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Admissions for Fall 2025
Thank you for your interest in the School of Los Angeles! We are always striving to make our application process as intuitive and accessible as possible for all families.
To that end, SLA uses the Ravenna platform to facilitate the entire admissions season: You can sign up for campus tours and our fall Open House, track key deadlines and application steps, and opt into opportunities to meet current parents and community members.
To inquire, register for a campus tour, and get started on an application, please click the “Let’s Get Started” button below. Feel free to reach out to admissions@school.la if you have any questions or would like assistance registering for a tour or event.
Key Dates and Deadlines
January 10, 2025, at 11:59 p.m.
Deadline for Application & all Supporting Materials.
Tuition Assistance Application Deadline. Read more and get started here.
March 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m.
Admission decision notification for all grades.
March 21, 2025, at 12:00 p.m.
Admission decision reply deadline for all grades.
SLA does not require any standardized testing in the application process.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact admissions@school.la.
“We were drawn to SLA because of its true community feel, its young and energetic leadership and, perhaps most importantly to us, its deep commitment to creating a diverse group of students who learn from each other’s experiences. Our daughter has been so happy there.”
Tour & Open House Dates
Open House:
Saturday, October 26 - 12:00–2:00 p.m.
Fall Semester Tour Schedule:
Tuesday, September 24 - 1:10–2:10 p.m.
Tuesday, October 1 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, October 10 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, October 24 - 1:10–2:10 p.m.
Thursday, November 7 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, November 14 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, November 21 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, December 5 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
Thursday, December 12 - 12:40–1:40 p.m.
“My child thrived academically, engaged in leadership opportunities after years of quiet participation, and became an athlete. At SLA he was surrounded by music and art, introduced to Dante, and asked to do more than produce “good grades.” SLA is a beacon of light.”
“SLA is truly a school where students are seen as full individuals, embraced as their unique selves, and supported to learn, shine, and engage deeply with one another. If you are looking for a place where both individuality and commitment to community is celebrated, SLA is your place.”
Why SLA?
At SLA, over 40% of our overall tuition revenue is funded by need-based scholarships—an enormous, nearly unparalleled commitment to aid and access in the independent school world. Our families reflect the vibrancy of our neighborhood and our city—small business owners, studio executives, wage workers, Latinx, Korean-American, Black, and white. In a seminar of fourteen—our average class size—it is often the case that no two students will approach the issue at hand from the same socioeconomic and cultural background.
Our students lead the way in bringing our mission to life. They prove again and again, through their curiosity and their courage, innumerable versions of that simple truth we abide: A transformative conversation about immigration policy in the US has to include the voices of DREAMers or the children of immigrants. A transformative conversation about gender and sexual diversity has to include the voices of the LGBTQ+ community. The absolute best resource our students have is one another. Everyone has much to give, and much to learn.
Pathbreaking Curricula
It’s no secret that, over the past decades, there has been a widening gulf between high school curricula and the concepts and disciplines students are asked to contend with almost immediately at the college level. SLA’s semester-based offerings model the content, depth, breadth, exploratory demands, and structure of a university course of study. Each semester, SLA students in grades 10–12 select a pairing of literature and history courses from a broad array of disciplines, including Queer Studies, Environmental Studies, and European Studies. Along with STEM courses in some of the most consequential disciplines in the contemporary world—including ecology, epidemiology, and coding— as well as cutting-edge arts offerings, an SLA course of study stands out from the crowd and reflects our commitment to a truly substantive college-preparatory education.
Communal Meals
At SLA no one has to worry about packing a lunch; all of the food is provided by the school and prepared by the incomparable SLA Kitchen. Breakfast, lunch, and an after school snack are provided every day to students at absolutely no additional cost to families. In a city where food scarcity is very real, this is a fundamental aspect of the School’s mission and ethos: every student has equal access to all school resources and everything they need to thrive. Lunch is eaten communally with students, faculty, and staff all having a meal together, sharing a table and breaking bread. It is a time to celebrate life’s simplest pleasures: good food and good company.
Experiential Learning
SLA students are empowered to see the city as their classroom, to see its residents as their neighbors, and to make a deep, sustained commitment to their community. Programming endeavors, most notably City Week, ground our curriculum in the city of Los Angeles and give students the opportunity to have transformative experiences on and off campus.
Our campus is located on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Lillian Way, easily accessible via multiple forms of public transportation, which many of our students use to travel to and from school each day—and we have access to the entire neighborhood for academics, arts, athletics, and service. Both inside and outside the classroom, we want our students to feel connected to every aspect of the city they inhabit.
The Extended Day
Building a truly supportive, engaged community requires a holistic approach. Our students hail from neighborhoods all across the city; we want to make sure the conversations and relationships that begin in the classroom will flourish outside of them. That’s why our faculty, facilities, support staff, and school programming are available to each of our students every weekday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., well beyond normal class hours—and at no additional cost to families. Our campus is not just a set of classrooms, and not just a laboratory, an art studio, a theater, a kitchen, a media center, and an office space—it is also a home away from home.
The Arts in Action
SLA’s visual and performing arts opportunities mirror the study and craft of working artists in Los Angeles. The music program emphasizes performance in small bands and includes cutting-edge courses in beatmaking and music production. Theater students stage original works and perform in black boxes along Hollywood’s historic Theatre Row. Film, photography, and broadcast journalism classes connect students to the past, present, and future of media production. Students learn to bring a critical lens to the art and culture that surrounds them at the same time as they develop their creative capacities and pursue opportunities available at the epicenter of the entertainment industry.
A One-of-a-Kind Service & Justice Program
Giving of ourselves and unto others is both a pedagogical practice and a means of creating more sustainable and just living conditions for everyone. SLA’s Service and Justice Program focuses on the social transformation of our students as they develop a social consciousness together. Students form cohorts engaged in different urgent contemporary issues and follow a “research, act, and reflect” model, bringing guests to campus who are organizing and making an impact in Los Angeles, then venturing off campus and into the city together to engage directly with movement work, and finally reconvening to synthesize their experiences.
