Charles Wright Academy is the largest secular independent K-12 school in Tacoma, with about 520 students on a 107-acre wooded campus in University Place. Founded in 1957 as a boys' day school and coed across all grades since the 1970s, CWA holds the secular-independent slot in Tacoma's private-school landscape — distinct from Annie Wright (single-gender upper school divisions, despite the namesake similarity the schools are unaffiliated) and Bellarmine Preparatory (Catholic, much larger).
The campus footprint is unusual for a school of this size — 107 wooded acres anchor a program that includes 14 Advanced Placement courses across the upper school and 11 sports through the Sea-Tac League. Theatre and Knowledge Bowl round out the major co-curriculars. The student-teacher ratio is 9:1 with average class size around 16, comparable to Seattle's secular independents but at roughly half the price point.
PolarisList places CWA at #45 statewide for Harvard / Princeton / MIT acceptances 2022-2025 — one HPM placement over the four-year window. That's modest by the Seattle independent standard but typical of South Puget Sound independents, where Annie Wright and Bellarmine also place sparingly into the most selective schools. CWA's college list runs heavier toward Pacific Lutheran, University of Puget Sound, Washington, and the Northwest liberal-arts tier.
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