Catholic high schools in Fort Lauderdale, FL

HSPT & admissions at Fort Lauderdale Catholic high schools

Fort Lauderdale's Catholic high school set is St. Thomas Aquinas High School — the largest Catholic high school in Florida at about 2,094 students — and Cardinal Gibbons High School at about 1,031, with Archbishop McCarthy in nearby Southwest Ranches. None of them has a source-reviewed HSPT record in our directory yet, so Catholic affiliation alone does not tell you which entrance test a school requires — confirm the current policy with each school's admissions office before registering.

Fort Lauderdale Catholic high schools and their admissions pages

Each school sets its own admissions and testing process. Link opens the school's own page for the current cycle.

Most Catholic high schools give the HSPT between mid-November and mid-January of 8th grade, and Broward-area schools test during the fall admission cycle. Each school posts its own date, usually by early fall, so confirm with each school and plan prep around the earliest date on your list.

How to prepare for the HSPT in Fort Lauderdale

Start with the free diagnostic to establish a baseline, then build a study plan around the date your schools post. These guides cover the practical questions Broward families ask:

Fort Lauderdale's Catholic high schools sit in the Archdiocese of Miami, and each school runs its own application process. St. Thomas Aquinas and Cardinal Gibbons are both coed. Ask each school whether one HSPT sitting can be shared across the schools you are applying to, and whether the test is used for admission only or also for placement and scholarship consideration.

For the fall admission cycle, Broward families typically research schools in the spring of 7th grade, visit during 8th-grade fall, and test between November and January. Application, financial-aid, and scholarship deadlines differ by school, so collect them in one place early and treat them as planning inputs, not reasons to choose one school over another.