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<p>Going with the schools mentioned above from smallest Thacher to largest Mercersburg/EHS yields a range of 240-430. I remember St. Paul’s referring to itself as a small boarding school at near 550.</p>
<p>What student body size range do people think of as small, medium, and large secondary boarding schools?</p>
<p>@stargirl: Alas I think Mr. Crimmins was NOT found this weekend, though my daughter feels that they were VERY CLOSE to finding him.</p>
<p>@i70sband: I would definitely try to some face-to-face time with Mr. Gold or perhaps try to observe a class.</p>
<p>@sevendad Thanks. The admissions office indicated they would try to coordinate the meeting w/Mr. Gold and possibly a tour with a student/dancer. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>The deal with the cross-country team sounds almost like a school version of the old foreign service tradition of the Hash House Harriers! Running the Hash was one of those wonderful Friday afternoon pastimes as an undergrad . . . </p>
<p>Students will be dismissed at 12 noon on Saturday for the Long Fall Weekend; hopefully, your touring will be before then.</p>
<p>I view the middle size as ~ 450-650, and large as ~ 650-850, with the ~1000 schools as super-sized for the BS category. </p>
<p>Not to give the wrong impression: there are “recruited” athletes and performers coming out of the small schools. At SAS, Megan’s story is pretty much one, and among athletes, Ben Bentil to Providence for basketball is another. A Princeton crew coach told me she had wanted a rower last spring who went to Williams instead, and the UVA squash coach told me he wants to land a senior this year. I simply saw a ton more athletes being recruited out of the MAPL during my days coaching in that, whether from the middle or large schools. One of the SAS football parents I was talking to last weekend went to L’ville and his son had that choice as well. I think that he could have started for their football team as a junior or senior, but he started at St. Andrew’s as a sophomore (highly skilled position). What’s more, football wasn’t really the guiding factor in choosing the BS. As for my son, what the boy heard was Mr. Roach messaging to him in a broader way that seemed missing in the pitches from elsewhere, and the feel of the revisit backing that up. If the boy had really wanted college football, probably D III given his size, then Lawrenceville would have been far better preparation for that. I don’t suppose that this type of comparison in sports transfers much to the arts world, but SAS has in recent memory sent at least one kid to Tisch, at least one admitted to Julliard, etc. The alumni biographies are replete with those accomplished in the arts, stretching back, most famously, to Loudon Wainwright III. </p>
<p>Applicants with specific co-curricular interests need to research those thoroughly and to weigh alternatives; but the principle that lots of us accept is that you should think that you would feel comfortable at the school even in the event that your chosen activity were suddenly taken away. </p>
<p>How are the girls sports programs at SAS? </p>
<p>If you can specify which sports, I could probably comment better/find people to comment easier.</p>
<p>One key thing to note about the school is that while it has its standout athletes and teams from year to year, I would never call it a sports powerhouse. If you are looking for the co-ed equivalent of something like an Avon Old Farms, you might be looking in the wrong place.</p>
<p>That said, I love the fact that the SAS sports page on FB recently covered varsity girls volleyball’s first win in a long time.</p>
<p>^^ #504. There is no real consistency across the teams as the talent of the students and the skills of the coaches varies widely. As at most prep schools, the long-term success of most sports runs cyclically according to the same factors and the shifting of these personnel; also, the competitive prowess of the scheduled opponents from year to year can change. Blair Academy puts a lot of emphasis on its wrestling program and its national prominence has stood for decades, but that is an outlier in the prep world. Deerfield within recent memory has always had a respectable boys lacrosse team, but not necessarily the dominant one like in some years. There are usually ups and downs in the majority of prep programs.</p>
<p>So, one guy’s opinions on the girl teams at SAS. The best are, in no order, crew, tennis, cross-country, lacrosse, swimming. I think that basketball, squash and soccer are getting better. Teams in the relative doldrums at the moment are volleyball and field hockey. You can find female athletes playing on college rosters especially in lacrosse, crew, squash and other sports as well. </p>
