<p>I believe good ISL lax programs are built by excellent coaching from the start, and not by bringing in good payers. C1 are you saying that is what Middlesex and the other perennial good programs do?</p>
<p>I’ve been slowly reading through and gotten some very good tips that are helping us get ready, so thanks to all the posters on this very long thread. One thing I did was make hotel reservations for drop-off and Parents’ Weekend. I decided to splurge for The Centennial for the September start of school, and was able to get rooms at another hotel in town for the October weekend.</p>
<p>FWIW, a few times when we visited the school, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester, NH (about 30 minutes away). Very new, clean facility. Backs onto a minor league park, for a unique view.</p>
<p>I preferred that hotel to the Courtyard Marriott in Concord.</p>
<p>Hotels - Both the Centennial and the Hilton Garden Inn in Machester mentioned by SevenDad are nice. I would also recommend the Residence Inn in Concord. New hotel and rooms with kitchens and fireplaces available.</p>
<p>Sarum - Of course, bringing in good players as 4th and 5th formers helps teams be stronger - it’s not all about coaching. My impression is that SPS doesn’t heavily recruit with the exception of maybe boys’ hockey and football more recently. Success breeds success - schools with strong programs are more likely to attract strong players. It’s kind of a Catch-22. Frankly, strong athletic teams are not among my top priorities and given that SPS still does quite well in applications and yield, it seems like others place a high priority on the factors I mentioned - academics, community, facilities, etc.</p>
<p>The SPS students on the LAX team are very frustrated. Three coaches in five years?
“We cannot be carelss or adopt cavalier attitudes in our Christian lives and expect to grow or become all that God intends us to be”</p>
<p>Not sure what your quote is in reference to…however, if your son and his friends feel that way the best thing to do is to address their concerns with the coach and/or the athletic director. Just venting amongst themselves isn’t very productive but rather counterproductive to team dynamics. I know another team on campus - different season - made some suggestions to a coach regarding playing some people in different spots. Their suggestions were implemented and the team did much better afterwards. It’s a lesson in leadership - as long as it is done thoughtfully and politely, it can’t hurt and will possibly help. As parents, our job is to remind them that rather than griping, they should think of solutions - good training for life in the outside world. Also, one season’s athletics is a small part of their overall experience. Just my 2 cents…</p>
<p>Believe it or not, we’re starting to plan trips and buy plane tickets for the fall. Current SPS students/parents - do students who have a long distance to travel usually come home for Thanksgiving? We’re trying to decide whether D should come home or we should meet up at grandparents’ house (they live a car drive rather than a plane flight away).</p>
<p>Normal to plan early. And for your Concord hotels, be sure to ask for the St. Paul’s rate (Marriott, Centennial and a few others have a cheaper rate).<br>
Thanksgiving… Most but not all go home. Students from Asia etc. no, and I know we brought two (Ariz. and Calif. to our family Thanksgiving). So without knowing where you live it is hard to guess. For quite a few cost is an issue. There has always been a tradition (unrelated to Thanksgiving) of visiting parents offering to bring a couple of students out to dinner in Concord if they visit their S/D. Always nice to have the kids think about their friends, especially those who are far from home or whatever.
