<p>Setting: suburban Massachusetts, near Boston and Cambridge.</p>
<p>Size: 338 in the September, 2009 </p>
<p>80% boarding, 20% day</p>
<p>Languages, Classical and Modern: Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish</p>
<p>Affiliated with the Episcopalian church. Saturday classes. "Neat casual" dress code. Financial aid awarded upon the basis of need. Admissions decisions are made separately from financial aid decisions.</p>
<p>As an '09 alum, please ask me any questions you have! I highly highly highly recommend attending the revisit days. That’s what made me decide to go there. My parents made the deposit that day.</p>
<p>As for the course load, normal load is 5 except third form. After third form you can take six courses witout petition if you get high honor grade(Average A-). Typically only about 10% of the students get hogh honor. Average B grade is called honor.</p>
<p>Oh, nevermind I found this on their website “While we do not require coats and ties, we do expect our students to conform to a dress code best described as neat casual. No jeans are allowed, and boys must wear collared shirts. Girls can wear either dresses, skirts, or dress pants. Sneakers are allowed.”</p>
<p>Just a heads up Josh you’re going to notice that the dress code tends to be more lax towards girls… but you’ll be fine with like khakis and a collared shirt. it isn’t too bad.</p>
<p>The dress code applies when you are in class. It’s not 24/7. Many kids hang around in sweats, jeans, and such in the dorms or on weekends. You are required to dress nicely for chapel. I’m not certain of the dress code for seated meals.</p>
<p>I have some slightly sad news. I visited last friday and learned that a lot of the great teachers I’ve had are leaving. However that doesn’t mean there aren’t any great teachers left, but some of those who had an impact are leaving.</p>
<p>Besides that though I loved SM. 2010 if you have any kind of questions let me know!</p>
<p>Actually not many but s few. New teachers are coming with a great experience from highly recognized schools. I view this change is a positive since new teachers with great experiences from good schools will be a good addition to the exisiting faculy body. That is how they can keep prospering with a fresh blood.</p>
<p>erk- I know this is probably against your opinion but I attended the school for four years. I know who were the better teachers. Some of those better teachers are leaving. Approximately 9 faculty members I am sure are leaving and there are about 3 I think are leaving as well. My favorite two teachers are leaving. Moreover I talked with a teacher while I visited and she told me about those leaving and that there is a specific reason that they are leaving, but is not something that should be posted on the board. Please don’t undermine what I say. </p>
<p>Yes it’s good to get new teachers, but at the same time it’s also a bittersweet time for SM to lose some of the best teachers they had to different (and possibly better opportunity). Things change.</p>
<p>I heard that younger faculty are leaving because their husband got promoted, they had a baby and want to be closer to family, a great opportunity came up from them ( someone is going to Exeter). However, they have some fabulous new faculty coming to SM and they will be better next year than they were this year.</p>
<p>Go St. Mark’s!!! I really like how on the acceptance letters, there’s a link to a video which pretty much shows the entire student body saying congratulations :)</p>
<p>smski: My son is at St Marks and I would like to hear why they are leaving. If you are uncomfortable posting here, perhaps you could PM me?<br>
I know of 5…3 I am fine with them leaving but the other 2 are disappointing. Regardless of this, I find it strange that there is such a turnover this year. Is this normal? Is there something going on?</p>
<p>At a guess, I would think it’s the normal turnover one would expect with a relatively new head. Over time, any head will select a team of administrator who work well with him (or her). I assume that some of the departing teachers will have applied for the open positions. Often, someone who doesn’t get a promotion will choose to look for other opportunities, even if it leads to other schools.</p>
<p>My freshman claims only one faculty member left last year. It could be that many other schools suspended hiring new faculty, due to the uncertain economy. The economy seems more stable this year (let’s hope!), or at any rate, the demand for education has not decreased. Thus, those schools are more likely to look to hire teachers. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see if the head searches at at least two prominent boarding schools will set off a sort of musical chairs between boarding schools.</p>
<p>On an interesting note, SM recently hired a new head coach for the boys varsity ice hockey team. The coach is an alum who played in the NHL for 18 seasons and won the Stanley Cup. I found this really exciting and I think the hockey team now has the potential to do really well. The '09-'10 season was a big improvement on the '08-'09 season and I have no doubts that it’ll keep improving. I’m posting this here because I know some people have been wary about attending a BS where their sport of choice isn’t one of the best in the athletic program. </p>
<p>Also they recently hired a new head coach for the girls varsity soccer team.</p>
<p>I have heard that the head of Concord Academy’s Science Department is coming to St. Mark’s. I am not certain what position he’ll fill at St. Mark’s, but our Concord Academy friends were sad to see him leave.</p>
<p>The new incoming science department was a former Choate teacher, The current Latin department chair is going to Exeter, and a I heard few new incoiming teachers are coming from Andover or St. Paul. </p>
<p>And also this years acceptance rate is 34%. </p>
<p>They have not published college matriculation yet. But I know higher than 10% of their seniors went to Ivy+MIT. It may be more than that. I count the students I know. There may be some others who I do not know. I am sure they will publish those when they publish school profile in September.</p>
I found this on their website “While we do not require coats and ties, we do expect our students to conform to a dress code best described as neat casual. No jeans are allowed, and boys must wear collared shirts. Girls can wear either dresses, skirts, or dress pants. Sneakers are allowed.”</p>
I really like how on the acceptance letters, there’s a link to a video which pretty much shows the entire student body saying congratulations :)</p>