For families earning $100k or less, a world‑class, all‑girls, NYC private school education is now FREE.
How It Works
One of the Country’s Best Private Schools is Within Reach
We believe that girls deserve a world-class education that inspires them and supports them in reaching their full potential, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.
In keeping with Brearley’s mission to educate students of adventurous intellect and diverse backgrounds, our Free Tuition Program offers families with earnings up to $100,000 per year and without significant assets the opportunity to enroll their daughters at no cost.
Students must go through the regular admission process, and parents must complete a financial aid application. Once a student is accepted and qualifies for this program, Brearley covers their entire tuition, including books, lunch, technology, athletics, grade-level trips, and extracurricular activities. In addition, the school pays for after-school and summer programs, music lessons, and even travel study for Upper School students.
Even for families that do not qualify for the Free Tuition Program, Brearley has a generous, need-based financial aid program.
The message is clear: Brearley is the place for a girl who loves to learn and wants to be challenged, regardless of her family’s ability to pay the tuition.
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The School
Get to Know Brearley
Located on New York City’s Upper East Side, The Brearley School fosters a love of learning, excellence in the liberal arts, and engagement in a lively and inclusive community.
At Brearley, our students learn to challenge assumptions, collaborate with others, and think for themselves. Our rigorous curriculum, crafted by our highly skilled faculty, is rooted in tradition while adapting to the changing needs of today’s world. Classrooms, laboratories, and studios brim with vigor and purpose as students strive for discoveries and reach for insights that will enhance their understanding of everything from electrical currents and game theory to Mandarin, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and the history of the Muslim world. Here, you are part of a warm and welcoming environment for girls who love to learn. Beyond the classroom, students pursue their interests in theater, dance, athletics, the visual arts, music, stagecraft; they join student government, a host of clubs and interest groups, and student-run publications. Most of all, they become part of a supportive and nurturing environment where they are provided with a vast array of opportunities to learn, grow, and develop into women who have the confidence to pursue their ambitions and a commitment to the greater good.
We look forward to getting to know you.
20%Families on Financial Aid
$9.4Million in Financial Aid
100%Student Needs Met with Aid
Alumnae Voices
Listen as they share their experiences of attending Brearley.
Amina Elderfield
Class of 1994
Managing Director, Financial Services
Managing Director, Financial Services
The academic rigor is the hallmark of this place, but it was really about the curiosity and this wonderment the school inspired, and you felt you had with your fellow classmates.
Megan Lui
Class of 2010
Writer
Writer
It's so much more than just an excellent education. It's an education that will not only prepare you for higher education but also for your careers to come and just being a good citizen of the world.
Modupe Akinola
Class of 1992
Business School Professor
Business School Professor
I think it is important to highlight the power of an all-girls education, with everyone who is the same gender raising their hands, being excited, knowing you have things to contribute in a very unique way.
Sue Meng
Class of 1999
Lawyer
Lawyer
Brearley is a place that values the quality of your mind, the nature of your character, more than any of the other things that differentiate us. Those are values I hold to this day.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Brearley School has begun the Free Tuition Program to eliminate cost as a factor for NYC families earning an income of $100,000 or less. We hope that this program will make Brearley affordable to even more families with “girls of adventurous intellect” that desire a world-class education.
Families interested in the Free Tuition Program must complete both Brearley’s admission application process and financial assistance application process. If your daughter is admitted to Brearley, then the financial assistance department will determine your eligibility for the Free Tuition Program.
When determining eligibility for the Free Tuition Program, we will take into consideration total household income and assets.
Families applying for assistance must complete an annual application through Clarity, a third-party financial aid platform. While each school has its own criteria, Clarity equips the committee with the tools necessary to conduct an equitable and consistent review process.
The Free Tuition Program will cover 100% of your daughter’s Brearley School tuition, which is $66,800 for the 2025-2026 school year. This tuition includes lunch and snacks, technological devices, athletics, extracurricular activities, and books.
A family may want their child to participate in optional add-on activities such as private music lessons, school-sponsored extracurricular activities, a Travel Study program, and much more. The Free Tuition Program will cover 100% of the cost of these additional activities.Families whose incomes increase beyond $100,000 become part of the general financial aid process. Families in the general financial aid group receive financial aid grants up to 99% of the full tuition. A family’s financial aid grant is calculated using Clarity and takes into account factors such as income, assets, family size, and number of children in tuition-charging schools.
Brearley funds a family’s full demonstrated need as calculated by Clarity and Brearley’s family need analysis.
The School will also periodically review the income limit of the Free Tuition Program.
All families that receive financial assistance from Brearley, including those in the Free Tuition Program, will need to complete the financial assistance application process each year.
Yes. For the 2024-2025 school year, 75% percent of Brearley’s financial assistance recipients had total household incomes of over $100,000. The percentage of financial assistance given to these families ranged from 99% to 40% of tuition, depending on several factors such as income, assets, family size, and number of children attending a tuition-charging school (ex., an independent school, parochial school, or college/university).
For more information on completing the financial assistance process for families earning more than $100,000 in income, please visit our Affording Brearley page.
For questions about the Free Tuition Program, you can email the Office of Financial Assistance at financialaid@brearley.org.