Northwood School Northwood School 92 Northwood Rd. Lake Placid, NY 12946 p: 518.523.3357 f: 518.523.3405 CEEB: 332760
Michael J. Maher Head of School Noël Carmichael Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs F. David McCauley Jr. Director of College Counseling mccauleyd@northwoodschool.org Tel: 518.302.5119
Student:Faculty Ratio 6:1 with an average class size of 10 Financial Aid Approximately 66% of students receive financial aid. For the 2024-25 school year, $4,100,000 in financial aid was awarded.
school profile 2024-25 Andrea Farrell College Counselor farrella@northwoodschool.org Tel: 518.523.3357
Justin Felhaber ’16 College Counselor felhaberj@northwoodschool.org Tel: 518.523.3357
Simon Shergold College Counselor shergolds@northwoodschool.org Tel: 518.523.3357
Sandra Baker Executive Assistant bakers@northwoodschool.org Tel: 518.302.5111
Northwood School is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) and chartered by the NYS Board of Regents. Northwood School abides by NACAC’s Code of Ethics. Northwood reports all student disciplinary violations where students are separated from campus. All student violations including but not limited to Honor Code violations that occur during the application and college matriculation processes will first be reported to colleges by students and 14 days hence, by the College Office.
MISSION STATEMENT
Northwood School fosters growth in young people so that they may engage their world and lead lives of consequence. THE SCHOOL
Northwood School, founded in 1905, is an independent, coeducational, boarding and day school located in Lake Placid, NY offering a semester-based college preparatory curriculum for students in grades 9 through 12, plus a post-graduate year. By design, the Northwood educational experience is integrated with the Greater Lake Placid Region and the Adirondack Park. Northwood’s student body is comprised of 195 students representing 21 US states and 24 countries. Collectively, students speak more than 40 languages at Northwood. Traditionally 80% of students live on campus with the remainder coming from local communities in the Adirondack Park. The Class of 2025 has 81 seniors including 9 post-graduates. ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Our academic curriculum is based on the traditional, college-prep curriculum, but has intentionally morphed to unique academic options dedicated to place-based educational offerings and Northwood signature programs that align with the school mission to provide student agency and match AP or undergraduate research level of rigor. The Innovation HUB on Main Street in Lake Placid, a 2020 addition to Northwood, is the home to Innovation + Design, Entrepreneurial Studies, Advanced STEM Research, Robotics, and Engineering courses. Consistent with the integrated school and Greater Lake Placid educational experience, Northwood partners with the Lake Placid Center for the Arts (lakeplacidarts.org) for Northwood School productions. Remote courses are allowed to complement students’ curricular options and are mainly taken through APEX, Johns Hopkins CTY and UC Scout. New to Northwood in the 2023-24 academic year is the Peak Pathways (PP) program as well as a Challenge for Honors (CFH) model in many of our classes. The PP provides opportunities for students to pursue self-designed electives down 10 paths designated as independent studies. PP courses are offered to students in Grades 11 and 12, and all students are paired with on and off-campus mentors and supervisors. For the CFH, within select individual courses, students will have the opportunity to take on additional work throughout the year to earn honors credit for the course. The additional work will cover both the breadth and depth of the subject area. GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
Students must complete 24 credits of academic work for graduation, including: Humanities (integrated humanities course, each course is 2 credits/year, equivalent to 1 English and 1 Social Science course, 4 credits); English (2); Social Science (3) including U.S. History; World Languages (2); Art (1); Science with lab (3); Math (3); Electives (4) and Co-Curricular Education (4) which may simultaneously provide credit for Arts or Physical Education. Standard enrollment is five courses per semester. Semester and full-year courses are offered, with semester courses earning .5 credit and year-long courses earning 1 credit. Through the end of the Grade 11 year, all students must complete 8-day immersive L.E.A.P. (Learn, Engage, Apply, Perform) classes, which range from “Architecture of the Great Camps in the Adirondack Park” to programs abroad like the “Ecosystem of Kilimanjaro”. All students in all grades participate in the Northwood seminars throughout the school year. These seminars include a rotating focus on student physical and mental wellness, academic mindsets and study skills, interpersonal and self-management skills and meet NYS requirements for Health and Economics. The seminar is led by Northwood faculty as well as external professionals as appropriate. The seminar is designed to prepare students to engage fully with the Northwood curriculum and to have agency over their academic and personal lives.