<p>The goal of the school is to see how far it can take, or improve, athletes from wherever they are as III Formers (or newcomers to a sport at any age) to their final season at SAS. It is not about finding and matriculating as many athletes as possible already playing at the highest levels. St. Andrew’s competes mostly favorably in the small-school context of the Delaware Independent School Conference, and generally among Delaware public and parochial schools. </p>
<p>Lacrosse player Louisa Belk '16 took home the state cross country title as a sophomore, her first year running XC. This just goes to show that while someone may have a “main sport” (lax in her case), there’s no reason they can’t succeed in another. SAS seems to have the “step out of your comfort zone” approach in both athletics and academics. </p>
<p>RE: Ms. Belk…she was also named a Gatorade XC runner last year. I haven’t seen her name in the posted results this season so I’m wondering if she’s injured.</p>
<p>SAS definitely has a “step outside your comfort zone” approach to athletics, academics, the arts…pretty much everything. The school really prizes hard work and resilience…I could argue even over winning.</p>
<p>^^^ Agreed. All of the small schools (200-350, esp.) need to have individual students participate in more than one activity just in order to have these programs exist at all, and usually the students do three, four and five over the course of a year. Therefore, I’d argue that an inherent dynamic of any “smaller” school is that students are readily induced to “step outside their comfort zone”, and that they will be on larger stages at lower grades too, compared to their big school peers. </p>
<p>Yes, Louisa Belk has been injured.</p>
<p>As an injured runner myself… it stinks. Hope she gets better soon!</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a recent video promoting a solar array project at St. Andrew’s. The project was initiated and is being led by students — who are seeking funds to get the project off the ground. To my eyes, as much as anything, it’s an excellent audio-visual “love letter” to the natural beauty of SAS:</p>
<p><a href=“Introducing the St. Andrew's Solar Panel Project - YouTube”>Introducing the St. Andrew's Solar Panel Project - YouTube;
<p>DD toured/interviewed yesterday. Busy day on campus with Trustee’s meeting and solar project dedication. Beautiful school and friendly admissions team. The school ethos, as described in this thread and school material, is omnipresent. We were most fortunate to meet with Mr. Gold, Dance Director. If you are an experienced dancer or a student looking for a mentor/program, put SAS on your shortlist. Very impressed with Mr. Gold and larger dance studio which incidentally has a Marley floor. </p>
<p>Those 2100 acres of the St. Andrew’s campus, surrounding Noxontown Pond? Yes, this is the reason for the “enclave” feel that has often been noted on these pages. (And that “distance” is a good thing as Middletown continues to expand. The new Emergency Care and a second health facility are great news for the school. Today’s St. Andreans enjoy an expanded list of shopping and food outlets within walking distance that were unavailable even ten years ago. Still, as one goes south down Silver Lake Road, crosses that water at its bottom, climbs to Noxontown Road, and zig zags on to the front drive, the feeling of a significant passage having been made is unmistakeable.)</p>
<p>But what this vast acreage really means is that students have a second school to take advantage of, an outdoor school, an SAS II. Fairly well known are the picnic areas at Rodney Point, the organic garden plot, the view of the school from a boat on the water (racing crew, paddling a canoe, or doing biology experiments from the launch). Today, I found a small portion of the rest of the campus as I hiked around the pond and realized the truth of the comment that a kid could literally get lost out here for a couple hours. </p>
<p>The cross-country course hugs the bluff overlooking Noxontown Pond on the west. Down the sides of this bluff there are a network of blazed hiking trails. Interpretive signs highlight the features of the understory, the midstory and the forest canopy. Glimpses of the water show far below from sections of the X-C course. Further west of the course, the tree planting work instigated year after year by Dr. Peter McLean, and attended to by the winter season’s student Forestry Crew, provides another wide and important buffer between the pond and the agricultural fields that spread out toward Summit Bridge Road/#71. Kids tell me that to hike all the way around the pond is a complete day’s adventure. Such an adventure is immediately accessible, and given the lack of access roads, would seem to be devoid of wayward strangers poaching the school’s grounds. </p>
