<p>How do Saint Pauls and Groton differ on; types of kids/culture, social life etc</p>
<p>I’m really surprised that no one has responded to this thread. I’m not an expert, but I think there are differences between the schools. I think of St. Paul’s as attracting a more “New York” crowd of students and kids who are a little more worldly and sophisticated. In my day St Paul’s had a reputation as the school for the “beautiful people” and I have heard that it still has that reputation to some degree. The kids I have met at Groton are super friendly and they all say hello to visitors when they walk past on the Circle. I think you would need to visit both schools to determine for yourself if you can see differences. Good luck!</p>
<p>There are some pretty major differences between the two schools. Groton is about half as big as SPS and has very particular structure/traditions - required study halls, required Latin, Chapel 6x/week (rather than 4 at SPS), unique dorm living situation for 9th graders. They also have a strong system of senior prefects that take responsibility for many aspects of school life. When we looked at Groton I thought the prefect system was a good way of giving kids a chance to grow in a very small school environment. People have strong reactions to the freshman dorm “cubicles” - our DD loved the idea.</p>
<p>St. Paul’s is a larger school, although not as big as some. It has a mix of structure and choice. There is chapel and seated meal, but there is no required study hall and students of all 4 grades live together in the dorms. My DD goes to SPS and is very happy there, and the school is a very good match for her. While she loved Groton when visiting, she doesn’t need the level of structure that Groton has and I think ultimately she would have found it too small and restrictive. I think St. Paul’s has a better physical plant than Groton, although I do like the layout of Groton and the main school building very much.</p>
<p>Groton accepts eighth graders (mainly children of faculty). It is close to Boston. The prep dorms are like the cubbies you see in a business office - no ceilings, basically they share a very large room with dividers between rooms. No pool. </p>
<p>SPS is the only major prep school that is 100% boarding. It is close to Concord NH. The grounds are beautiful.</p>
<p>Both are very tradition-conscious, well-regarded, established schools with Episcopalian roots.</p>
<p>Ironmom1 - I think Deerfield has the “beautiful people” reputation right now!</p>
<p>I think friendlymom gives a good summary here of the differences between these two outstanding schools. When it came time to make a choice between acceptances from SPS & Groton, my child chose SPS for the physical beauty of the campus, the “freedom with responsibility” philosophy, the size (not too big, not too small), and the general culture. Groton would undoubtably have offered an excellent experience also, but I do think the smaller size and significant structure would have been outgrown, whereas it seems as if it would take a lot more than four years for my child to feel that way at SPS. My child is now an extremely happy V Former (junior) at SPS, and has never second-guessed the decision.
That being said though, I don’t think one could go wrong with either choice - both fabulous schools.</p>
<p>2prepmom: Actually Groton has up to 22 boarders and then admits faculty students above that broarding number. This year they have 3 “fac brats” in addition to the boarders. Last year was a particularly big 2nd form because there were more faculty children. The reason for the 22-boarder cap is because the boys and girls 2nd form dorms have 11 beds each. </p>
<p>The set-up is actually really great for 8th graders. The cubicles are like spokes on a wheel and in the “hub” there are overstuffed sofas and chairs, quite cozy. At least in the girls dorm, the girls spend most of their time in this central common area hanging out, chatting, studying together. The dorm ends up feeling a bit like summer camp and the result is an extremely tight dorm community. When I visit my older daughter, who attends a boarding school with a more traditional dorm set up, I rarely see more than a student or two in the common room, if that. When I visit my younger daughter at Groton, the common area is just about always full.</p>
<p>To clarify: Groton has two pools indoor and out- the indoor is covered over part of the year.
The “cubicles” are just for II form, and the III form has a much more private set up. Upper school IV, V and VI have regular dorms</p>
<p>The II form ( 8th grade) is NOT just for fac brats: my daughter entered Groton in II form and we live in Florida</p>
<p>I don’t think you can go wrong with either school- but I wanted to clarify the Groton school information</p>
<p>As a kid who is familiar with Groton, I also wanted to clarify the “structure” part of the school: the structure is almost entirely for 8th and 9th graders (II and III formers). The dorms are split up into to houses (within which there are many dorms), one for “lower school” – 8th and 9th graders – and one for “upper school” – 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. There are study halls for the kids in lower school, and for your first year of upper school. For 8th graders, study hall isn’t really that structured, you’re just in the schoolroom from 8-10. As a third or fourth former, you have study hall in your dorm, and in fourth form (your first year in upper school) this can serve to be a really good stabilizing tool – work load (between school, athletics, and extracurriculars) really picks up in upper school – and if you finish your work you are free to do pretty much whatever as long as you are in the dorm. Fifth and sixth formers have very little structure, and sixth formers have “10 to 12,” where sixth formers are allowed to be out of the dorm form 10 - 12 pm (10 is the normal curfew in upper school, 9:30 for lower schoolers), which no other comparable school permits. Also, as a sixth former you have a MASSIVE amount of academic freedom – the only mandated common curriculum is a one term class in expository writing (“Expo”).</p>