Admissions FAQs

Sun Valley Community School is located on three different campuses in the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley, Idaho.

• The pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade academic campus, referred to as the Trail Creek Campus, is located at One Community School Drive in Sun Valley, Idaho.
• Our playing fields and Air Barn are located at the Dumke Family Sagewillow Campus at 100 Arrowleaf Road in Sun Valley, Idaho.
• The school's Rufus M. Brown Hall, which houses the boarding program, the Julia Argyros Athletes' Training Center, and a campus hub, is located at 280 Northwood Way, Ketchum, Idaho.

On a visit to Sun Valley Community School, you will be matched with a student ambassador for the day and spend a "day-in-the-life" of one of our students. We hope that your time on our campus will allow you to get to know our school and our students, to meet faculty, and to understand if this is the right place for you.

As you plan your visit, the Admissions Office will be in touch with you to provide a specific schedule and more details for your day. Please note: There is no dress code at Sun Valley Community School. Attire for visit day at our school is casual; students at our school wear comfortable, informal clothes.

The deadline for submitting an application for the 2020-21 school year is February 19, 2021.  If you apply after the application deadline, we continue to accept applications on a rolling admissions basis. 

Yes. Sun Valley Community School has a need-based tuition assistance policy. For a school our size, we award a substantial amount of tuition assistance each year. We believe in offering as many qualified students as possible the opportunity to enroll regardless of their financial circumstances. Although our initial admission decisions are made independent of a family's financial situation, we do have a finite budget for Tuition Assistance annually.

It is important to remember that an independent school education is a choice for families. Both the school and the families make significant financial sacrifices to support this choice. We review each application for tuition assistance by the same guidelines and evaluate individual family needs relative to others in our school. For more information, visit the Tuition Assistance page.

One hundred percent of Sun Valley Community School students apply and are accepted for admission to college. Our two full-time College Counselors work closely with juniors and seniors and help over 70% of our seniors gain acceptance to their first or second choice colleges across the country and world. For a full listing of college acceptances in the last four years, visit our College Counseling page.

Because Sun Valley is a destination resort, our applicants come from many different regions within the United States and from foreign countries. While the majority of our applicants currently live in the Wood River Valley (which consists of Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, and Bellevue), every year we have families who apply from all around the United States and the world.

Since the introduction of our Boarding Program in 2011, we have welcomed international students from Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan, as well as from Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Alaska.

Admission decisions will be communicated in late March.

Decisions to admit, wait pool, or deny applicants are heavily dependent on the pool of students applying. Our primary goal is to admit students we feel will be successful at our school. In making these decisions we consider a variety of factors such as academic ability, attitude, character, talents, interests in both academic and non-academic areas, and most importantly, the desire of the student and family to be at our school and to support our mission. We also take into consideration the personality and academic makeup of the current class and gender balance.

We maintain a wait pool instead of a waitlist. If an opening occurs, we will carefully look at the current class makeup and determine what student from the wait pool will bring the best balance to that given class. Because openings can occur suddenly, acceptances can be made up until the first day of school in late August.

Yes. Applicants who are wait pooled or denied admission may reapply in following years. You should contact the Admission Office to see what forms will need to be resubmitted. It can vary by grade but in general, you will always need to update the teacher recommendation forms and submit your child’s most recent grades.

Yes, if we feel that the student can manage our program with the accommodations that we offer. All applicants, regardless of special learning needs, will be considered in the review process. We have learning specialists in all three divisions of our school and there is a separate learning specialist fee if your child is admitted into this program.