SchoolsPrivate schools › King County

The Northwest School

Private school · Seattle, King County · grades 6-12 · Nonsectarian

Snapshot

K-12 enrollment
384
SBE-reported, 2024-25
Student-teacher ratio
7.1:1
NCES PSS, 2021-22
Teachers (FTE)
63
NCES PSS, 2021-22

Identity and approval

Campus
The Northwest School, 1415 Summit Avenue, Seattle 98122
Grades
6-12
Religious affiliation
Nonsectarian
WA SBE approval
2025-26 (state-approved private school)
Profit status
Nonprofit

Enrollment

6789101112
29294051687988

Enrollment by grade, 2024-25 school year, as reported to the WA State Board of Education.

Academics

Washington private schools are not required to publish state assessment results. No public score data exists for this school.

Student demographics

Asian
20%
Black
5%
Hispanic
5%
White
57%

NCES Private School Universe Survey, 2021-22 (the most recent federal collection). Private-school demographics are reported biennially and lag public-school data.

Competition evidence

Known results compiled from public competition listings (National Merit press lists, tournament PDFs, The Blue Alliance). A missing result is not evidence of absence.

Research dossier

The Northwest School

Independent school on Capitol Hill/First Hill, Seattle · grades 6–12 · 384 students (WA SBE, 2024-25; school-reported: 419) · nonsectarian day school with Seattle's only boarding program

The verdict

Most Seattle private schools at this price compete on credentials. The Northwest School charges $51,030 for Upper School in 2026-27 and then refuses to play. There is no Advanced Placement (AP) program and no International Baccalaureate (IB), admissions are test-optional, four years of arts are required, and a graduation requirement called the "Environment" program has every student sweeping floors and hauling trash weekly. It is also the only independent school in the city with boarding (43 boarders and 44 international students on F-1 visas, per the school). The aid design is unusually clean: 21% of families receive assistance averaging $35,398, and the Experience Fund pays 100% of every non-tuition cost for any aid family, from the bus and athletics to books and trips. Aggregators put acceptance between 48% and 60% (unofficial, low confidence), so fit, not scarcity, is the gate. The graduate it manufactures heads to Whitman, Pitzer, Vassar, NYU, or the University of Washington, and that liberal-arts skew is the product, not an accident. Families who need a conventional STEM ladder or a transcript that reads in Advanced Placement terms should think hard; families with an articulate, arts-inclined, self-directed kid may have found the fit.

Researched 2026-07-04. Citations and claim ledger included in the full dossier.

That is the free excerpt. The full dossier covers what the school's own marketing won't: admissions mechanics and real selectivity, all-in cost and aid behavior, matriculation depth, culture and fit signals, institutional health, every claim cited and dated. Unlock it for $9, or get a $29 Research Pass with 3 dossiers included.

The real comparison is against your public options.

Tuition here runs five figures a year, the question is what it buys over the public schools your address already gives you. A $29 Research Pass unlocks score trends, peer percentiles, competition evidence, gifted-pathway detail, and PTA capacity on every public school in the region, plus 3 full research dossiers for the schools on your shortlist.

See pricing

Sources

Weighing private against public?

Get an email when new private-school data or dossiers are published, a few times a season, nothing else.