public school instead. Also did not like the neighborhoods we had to go through to get to Hopkins, New Haven is really not safe (just look at how much crime Yale has).
--Submitted by a student

Hopkins is one of the best schools I've seen. It has a rigorous academic program designed to help the best succeed. A necessary corollary of this is that if you are one of the great majority that is not in the top few percent, the academics are tough. There is, however, an exemplary system in place to keep the bottom levels from completely collapsing. Howard Roark would be proud.
--Submitted by a student

I mostly want to respond to the reviewer who thought Hopkins is in a 'terrible neighborhood', 'rough neighborhood surround'. That is a bizarre description of the part of Westville in which Hopkins is located. The surrounding streets consist exclusively of single-family homes selling in the $200-300K range. About 3 blocks away, you can find some single families in the $150K+ range mixed in with more expensive houses. About 1 mile away, you start to get some small multifamily bldngs with section 8 housing. If that's your definition of 'rough neighborhood' you must breath a very thin air indeed in your suburb! The school is academically excellent for ambitious, hard-working kids; not so good for kids needing academic support or just not interested in a highly competitive environment. Lots of great faculty, probably a few stinkers (our kid never had one, but I suppose there are some).
--Submitted by a parent

Hopkins does not provide athletic scholarships as none of the student athletes are on athletic scholarship (In response to the misinformed post from November 2008). The school is great but does lack some diversity. They have an updated athletic center and many updated academic facilities, with plans for more development of the giant campus. Best private school in Southern, CT.
--Submitted by a student