Quick Facts
A Cathedral School
National Cathedral School is the oldest of the institutions constituting the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. Our students and teachers are intimately connected to the Washington National Cathedral and its other institutions on the Cathedral Close by ties that are spiritual, educational, and legal, and by traditions born of long association. The Cathedral is the venue for the weekly NCS Cathedral service and for all major NCS events, from opening services to graduation.
Students have the opportunity to become members of the Whitechapel Guild of Bell Ringers, Cathedral Girls Choristers, and acolytes for Cathedral services.
Facts At A Glance
School Type: National Cathedral School is an independent day school for girls in grades 4-12.
Enrollment: 585 students.
Student/Faculty Ratio: 8 to 1.
Financial Aid: NCS awarded $3.9 million in financial aid to 19% of the student body for 2018-2019.
Campus: NCS is located at the intersection of Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues in northwest Washington, DC, and is situated on the 59-acre Cathedral Close with Beauvoir School and St. Albans School.
Diversity: Students of color constitute 42% of the NCS student body.
Coordinate Program: NCS has a strong coordinate program of classes and extracurricular activities with St. Albans School.
Date Founded: October 1900. NCS is the oldest of the schools on the Cathedral Close and was built before the Cathedral itself.
Mascot: The Eagle.
School colors: Purple and Gold. The colors also serve as centers of school spirit: Upon joining NCS, each student and faculty/staff member is assigned to either the Gold Team or the Purple Team, and this designation will last for a person's entire career at NCS. (Those with older relations already assigned to a team may opt to join that team, too.) The two teams compete over the year for points, and the year's winner is announced at Flag Day.
The School Shield: It unites elements of the shield of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington with those related to Washington, D.C. On top is the Jerusalem Cross, symbol of the kingdom of God and the city of Jerusalem. The five crosses traditionally are said to symbolize the five wounds of Christ. Below are elements from the D.C. flag, which is based on the Washington family coat of arms: a white field with two horizontal red stripes and three red stars. The middle star has been replaced by a crown of five towers, a form that in heraldry indicates a principal city, a capital, or the seat of a bishop.
Accreditation & Memberships
Accreditation:
Memberships:
- National Association of Independent Schools
- National Association of Episcopal Schools
- Mid-Atlantic Episcopal Schools Association
- National Coalition of Girls' Schools
- Association of Independent Schools in Greater Washington
- Association of Independent Maryland & DC Schools
- Council for Advancement and Support of Education
- The College Board
- The National Association for College Admission Counseling
- The Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools
College Matriculation
Graduates from the Classes of 2015-2018 matriculated to the following colleges (bold denotes 3 or more matriculations):
American University
Amherst College
Barnard College
Boston College
Boston University
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
Bucknell University
Carleton College
Christopher Newport University
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
College of William and Mary
College of Wooster
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Denison University
Duke University
Elon University
Emory University
Eugene Lang College: The New School for Liberal Arts
Georgetown University
George Washington University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Hamilton College
Hampton University
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
Juniata College
Kenyon College
King's College London
Lafayette College
Lesley University
McGill University
Middlebury College
New York University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences
Parsons: The New School for Design
Pepperdine University
Princeton University
Purdue University
Rhodes College
Rice University
Rutgers University
Sarah Lawrence College
Sciences Po-Columbia University dual BA program
Sewanee: The University of the South
Skidmore College
Southern Methodist University
Spelman College
St. John's University
St. Olaf College
Stanford University
Syracuse University
Trinity College
Trinity College Dublin-Columbia University dual BA program
Tufts University
Tulane University
University College London
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Colorado
University of Edinburgh
University of Georgia
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of South Carolina
University of Southern California
University of St Andrews
University of Texas
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin
U.S. Military Academy
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest University
Washington and Lee University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Yale University