<p>The SAS girls’ eights was in the same situation in 2004 I think.</p>
<p>What’s the best option for parents when the Hampton Inn in town is booked? </p>
<p>I know I’m late to this (especially for the function in early October, yes ops, you warned me!), but I’d be interested regardless in light of the monopoly that the HI has on the SAS market.</p>
<p>Even a best town (Christiana vs. Wilimington?) or “DO NOT STAY AT X” would be helpful. TIA.</p>
<p>HI is under the Hilton umbrella and reciprocal with honor points. When we’re late with the HI in Middletown, we go the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana in Newark DE. It’s not necessarily the cheapest but we always get an upgrade with the points. We have not tried any other places and kind of stuck with the familiar routine</p>
<p>I think the Frosty Run is tonight. Here’s a link to a promo video:</p>
<p>[Frosty</a> Run Promo 2011 - The Most Interesting Man at St. Andrew’s - YouTube](<a href=“Frosty Run Promo 2011 - The Most Interesting Man at St. Andrew's - YouTube”>Frosty Run Promo 2011 - The Most Interesting Man at St. Andrew's - YouTube)</p>
<p>(For those who don’t know, yes, SAS has a gun collection.)</p>
<p>Several of my kids have attended, and because we live close-by they frequently bring their more far-flung classmates home with them for weekends. One thing I have not seen mentioned about St. Andrews is that the student body is quite diverse: there are students from all over the world as well as all over the country. I love that about it.</p>
<p>I, too, see the absence of internet in dorm rooms as a plus, and I have heard Mr. Roach speak to this issue as well. They would prefer that students learn to interact with each other (i.e., those people physically present) and form a cohesive community, rather than be constantly communicating with people far away. There are plenty of computer labs with internet available as well as the internet cables available in the common rooms (as previously mentioned). However, since all of these options are in public spaces you don’t have some lonely kid holed up in their room not interacting with those around them.</p>
<p>I attended a fundraising gala at SAS this weekend that marked the official opening of the new Sipprelle Fieldhouse. Sat with some teachers and other Third Form parents and had fun.</p>
<p>To my eye, one of the nicest things about this new athletic building is that much of it is below ground…so instead of some hulking three story edifice, it appears to only be one story high. Very nicely integrated into campus. Check out the pix here:</p>
<p>[St</a>. Andrew’s School: Crossroads » Athletics » Sipprelle Field House](<a href=“http://www.standrews-de.org/crossroads/athletics/sipprelle-field-house/index.aspx]St”>http://www.standrews-de.org/crossroads/athletics/sipprelle-field-house/index.aspx)</p>
<p>On another note, any other parents headed down for parents’ weekend in a few? Send me a PM if you don’t want to out yourself.</p>
<p>Had a great first ever Parents Weekend at SAS! Beautiful day for it as well.</p>
<p>Quick thoughts:</p>
<p>-Heard the soccer and football games were great, too bad we were in town running errands when those were going on.</p>
<p>-Is anyone else a fan of the chicken salad croissants served at lunch?..those and the pumpkin whoopie pies, good stuff…</p>
<p>-Tad’s words at the parents meeting were again a reminder of what SAS emphasizes and champions vs. most other schools (and the culture at large). Hopefully we’ll get some transcript of the 8 points he mentioned.</p>
<ul>
<li>The new Vietnamese place in the shopping center nearest campus is very good.</li>
</ul>
<p>I applied and it stood above schools like Middlesex and Taft for me. SAS just has a very special vibe. I didn’t choose it in the end, but really, what other schools have 100% boarding, such a high endowment, so much land, etc… that was full of wrong grammar. </p>
<p>I just want to point out that it’s not all about how famous a school is. This school I feel would be just, PERFECT, for some people, while others would prefer more competitive, famous schools like Exeter or Andover… Just do your research.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a transcript of Tad Roach’s address to parents from the 2011 Parents Weekend:</p>
<p>[Our</a> Commitment to Inspire – Parents Weekend Remarks Noxontown Notes](<a href=“Our Commitment to Inspire – Parents Weekend Remarks | Noxontown Notes”>Our Commitment to Inspire – Parents Weekend Remarks | Noxontown Notes)</p>
<p>It’s thoughts like “inspire our students to lives of service, creativity, kindness and leadership” that have set SAS apart from other schools we encountered on our search. And I guess I counted wrong, it was 7 points…not 8.</p>
<p>Another interesting thought from the day, and I’m paraphrasing here, was “Question the merit of any process/evaluation that can be ‘gamed’.”</p>
<p>One thing that I’ve always liked about SAS is how Headmaster Tad Roach and others have used the word “struggle” not so much in a negative way, but in a real and good (to my ears) way. </p>
