Northwood School has always been proud of their diverse community. This year is just another example of the impressive school profile.
For the 2024-25 school year, Northwood enrolled 195 students, 147 of whom are boarding students and 48 day students. To support and teach the school’s young minds, there are 40 teachers and coaches, and 10 other faculty and staff. 4 new faculty and staff are joining the community, and two returning faculty members (Mr. Gilligan and Mr. Biesemeyer) became parents over the summer!
This year’s student body is made up of 18 ninth graders in the class of 2028, 39 sophomores in the class of 2027, 57 juniors in the class of 2026, and 81 seniors and post-graduates in the class of 2025. This year takes the cake with the biggest graduating senior class recorded in the history books.
Any current student or Northwood alum can agree that there are many different experiences to choose from and plenty of opportunities to try different things here. As a baseline, 67 students play ice hockey, 53 play soccer, 32 ski race, 15 participate in the adventure sports program, 9 row crew, 8 are Nordic athletes, 6 are freestyle skiers, 5 are dancers, and 3 are figure skaters. Although students choose their co-curriculars for the school year, the opportunity to try different things is never lost.
A particularly uncommon thing about the community this year is that there is an even split between returning students and new. So far, it has been a refreshing and intriguing mix of new faces, and old wisdom. With such a diverse group, a new atmosphere and culture is introduced to the school. 115 students hail from the United States, spanning 23 states, and 78 international students come from 25 different countries. The most students (84) hail from New York, and 34 students are from Canada. This diversity of cultures and experiences provides many new stories and customs to be introduced this school year.
Elenor Mandigo, Assistant to the Admissions Office, says, “This is the biggest new class of students we have had since I have been here, and I have been here for 23 years. The new students do not feel overwhelmed with the fact that they are new. Half the school is going through the same experience for the first time, and you have the support of the kids that were already here.”
Gino Riffle, Director of Admissions, expects that the new-to-returning student ratio will allow returners to take on leadership roles. “It’s as simple as helping a new student find their way around campus, to leading them through a weekend at Northwood, to a late night talk in the dorm over a bowl of ramen or a bag of popcorn,” Riffle said.
Mandigo says that the record-breaking numbers of the student body will not affect how they do admissions in the future. “Next year will still have to be a year where we take a lot of new students, and then it will go back to the way it used to be. We are good at keeping the student body average around the same numbers. In terms of boarding students, we cannot admit more than what we average (147 this year), because we do not have the dorm space. However, we can admit more day students.”
The admissions office typically oversees 280 applications annually. For this school year they conducted 407 interviews, 100 of them alone in January. Elenor Mandigo thinks this shows a bright future for Northwood. “Things are looking good; there are other schools that have closed because they can’t get the students, but we must be getting something right,” Mandigo said.
Northwood School always broadens its horizons with new students, teachers, classes, and experiences. There is no doubt that this school year is one we are all anticipating being invigorating.
