<p>How do Saint Pauls and Concord academy differ on; types of kids/culture, social life etc</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, based on personal research and a visit to each school:
Dress is more formal at SPS.
Concord is about 50% day students, SPS is 100% boarding.
SPS has mandatory chapel, Concord does not.
I believe SPS has significantly more students and therefore probably has a more extensive class selection (such as a number of foreign languages–but Concord has a quite extensive course catalog)
Concord is liberal-leaning; I’m not positive but I think SPS is a little more conservative.
Don’t have personal experience so can’t speak to the social scene</p>
<p>They are fairly different schools. Here are some other differences.</p>
<p>SPS starts with chapel four days a week. CA starts with a chapel talk 3-4 days a week and announcements in the performing arts center the other 1-2 days (all seniors have the opportunity to give a chapel talk).</p>
<p>SPS is affiliated with the Episcopal church whereas CA is non-religious (even though it does have a chapel).</p>
<p>SPS is more serious about sports. Their varsity teams meet 6 times a week whereas CA varsity teams meet 5 times a week (and students are exempt one of those days if in a music ensemble). CA doesn’t have football, ice hockey, or crew; SPS doesn’t have frisbee.</p>
<p>CA requires 2 1/2 years of arts (visual & performing); SPS requires 1 1/3 years.</p>
<p>SPS is located in the capital of New Hampshire on a large campus. CA is located in a small historic Massachusetts town on a smallish campus; however, a portion of the town is considered as the extended campus, and students have easy access to Boston via the commuter rail trains and via a school shuttle bus to nearest Boston subway stop on weekends.</p>
<p>Boarding and day students mix seamlessly at CA; this isn’t an issue at SPS because there are no day students.</p>
<p>I can’t really compare the social life or culture, but can answer any specific questions on these you have about CA.</p>
<p>My initial thought is that they are very different schools. CA has a more relaxed vibe - no dress code, less intense sports, etc. As mentioned earlier about 50% boarding. Boarding students are not allowed in the dorms during the day so everyone is on campus. It is in the middle of Concord - a small New England town - and that is considered part of campus. There is a chapel talk, but it is not religious (just old New England schools use chapels as meeting halls).</p>
<p>I have not been to St. Pauls, though I hear it is a nice campus. It is more formal with a dress code. And religiously affiliated. </p>
<p>Both are good schools, but definitely a different feel. </p>
<p>If you can visit the schools that is the best way to get a feel for them.</p>
<p>If you are visiting CA you might want to look at Middlesex also. It is in Concord as well, a few miles down the street from CA. It is a more formal school in some ways, dress code, sports, etc. </p>
<p>Good luck with your search.</p>
<p>@photodad: Thanks for your insights into CA. We are strongly considering it an option for our son, whose interests and strengths lie in the sciences and visual arts. I’m wondering if you might be able to speak to the issue of boarding. I realize that, like Milton Academy, CA is 50-50. I wonder what percentage of boarders come from the surrounding area and are therefore often gone on the weekends? I worry that, as a full-time boarder who family lives halfway around the world, my son would find himself isolated and lonely.</p>
<p>“Isolated and lonely” aren’t words I would associate with CA students … it’s a pretty social place. I don’t think a very high percentage of boarders leave for the weekends. At parent association meetings I’ve talked to parents of boarders who live nearby, and most of them have commented that they rarely see their kids during the school year.</p>
<p>Also, don’t be thinking that your kid would primarily have boarder friends. There are no distinctions between boarders and day students at school; the majority of both of my kids’ closest friends were boarders. A lot of day students come to the campus for various reasons on weekends. CA draws day students from a large area due to multiple convenient means of commuting, so generally students meet at a central location such as school (or sometimes in Boston) on weekends to see their friends. A high proportion of the day students stay late on Friday nights (it’s rare that I pick up my kid before 11 pm on Fridays), and a good number participate in Saturday night activities. In addition, many day students stay for dinner during the week; I rarely pick up my kid before 6:30 pm Monday through Thursday.</p>
<p>When not at school, my kid is in constant contact with friends via texting, Facebook messaging, snapchat, and sometimes even by phone, so there’s always someone to talk to even if they’re not physically around. When at school, my kids uses these to find friends to hang out with.</p>
<p>On the rare Saturday night when none of a boarder’s boarding friends are around, they could arrange to have a day student stay overnight, or they could stay with a day student, or they could stay at their host family’s house (boarders who live more than 2 hours from campus are assigned a host family if they wish).</p>
<p>The boarding houses at CA are small (average of 25 students) and homey (they’re all converted houses). Each has 2 or 3 faculty families living in apartments in the back, so there’s a fair amount of interaction between students and house parents (and their families). On Saturday nights there’s an informal gathering in each house where a house parent cooks food or provides snacks for the students.</p>
<p>@madagascarMom
I am a CA alum and although it was a long time ago, I completely agree with photodad’s comments. I obviously never had experience with social media connecting while there, but as a day student, I spent many more nights in the day student dorm than boarding school kids did leaving campus. If you have a creative child, there is really no school quite like it.</p>