| Berkshire School | |
| Seal Image: | Berkshire School seal green.jpg |
| Motto: | Pro Vita Non Pro Schola Discimus |
| Motto Translation: | "Learning — Not just for School, but for Life." |
| Streetaddress: | 245 North Undermountain Road |
| County: | Berkshire |
| Zipcode: | 01257-9672 |
| Country: | USA |
| Coordinates: | 42.1158°N -73.4139°W |
| Schooltype: | Co-ed, Private, Boarding and Day school |
| Founders: | Seaver Burton Buck & Anne Allen Buck |
| Ceeb: | 221900 |
| Head: | Pieter Mulder |
| Faculty: | 91 |
| Grades: | 9-PG |
| Average Class Size: | 12 |
| Ratio: | 4:1 |
| Song: | All Hail to Berkshire |
| Athletics Conference: | New England Prep School Athletic Council, District 4 |
| Nickname: | Bears |
| Sat: | 1870 |
| Newspaper: | Green & Gray |
| Yearbook: | The Trail |
| Fees: | $19.3 million |
| Revenue: | $34.3 million |
| Footnotes: | [1] [2] [3] |
| Head Label: | Head of School |
| Enrollment: | 400 Students; 90% Boarding |
| Enrollment As Of: | 2021 |
| International Students: | 35 countries (2021) |
| Classes Offered: | 144 |
| Campus Size: | 400acres |
| Campus Type: | Rural |
| Colors: | Green and Gray |
| Endowment: | $195 million (as of 6/30/2023) |
| Tuition: | $73,200 (boarding); $55,400 (day) |
Berkshire School is a private, co-educational boarding school located in Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA.
About 87% of Berkshire's 430 students are boarders, while 13% are day students whose families live nearby. The U.S. students hail from 30 states. The 77 international students (18% of the student body) have primary passports from 39 countries. 23% of the students are considered students of color.
As is true of many American boarding schools, Berkshire began as a single sex school, but it has been coeducational since 1969.
In addition to grades 9-12, Berkshire offers a post-graduate year. The ninth grade class (the 3rd form) has about 100 students. Berkshire reportedly accepts about 20% of its 1500 applicants, leading to about 150 new students each year.[4]
Essentially all Berkshire graduates anticipate going on to college. According to the school’s records over the past decade, nearly 90% of every senior class has earned acceptances to colleges and universities that are ranked as "Most Competitive" and "Highly Competitive" colleges and universities by Barron's Profile of American Colleges. As of 2023, there were about 6500 living Berkshire alumni.
71% of the 101 faculty live on campus. 68% have advanced academic degrees. The school maintains a student-to-teacher ratio of 4:1.
Pieter Mulder has been Head of School since 2013. As of 2024, the 34 members of the Board of Trustees were all either parents or alumni of the school.[5]
Berkshire’s academic year is divided into trimesters. The average class size is 12, and the typical course load is 5 classes per trimester. Each student’s course of study is planned in conjunction with his or her advisor and overseen by two academic deans and/or a college counselor.
Advanced courses are offered in all academic subjects. As of 2023, Berkshire had designated 17 classes as “advanced placement,” with an expectation that students would then take the national AP exam. Dependent on student interest, additional AP classes can be offered in such subjects as economics, music theory, and psychology.
Berkshire has Signature programs—such as Advanced Math/Science Research and Advanced Humanities Research—that lead to independent studies projects presented at a spring exhibition. All students are also offered a range of subjects that can be studied during the week-long Pro Vita Winter Session. More than 50 Pro Vita courses are offered. Most of these are on campus, but opportunities in 2024 included a week of studying environmental issues in the Bahamas and learning outdoor leadership skills on a dog sledding trip in northern Minnesota.[6]
Berkshire’s 2023-24 day student tuition was $55,400 with an additional $2,000 in fees. Boarding tuition was $73,200. One quarter of Berkshire’s students receive financial assistance, with an average award of $54,000.
