Does SAS have an arts class requirement? Does theater fulfill that requirement?
There is a freshman âintro/surveyâ classâŠwhere you do fine arts, music, dramatic arts, and danceâŠone per quarter. Everyone has to take thisâŠand it does not fulfill the art requirement. But my daughter report that doing a theater product would count towards the arts requirementâŠshe also notes that most people go beyond.
If she's a senior, how are you going to be on CC next year?
Also if sheâs on break, why? Does SAS have long weekends or something?
The Introduction to the Arts class is required the III Form year (donât think older new students have to take it) and rotates four different arts experiences with each academic quarter. All students must take an additional arts class or a co-curricular activity (like a play, Jazz Ensemble, etc.) to graduate (beyond Introduction to the Arts, that is).
My daughter has fulfilled her winter afternoon activity requirement with the musicals (instead of a sport; there are other non-athletic options, like Winter Forestry, etc.). She reports that those in the musical are NOT involved in a winter sport at the same time; canât say this is 100% true every year, but it seems logical, as the afternoon rehearsals donât last for too many weeks before showtime, about the third week in February.
SAS has plenty of kids who have a niche, plenty into a lot of things, but I think they may very well have as an ideal those who are niche students but want to do lots of other things. The reasons have been discussed extensively in above posts.
Prospective students who are admitted really owe it to themselves to try and do a Visit Back. These give valuable experiences, like the chance to talk individually with teachers and current students, beyond the usual tour days. The comparisons and contrasts with other schools become more apparent in late March/early April, and sometimes the applicant has come to new realizations about them self over the course of the year.
I have a frosh at another school (Masters) this year so Iâll be activeâŠbut my participation on the forum has largely tailed off over the years.
Iâm tired, frankly, of the focus here on handful of schoolsâŠto the exclusion of many other great high school experiences. For example, how much play does Thacher get here? A drop in the bucket compared to Exeter or Andover. And having visited Exeter and Thacher, I can tell you there is no question in my mind which school Iâd want my kid to go toâŠbut I am just a vocal minority on the CC forum.
SAS happens to have a LONG spring break this year. 3 weeks. She came home on Sat and goes back March 22.
Do all freshman boys live above the central building? Like in-between the dining hall and admissions but 1 floor above?
Yes, that is called âFounders Hallâ. That is where ALL the boys live (no matter the year)âŠpretty sure there are 2 floors of dorm rooms. There had been some talk recently about making one hall of Founders have girls, but I donât know if/when that will happen.
What is the policy between boys visiting girls dorms? (Most of my current friends are girls.)
From 7Daughter: Boys can only go into the common room of girls dormsâŠand thatâs at the discretion of the senior girls in that dorm. There is no visiting in the dorm room of the opposite sex (in either the girls dorms or boys dorms)âŠno âparietalsâ like at Andover.
Seems like there are plenty of places to hang out (co-ed style) on campus though.
I have seen evidence of many strong friendships between boys and girls at SAS. The school encourages these relationships.
That said, there is no room visitation whatsoever. Girls are not allowed on the second or third floors of Founders, where the boys corridors are located. The boys mostly visit the common room for Moss, which is IV Form girls. Very rarely are boys seen in the common rooms for III Form (Pell) or V Form (âacross the gullyâ) corridors. Girls and boys hang out a lot together in other common areas, whether in Founders, Amos or the Arts building, and, obviously, outside, especially on the front lawn.
Relationships are what individuals make of them, and they run the gamut from one extreme to the other extreme. I do get the sense, however, that the school takes steps to lessen the incidence of sexual intimacy on campus, so that the visitation rule above moves in the direction of its stated ban of oral sex and intercourse. My daughter heard about the Owen Labrie case and âsexual solicitation traditionâ at St. Paulâs and said she thought that that would never happen at St. Andrewâs. The school communityâs widespread embrace of an ethos that runs strongly counter to such behavior leads me to concur. Of course, consensual intimacy occurs within a context of health classes that specifically discuss such issues from IV Form on.
Starting M10, many parents/students will no doubt do another round of research/DD on schools from which the student received an offer of admission.
If St. Andrewâs is in your set of schools still under consideration, I wanted to share a link that gives you an angle on the school that you might not otherwise get. Itâs an archive of these wonderful âFriday News From Campusâ e-newsletters penned mostly by alum and current Dean of Students Will Robinson:
http://www.standrews-de.org/parents/friday-news-from-campus/index.aspx
I think this weekly communication is fairly unique among boarding schoolsâŠand very much reflects the culture and âethosâ (SAS-speak) of the place. If you donât care to click the link, hereâs an excerpt from the most recent one (not yet posted to the archive):
âŠThree moments this week perfectly captured what I think this community is all about. The first was the Student Diversity Leadership Chapel on Wednesday. I donât have pictures because I was too engrossed in listening to the seven students share their hopes and dreams for the School, their friends and themselves.
