Eastside Preparatory School (EPS) is an independent secular co-ed college-prep school in Kirkland, founded in 2002 by a group of parents and educators and now serving roughly 540 students in grades 5-12. The founding head, Dr. Terry Macaluso, came from a consulting role at Lakeside School, and the founding ethos — interdisciplinary work, strategic thinking, active learning over lecture — has stayed visible in the program.
EPS sits in the canonical Seattle-area secular-independent peer set with Lakeside, The Overlake School, University Prep, Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences, and The Bush School; it competes athletically against all of them in the Emerald City League. Of the set, EPS is the smallest, the youngest by several decades, and the one most often described as honors-track-and-language-focused. Reported indicators are strong: 100% four-year graduation rate, average SAT around 1440, average ACT 33, average GPA 3.76. The school is a PolarisList HPM placer with 3 placements over 2022-2025, ranked #17 statewide, and recent Niche rankings have placed EPS just behind Overlake and ahead of Lakeside in WA private-school standings.
Compared with the larger peer schools, the tradeoffs are visibility and breadth — fewer alumni, smaller athletic and arts depth — against intimacy and the engaged-faculty model EPS leans on as its public identity. The Eastside location keeps cross-405 commute friction lower than Lakeside or UPrep for Eastside-based families.
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