<p>The school’s leaders acknowledge that life can be a struggle (this was a fairly unique POV among the BSs that we looked at) and that it takes hard work not just to succeed but to just get through it sometimes…and sometimes, that struggle/hard work IS what you get out of it, not any other outcome.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a recent chapel talk by teacher and crew coach Lindsay Brown on this subject:</p>
<p>[St</a>. Andrew’s School: News » Detail](<a href=“http://www.standrews-de.org/news/detail.aspx?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=1107&ModuleID=22&NEWSPID=1]St”>http://www.standrews-de.org/news/detail.aspx?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=1107&ModuleID=22&NEWSPID=1)</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving all…</p>
<p>Nice speech. My D works hard and struggles at BS and frankly, it is not talked about at her school as its own reward. That has made the time at BS frustrating for her and and we often wonder whether the journey has been worth it. In retrospect, a school’s philosophy, beyond its strong academics, makes a very big difference when we are talking about the complicated and multifaceted education of teens and I wish we had made this a greater priority when we chose schools for D.</p>
<p>^^The interview really serves both parties equally. It’s an opportunity for parents to lay it on the line in terms of their child’s strengths and weaknesses, and the values they think will best serve their kid through high school. And AOs SHOULD be able to articulate the school’s values, so parents can judge whether or not they feel there’s a match. It’s unfortunate so many applicants and families concentrate on trying to put themselves into the box they think the school wants to see.</p>
<p>This was just posted to the St. Andrew’s site…an excerpt from a session SAS Headmaster Tad Roach participated in earlier this month:</p>
<p>[The</a> Role of Privilege in Private Education - YouTube](<a href=“The Role of Privilege in Private Education - YouTube”>The Role of Privilege in Private Education - YouTube)</p>
<p>The concepts he touches on in this video clip permeate nearly every public address I’ve heard him make…again, articulating very different POV from those of other heads I’ve heard speak.</p>
<p>I will now step off my SAS soapbox for the remainder of the holiday weekend!</p>
<p>bump! 10ch</p>
<h1>92, #93, #94 - great posts. Thanks for bumping, E-Sun, I missed these. I do think the struggles, and respecting/valuing what the <em>process</em> can teach (i.e., not just valuing results) is so important at this age.</h1>
<p>S is a sophomore at SAS. I’m concerned about the attrition rate: is it usual for the school to have so many students leave/withdraw/out on probation for–cheating, honor violations, shoplifting, (and probably more I haven’t heard about? I understand that the student president (senior class) was required to give up his position for infractions, though I think he may be still at the school. We don’t live close by the school, and we are therefore dependent for information on our son (currently home for a long weekend). We have scoured the school newsletter, but don’t get any hint of what is going on. (I also have some academic concerns–no national merit qualifiers this year?)</p>
<p>This is somewhat irrelevant, but what are national merit qualifiers?</p>
<p>@erlanger #92: I completely agree with your thoughts. It’s easy to say what we’d do in retrospect but a very different thing before you have the actual experience… I wonder if you might share some specifics you would look for in a school if you had the opportunity to do it over again-- questions you would ask, or how you would go about trying to discover if the school would actually provide what you now wish your daughter had. What would that philosophy look/sound like? I am concerned about choosing a good fit for my DC and would like to benefit from others’ experiences. Thank you very much.</p>
<p>@wittyone: I’m just a first-time BS parent, but I’d think that if you truly have concerns about the issues you mention, a call or email to your child’s advisor or even the headmaster might be an easy way to allay them quickly — or at least provide you with more information than your son may be passing along.</p>
<p>FWIW, while I am aware of a handful of DCs at SAS this year, I would hardly characterize the number as “many”, even taking into consideration the relatively small size of the school.</p>
<p>As for academics (and assuming your assertion that there were no NMQs this year is even correct…), I don’t know if the number of NMQ candidates in any given year is necessarily a reflection on the quality of instruction at any school…</p>
<p>But since you piqued my interest, I looked at another popular index of school quality: college matriculation data. Using info from the most recent viewbook, I calculated a IVY+MS percentage rate of 9%…I think that would satisfy all but the most hardcore HYP+MS fetishists on the board. Add in the top-rated LACs and the percentages are much higher.</p>