Saint Mark's school

<p>Only a few schools are discussed here, and I like to mention that there are many outstanding boarding schools other than Andover and Exeter. They are big schools and it is not easy to compare them with other samll schools. In the big schools, not everybody goes to a good college it is three to four times larger than small schools and
the students quality is not uniform in such big schools.</p>

<p>Some small schools are excellent in terms of academic and extracurriculars. For example Saint Mark's school is
execellent school. Their acepptance rate has been below 30% and SSAT average is 83 percentile and their endowment is over 100million even in this downturn of economy. Considering the size of the school, it is a very good school. Their college matriculation is excellent.</p>

<p>check it out:</p>

<p>St</a>. Mark's School - Boarding School Profile</p>

<p>It is the first rate school as you see.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/464836-saint-marks-school-ma.html?highlight=Saint+Mark%27s+School%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/464836-saint-marks-school-ma.html?highlight=Saint+Mark%27s+School&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>----This is the thread that old prep posted a while ago------
I've posted on St. Mark's elsewhere. I have a child there now. I am thrilled with St. Mark's. It's a great school. I went to one of the elite academies, and wanted something smaller for my child. (My school was incredibly cutthroat, and although I went to an Ivy League school after graduating, I wanted something that wasn't so cold and impersonal for my child.) St. Mark's is small. The academics are excellent. Although I note that Groton has a stronger academic reputation, I don't necessarily see the basis for that. (I note, for instance, that in Boston Magazine's September 2006 rankings, St. Mark's and Groton are statistically in a dead heat.) St. Mark's college placements are considerably weaker than Groton's however. I think St. Mark's college placement office is actually one of the weakest institutions at the school. It's a quirk of the school. But if you do well at St. Mark's you will have no problem going to an elite college, particularly if you have a "hook" -- as many preps do. St. Mark's facilities are first rate, although at times a bit dowdy in comparison with other schools. The whole "school under one roof" concept is also rather unique. </p>

<p>St. Mark's has a rather intense institutional culture, I guess partly because it's arguably the most "WASP-y" of all the elite Ivys. You can get more info on that by going to the St. Mark's entry on Wikipedia, which gives you a good idea about the nature of the place. I would recommend St. Mark's without reservation to anybody, now that my child has been there a while. You can't easily compare it to the other St. Grottlesex schools, however. It's a quirky place. St. Paul's is twice the size; Groton is perhaps the school most like St. Mark's, but Groton is so much better known among middle class kids. Middlesex is kind of jockey and there's a weird vibe to the place. St. George's struck me personally as a bit of a party school and I thought was just a little too "precious". (The whole "dragon" thing is a bit over the top for me, but I am a Yankee.) I think if I could make one negative comment about St. Mark's, the students tend to be so self-assured that they don't take college admission seriously enough, and the counseling office fails at fighting to persuade its students to apply to elite schools, and fails at persuading elite colleges to take Marxians. On the other hand, I think there is no prep school in the United States, and I include Exeter and Andover here, that has produced more illustrious alumni in terms of its relatively small size. It's the St. Mark's paradox. Why are the alumni so successful when they have such a tough time, over the last two decades, getting into Harvard?</p>

<p>Thank you for bringing up St. Mark's on this forum. We feel very fortunate that my son has been accepted at several schools...including St. Mark's. St. Mark's is definitely towards the top of our list and we think it is a great fit for him. The St. Mark's parents I have spoken to on the phone today have been incredibly helpful and enthusiastic about the quality of the teachers and the overall atmosphere there.
Does anyone have first hand experience with the college placement process at the school? The above quote from "old prep" gives me pause.
Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>They just hired a new college counseling director since the current director is retiring. Although the current director is very good, the new director has an excellent background and experience at colloge counseling office at Phillips Andover and St. Paul.<br>
Check it out:</p>

<p>St</a>. Mark's School: News News Detail</p>

<p>They also added The new college counseling staff to reinforce the strength of the office and to help students better.</p>

