School Profile
School Profile
School Profile 2023-2024
[CEEB Code: 070765]
Suffield Academy, founded in 1833, is an independent, nondenominational, coeducational secondary school enrolling students in grades 9-12 and postgraduate years. Suffield serves a diverse student body of boarding and day students from across the United States and from many foreign countries.
Our Mission
The school is grounded in a tradition of academic excellence combined with a strong work ethic; respect for individual differences and a commitment to scholarship guide our curriculum and our pedagogy. We engender among our students a sense of responsibility and challenge them to grow in a school community which is both structured and nurturing. We expect our students to emerge from their Suffield experience prepared for a lifetime of learning and active citizenship.
Highlights of Suffield Academy:
• 409 total students (65% boarding)
• 25% international students
• 15 represented states
• 22 represented countries
• 109 members in the Class of 2024
• 271 colleges and universities were applied to by the Class of 2023
• 100% of the class will go on to attend a four-year institution
• May 2023 AP Exams: 149 students, 265 AP exams, 15 subjects
• 10:1 average student to faculty ratio
Leadership Program
Every student participates in our formalized Leadership Program that offers students at each grade level specific skills that will enable them to be effective leaders. The curriculum emphasizes public speaking, interpersonal skills, goal-setting, group dynamics, and problem-solving. Ninth and tenth grade students have class meetings twice a week and eleventh grade students meet once each week. Upperclassmen are selected each year to work as Teaching Assistants who help develop lesson plans, lead group discussions, and serve as important role models.Each Suffield senior has at least one formal leadership role on campus—they are all invested in leading the school. Each senior also presents a personal speech to our community as a capstone to his/her leadership experience at Suffield.
Curriculum
Suffield Academy is on a ten-week trimester system utilizing a modified block schedule. Terms end in November, March, and June, with first term grades available around December 1. Each student must take a minimum of four courses each term; the typical course load for most students is five.
Graduation Requirements
Students must complete 18 credits to earn a diploma, including credits in: English [4]; Math [4]; Language, through level II [2]; Science [2]; History, including U.S. History and Regional Studies [2]; and Arts [1]. In addition to these course credits, students must earn credits in Leadership each year.
COVID-19 Response
In response to the COVID-19 health crisis, Suffield Academy closed its campus in March of 2020 and moved our spring trimester online, where students and faculty engaged in virtual distance learning for the remainder of the academic year. Our virtual curriculum maintained the rigor and scholarship long associated with our school. A Pass/Fail grading system was instituted for the spring trimester to acknowledge the different environments our students found themselves in as they pursued remote learning. Committed to equity and access,Suffield Academy worked to ensure that no students were unduly penalized for those situations. Our counselor recommendations will reflectanything remarkable for the spring 2020 trimester. For the 2020-2021 year, Suffield used a hybrid model including remote and in-person learning periods. Our grading scale returned to our traditional model.
AP and Honors Courses
Suffield offers a number of courses at the Honors or AP level. Courses with an asterisk [*] indicate that the students in the course may sit for the corresponding AP exam, even though the course itself does not have an AP designation. Though AP offerings may vary from year to year, Suffield typically offers 14 courses in preparation for AP exams in the corresponding discipline—not all of those courses are officially designated as AP. There are few honors courses offered in Grade 9—primarily only English and math.
Advanced Course Offerings
In the world of highly selective college admission, Suffield Academy recognizes that each student is evaluated on the rigor of their curricular undertaking. In an effort to help you gauge our students’ course load, we have included this listing ofAP and Honors courses typically offered in our core curriculum:
Mathematics
Honors Geometry
Honors Algebra II
Honors PreCalculus [becomes AP PreCalculus in Fall 2023]
Honors Calculus
Honors Calculus II
AP Statistics / Statistics Exam
AP Calculus I: AB / Calculus AB Exam
AP Calculus II: BC / Calculus BC Exam
Honors Multivariable Calculus
Honors Linear Algebra
Science
Honors Biology
Honors Chemistry
Honors Physics
Advanced Anatomy & Physiology
Honors Biotechnology
Honors Research Methods
Honors Environmental Science
AP Biology / Biology Exam
AP Chemistry / Chemistry Exam
AP Physics C: E & M / Physics E & M Exam
AP Physics C: Mechanics / Physics C Exam
English
Honors English I
AP Language [Honors English II]
AP Literature [Honors English III]
Honors English IV
History
Honors U.S. History
Honors Area Studies
AP U.S. History / U.S. History Exam
Honors Philosophy
AP Government & Politics / U.S. Government & Politics Exam
AP Economics / Macro & Micro Exams
Languages
Honors French V* / French Language Exam
Honors Spanish II; III; V
Honors Spanish IV* / Spanish Language Exam
Technology
Honors Introduction to Computer Science / Computer Science Principles Exam
AP Computer Science / Computer Science A Exam [offered alternate years]
GPA Distribution
Suffield Academy does not publish a student’s cumulative GPA or class rank. Instead, we provide the graph below for your reference. Grades from other schools are not a factor in calculating grade point averages.