In addition to tuition, 2/3 of Berkshire parents also contribute to the annual fund, which typically nets almost $3 million each year. As of 2023, the overall school endowment was $195 million, or $435,000 per student.
When combined with tuition and large, targeted gifts, these funds pay for the school’s overall operation and the creation and renovation of buildings on campus. In addition, they support student recruitment and financial aid, as well as extracurricular, athletic, and academic opportunities for students and faculty.
Berkshire appears to have also made an explicit, ongoing financial commitment to two challenges of modern life: environmental sustainability and the development of a diverse, accepting global community. The school has invested heavily in projects related to sustainability, with 100% of its electrical needs now being met with renewable resources. Similarly, the school asserts a strong commitment to actively recruiting a global community of students, faculty, and administrators who possess a breadth of identities, genders, perspectives, races, and religions; the curriculum includes perspectives and programming on “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” but the school indicates that DEI issues are central to the school’s sense of purpose and community.[7]
Berkshire School (for boys) was established in 1907 at the foot of Mount Everett, one of the highest mountains in Massachusetts, by Seaver Burton Buck, who led the school until 1943.[8] Buck was reportedly a "Victorian disciplinarian… sometimes subverted by a pixieish manner."[9]
A Boston Globe once commented that Berkshire had "what must be one of the prettiest campuses in Massachusetts, or anywhere."[10]
Berkshire's approximately 425 students participate in a total of 17 team sports. Split into three seasons, the teams are divided evenly between girls' teams and boys' teams, with two teams (mountain biking and freestyle skiing) being coed. In addition to the 32 varsity teams, Berkshire offers 15 junior varsity teams and seven "3rds," which are often teams for students who are new (or relatively new) to that sport.
During the daily time allotted to sports, students can instead participate in such activities as dance, theater, and the Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program.
The sports teams compete in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC), generally against similarly-sized boarding schools in the northeast and New England.[16]
Sporting events are typically held on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.
Berkshire has a variety of multi-purpose courts, fields, and pitches, including the Tom Young Field (baseball and softball), Schappert Field (football), Stewart Pitch (soccer) and Beattie Fields (field hockey, lacrosse, soccer).
The school has two primary sports buildings. The Stewart Athletic Center was named after Jackman Stewart, a longtime Berkshire athletic director who also, at times, served as the school’s dean of students, dean of admissions, and director of development. The Stewart Center features two ice hockey rinks (one Olympic size and one NHL Regulation size), as well as 14 locker rooms, a full athletic training suite, a fitness center, and various conference rooms and offices. One of the ice hockey rinks can be converted into 4 indoor tennis courts. The Athletic Center also hosts campus events such as choral festivals and the school's commencement. The skating facilities are, at times, open to the public.
The Soffer Athletic Center is the school's gymnasium. It features two basketball/volleyball courts, 10 squash courts, a 60-foot climbing wall, a dance studio, as well as exercise areas, locker rooms, and offices.
While Berkshire's teams are part of the broad NEPSAC League, many participate within a smaller subset of that large league. For example, the boys' basketball team participates in NEPSAC as well as smaller showcases, such as the NEPSAC Class A Winter Classic, Zero Gravity Scholar Roundball Classic, Zero Gravity Prep Classic, and the Hoop Hall Prep Showcase.
The baseball team competes in the Western New England Prep Baseball League (WNEPBL). Prior to the season, the varsity and junior varsity teams train in Florida during spring break.
The rowing/crew teams compete within the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA). They train at the Norman White Boathouse in Lakeville, Connecticut in the fall and spring. Over spring break in March, most of the team goes south to train together. On campus, the Stewart Athletic Center houses the school's ten Concept 2 ergometers. In addition to the NEIRA Championships, the team participates in the Head of the Charles regatta.
In the 3 years between 2021 and 2023, 100 Berkshire graduating seniors have signed to play their sport at the collegiate level.[17] [18]