Hamden Hall enrolls approximately 650 students in grades PreSchool through twelve, with an average senior class size of 85 students. Upper School classes meet 225 minutes per week, 35 weeks per year, and homework exceeds three hours per night. Average class size is thirteen students; student-faculty ratio is 7-1. Participation in a full range of extracurricular activities is expected of every student. Generally, 99% of graduates enter selective four-year colleges.

All students are expected to abide by the Honor Code. In addition, they strive to embody the five core values of Excellence, Support, Participation, Accountability, and Respect.

Hamden Hall is a member of Global Online Academy, a consortium of the world’s leading independent schools whose mission is to translate into online classrooms the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are hallmarks of its member schools. Thirty Hamden Hall students will undertake 20 different courses from among GOA’s offerings in the 2024-25 academic year. All GOA courses are considered to be honors level.

“Princeton Peer Leadership” is an Honors-level, full-year academic course in leadership training which entails rigorous writing, planning, presentation and evaluation components as well as group leadership and programming for the freshman class. The faculty instructors select six male and six female seniors based on their demonstrated leadership, their potential as role models, and their diversity as representatives of the entire school community. For over 30 years, Hamden Hall has benefited from the dedicated service of our Freshman Mentors as highly visible role models to younger students and builders of our school community.


Human Rights, Equity, and Health is a required course for all sophomores. It is designed to increase students’ awareness and knowledge of human rights, social justice, and economic justice, both nationally and internationally, and their interrelationship with individual and community health and wellness. The course pays close attention to issues of public health and environmental concerns, and students explore how social justice and injustice exist in institutions and the broader global society.
Hamden Hall boasts a vibrant visual and performing arts program, a testament to student commitment to extracurriculars. A quarter of upper school students qualify as Thespians, having taken part in three or more theater productions, and an equal amount are members of the choir and orchestras and bands. Over the past several years, the majority of chorus members have earned regional and state recognition, and several have been recognized at the national level.

SID is an extracurricular, interdisciplinary program that encourages highly motivated and intellectually curious students to excel as they develop a panoply of skills in scientific research, technology, public speaking, and more as they pursue and study research topics of their own choosing.

Hamden Hall students compete on 20 Varsity teams, as well as a number of JV and club teams. Hamden Hall teams regularly compete in league and New England tournaments, and Football, Girls Soccer, Girls Basketball, Boys and Girls Swimming, Boys Ice Hockey, Boys Lacrosse, Baseball, and Golf all boast titles during the past three years. In addition, more than ten percent of seniors go on to play sports in college each year.