Cate School

The School opened by enrolling twelve boys in grades 7 to 12. Over time, Cate became a coeducational high school and grew to its current enrollment of 265 young men and women from 23 states and 15 countries. Today’s campus with its science and computer labs, art and music studios, extensive athletic facilities, and wireless internet is a far cry from the School’s early days without electricity, heat or hot water. Cate turned 100 years old, but beneath the physical changes, it is still very much the same place in vision and spirit.

Throughout its curriculum and residential life, Cate remains true to Mr. Cate’s ideal of a supportive community with outstanding faculty where, in his words, students know “something of the pleasure of work and the joy of accomplishment.” It is a place where character building, as one faculty member puts it, “happens organically,” through hard work, service to others, and time spent outdoors. The academic program is at once rigorous and varied, and Cate graduates consistently enroll in the country’s top colleges and universities. After graduation, Cate alumni stay deeply connected to one another, and to the School. The bonds that form through the common experience of scholarship, commitment, companionship, and service are deep and lifelong.

Through commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service, each member of the Cate community contributes to what our founder called “…the spirit of this place… all compounded of beauty and virtue, quiet study, vigorous play, and hard work.”

Cate School combines the academic rigor of East Coast prep schools with the adventurous spirit of the West Coast. This was the vision of Curtis Wolsey Cate, a graduate of Roxbury Latin School and Harvard University, who crossed the country to found our beloved boarding school back in 1910.

Sure you could sum us up as a college-preparatory boarding school in California, but that fails to capture the spirit of the place, the community, and the culture. Where else can you wake up with mountain vistas and genuine excitement about heading to class? Feel both the ocean breeze and butterflies on your way to assembly to perform a skit on your recycling initiative? No other school looks or feels like Cate, and the best way to know that is to be here and experience it.