Beginning in 2027, Deerfield Academy will begin transitioning to a full boarding school, requiring all future students to live on campus.
Faculty children are exempt from the policy and may choose not to board.
The policy shift, explained Associate Head of School for Student Life Amie Creagh, aims to “enfold the full student body into the vibrant residential life of the school.”
According to Ms. Creagh, one aim of the decision is to maximize student involvement in campus activities. Scheduled daytime activities remain highly integrated for boarding and day students. However, Dean of Residential Life Lina Samawi noted that commuting constraints often cause day students to miss vital moments of the residential community such as “brushy washy,” or spontaneous moments such as inviting a friend to the gym in the morning.
These gaps in after-school hours can create a distinct social hurdle for local families, certain day students share.
“At first it was difficult to adjust to an environment where everyone was spending all their time together, and I was outside of that,” said Willa Anhalt ’28, a day student who entered Deerfield as a sophomore. “What really helped me to feel more integrated was joining clubs and getting involved with co-curriculars while trying to meet all the girls in the dorm I was associated with. Now I definitely feel more comfortable and like I have a real place at Deerfield.”
Rooted in the Academy’s core value of a “shared experience,” explained Ms. Samawi, the adjustments also aimed to ensure everyone has the same residential-life experience. “It’s not like if you live in this place, it’s one experience, and if you live in another place, it’s another; but really, just by virtue of being a Deerfield Academy student, you are part of the shared experience of an exceptional residential life program,” she said.
Despite the transition, current day students will remain day students until they graduate, and employee children will remain day students regardless of where they live.
The Student Life Office is actively seeking student feedback to ensure this cohort feels deeply connected to campus life. They established two Student Advisory Groups, the West Campus Advisory Group and the Day Student Experience Advisory Group, which meet several times throughout the year to discuss initiatives for the new dorm and boarding transition.
“Hopefully they feel that we truly care about them; and usually, if [a student] is a part of something that is new, [they are] more likely invested in the outcome that comes of it,” added Ms. Samawi.
To accommodate the growing residential population, the Academy reconfigured the underclassmen housing. To avoid constraining the admissions pool for future classes, the ninth-grade village will expand beyond Johnson-Doubleday to include John Louis, a current sophomore girls’ dorm.
John Louis will be repurposed into a coeducational dorm. To maintain the shared residential experience during the expansion, students in John Louis will live in double rooms instead of singles, consistent with freshman housing in Johnson-Doubleday.
A new West Campus Dorm next to Barton is currently under construction and will see completion by the start of the 2027 or 2028 school year.
At the same time, behind the scenes, the Admission Office is ensuring that enrollment priorities are met without turning away robust candidate pools. They have been actively communicating the policy shift to local schools such as Bement and Eaglebrook and to families since last spring.
“Deerfield has the wonderful luxury of [having] lots of kids who want to come here, and [for admissions] to turn away wonderful young people because the building won’t fit them … felt like a compromise,” said Ms. Creagh.
Looking to the future, Ms. Creagh and Ms. Samawi emphasized that while this policy is a long-term commitment, the Academy will remain adaptable.
Eighteen years ago, Ms. Creagh noted, Deerfield had made the decision to construct the underclassmen village, which has undergone further changes since. They view the shift not as a rigid final step, but as part of Deerfield’s ongoing mission to best serve the student body.
“We wouldn’t undertake it if we didn’t think it was a long-term solution … or a long-term benefit to [Deerfield] students,” said Ms. Creagh.
As the Academy moves toward full-residential in the fall of 2027, the Student Life Office remains cognizant of areas for improvement. They plan to constantly evaluate the program’s impact by remaining reflective and actively seeking areas of improvement. Ms. Samawi expressed her outlook on the transition, saying that the Academy “[has] real confidence in this model.”