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We require prospective students to submit either Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT) or Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) scores, as they provide the admissions committee with a standard metric among applicants. We consider test scores within the context of each applicant’s overall application and educational background. Deadline: January 15.

Commonwealth’s SSAT code is 2542, and our ISEE code is 220222. If the SSAT registration fee poses a financial challenge for your family, please don’t hesitate to contact us about a possible fee waiver. Please note that we can only provide fee waivers for the Standard Paper SSAT in the U.S. Unfortunately, we’re unable to provide fee waivers for any ISEE testing.

Unless they attend a school in which English is the primary language of instruction, international applicants should plan to take the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in addition to the SSAT or ISEE.

If students have taken any other standardized tests—MCAS, ERB, MAP, etc.—during middle school, we encourage them to share those results, too.

Commonwealth requires recommendations from three current teachers: English teacher; math teacher; and head of school, principal, guidance counselor, or placement counselor. Commonwealth accepts recommendations through Ravenna. Directions for submission can be found in Ravenna’s application portal. Deadline: January 15.

We ask applicants to complete a transcript release form, which you’ll turn in to your current school. Please note that, as this is a shared form amongst the Boston-area institutions that use Ravenna, it’s only necessary to submit the form to your current school once; simply check off all of the Ravenna schools to which you plan on applying.

Transcripts should include full-year grades for 2023–2024 and partial-year grades for 2024–2025. Many schools will also include grades from 2022–2023, which we gladly accept. School administrators should either upload transcripts to Ravenna or send them directly to Commonwealth by email (admissions@commschool.org). Deadline: January 15.

To help us get to know applicants better, we ask that you respond to a few short-answer questions about your background, extracurricular activities and interests, and school search. Applicants should complete the student questionnaire in Ravenna without any assistance from others. We want to hear what you have to say! Deadline: January 15.

We ask applicants to submit an essay that you’ve written during the 2024–2025 school year and that meets the following requirements:

• It should come from an English, history, or social studies class.
• It can be either a draft or the final version.
• While it doesn’t need to be graded, it should include some kind of teacher feedback in the form of a completed rubric, comments, etc.
• If it’s not possible to submit an essay from this school year, please select a piece of writing from the second semester of the 2023–2024 school year.
• It should be uploaded to your Ravenna account.

Deadline: January 15.

A personal recommendation—from a music instructor, coach, troop leader, past teacher, etc.—will be accepted but isn’t required. Please note that we’ll only consider one personal recommendation per applicant. Please refrain from submitting multiple personal recommendations.

In addition, if you'd like to submit any supplemental materials as part of your application, you’re welcome to do so. This might be a visual art portfolio, a video of a music or theater performance, or a video about a special interest. Please keep in mind that this is completely optional. We only suggest submitting supplemental materials that will highlight your strengths and enable the admissions committee to get to know you better as a candidate.

Both personal recommendations and supplemental materials may be submitted through Ravenna. Deadline: January 15.