<p>I am currently in the process of deciding what schools I'm applying to, and one school I was wondering about was St. Paul's School (SPS). I see that it is affiliated with the episcopal, is it super religious? like are there required church services, etc. also, what is the school and the students like? if anyone could help me, that would be great :-) </p>
<p>Start by looking at their website. I think they have non-denominational chapel. One thing that stands out about SPS is that they’re 100% boarding, but I don’t really know much about the school.</p>
<p>SPS is as religious as Exeter, so not very religious at all. They seemed extremely welcoming of everyone and they have an amazing, scenic, beautiful campus.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a junior at SPS. I’ve found that really you can be as religious as you want to be at SPS. We do have mandatory chapel 4 times a week before classes, but really these are just glorified daily announcements with some hymns and a prayer said beforehand. We also usually have a speaker from outside or inside the community make a short speech to the whole school during these. They only last about 30 minutes, and sitting in the our gorgeous chapel for half an hour listening to a song or a speaker is actually quite a nice warmup for the day. We do have more traditional, religious chapel on sundays but they’re optional. I’m not particularly religious, so religion doesn’t really factor into my daily life, but for people who do want to pursue their faith the chaplaincy is all too ready to help.</p>
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<p>Suggest reading:
<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0691156239”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0691156239</a></p>
<p>If you want to read that go ahead, but remember it’s just the opinion of one guy who went here in the 90’s (and had a bad experience) and was a teaching fellow here from '04-'05. With our new rector (headmaster) the school seems to change year by year. This place wasn’t the same as it was in 2010, much less in 2004. I personally have never read the book, and it probably does hold some truth, but I’m not one of those “new elites” he talks about, and most of the school is no longer true old money new englanders.</p>
<p>SPS has a very tight community with almost all of the staff living on campus. It has almost 100% boarding population with about half of the students that Andover or Exeter have. The sports and academic facilities are top notch. The emphasis is put on students’ participation in sports each semester and that they should be involved in array of EC opportunities. The religious component is not taxing and they are not trying to convert anyone. It provides the opportunity for the school to get together and talk about important moral issues and values. Don’t get me wrong, they do have prayers as part of the Morning Prayers, but you are not forced to convert. Only schools that clearly state that they are non-denominational do not have the religious education/component in the day and curriculum.</p>
<p>SPS is 100% just to clarify.</p>
<p>@needtoboard: by “almost” I mean that there are faculty children and the kids from nearby Concord. Any school will have those, even the one that says 100% boarding: the faculty kids and the kids from nearby town/s.</p>
<p>Faculty children and students from nearby towns still live in the dorms at SPS, making SPS definitely 100% boarding.</p>
<p>@doschicos, I never called them day students, the word “almost” means, that they can go home for the weekend, or, if they get sick, they have other arrangements rather than infirmary. They do pay fee as boarders and are considered boarding students:). I have confirmed this with AO awhile ago, when the question about dorms and roommates came up. </p>
<p>If you haven’t already, you should read this entire thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/518167-st-paul-s-school-concord-nh-p215.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/518167-st-paul-s-school-concord-nh-p215.html</a></p>
<p>@dryhton,
Before u strut around like an authority on any book, I suggest u read it first.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7</p>
<p>That’s far from strutting like an authority on the book. I just wanted to point out that SPS is a very rapidly changing place, and info from 2004 may be outdated. The whole basis of the book was how the school had changed so much from the mid 90’s when Khan was a student to 2004 when Khan went back as a teaching fellow. If you think about it, it’s been a full decade now since 2004. It would be pretty fair to say a similar amount of changes have occured in a similar amount of time. And from personal experience, I can tell you that a lot has changed, even in just the last few years or so.</p>
<p><:-P oh my gosh! I loooooooooove st Paul! When I went on the interview EVERYONE was super nice and they even helped me and my dad out cuz we got lost lmao hehehehe but the campus is soooooo pretty and the interview even sent me a personal handwritten card telling me how much she loved interviewing me so I felt like they really cared ;)</p>
<p>is it mandatory to do a sport in st paul’s?</p>
<p>St. Paul’s School is not religious in practice. Many of the Episcopal boarding schools simply treat Christianity as a dead relic of the past, at most as heritage. For example, regular Sunday attendance at actual religious services (Episcopal mass) isn’t encouraged much less required…if it is even offered.</p>
<p>As a previous poster mentioned, SPS is as religious as Exeter, a longstanding non-religious, secular school. It is strange that Episcopal-in-name-only schools continue to affiliate with the Episcopal Church given the confusion it can bring and how it can be misleading to people. My understanding is that a few boarding schools have disaffiliated in the past to become openly secular schools, a move that brings better clarity and transparency.</p>
<p>Speaking of St. Paul’s and Exeter in the same breath, since they are both in New Hampshire, do they ever play one another in sports? I think they may be in different leagues.</p>
<p>SPS and PEA schedule each other in some sports, but not in others. </p>
<p>PEA is about twice the size student body of SPS.</p>