Quick Facts (2026)
- Top-Ranked TN School
- Grades: 6-12
- Enrollment: 713 students
- Yearly Tuition: $19,000
- Acceptance rate: 80%
- Average class size: 20 students
- Application Deadline: None / Rolling
- Source: Verified school update
Top Rankings
Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory School ranks among the top 20% of private schools in Tennessee for:
School Overview
Student Body
Academics and Faculty
Tuition and Acceptance Rate
Sports
Extracurriculars
School Notes
- School Motto: Faith leads us beyond ourselves.
- School Mascot: Knights
- Founded in 2002 and accredited by Cognia and the Southern Association of Independent Schools, Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory School (JPII) has grown to 711 in the fall of 2024. There is a strong regional outreach: Students come to JPII from 111 different feeder schools and live in 56 different zip codes and two states. We are a Catholic school dedicated to spreading the Good News, grounded in the teachings of the magisteriusm, and welcoming to others who are interested in a Catholic education. Faith guides not just how we pray and gather for mass on a weekly basis, but guides our student life, brings compassion to our disciplinary policies, and articulates how we communicate and interact with one another.
- JPII has one of the most broad and innovative curriculums in Catholic education. JPII features a classical, liberal arts curriculum, requiring 4 credits of math, English, theology; 3 credits of science and social studies; 2 credits of world language and fine arts (in chorus, drama, visual art, or band) and 1 credit of PE and Christian Service Internship. Students earn 33 credits for graduation, allowing them to take multiple advanced classes in the disciplines of their choice. Students attend a weekly school-wide Mass. As a result of their Christian Service requirement, they donate over 20,000 hours of volunteer service to the middle-Tennessee community every year. Pope Prep offers a tutorial program for students seeking extra help in each core subject. In addition, faculty may hold office hours before and after school by appointment. In our innovate and entrepreneurship program, students may create a twelve-week internship in a field of their choice, such as medicine, the law, engineering, entrepreneurial or business pursuits, research, or other fields. They work with a professional in their field to better understand and engage in the daily experience of the profession. We find this is a transformative experience for many students that help them not only consider their college major but their vocation.
- All JPII students are accepted to college and the large majority chooses a four-year college. Recent graduates were accepted to over 226 different colleges and universities. All total they were offered more than $10 million dollars in scholarships. JPII had 89 AP Scholars in 2025 and 14 student-athletes across 9 different sports commit to play at the collegiate level. All JPII students are encouraged to participate in the AP program. Four out of five students will take at least one AP exam during their high school career. From the opening of Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory School we have been strongly committed to the arts. Unique to most schools, we require a two-year complete of arts classes. The choral program continues to excel. Choirs at JPII have consistently earned "Superior" ratings in District and State adjudications. Over the last four years, over 40 students have auditioned for, and have been placed in, the Freshman and Mid-State Honors Choirs. Of those students, approximately 10% have been selected to move on to the prestigious Tennessee All State Choir. We put on two major productions a year in the theater program with several other smaller productions. Our theater students have received honors from various thespian societies and master the technical disciplines of the theater as well as the pursuit of advanced acting. JPII is highly competitive in academics. We compete and win in robotics, Science Olympiad, forensics, youth in government, mock trial, mathematics, and Model United Nations. JPII`s Model UN team has won 606 awards in 56 conferences since 2002, and has been nationally ranked among the top high school teams in North America three times by BestDelegate.com.
- JPII offers a full athletic program, featuring 23 varsity teams, which compete at the highest level of competition in Tennessee, Division II. We offer more athletic options than most schools and work with highly competitive athletes in archery, hockey, and tennis who have to work with development programs and coaches. We offer baseball, basketball, bowling, competition cheer, cross country dance, crew/rowing, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, softball, track and field, and wrestling. Since 2002, JPIIhas been state champion in hockey (`07, `08), women`s soccer (`05), men`s bowling (`08), men`s lacrosse (`09, `11), and dance (`16). Seven students have been named "Mr. or Miss Tennessee", "All-American", or the equivalent in their sport: Megan Forester (soccer, 2005), Golden Tate (football, 2006 and 2007), Paige Baechle (basketball, 2010), Mary Leonard (lacrosse, 2011), Chelsea Gettelfinger (cheerleading, 2012), Grace Lascara (lacrosse, 2016), and Ben Brooks (baseball, 2017). About 70% of the student body play at least one sport.
- Pope Saint John Paul II has been a leader in supporting students with learning disabilities or developmental delays to be part of a Catholic preparatory school and in most cases to complete a college preparatory curriculum. We sponsor the Hand in Hand Options Program, which serves students with intellectual disabilities with a full time, certified teacher. To learn more about the program go here. In 2016, JPII developed the Knights Success Program to support students with diagnosed learning disabilities who have average to above average intelligence.
- The Knights Success Program strives to support students with learning disabilities as they progress through JPII`s college preparatory curriculum. We have hosted the first national meeting of Catholic schools' commitment to full inclusion for students with developmental delays in options programs. Many of our Hand In Hand graduates go on to programs like Next Steps at Vanderbilt or IDEAL at Lipscomb.
- JPII is blessed to have beautiful facilities to support its academic, athletic, and fine arts programs. We have a 66-acre campus and are working on a new campus master campus plan for our expansion.
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