Holy Trinity High School, Chicago: a four-year B-STEM Honors track, and two tuition figures worth understanding

Holy Trinity High School sits at 1443 West Division Street, inside the city of Chicago. Founded in 1910, it is a Catholic school in the Holy Cross tradition, co-educational, grades 9-12, with a uniform and a school day running 8:00 to 15:00.

The school on West Division Street - inside the city, not out in the suburbs.

B-STEM Honors: four years, ending in real work

B-STEM stands for Business, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - business placed alongside the four STEM fields. It is not an elective but a four-year course sequence: B-STEM I (Application Design and Implementation), B-STEM II (Introduction to Technological Entrepreneurship), NFTE/Corporate Experience, and Design Thinking.

In their senior year, B-STEM students complete a capstone - an independent research project or one built inside the Design Thinking course. Students who finish the full requirements graduate with an honors diploma.

The results are checkable rather than promised: through the NFTE/Corporate Experience class the school has sent four students to the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in New York since 2017. In 2019 Aaron Trinidad '20 took first place with US$17,000 and Gabriel Sheikh '20 was runner-up with US$9,000.

Art class - the school offers AP Studio Art: Drawing among its seven AP courses.

Academics

Seven AP courses are offered: Calculus AB, Computer Science Principles, English Literature and Composition, Physics 1, Spanish Language and Culture, Studio Art: Drawing, and U.S. Government & Politics. Honors sections run in English, mathematics, science, social studies and Spanish. Two dual-credit courses carry college credit: PHYS 106 Astronomy and HIST 112 American History since 1865.

For international students the school provides ESL support, a Math and Science Club and an ACT prep course.

Two tuition figures, and why they do not contradict each other

The school publishes, for 2026-2027 international students: tuition US$12,900, general fee US$350 (grades 9-10) or US$450 (grades 11-12), new student registration US$150 - a total of US$13,400, plus roughly US$600 for books and uniform. Paying tuition in full before the school year starts earns a US$250 discount.

The full package quoted to families is US$42,500. The difference is not a hidden fee: Holy Trinity does not arrange housing. The school states on its international admissions page that students must work with an outside agency to arrange accommodation with an adult guardian - a requirement of the Office of Catholic Schools, which issues the I-20. The US$42,500 figure is tuition plus room, board and guardianship arranged through that agency.

Charged separately, per the fee sheet the school provided to VNIS: AnB application fee US$200, I-20 fee US$325, school application fee US$150, insurance US$1,200, and about US$600 for books and uniform.

Scholarships: the school considers international applicants for awards based on the Eltis English test, GPA and an interview.

What to prepare

• Transcripts and academic records (ATA-certified translation if not in English) plus a key to the grading system
• TOEFL or Duolingo scores
• Birth certificate and passport
• A bank statement no more than three months old
• Medical records: physical examination and immunisations
• An interview by phone, video chat or in person

Transfer applicants need a minimum of 5 credits for grade 10, 12 credits for grade 11 and 18 credits for grade 12, with a teacher recommendation and a personal statement.

Beyond the classroom

A Holy Trinity runner out in front at a track meet.

Boys volleyball senior night in the gym students call "the Jungle" - international students among them.

Sports: basketball, crew, soccer, softball, volleyball, baseball, cross country, track and field, flag football. More than twenty clubs run alongside, including the Robotics Team, Math Team, Debate Team, Drama Club, Gospel Choir, International Club, Black Student Union, National Honor Society and the Kickin' Tigers Dance Team.

Where graduates go

Alumni have gone on to the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Michigan, Boston University, Case Western Reserve, Wake Forest, Wisconsin-Madison and a long list of Midwest institutions. The school's own B-STEM page names Wellesley (full-ride QuestBridge), Michigan (full-ride Posse), Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and USC.

Next step

Send VNIS your last two years of transcripts and any English test result. We check the entry requirements, estimate where you fall on the Eltis - GPA - interview scholarship assessment, and build a full cost sheet that separates what the school charges from what housing costs.

See the Holy Trinity High School profile, the cost calculator and book a consultation.

Tuition, requirements and programmes are set by the school and can change. Figures here are the school's published 2026-2027 rates, checked by VNIS on holytrinity-hs.org on 11 September 2026.