1
Seffner Christian Academy
Seffner·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~1,230 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordable
Tuition$14.5K/yr
TypeChristian
Students~1,230
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
Best Middle Schools in Hillsborough County under $20K
Independent rankings of Middle schools in Hillsborough County, built from director interviews and verified data — never from school payments.
88 schools indexed0 director-verifiedUpdated this week
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Looking for the best middle schools in Hillsborough County? We track 88 K-12 options that serve middle grades. Annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $9.5K/yr across schools that publish a number. Tampa has the highest concentration with 51 schools, followed by Brandon (9). 81 of these schools accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — roughly 92% of the list — so families using state-funded scholarships have real choice here.
Middle-school admission is the most competitive transition point at many independent schools. Expect a standardized test (ISEE, SSAT, or in-house), a writing sample, and teacher recommendations from 4th or 5th grade. Every school is re-verified through direct outreach to admissions teams; data is refreshed on a 180-day cadence and timestamped on each profile.
See also: Scholarship-friendly, Tuition-Free.
Showing 10 of 88 Hillsborough County schools
- 2American Youth Academy
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~1,223 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamicCo-edAffordableTuition$12.2K/yrTypeIslamicStudents~1,223 - 3Universal Academy Of Florida
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~820 students
Accepts scholarshipsIslamic/muslimCo-edAffordableTuition$14.9K/yrTypeIslamic/muslimStudents~820 - 4Cambridge Christian School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades K-12·~800 students
Accepts scholarshipsChristianCo-edAffordableTuition$15K/yrTypeChristianStudents~800 - 5Tampa Catholic High School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades 9-12·~781 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$16.9K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~781 - 6St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-8·~601 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$11.5K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~601 - 7Corbett Preparatory School of IDS
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK3-8·~578 students
Accepts scholarshipsCo-edAffordableTuition$19.2K/yrTypePrivateStudents~578 - 8Christ the King Catholic School
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-8·~522 students
Accepts scholarshipsCatholicCo-edAffordableTuition$11K/yrTypeCatholicStudents~522 - 9Tampa Bay Christian Academy
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades PK-12·~515 students
Accepts scholarshipsSouthern BaptistCo-edAffordableTuition$10.5K/yrTypeSouthern BaptistStudents~515 - 10Florida College
Tampa·Hillsborough County·Grades KG-12·~465 students
Accepts scholarshipsChurches of ChristCo-edAffordableTuition$10.5K/yrTypeChurches of ChristStudents~465
How we rank these schools
Built relationships, not scrapers. AdmitCompass ranks schools using a composite score that blends four signals: enrollment size (a proxy for stability and program breadth), tuition reasonableness within the local market, freshness of our most recent verification, and a small bonus for schools with full admissions detail published on their profile.
Public data comes from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and each school's own admissions pages. The information that actually matters to most families — acceptance rates, deadlines, what a director cares about — comes from direct interviews with school directors and admissions coaches across our active markets.
We do not publish scoring weights or per-axis thresholds. That keeps the moat intact: the rankings reflect actual conversations with people inside schools, not a formula anyone with a crawler could clone. Every profile is re-verified on a 180-day cadence, and the "last updated" date is timestamped on every school page.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the average tuition for middle schools in Hillsborough County?
Across the 88 schools on this list, annual tuition ranges from $1.5K/yr to $19.2K/yr, with a median of $9.5K/yr. Many schools offer financial aid, sibling discounts, or accept Florida Step Up / FES scholarships — check each school's detail page for current aid policy.
How competitive is admission in Hillsborough County?
Admissions selectivity ranges from open-enrollment (most charters and parish schools) to highly selective (top independent K-12 programs). Each school's profile page lists deadlines, test requirements, and any published acceptance rate.
Do these schools accept Step Up / FES scholarships?
81 of the 88 schools on this page accept Florida's Step Up For Students / FES-EO / FES-UA scholarships. That covers most or all of tuition for income-eligible families. Each school's detail page lists the specific scholarship programs accepted.
What's the smallest and largest school on this list?
Extraordinary Student Education Inc. is the smallest with 6 students; Seffner Christian Academy is the largest at 1230. Smaller schools tend to offer more direct teacher contact and tighter community; larger schools usually have more elective and extracurricular breadth.
Is this list updated?
Yes. We re-verify school data on a 180-day cadence through direct contact with admissions teams, plus cross-checks against FLDOE, NCES, and published school sources. Each school profile shows the date of its most recent verification.
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