Thacher’s graduation requirements are based on the School’s commitment to ensuring an appropriate breadth and depth of learning. Students must meet the departmental requirements outlined below, take the requisite number of courses each term, and successfully complete the Senior Exhibition. All Thacher students, however, go well beyond the minimum graduation requirements in areas of special interest, and the program is designed to allow and encourage the best mix for each student.

Departmental Requirements

To graduate from The Thacher School, students must complete the following departmental requirements:

Course Load Requirement

Each student must take five courses each term. Four of them must be solid courses, and the fifth may be either a solid or a non-solid course. A solid course is defined as one having substantial written homework. In general, studio classes such as sculpture and chorus receive full credit but are classified as non-solids. AP courses in studio art, art history and music theory, like most courses in the other academic departments, are classified as solids.

Students who take two or more Advanced Placement programs need take only four courses, all of which must be solids.

In general, ninth-graders take the equivalent of five and one-half full-year courses; upper-class students generally take the equivalent of five full-year courses. Students may elect to take additional courses with the approval of their faculty advisor.