For boarding students, Concord Academy is their home away from home. We have student houses, not dorms. Within our structured residential program, you’ll benefit from supportive house faculty who know and care about you personally, and you’ll enjoy campus life at a family scale.
Student Houses
Students in Smallest House
Students in Largest House
House Faculty
Several house faculty live in each student house and additional affiliates live on campus with their families. It’s not unusual to see students playing with young children or tossing a ball with a teacher’s dog. House faculty check in regularly with students, chat about their days, prepare house food, watch movies with them, and ensure that study hours and “lights out” are observed. These caring adults supervise all aspects of residential life, creating a welcoming, caring, and safe boarding community.
Our student houses feel like family homes because they started out that way. Six large, historic houses lining Main Street contain student rooms, faculty apartments, and beautifully renovated common spaces where our boarding community bonds every day. Each house has a distinct character.
Boarding students come from as far away as Bangkok and as close by as neighboring towns. Students from all grades live together—studying, hanging out, and learning from a diversity of perspectives under one roof. There’s always something keeping students engaged.
On campus, beloved cultural events such as the Lunar New Year celebration and International Harvest Potluck bring boarding and day students together. House faculty also run smaller events for their houses and get students involved in decorating the houses for holidays. House competitions strengthen relationships through fun, low-stakes face-offs: building a tower with marshmallows and toothpicks, crafting clothes from newspapers for a house fashion show, or cooking with a mystery ingredient a la Iron Chef. On Saturday afternoons, laid-back sports opportunities are offered, and on Saturday evenings, house faculty prepare house food, including heritage dishes and delectable desserts.
Boarding students benefit from the school’s proximity to the restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques in downtown Concord, Mass. CA provides plenty of chances for students to get off campus, including rides to HMart and Trader Joe’s, along with activity trips offered by the Student Life Office. And the commuter rail is just a few short blocks from Main Street, providing easy access to museums, theaters, and a full range of cultural destinations in Cambridge, Mass., and Boston.
CA offers options to help boarding students hold themselves accountable as they adjust to working on their own. Study halls are held by grade, and students participate according to need. For students who benefit from it, Academic Work Zone (AWZ) offers one-on-one accountability coaching from a teacher.
When CA boarding students head off to college, they have a head start. They’ve already learned how to manage their time and do their laundry; balance friendships, academics, and activities; and access the resources they’ll need to succeed. Many also gain leadership experience within a residential setting.
In addition to a student house manager, who organizes jobs and stocks the house store with snacks, each house has one elected student head of house. These seniors serve at weekly Boarding Council meetings alongside the head of boarders, vice head of boarders, director of residential life, and assistant head for student life.
Through the Concord Academy Residential Enrichment (CARE) program, new boarding students can request to be paired with a host family, parents of a current student who live locally and enjoy sharing their home and family experiences with a CA boarding student. Boarding students meet their CARE host family at a dinner early in the school year. Throughout the year, they enjoy outings and visits to their host family’s home, plus some treats and surprises. CARE host families also coordinate events in the students’ houses for all boarding students to enjoy—including the occasional Sunday Sundae Extravaganza.
