Peddie School


The Peddie School is a non-denominational, coeducational college preparatory school located on a campus in Hightstown, New Jersey, United States that serves boarding and day students in the ninth through twelfth grades, as well as post-graduates. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1928.
As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 516 students and 71.8 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 7.2:1. For the 2023–24 school year, the school had an acceptance rate of 22%. Peddie had 62% of students in residence. The student body represented 26 states as well as 29 foreign countries. Peddie had an average class size of 12.
James Hamilton became head of school in July 2025. He succeeded Peter Quinn, who had been in the position for more than a decade.

History

The Peddie School was founded in 1864 as the Hightstown Female Seminary, an American Baptist school. Later that year, boys were admitted and it changed its name for the first time, to New Jersey Classical and Scientific Institute. In 1872, it became the Peddie Institute in honor of philanthropist and politician Thomas B. Peddie, who gave the school $25,000. In 1923, the school was formally renamed the Peddie School.
Peddie remained coeducational until 1908, when, for social and economic reasons, it decided to begin admitting only boys. This decision was reversed in 1970 when girls began to be admitted again. The following year, Peddie's first female African-American student enrolled in the fall term.
Beginning in the 1930s, Peddie began to attract students from other countries including China and Central America. As of 2022, 21% of Peddie's students identified as international, with top countries including China, South Korea, and Canada.
In 1983, Walter Annenberg, class of 1927, made a gift of $12 million to Peddie, the largest donation to a secondary school at the time. Ten years later in 1993, Ambassador Annenberg topped his gift when he made the groundbreaking donation of $100 million, allowing it to expand its facilities, financial aid, and teachers' compensation and housing; prior to the Annenberg donation, the school's endowment totaled $17 million.
As of 2022, Peddie's endowment remains at over $450 million.
It is a member of Mid-Atlantic Boarding School Group.

Headmasters

Heads of school include:
  • Edgar and Edwin Haas
  • Hiram A. Pratt
  • Laroy F. Griffin
  • E. P. Bond
  • E. J. Avery
  • John Greene
  • Herbert Ellsworth Slaught
  • Joseph E. Perry
  • Roger W. Swetland
  • Wilbour E. Saunders
  • Carrol O. Morong
  • Albert L. Kerr
  • F. Edward Potter Jr.
  • Anne L. Seltzer
  • Thomas A. Degray
  • John F. Green
  • Peter A. Quinn
  • James A. Hamilton

Academics

Peddie uses a trimester program, in which the academic year is divided into Fall, Winter, and Spring terms that each consist of roughly 10 weeks. Classes run from Monday to Friday with Saturday classes every other week.
Many courses offered at Peddie are full-year courses, running from Fall to Spring term. Many electives run for one to two terms, allowing students to take multiple different courses throughout the year. The majority of students take five courses each term. A select few students take six or seven courses at a time. Students at Peddie are required to take multiple courses in English, foreign language, mathematics, history, social science, laboratory science, art, and music. Additionally, Peddie students are required to participate in after-school activities throughout the year, including sports, theater productions, volunteer opportunities, and clubs. Students can request to have a course formed if they have a faculty representative and have demonstrated interest in the subject.
Peddie offers 34 subjects for Advanced Placement. In the 2020-2021 school year, 124 students participated in AP classes and exams. The average score on AP exams for a Peddie student is 4.4; 94% of Peddie students scored above a 3 on their AP exams.

Signature Experience

Peddie offers a signature experience to all students that allows them to conduct research in subjects including STEM, English, Language, history, writing, and the arts. Students begin to design their program during their sophomore year, with them conducting research and traveling during the summer between their junior and senior years. Many students focused on STEM conduct research in large, university labs, including University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University. Each year, students who participate in STEM-EXP present their research to students in a research fair during their senior year.

