<p>
@SevenDad, you are making me nervous. 
Do you have specific reasons why this inquiry is no appropriate?</p>
<p>DAndrew - I don’t know the answer to your question but I’m sure if you send a quick email to admissions or make a quick phone call, they would be happy to check into it for you and then you can post back informing us all. The admissions folks are very nice and I’m sure they would welcome the opportunity to clarify the discrepancy for you. It would also be the quickest way to get to the heart of the issue.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything nefarious going on. I suspect that some of the students who received special-interest scholarships didn’t apply for financial aid. Thus, the school doesn’t have an official record of the family income, and can’t add their statistics to the graph.</p>
<p>One forgets that, before the modern era of need-based financial aid, most scholarships were endowed for certain eligible students. Sailors’ orphans, for example, or descendants of the graduates of the class of 1882. In order to convert such endowed funds to need-based scholarships, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong), a school or college needs either the consent of the donor’s descendants or assignees, or a judge’s order.</p>
<p>Saturday Night Lights
10/26/2010</p>
<p>Riding a three-game winning streak, the Big Red football squad will take to the gridiron on Saturday to square off against ISL opponent Groton, the hungry losers of two close games over the past two weeks. This weekend’s game comes with a twist: A 5 p.m. twilight showdown under guest lighting on the SPS football field.</p>
<p>Saturday night’s game comes at the end of Spirit Week at St. Paul’s, which has included a club day for sporting one’s club colors, a dorm spirit day, pajama day, a “Where’s Waldo” day (white tops and blue jeans), and a twin day. The Student Council has encouraged community members to don as much red as possible for Saturday’s kickoff.</p>
<p>“It is an absolute honor to be hosting the night game,” said Zach Radford ‘12, the Big Red’s starting quarterback. “The ability to host this event gives us the opportunity to prove to the School that we are real, and that St. Paul’s football is back. There is nothing more we can ask for. Of course we are all nervous, but we are harnessing this energy and setting our sights on Groton. The support of this community is a huge advantage.”</p>
<p>The efforts of the SPS and Groton football players will be illuminated with help from eight portable metal halide flood lights brought in from nearby Hooksett, N.H.</p>
<p>Students have come out in force for past games that have taken place after sundown, including boys soccer and football under the outdoor lights and boys and girls hockey in the evening glow of Gordon Rink. Last fall, the girls soccer team played Andover to a 0-0 deadlock under the lights on October 16.</p>
<p>“It’s nice as a school for everybody to get behind one sport,” said head football coach Craig Vandersea.</p>
<p>Other fairly recent night games have included a football matchup between St. Paul’s and Belmont Hill on November 4, 2000. The following year, a night football game scheduled for September 29, 2001, was moved to the afternoon when the company that rented the light towers shipped all of its units to New York City to help illuminate Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center and to New Jersey to brighten makeshift recovery sites across the Hudson.
“We have 300 students involved in interscholastic competition, and they always play simultaneously,” said Athletic Director Liesbeth Hirschfeld. “The night games help to expand the spectator base, allow other athletes to be part of it, create great spirit, and are something the kids really remember once they leave here.”
St. Paul’s enters Saturday’s game against Groton sporting a 3-2 overall record, including an impressive 21-20 win on the road October 23 over ISL opponent St. George’s. The Big Red beat Roxbury Latin, 16-14, on a last-minute field goal by Fuller Henriques ’11 over Family Weekend. The team also beat Thayer Academy a week earlier.</p>
<p>Groton comes into Saturday night’s showdown with a 1-3 mark, including a 0-7 nail-biter to St. George’s and a 26-31 loss to Rivers, a team that also beat St. Paul’s early in the season. Groton’s win came 7-3 over ISL opponent Brooks.</p>
<p>“It’s good for the boys on the football team and for the student body to experience the night game and the atmosphere that goes with it,” said Groton coach Rick Sampson.</p>
<p>Coach Vandersea said his team will have to focus on stopping Groton’s wide-open offensive sets, which, in his opinion, are among the best in the ISL. Groton will have to contend with the SPS ground game, which has punished opposing defenses in recent weeks.</p>
<p>If last year’s game is any indication, then spectators should be in for a treat. In that October 31, 2009, matchup, St. Paul’s escaped with a 14-13 win on the road after Jeff Winthrop ’11 – one of the Big Red captains this fall – blocked the extra point attempt that would have tied the game.</p>
<p>Coach Vandersea, now in his third season as head football coach at SPS, is preparing his team for the Groton squad, but also with ways to harness the nervous energy surrounding Saturday night’s main event.</p>
<p>The lights themselves, he said, could cause issues for both teams in the kicking games. Conditional challenges aside, the coach expects the game to be a close one, which – like last year’s contest – could come down to last-minute heroics on either side.</p>
<p>“It’s good to be nervous because that means you care about it,” he said. “Someone’s going to have to stop somebody at the end.”</p>
<p>Student Council Makes Club Revival Its Mission
10/27/2010</p>
<p>Up until the 1960s, students of St. Paul’s prided themselves on their club affiliations. They bled Isthmian red or Old Hundred blue or Delphian maroon.</p>
<p>All that changed at the onset of interscholastic sports, which gradually replaced the bragging-rights-driven, school-spirit-inducing club system.</p>