It was one of those great St. Andrewâs moments that often take place in the Chapel. Their message was steeped in love and with a deep desire for all of us to not just accept each otherâs differences, but to embrace them as a way of living a fuller and happier life. I listened to their impassioned words against the backdrop of inexplicable hate and oppression halfway around the world. It occurred to me that these students will one day become the adults we sorely need and come to count on.
The second moment was when Ryan B. '16 stood up today at lunch and thanked the community for rallying around his call to write letters to troops serving overseas. Ryan and his friends managed to collect over 300 letters heâll soon deliver to the Wounded Warrior Project. He also announced that his classmate, Parker T. '16, is helping him build a website where people can write notes to troops that he will then print and send. Ryan wonât be satisfied until every serviceman and woman receives a letter (and then heâll start over on round two) and I love that Parker wants to use his considerable coding talents to help.
The third moment moment happened about three hours ago as I was sitting down to dinner. Isabel N. '15 knocked on my door while cradling a piece of 10,000 year-old petrified wood about the size and shape of my 8-week old daughter. âI was exploring the trails the other day when I saw this small piece sticking out of the ground,â she said. She went back today with a pick axe and dug it up. âItâs heavy,â she said smiling. âIâm going to show it to my grandfather and then probably bring it back to the bio lab.â
âThatâs awesome,â said my son, Liam, in amazement. It sure was.
^^^ lol, 7, Iâm composing these posts even while you are clicking yours to life! Iâm so slow.
Helpful Intel charger and seven. SAS is one of the Beardlings top choices, and should they be so lucky to have it as an option come M10, I plan to unapologetically barrage you with detailed questions about the total experience. BTW - heading into revisit days, I will take any recommendations for lodging besides the Middletown Hampton Inn⊠That might increase the selection potential with Mrs. Blackbeard.
We have generally stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Christiana (cheaper than the M-town Hampton Inn). I think Charger favors a B&B closer to Middletown. If your wife desires more lux (and you donât mind a bit of a longer drive in the AM of revisits)âŠWilmington and Philly have higher end places.
A few hot tips on local restaurants:
- Cantwell Tavern in Odessa
- Sixth & Pine in the Nordstrom at the Christiana Mall (donât knock it until youâve tried it!)
Fingers crossed for your fam.
Cantwell Tavern was Great!!! I loved the fireplaces and architecture. What B&B did charger go to? (We were at the Hampton Inn on Visit Day)
^^ Carole Colemanâs (Cantwell) B&B in Odessa, a block behind Cantwellâs Tavern, and five minutes from school. Parentsâ weekends sees the usual suspects, three families with '16 kids. As the other two also have older siblings who graduated, we always have interesting conversations comparing notes at breakfast. Have shared meals also with a '60s graduate, former faculty, etc., as Caroleâs been hosting SAS folks since the '80s. Her grandparents were on the kitchen and maintenance staffs back in the day, so Carole has all kinds of stories. Odessa is a charming nineteenth-century village with a tiny Quaker meetinghouse that is reputedly the smallest house of worship in America and has an Underground Railroad hiding place in the loft.
I wanted to echo Charger78âs suggestion to admitted students to go to SASâs revisit day.
Hereâs a true story from our revisit four years ago (that Iâve probably told somewhere in the previous 36 pages of this thread):
So, as part of SASâs (and many other schoolsâ) revisit day, they split up the parents and admitted applicants, but there is a single lunch session. I was not seated with my daughter, but with a group of students, including a few seniors. I had a great discussion with one senior boyâŠwho I learned had been admitted to Groton, St. Paulâs, and I think Exeter. But he had chosen SAS. As my daughter was also choosing between SAS and SPS, I really picked his brainâŠchallenging him on whether he had any regrets. He was generous enough to provide his email address for any follow up questions, which I did send him. And he provided long, thoughtful answers. Definitely a key person/encounter in shifting the balance towards SAS.
Fast forward to earlier this yearâŠthis young man was on campus for Parents weekend visiting his two siblings who followed in his footsteps. I remembered him and caught his attention. He remembered me and we chatted briefly before being pulled by other obligations. One of the things we discussed? How things were going for him at Yale.
I name drop here because I know that sort of thing is important to some people, but that is really not the important part of this story.
Anyone know if the SAS notices are UPS, FedEx or USPS? We are out of town for the week, so I am trying to tell our house sitter what to open and why to ignoreâŠ
Been a few years now, but ours came USPS on M10 (or whatever it day it was that year).
Ok thx