<p>I've been a freshman at St. Paul's for 3 months now and I've gotten a great feel for the school. If anyone has any questions for me I would love to tell you more about this amazing school! I can say that it has already changed my life after even such a short time (may seem weird, but it's true!) So ask away!</p>
<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE: Any student/alum/parent/friend can respond to the questions.</p>
<p>What other schools were you looking at when you were applying and what made you choose SPS?</p>
<p>What is the student culture like in regards to really sophisticated/party crowd vs work hard/inclusive atmosphere?</p>
<p>How has it changed your life in 3 months? I’m already starting to like this school. I need my life turned around and fast.</p>
<p>@NChopeful I looked at Deerfield, Middlesex, and Choate as well. I got into all except Middlesex (waitlisted). I chose St. Paul’s primarily because of their fantastic dance program (I’m a dancer) and I loved how it was 100% boarding. Aside from that, I fell in love with the campus and Concord is also such a lovely town! Hope this helped! DM me with any more questions :)</p>
<p>@Twinsdad499 I’m not positive exactly what you mean but if it helps, I can never really tell the difference between those on FA and those not with the exception of a few. I visited (and did not apply to) Kent and you could definitely see a divide between partying New Yorkers and hard-working students, which is the opposite of what I wanted. I see nothing like that at St. Paul’s. Everybody is such a tight knit community and kind of feeds off of each other’s passions. My roommate was a singer and got me involved in choir, which I now love! And there are some partying people naturally, but everybody seems to know when to buckle down and word hard.</p>
<p>@rhapsody17 I have become involved in things that I never thought I would like (singing, eco action club, etc.) and have even learned to like English (the discussions vs. public school boring lectures make a world of a difference)! I have become much more confident here because I feel accepted for what I like to do since everyone here is passionate about different things. I was just simply put not happy at public school and even in the private school I was enrolled in for 7th and 8th grade. I feel indescribably happy here and most definitely part of a community!</p>
What kind of interview did you have and are the grades weighted?
Is it hard to excel academically? Do a lot of kids get 4.0s? How much homework do you have per night?
Are there any swimming opportunities? I know there is no swim team, but is there anything swimming related at SPS?
@mathman1201 although there is not a swim team, there is a more includive swim club during the winter term, although it’s training is said to be quite rigorous - there are also loads of free swim oppurtunities and our olympic size pool is open basically all the time
@NChopeful if you try and put in the amount of effort needed into your classes, and ocasionally go above and beyond (extra help, leading class discussions) it is not hard to exceed accademically. however, not everyone does - there are still quite a lot of intelligent students who deserve to be there but earn less desirable grades. we don’t have a GPA system but instead receive either high honors (HH) honors (H), high pass (hp), a pass, or a u (unsatisfactory) for a class, and again, there is a vast gap between the grades students get. there are quite a few students who manage to hh all their classes (around 5-6 people), but then there arw also those who receive the odd hp’s, and that is generally totally fine and not out of the ordinary. the maximum amount of classes it is possible to have in one day is five - and homework generally evens out to 45 min per class per night (humanities sometimes might be reading - 30 minutes, but may sometimes take upt o an hour, while languages and arts may only take 25 minutes of your time some nights, if you manage your time wisely), but again you would never have to do that much homework in one night if you planned ahead. this is all as a third formee, but as you escalate in the school, the work load increases, and the difference in work load between the third form (9th grade) and the fourth form (10th) is quite pronounced, but still manageable
What are the weekends like? Dorm Life? How is the food?
