Catholic high schools in Wisconsin

Catholic high schools in Wisconsin at a glance

Schools

39 serving high-school grades

Cities

24 across Wisconsin

Students listed

21,039 across 39 schools reporting enrollment

Average enrollment

539 students among schools with published NCES enrollment

Grade span

16 schools serve grades 9–12 only; 23 also span lower grades

Verified HSPT guides

0

Looking for Catholic schools near you?

If your search was for catholic schools near me, start with our Catholic schools near me guide — it turns the search into a local shortlist: find your state, narrow to your metro, then compare the real schools in your commute on HSPT requirements, scholarships, cost, and fit. For Wisconsin specifically, pick a city above for the local list, then open each school page to confirm HSPT dates and admissions deadlines.

Catholic high schools in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin

The Milwaukee metro holds the state's largest concentration of Catholic high schools - nine in the city itself, plus options in Menomonee Falls, Kenosha, Racine, Burlington, Watertown, and Colgate. Marquette University High School is the metro's Jesuit school for boys; Divine Savior Holy Angels and St. Joan Antida High School are the all-girls options; and Cristo Rey Jesuit runs the corporate work-study program, where students earn part of their tuition through paid internships. Two well-known schools that serve Milwaukee-area families - Pius XI High School and Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha - are not yet in this NCES-based directory, so check the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's school finder for the complete list.

Catholic high schools in the Madison area and south-central Wisconsin

Madison's Catholic high school options are Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart, a Dominican school near the city's west side, and St. Ambrose Academy, a smaller classical academy. The rest of the region serves earlier high-school grades: Oaklawn Academy in Edgerton is a residential academy for boys in grades 6-9, Shoreless Lake School sits in Sauk City, and Queen of the Holy Rosary School serves the Necedah area.

Catholic high schools in the Fox Cities and northeast Wisconsin

The Fox Cities pair strong PK-12 systems with standalone high schools: Xavier High School and the St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System in Appleton, St. Mary Catholic Schools in Neenah, and Lourdes Academy in Oshkosh. Farther north and east, St. Mary's Springs Academy serves Fond du Lac; St. Lawrence Seminary in Mount Calvary is a Capuchin Franciscan seminary high school for boys; Notre Dame de la Baie Academy is Green Bay's Catholic high school, with GRACE as the city's PK-12 system; and Roncalli in Manitowoc and St. Thomas Aquinas Academy in Marinette cover the lakeshore.

Catholic high schools in central and western Wisconsin

Across central and western Wisconsin, families are usually choosing within one of the region's Catholic school systems: Regis Catholic Schools in Eau Claire, McDonell Area Catholic Schools in Chippewa Falls, Columbus Catholic Schools in Marshfield, Assumption Catholic Schools in Wisconsin Rapids, and Aquinas Catholic Schools in La Crosse. These systems are what keep Catholic high school education available in smaller cities, and most run as a single PK-12 school where the high school is one application.

Largest Catholic high schools in Wisconsin

Enrollment is a useful scale signal - it tells you how big the campus is and, roughly, how big the classes are - but it is not a quality measure. These are the largest Catholic school records in Wisconsin by NCES 2023-24 enrollment. Several are PK-12 systems whose totals include elementary and middle-school campuses; among standalone 9-12 high schools, Marquette University High School in Milwaukee is the largest at about 893 students.

How to compare Catholic high schools in Wisconsin

Start with the schools you can actually reach. For most Wisconsin families that is a short list of two to five schools, and the differences that matter are the ones below.

• Commute and location - where the school sits matters more in Wisconsin’s spread-out cities than in dense metro areas, and it will shape every weekday for four years.
• School identity - Marquette is Jesuit, DSHA is run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Dominican High School is Sinsinawa Dominican, St. Joan Antida is a Sisters of Charity school, and St. Lawrence Seminary is Capuchin Franciscan. The charism shows up in how the school talks about formation, service, and academics.
• Single-gender versus coed - Milwaukee is the only part of the state with real single-gender choices (Marquette for boys; DSHA and St. Joan Antida for girls); everything else in Wisconsin is coeducational.
• Enrollment size - the high schools in this directory range from small academies to nearly a thousand students; smaller schools usually mean smaller classes and fewer course and athletic offerings.
• Entrance-exam policy - most Wisconsin Catholic high schools use the HSPT, but confirm the policy, the date, and whether one sitting can be shared across the schools on your list.
• Tuition, aid, and scholarships - tuition varies widely across the state, most schools run financial aid, Wisconsin families can use state parental choice vouchers at participating schools, and HSPT scores sometimes factor into merit scholarship consideration.
• Programs and outcomes - AP and dual-credit offerings, arts, athletics, and college placement; ask each school for its own profile rather than relying on a single ranking.