<p>All schools, urban, rural, or suburban, have their own unique charms and attractions. I appreciate these pluses associated with St. Andrew’s: close and convenient access to all transportation networks; cultural opportunities at nearby higher ed (Washington College, U. Del.) and Wilmington; mentoring and other community service opportunities in Middletown itself; biennial all-school trips to Washington D.C.; day trips to Delaware beaches and nature preserves, canoeing on the Brandywine, and overnights at Antietam and the Appalachians; local shopping and dining; and SAS II any old day. The school makes a concerted effort to get all students to enjoy the outdoors, and even if they’re told not to start campfires, this potential balance to the intense scholarly and organized activities that take up most of the week is huge. For all kids, that’s fun on the Front Lawn itself; at some point during their years at St. Andrew’s, a good many find the joy of playing in and around the pond’s surrounding forest. (The cave of “Dead Poet’s Society” is probably fiction, but “forts” are real, and traditional.)</p>
<p>Incidentally, my walkabout came after springing some kids from the Episcopalian chapel service Sunday morning and attending the Appoquinimink (or Odessa) Friends Meeting for Worship, five minutes down the road. Vans were also taking students to other church services. </p>
<p>Parent’s weekend was great fun. Of course there was the usual schedule of fantastic performances in the arts, friendly competition on the athletic fields, and one-on-one conferences with each of our kids’ teachers. But for us, the magic happened in the spaces between those events… in the brief social interactions with parents, students, and teachers. Some felt like old friends, some we just met but felt destined to become old friends. SAS really is a thriving, diverse, community of people who absolutely love the school and love all the people connected to it. It’s fantastic that the warm embrace of the community extends to include the families as well. We feel right at home and quite close to everyone there. It’s a special place.</p>
<p>+1 on seekers’ post #514.</p>
<p>Even the parents of seniors my daughter might not be that close to…since we’ve run into each other over the years there is a familiarity, and as mentioned above, a shared sense that we’re all connected to this community and the mission of the school.</p>
<p>It was the first time a fellow parent asked me if I was “SevenDad”…I guess going 4 years before that happening is pretty good!</p>
<p>One cool thing for me to see this time was how kids we know have grown up/matured over the years…time flies.</p>
<p>We have enjoyed so much our contacts over the years with several SAS families, including those with siblings who are both classmates of our own kids and older students. The longer experience of these families has lent more perspective to our (very candid) conversations, and several years on we feel we have made true friends. </p>
<p>Wrote this up for another thread, but seems it really should be here for prospective families who might miss it otherwise.</p>
<p>Every school has something in the way of “drug use, hazing, theft, gender pressures, teacher-student dysfunction, etc.”, which is the old saw one hears. Distinguishing between smaller and larger problems gets more to the point. St. Andrew’s had some abuse issues last year, and a cyber-meanness outbreak, but action was taken in both cases largely because the kids themselves brought it to light. I believe that the student community came together afterward so that while there was sadness about kids who departed for varying lengths of time (including forever), there were few recriminations. The vast majority are “all in” on the school ethos, and there is much less of a faculty-student divide. See the link below for an interesting opinion piece by a recent alum, Alex McIlvaine, in the student newspaper regarding his transition from the SAS culture to that at his elite university and the “real world”. [One complaint commonly heard in past years concerns the “borrowing” of bicycles that are not returned to their original location.] </p>
<p><a href=“http://library.standrews-de.org/lists/archives/student_publications/cardinal/2014_10_03_vol-82_no-1_misnumbered.pdf[/url]”>http://library.standrews-de.org/lists/archives/student_publications/cardinal/2014_10_03_vol-82_no-1_misnumbered.pdf</a></p>
<p>Blackbeardlings visited yesterday morning, and we’re very impressed with tone of school, students, and interview process. Was the final stop on BS visit calendar. Perhaps we are all getting better at the visit process in terms of evaluation skills and observations, but it did not take long to see some strong structural and qualitative differences from other places. Beardlings 1+2 both agree SAS will be getting applications (from a process perspective, we have visited 8 and are likely to apply to 2-3).</p>
<p>Quick detailed questions for the forum:</p>
<p>1) Heard laundry service was being considered for last year. Came from student tour guide. Anyone able to confirm?