<p>They also implemented a new tool to guide parents and students for successful applying procedure, which is called "Naviance". It provides all kinds of data that students and parents need. The tool provides the detail data about most of the colleges and students can sort the data they need easily and the tool provides all kinds of the data of the past St. Mark's senior's profile and the colleges they got admissions from. Once you become a junior, they give accounts of the tool to students and parents.</p>

<p>Overall, it is outstanding!</p>

<p>Thank you for the info. That sounds really good. many people say thst Saint Mark's belong to top tier school.</p>

<p>My D was accepted to St. Mark's and we are planning on attending the revisit day. It will be nice to get another look at the school. </p>

<p>A few questions/comments:
Do the students ever feel "cooped up" being in one building all the time?
How is it for the freshmen students to live across the street? does it isolate them from the rest of the community?
The animal heads in the dining room made it feel like an old hunting lodge!</p>

<p>St. Marks used to be a top tier school I hope they return to that perch soon.</p>

<p>madmamacita,</p>

<p>Do the students ever feel "cooped up" being in one building all the time? : not really. they have to move from one wing to another. Each department has its own wing. For example, all English classes are in the English wing. There are a couple of ather buildings like science building and performing arts building. they have scince classes in the sciene building and have studio arts and drama classes in the arts building. They are closely connected and it is large enough and we never feel cooped up. It is actually better since it does not take long to travel from one class to another. if the building are scattered around, some times you have to ride bike to move from one class to another. otherwise you haveto run and you will be out of breath.</p>

<p>Freshmen dorm: It is a nice short walk from the main building to the dorm. I feel like being refreshed whenever I walk cross the street. Usually we walk with friends and it is a fun.</p>

<p>The dining room: Sometimes, i feel like I am at Long Horn Steak house restaurant. But you will feel cozy once you get used to it after a couple fo weeks. Another dininng room in the next door has different mood, though.</p>

<p>Saram,</p>

<p>yes, everybody believes that it is coming back to its glory that Saint Mark's enjoyed in 1970s and 1980s.</p>

<p>70's and 80's ? :)</p>

<p>I would love to see it come back to the glory days of 1910 (my grandfather) and the 1930's when my three uncles went there. It was seriously the place to go, they went to Harvard and Princeton from there, and they all did great things in business and in politics.
I passed on an admit letter to St. Marks in the 70's because my parents didn't like the headmaster, and currently my son passed on it because currently it is an unknown entity to us. I hope to see a resurgence of the tradition and academic excellence of the past.</p>

<p>They have a new headmaster from 2-3 years ago. it is coming back. of course SMS was a top school from early days until 70's and early 80's. I do not know what happened. But i heard the previous headmaster and his wife were not good enough. They are still one of the top schools as students profiles demonstrate. But Everybody expects SMS to come back to its glory soon, and it is coming back.</p>

<p>I hope so Erk, I would love to send my grandchildren there. Their ancestors are all over the walls.</p>

<p>My daughter also passed on St. Mark's. The all-in-one connected building felt like rat trap for her...too claustrophobic and forced. I guess I do remember briefly seeing daylight on our two visits. The musty physical atmosphere plus the fussy administration really seemed anachronistic. The student body seemed very preppy, even by prep school standards of entitlement. During our tour, we were told that a renovation was in the works for the student area and was going to take 4 years! Why so long? As for a speedy return to "glory days"; it would help if St. Marks increased the percentage of faculty with advanced degrees (low in comparison to other schools).</p>

<p>percentage of faculty with advanced degrees of Saint mark's is not low. It is comparable:</p>

<p>Saint Mark's : 68%
Choate: 71%
Lawrenceville: 63%
Hotchkiss: 63%
Deerfield: 70%
Andover:71%</p>

<p>Exter has higher(83%)
Exeter has higher percentage than Andover: That does not mean that Exeter is better than Andover!</p>

<p>No it just means those teachers couldn't get a job. (just kidding):)</p>

<p>ha ha Sarum, i always enjoy your posts!</p>