Admissions deadlines and HSPT dates are worth collecting early - most Wisconsin schools test between mid-November and mid-January of 8th grade - but treat them as planning inputs, not reasons to pick one school over another. Choose on fit: where your child will be comfortable, challenged, and known.

Best Catholic schools: how to choose — Our choosing-a-school guide turns rankings into a real comparison, and the FAQ below covers tuition help through Wisconsin's parental choice programs.

How Catholic high school admissions work in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's Catholic high schools sit in five dioceses - the Archdiocese of Milwaukee plus the Dioceses of Madison, Green Bay, La Crosse, and Superior - and each school runs its own admissions office. The shape of the process is similar across the state: research in 7th grade, apply in 8th grade, test in the fall or winter, and receive decisions in the spring.

Most schools require an application, prior school records or transcripts, and some form of entrance assessment; some add family interviews or placement testing. Tuition and financial-aid applications run on separate deadlines from the admissions application, so collect every deadline in one place early. Some schools and systems let a single HSPT sitting count for multiple schools - ask each admissions office whether one test can be shared across your list.

A typical Wisconsin Catholic high school admissions timeline

1. Spring-summer of 7th grade: shortlist schools within commuting distance and note each one's entrance-test policy and tuition and aid dates.
2. Fall of 8th grade: applications open, campuses hold open houses, and families register for entrance exams.
3. November-January: entrance testing (HSPT or a school-specific exam) and most application deadlines.
4. Winter-spring: financial-aid and scholarship applications are due; admission decisions arrive.
5. Spring: enroll, complete placement paperwork, and confirm testing or waiting-list status at any remaining schools.

Which Wisconsin Catholic high schools use the HSPT?

The HSPT (High School Placement Test) is the entrance exam most Catholic high schools use nationwide, and Wisconsin schools - especially in the Milwaukee archdiocese - have long been HSPT-heavy. But the policy differs by school and by application year, and Catholic affiliation alone does not establish which test a school requires.

Our honest status for Wisconsin

As of this update, none of the Wisconsin schools in our directory has a source-reviewed HSPT record, so we can't yet say from our data which Wisconsin schools require the HSPT this cycle. The reliable move is to ask each school's admissions office directly - 'which entrance test does your school use this cycle, and what date?' - before building a prep plan.

How to prepare for the HSPT in Wisconsin

If your target schools do use the HSPT, start with the free diagnostic to establish a baseline, then build a study plan around the earliest test date on your list. These guides cover the practical questions Wisconsin families ask:

HSPT scholarships for Wisconsin families

Some Wisconsin Catholic high schools factor HSPT scores into merit scholarship consideration, but the policy differs by school and year - ask each school's admissions and financial-aid offices directly. Wisconsin families should also check the state's parental choice programs, which can cover tuition at participating private schools for income-eligible families (see the FAQ below).

Planning a Catholic high school application in Wisconsin

Entrance-test rules are set by the school or diocese and can differ even within the same city, so check each school's admissions site before registering. Work this checklist regardless of which schools end up on your list:

1. Confirm whether each school requires the HSPT or another entrance test for the current cycle.
2. Record application, transcript, recommendation, financial-aid, and scholarship deadlines separately for every school.
3. Ask whether one HSPT sitting can be shared across the schools you are applying to, especially within the same diocese or system.
4. Compare the daily commute, school size, academic programs, and tuition and aid - not just the name.
5. Build HSPT prep around the earliest test date on your list, starting with a free diagnostic to set a baseline.

Wisconsin Catholic high school admissions FAQ