Carden Hall

Overview

Carden Hall is an independent, non-sectarian K-8 private school in Newport Beach, California, serving grades K-8, founded in 1963, with about 525 students. Tuition for 2025-26 is $20,760 to $23,160, which puts it in the upper range among Orange County private schools at this level.

Admissions

No standardized entrance exam; admission uses an on-campus assessment or visit day.

The school publishes the following application details. Applications are accepted only for PK through grade 6; grades 7-8 do not admit new students. For the 2027-28 school year: the online application opens at 9:00 a.m. on September 1, 2026, and the application period runs through January 15, 2027 or until the grade level is full. Campus tours are offered on selected Mondays and Fridays from September to early December 2026, by appointment, with limited space, and for parents only. On-campus screening, done in small groups and led by the school’s own teachers, is held on Saturday, January 23, 2027 or Saturday, February 6, 2027 for PK and K, and on February 6 for grades 1-6, with no makeup date. Families must also submit a Student Recommendation Form completed by the current school, complete the New Family Questionnaire, and attend the Carden Connection information session on the day of the student assessment. Admission or waitlist decisions are emailed by March 1, 2027 at the latest, and enrollment must be completed within 14 days of acceptance. New students in grades 1-6 must attend a four-week summer session before entering, held July 13 through August 7 in 2026, on a half-day schedule. Age requirements: PK students must be 4 by September 1 and K students must be 5, with exceptions available for birthdays falling between June 1 and August 31. (School website, Admissions Process and Summer School pages)

The main entry points at a K-8 school are kindergarten and grade 6. Younger applicants are usually evaluated through an on-campus visit, while most applicants above grade 5 need an ISEE score. Start in the fall of the year before entry: visit first to confirm the school is a fit, then decide whether to register for testing.

Tuition and fees

$16,500-$23,160 per year (2025-26, by grade: PK $16,500, K $20,760, grades 1-6 $22,500, grades 7-8 $23,160, school website, Financial Information page; includes books, supplies, activities, field trips, the yearbook and graduation costs)

Application fee $250 per student, nonrefundable. At contract signing, families pay an Enrollment Fee of $400 per student plus a tuition deposit for the coming school year, due each spring along with the enrollment contract. Grades 6 and 7 pay an additional outdoor education fee of $850, and grades 7 and 8 pay an additional technology fee of $400. New students in grades 1-6 must also pay for the four-week summer session, for which the school website does not list an amount. Tuition may be paid annually, semiannually, or in ten or eleven installments, handled through the FACTS Family Portal. Tuition itself already includes books, supplies, activities, field trips, the yearbook and graduation costs. (School website, Financial Information page)

Academics and programs

• The classical Carden Method curriculum: sequential materials written by Mae Carden, with core subjects taught in small groups through grade 5 (school website, Carden Method page)
• French begins in Pre-Kindergarten; middle school students may take Honors French and sit the National French Examination, or switch to Spanish as an elective; grade 7 has a self-funded cultural trip to France (school website, Special Subjects page)
• Music, art, science, French and physical education are taught by specialist teachers; science is based on NGSS, meeting once a week in the lower grades and daily in middle school, with grade 8 students carrying out an independently designed science fair project (school website, Special Subjects page)
• Athletics: interscholastic sports after school for the upper grades, representing the school in Tri-Way League flag football, volleyball, basketball and soccer (school website, Student Life page)
• Off-campus learning: overnight science camps at the Catalina Island Marine Institute and AstroCamp; the upper grades also have a self-funded trip to France and a trip to Washington, DC (school website, Student Life page)
• After school: extended care available to all K-8 students with no advance registration required, plus self-funded enrichment classes such as taekwondo, dance, soccer, volleyball and running club (school website, Student Life page)

How this school compares

These are the nearest schools at the same level and a comparable price. Select a name to open that school’s admissions guide:

School	City	Grades	Tuition	Entrance test	Class size	Distance
Carden Hall	Newport Beach	K-8	$20,760	On-campus assessment	—	—
Page Academy — Costa Mesa Campus (Newport Mesa Campus)	Costa Mesa	K-8	$18,920	—	—	1.6 mi
Saint Joachim Catholic School	Costa Mesa	K-8	$9,195	On-campus assessment	—	1.7 mi
Christ Lutheran School	Costa Mesa	K-8	$8,652	On-campus assessment	—	1.6 mi
Huntington Christian School	Huntington Beach	K-8	$11,616	On-campus assessment	—	2.4 mi

Total tuition through graduation

At the 2025-26 rate of $20,760, 9 years covering grades K-8 come to roughly $186,840 in tuition alone. Assuming the 4% annual increase common at private schools, the figure is closer to $220,000. Neither number includes registration fees, deposits, uniforms or activity fees. A California 529 plan can cover up to $10,000 per child per year of K-12 tuition.

Getting there from Irvine

These are straight-line distances from neighborhoods where many Irvine families live. Actual drive times will be longer, and a morning rush-hour trip typically takes 1.5 to 2 times as long as an off-peak one:

Neighborhood	Straight-line distance
Woodbury	12.1 miles
Northwood	10.3 miles
Turtle Rock	7.1 miles
Portola Springs	14.7 miles

The website does not describe bus service; confirm this during your visit.

Questions to ask on a campus visit

• Tuition for 2026-27 and 2027-28 — the only tuition page left on the school website, /financial-information, is titled “2025–2026 Annual Fees,” and that page has been removed from the navigation and the site map; the Admissions Proces…
• Accrediting body — the home page, About, Academics, Admissions and the site-wide footer contain no mention of WASC, CAIS or any accrediting body, so accreditation is recorded as null
• Chinese — the world language section of the Special Subjects page lists only French and Spanish, and there is no site-wide hit for Mandarin or Chinese, but there is no affirmative statement to the contrary eit…
• International students, I-20 and ESL — no page on the school website addresses these, so acceptsF1 stays null
• Registration, technology, uniform and activity fees beyond tuition

How EDUBUS helps

Our Irvine-based counselors work in both Chinese and English. We track Carden Hall’s admissions calendar, prepare students for the campus visit and interview, and review application materials before they are submitted. Book a school-selection consultation or read the Chinese version of this page.