2) Is there still no internet in dorm rooms? Curious to know how durable this policy will be given nature of online content in education these days.
3) On drive out while reading viewbook, we noticed the population by grade level in the facts and figures section was 9th - 67, 10th - 81, 11th - 82, 12th - 69. Any explanation for why the senior class is that much smaller than the middle years? Seemed odd.</p>
<p>Finally, fwiw, was highly impressed to see photography books by Julie Blackmon and Doug Rickard on display in library. Not very well known and completely current artists. I doubt you would run into these books in many other BS libraries…</p>
<p>Some answers:
<p>UPDATE — FOUND THIS EMAIL FROM BACK IN SEPT.:
"For a variety of reasons, St. Andrew’s this year will study our student laundry program and facilities. As we have grown to be a school of 295-300 students, we have struggled both to provide machines and adequate time and space for the efficient use of our laundry rooms. This year, to accommodate a great group of new IV Form girls, we converted a laundry space on Moss to an excellent student room.</p>
<p>This year, we will conduct a trial by providing IV Form boys and girls (and seniors living with them) with an outside laundry service paid for by St. Andrew’s. III, V, and VI Formers not living with IV Formers will do laundry as usual in the facilities provided by the School.</p>
<p>Although the idea of an outside laundry service has appeal, we are concerned that such a move might remove one of the responsibilities boarding students need to learn and carry during their adolescent years. We will be interested to see how the outside laundry service contributes to the cleaning and stewardship of our IV Form dorms. We will look carefully to see if the Founders laundry room works more effectively with fewer boys using the room…"</p>
<p>Wow, I missed the part about how the test group is being paid for by the school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>As of this year, yes, there is still no internet in dorm rooms. I happen to have be a fan of this policy. But I as with laundry, I think that’s another long-standing policy that’s being reconsidered this year. In fact, Head Tad Roach talked to a parent question regarding this at the recent Parents Weekend.</p></li>
<li><p>At a school the size of SAS, they are truly limited by the number of beds they have…with 300 a fairly hard ceiling. They’ve gone higher in the years my daughter (now a senior) has been there, but that necessitated turning some doubles into triples and some triples into quads I think they start each frosh class in the mid 60s, to have the flex of adding about a dozen or so sophomore year. They accept a VERY limited number of new juniors. And, to my knowledge, admit NO 1-year seniors. Speaking more specifically, in my daughter’s class (current seniors), there has been some attrition over the years, for a variety of reasons that vary by individual.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m glad to hear you could pick up on the differences that many of us who are associated with the school see/feel…I have been accused in the past of trumpeting a bit too loudly things which are not true differentiators. Feel free to write or PM with any further questions.</p>
<p>77 V Formers last year dropped to 69 VI Formers this year because at least two were involved in the drug abuse I mentioned above. Those who bring to campus or sell or pass out from their own stash face the heaviest penalties, and usually expulsion. I believe that marijuana and prescription drugs were the bulk of the problem though this information was not made public. This was a circle of maybe 4-10 kids and when one of them decided to come clean those who truthfully answered questions brought others in until all was concluded. Several were able to stay in school.</p>
<p>As to the rest of the eight, one was the junior-year exchange student from Germany. I understand that two of the boys who left had been unhappy boarding for a long time. The final three had been active in school activities and were apparently in good standing.</p>
<p>Mr. Roach said Wi-Fi is going to be broadly available next year after a thorough discussion involving students and teachers. Many of us parents want to keep restrictions on mobile devices so the kids are not allowed to text and call everywhere on campus though it appears Wi-Fi will be in the dorm rooms, at least during the study hall hours. </p>