hi @skiergirl777 ! we have 3 classes on saturdays (but no morning chapel-and you might have a free who knows!) but after that a lot of people have sports games or practices - practice until about 3, but sometimes varsity teams get back really late from their games. there is a free sps shuttle that runs to various locations in concord on saturdays from 2 pm- 11 pm, so you can go to town in your friends if you don’t have a sports commitment, and hit the mall or main street. there are lots of fun things to do in town- you can go catch a movie, go to live juice, bolocco, a café, target, antique stores, buffalo wild wings, and other restauranrs- and trust me, even if you come from a busy and bustling city, you get used to peaceful concord. (you can go to concord during town hours after class and it costs $9 to take a cab to main st and $15 to go to target). we have a committee called snl which makes sure that we always have a saturday night activity- it ranges from official dances such as nash bash, winter formal, the halloween dance, paint dance etc. to events like a carnival, a movie screening, human bowling, or another activity - sometimes sponsored by buffalo wild wings! its also really fun to just hang out with your friends in the dorm after class, and go to tuck (which is like a grill/cafe on campus where you can get really yummy food)! check-in for third, fourth, and fifth formers (9th, 10th, 11th graders) is at 11 and its at 12 am for 6th formers. on sundays, you are completely free - you can take a cab to go to a cafe in town to study with your friends, go to a movie, catch up/work ahead on homework, hang out and watch a movie on netflix with your friends, you name it! it doesn’t seem like much but once all your friends are around you you just have so much fun
dorm life at sps is great- everyone gets assigned a big brother/sister who is a sixth former (12th grader) who helps you out and is always in your dorm. you also have an advisor who works in your dorm, and often lives in your dorm, who is always there for you. as a new third former, you can either get a triple, double, or adjoining single. since sps has vertical housing, that means your dorm will have girls/boys of all ages living together, who can help you out with a lot of things and who you can always go to for advice, like if you’re ever unsure about what to wear to your first fall ball or nash bash, to more serious matters such as homework help, and dorms sometimes indicate people who you can go to for help in a particular subject, which is extremely handy. as a third former, you will definitely have a at least 3 other third formers in your dorm with you.
the food at sps is good- if you don’t have time to dash to the upper (the building where the dining halls are located) on a busy school day, you can always go to grab n go, which is a free deli line bar at tuck, which is close to the school buildings. the upper really makes an effort to vary the food, and the food is always really fresh- there are loads of drinks available, and many other cool things such as a make your own stirfry/waffle/smoothie bar, abd an endless selection of different pancakes in the mornings
Very informative. It sounds like you need an average budget of ~$50/month for cabs into town + similar amount for cash for food. Is that about right?
Put another way, what does one budget over and above SPS costs (minimally)? Obviously, I know the upper limit is pretty much infinite. I mean, what is a realistic lower limit to not feel excluded from the general flow?
@ItsJustSchool hi, in general I think $60-$75 a month in total is a totally fine and generous amount, and you might even have some money left over. generally, people tend to go into town by cab around 3 times a month, and go with friends in a group and cab fares become much less when split up.when people go out to town, they generally spend $10-15, if they eat out, and if they buy something from target (snakcs, birthday presents for friends, etc.) they might spend up to $30, but this happens rarely (I personally so all my food shopping after holidays, when my parents drop me off at school and my supplies last me). some people rarely go to town at all, especially people who live in the area, my roommate for example has been to town once since september and she isn’t excluded at all. in the spring and fall, some people even choose to walk to town (although it’s a 45 minute trek). this being said, cab money is not always a problem, and a lot of people just rely on the shuttle.
apart from that, every student is given a laundry card at the start of the year even if you choose to use E&R, the laundry service. this laundry card is basically a debit card, and you can load it up with cash at multiple places around campus, and can use it to buy food at tuck and do your laundry. it’s always a good idea to have about $20 on your laundry card, and if you go to tuck during a free period or in the evening (7:30-9) with friends, you often end up sharing popcorn chicken or spicy fries, so again, you can always split the expenses. some people also choose to order pizza a lot, and personally my friends and I do this about once a week, and it comes down to about $6 per person.
this being said, no one would be felt excluded or unable to go to town or hang out with friends with $60 with them per month-there have been numerous times when my friends and I have gone to town and I decided not to splurge on anything, and ending up spending about $10 (on a movie + cab money)
ps: at a parents meeting earlier this year, our parents were all told by a current parent that they gave their children $15 per week each, and that they were completely fine with that amount
Thanks for all the info! @paisleyprint. What time do the admission decisions come out on the 10th?
What exactly is the big brother/big sister program like?
What are revisits like?
@gryffinhunter in August, every new incoming student is assigned an upperformer in there dorm who will be their big brother/ big sister, and look out for them - this student will also guide you around on the first day of school