<p>Unless they are affiliated with a club soccer or hockey team, today’s students no more know to which club they belong than why the club system was so important in its heyday. With any luck, however, all that is changing.</p>
<p>Sixth Form officers Joe Nore</p>
<p>OK. So I have the answer, but before I get to that - I do listen to SevenDad and have tried to save some “digital ink”. I refrained from responding to Creative1 by saying that I appreciate her advice of contacting the school and that she can’t blame me for first and foremost trying to get answers from gurus here on CC who are so knowledgeable about the school. To answer the question why did I want to know (or how does it matter)? Well, SPS is a great school. It is also a small school with tons of qualified applicants each year. I figure that to learn anything possible about the application process including the FA application process couldn’t hurt. This particular detail may not be of interest or helpful to SevenDad’s, but I think it is to me and maybe people like me. And I believe that this is the perfect forum to ask and discuss my question.</p>
<p>So I contacted the school (the SPS adcoms’ courtesy and promptness in getting back greatly impressed me!). It turns out that Periwinkle’s right but I am right too. The 30 FA recipients that are not counted in the FA brochure include merit-based scholarship receipients, faculty kids and non specified other cases where income info has not been obtained and/or documented. There we go. If not for anything else, my curiosity has been satisfied. Thanks for the digitial space I took liberty of taking.</p>
<p>DA, it was worth the digital space. Thanks for passing along the info, very helpful. :)</p>
<p>@DAndrew: I appreciate the clarification and, again, offer that I intended no offense. </p>
<p>I guess I was just curious why you were interested in getting the numbers so exact…and then I was wondering if you were trying to point out something nefarious. I shall speak no more of it.</p>
<p>@creative1: Might be interesting to throw in some uncommon but traditional sports into that mix…badminton, croquet, and archery all come to mind. And while they are at it, how about bridge?</p>
<p>Ever thought of why the school gives exact numbers and percentages instead of sAying we offer a lot or some financial aid. It’s just a way of thinking and presenting. Some people like to get to the bottom of it when they see something inconsistent. I guess you can call it one form of perfectionism. Nefarious? Please. Even if this was indeed some weakness of the school I perceive, ain’t I free to point it out? Would the school’s reputation be hurt by it? I doubt it. Now, I shall say no more of it because threes nothing else to say.</p>
<p>SevenDad: I hope you become a parent next year, you would be a great contributor to this thread. </p>
<p>This thread ranks as the 2nd most viewed on boarding schools (after “countdown…”) with 207,000 views. Who would have guessed? I am glad we can be of service to all of you, and hats off to the two of you that have read each and every posting! As my involvement has waned, I am glad to see other knowledgeable people step forward.</p>
<p>SevenDad-last year my d attend a few bridge club meetings.</p>
<p>DAndrew - Thanks for reporting back on your findings. I’m glad that the admissions dept was helpful and courteous, which has been my experience when interacting with them in the past. </p>
<p>The students seem to be enjoying the rebirth of the club competition. Tomorrow night is the big bonfire/pep rally. :)</p>
<p>Any questions for a student?</p>
<p>@wickedcrazy: What’s the buzz among the students about the search for a new Rector and the candidates under consideration?</p>
<p>Here’s something else that’s been on my mind…the upperclassmen we’ve met over the course of our visits have been extremely polite, well-spoken, and intelligent. They are certainly among the most polished and articulate teenagers I’ve met. My question is this: Do kids come to St. Paul’s this way as freshman or does the school shape the kids over the course of three or four years?</p>
<p>Sevendad, great question!!</p>
<p>@ Sevendad: haha i feel like every parent asks this my parents included. When I first got to school this year my roommates big sister helped me move in. When my mom heard her in a discussion with another girl, and late how polite she was to my mother, caused my mother to ask “Did you come to SPS this way, or did you grow to be this mature”. Also while giving tours a prespective students parents asked me the same question about one of my friends!</p>
<p>@texaschica: So, what’s the answer then? ;-)</p>
<p>(and feel free to chime in on the Rector question as well)</p>
<p>I mean I’m really not sure. I feel like a lot of kids already come to sps being well mannered and polite because thats how their families raised them. I also think that a lot of kids, like me, who know their manners but are not quite as mature, learn it by being at sps. So yes I guess. SPS really helps you grow and mature.
and on the rector…
I have met all three and i think i know who might win.
- the woman was really nice but i just don’t see her being the right rector. And i think the school feels this way to, or at least the faculty.
- Mr. Hirschfeld is a really great guy, but i think that he is not going to be the rector. There are many reasons behind my theory some being his daughter goes here he lives her and he is no Bill Matthews. Then again the fact that he lives here and all might help him.
- My favorite… haha i just really like this guy all around. He was really nice and fun but strict in a way if you know what i mean. Also he is a male and he has had a lot of experience leading schools and i think he would stay here for a long time</p>
<p>Football team is 4-2, we won the night game yesterday 21-14…incase there is anyone interested in football on this forum. We could use a couple linemen for next yr.</p>
<p>Congrats to Football team on win…the football team has come a long way in the three years I have been associated with SPS…Looking forward to Hockey season starting up in three weeks.</p>