I am up at SPS now. Tomorrow night I am having dinner with the parents of a boy who graduated with my son 2 years ago. So it can continue even after SPS!</p>
<p>Momforall: Was at the dedication of the Lindsay Center tonight. I saw your son and introduced myself. I half jokingly covered my name tag in deferrence to the Confidential part of CC. He was operating the sphere and I had been told only one student knows how to do it, so I assume that is your son (a 2nd student was helping). I told him if he talked to you to say he met “Winterset”. He seemed happy and engaged. So good job, you have a nice, confident, successful and articulate son. I challenged him to show us what else the sphere could do. He did a nice job. An amazing and entertaining piece of technology.</p>
<p>Thanks Winterset. We’re in CA. It’s a long trip but at least it’s relatively direct.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on special room rates! </p>
<p>D and I were watching some of the videos on the website and youtube tonight. It’s hard to find a lot of snow pictures but we found a few. Since I’m an alum I could happily watch SPS videos all day, but she especially liked the ones that showed more of an insider’s view, like the Risky Business one that had all those scenes inside the dorms.</p>
<p>winter set did you visit the astronomy center? (the solar telescopes)</p>
<p>Yes, I was everywhere. Spent several days in the Lindsay Center. The solar telescope is pretty small compared to the dome. Now the Hawley telescope is still the largest in NE.</p>
<p>This student created video is now a few years old but I thought it was worth resurfacing as it sums up a lot of the wonderful aspects of SPS that my child loved:
[A</a> Look Inside the Bubble - YouTube](<a href=“A Look Inside the Bubble - YouTube”>A Look Inside the Bubble - YouTube)</p>
<p>From the SPS website:</p>
<p>Another Record Year for Admission</p>
<p>5/8/2012
A record 1,430 students applied for admission to St. Paul’s School for the 2012-13 academic year.</p>
<p>Of that number (compared with 1,402 in 2011), only 17% were offered admission to the School. According to SPS admissions data, 25% of applicants scored 95% or better on their SSATs, while 30% of the pool registered grade-point averages of 4.0 or above.</p>
<p>“This was a remarkably talented group of kids,” said Admission Director Scott Bohan ’94. “The strengths of these students as individuals and collectively mean that we have an amazing pool of kids enrolling for the fall. Unfortunately, that meant denying entry to a substantial number of students with perfect grades and test scores.”</p>
<p>The 229 admitted students include 115 girls and 114 boys from 29 states and 17 countries, including Ireland, India, and Brunei. A total of 889 students applied for the Third Form, 402 for the Fourth Form, and 139 for the Fifth Form. Seventeen percent of the diverse pool of applicants come from countries other than the United States while 30% are non-Caucasian.</p>
<p>Of those admitted, 165 (67%) students – 84 boys and 81 girls – have elected to enroll at St. Paul’s in the fall of 2012. Total enrollment for the fall term is expected to be 535 students.</p>
<p>Another number from the most recent admissions cycle that indicates the health of the School is that of 4,272 inquiries (up from 4,138 in 2011).</p>
<p>One explanation for why the number of applicants is on the rise is the use of the common application – similar to the concept familiar to college applicants – for boarding schools. Part I of the application allows prospective students to easily apply to founding members St. Paul’s, Andover, Hotchkiss, Deerfield, and Groton, while Part II is unique to each school. More independent schools are interested in adopting the common application via the Gateway to Prep Schools.</p>
<p>Included in the SPS enrollment numbers for 2012-13 are 55 (33 percent) new students of color – 35 from the United States and 20 from other countries.</p>
<p>Among the new students are 104 Third Formers, 50 Fourth Formers, and 11 Fifth Formers.</p>
<p>Reflecting the technology of this generation, 16% (245/1533) of admission interviews were conducted online via Skype.</p>
<p>Also of note is that while 38 percent of new students will receive some form of tuition assistance during the 2012-13 academic year.</p>
<p>I have a practical question - do most kids have their own printers? Or are there printers available in the dorms, library etc that students use?</p>
<p>My son uses school printers at the various locations you mentioned. I have not seen many students with their own printers.</p>
<p>My daughter has her own printer at school, but she has her computer set up to print in any of the buildings so you really don’t need one.</p>
<p>I began a new Wikipedia article for St. Paul’s founder (previously incorrectly linked to another physician, Dr. George CS Choate, who was born 14 years after Dr. Shattuck). Please check the link below, offer suggestions you may have – then it can be correctly linked to St. Paul’s on Wikipedia. I personally find it odd that the “St. Paul’s School” Wikipedia article links to the wrong person, especially since that article receives, from all around the world, over a hundred thousand hits every year. It’s been way too long for Dr. Shattuck not to receive the recognition on that forum that he deserves.</p>
<p>[Wikipedia</a> talk:Articles for creation/George Cheyne Shattuck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/George_Cheyne_Shattuck#George_Cheyne_Shattuck]Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/George_Cheyne_Shattuck#George_Cheyne_Shattuck)</p>
<p>It is a practical joke by some Choate graduate. I had it fixed a few years ago, then someone changed it back again. At one point they had Shattuck dying in an insane asylum. I will have to see what they have him doing now.</p>