Athletics

All students must participate in theater, be on an interscholastic team, or be in one of the elective physical-education classes after school.
The Ian H. Graham Athletic Center houses a swimming pool; three basketball courts ; a wrestling room; an indoor soccer and lacrosse facility with Astroturf, a 2,000 square-foot fitness center; a room housing thirty ergometers; and a 6-bed training room and sports-medicine center. Outdoor facilities include fourteen tennis courts, eight multipurpose fields, a specially equipped varsity football and lacrosse training field, a softball field, an Olympic-caliber ¼-mile all-weather track, a varsity football and lacrosse field, three baseball fields. The Hovnanian Fields added another six fields, which are used seasonally by the freshmen and junior varsity soccer and lacrosse teams.
The Athletic Center holds a replica of the Heisman Trophy donated to the school by Yale University lineman Larry Kelley, who won it in 1936, the second year in which it was given.
Peddie has its own 18-hole golf course, where the boys' and girls' golf teams compete. The course is a private facility of the Peddie Golf Club, but students and faculty have free access to the greens.
The school competes in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, a sports league with participating institutions from preparatory schools in the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania area.
Peddie competes in the "Prep A" division of the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association, with The Lawrenceville School, Hun School of Princeton, Blair Academy, Saint Benedict's Preparatory School and other New Jersey preparatory schools depending on the sport. Peddie has graduates competing at the collegiate level in swimming, wrestling, basketball, track, crew, baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, golf, and tennis. The school mascot is the falcon.
The girls track team won the New Jersey indoor track Non-Public/Prep state championship in 1928 and 1929.

Football rivalry

Peddie's rival is Blair Academy, and the two schools compete every year during the second week of November for the Potter-Kelley Cup. The day of the football competition, which alternates yearly between campuses, is known as Blair Day at Peddie. The game between the two schools is the List of [high school football rivalries (100 years+)|oldest football rivalry] in New Jersey and ranks among the oldest in the country.

Crew

Peddie's crew team was first recognized on the national stage in 1993, when the men's midweight 4+ won a Youth National Championship title in Occaquan, VA. This feat was nearly repeated three years later, with Peddie coming in second in the same event by less than half a second. In 2006, the Peddie Girls' Varsity Four won the United States Youth National Championship, a regatta hosting the strongest club and scholastic teams in the nation. They won again in 2007, defending their U.S. Youth National Regatta title. In 2008, Peddie's Girls' Varsity Four placed third in their division at the Head of the Charles Regatta and returned to the Youth National in Ohio, placing second. The men's varsity four also traveled to Ohio, placing twelve in the Varsity Lightweight Four event. In 2009 the girls and boys returned to the National Championships. The girls regained their first place position, and the men placed sixth in the Petite Final of the Heavyweight Varsity Four. The women then continued on to the Henley Women's Regatta in England, setting a course record on their way to the final and eventually placing second.

Swimming

Peddie's swimming program has and continues to be nationally ranked. The boys swimming team won the New Jersey Non-Public state championship in 1951. Peddie School swimmers have represented their nations in every Olympics since 1992. The team has won the Swimming World Mythical National Championships eight times, including the inaugural boys' and girls' independent-school titles in 1977 and 1982. The teams of the early 1990s won back-to-back boys' and girls' Mythical titles in 1990 and 1991. The 1994-95 team was the only team ever to lead the nation in all six relays. In 2007 both the girls' and boys' teams claimed first place at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships held at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 2007 championships, Peddie broke three national independent-school records in the girls' relay events. In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 the Peddie's boys swim team won the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships, continuing their success.

Basketball

In 2010, the girls' basketball team won the ESPN National High School Invitational, defeating Oak Hill Academy by a score of 60-44 in the tournament final and finishing the season with a 25-2 record. From 2000-2010 the girls' basketball program has been ranked one of the top 25 teams in the country seven times. During this same time period, three McDonald's All-Americans played for the Falcons including: Crystal Goring '05, Bridgette Mitchell '06 and Haley Peters '10.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty