St. Paul's School Concord NH

Hahahahaha! You must joking! Please kind person do not reply or refer to me again. That is a simple request. Not Legend.
Thank you in advance.

I think that @skieurope made a reasonable comment. Both of you @WildCat2023 are asserting that colleges are aware of the number of students offered admission from a particular prep school.

Unfortunately, you do not get to dictate who can and cannot post on a thread.

Dear HMom16.
Thank you for answering my second set of questions. Your first-hand perspectives are much appreciated.
Do you know whether St Paul offers help and guidance in getting summer science research internships or summer tech internships for students?
Thank you very much for your input!

@jogger I believe St. Paul’s would provide assistance and guidance regarding summer science/tech internships but it the student would need to take the initiative, reach out and ask for help. The Engineering Honors program provides structure and guidance for 5th form students seeking an internship before their senior year. https://www.sps.edu/page/news-detail?pk=997262&fromId=224140

Hi @jogger. Welcome to CC, and thanks for the good questions. I think @HMom16 answered them well, so I don’t have very substantial info to add, just personal experiences, which generally align with these of @HMom16. Will try to contribute in the next day or so.

Kathy Giles has been appointed as SPS’s Fourteenth Rector, beginning July 2019. Ms. Giles comes to SPS from the Middlesex School, where she has served as head of school since 2003. Before Middlesex, she was at Groton School in a range of administrative and educational roles including dean of academic affairs, college adviser, English teacher, coach, and dorm parent. She holds a Master’s in Education, a Juris Doctor, and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. Such a great asset for the SPS community!

Totally St. Grottlesex


We met Ms. Giles during our Middlesex revisit. I am actually surprised she decided to leave MX as her children graduated from MX and she seemed to really love the school. The cultures of MX and SPS are very different, just compare the two Parent/Student handbooks. The next few years should be interesting


@HMom16 : In what respects are the cultures different between SPS & Middlesex ?

Thank you in advance !

P.S. Absolutely no surprise that the new Rector is female in light of the past few years’ events.

@Publisher - As I mentioned in my post, if you compare the two handbooks, you will see a myriad of differences. In addition, the fact that SPS is fully residential while MX is up to 30% day student is not trivial. Combined, those differences have significant impact on the school’s culture.

Here are just a few examples:

MX has “study hours” 7:30-9:30, “free time” 9:30-10:30 and lights out at 10:30 unless special permission has been received. Students must request permission to use their computers during study hours. SPS has no required study hours or lights out time unless the student is struggling. Computer access is not limited.

SPS is much more flexible in terms of class selection. At MX, Art requirements are defined rather than student selected. SPS requires 3 terms of Art but students select the classes they’re interested in. SPS allows students to move ahead based on appropriate summer study but we were told that MX would not allow this. (For example, at SPS a student can take a summer Biology course, pass the department exam and then move into an advanced course in the fall.)

At MX, the school allocates leadership posts for senior year. I believe all students receive at least one position of leadership and the allocation means that a given student is less likely to hold multiple significant positions. SPS allows students to run for and seek out the positions they are interested in. This may result in some students having multiple positions and others having none.

Parents (the PTO) staff some social events, organize team activities (summer wrestling camp), etc. I have not seen this happen at SPS.

Please note - both schools offer excellent educations. My son chose SPS over MX because it seemed stronger in STEM and the culture was a better fit.

Ms. Giles was my college advisor many years ago at Groton, my sisters’ academic advisor and a colleague when I returned to Groton as a teacher. She is exceptionally smart, kind and tough (in a wonderful way). I know from teaching friends that she had a positive impact on the MX community and I’m sure that she is excited about tackling a new challenge in leading SPS after a few rocky years. SPS will be very happy with their decision!

The differences between SPS and MX predate both the current/most recent heads of school. Certainly every new head of school will implement some changes reflecting their personal style and philosophies but I wouldn’t expect a lot of those differences to disappear. SPS will not become MX. Each school has its own history, institutional differences, and a board of trustees that hold a lot of decision-making power.

It is nice to finally see a female at the helm. I wasn’t surprised by that choice.

@HMom16 : Thank you for the thorough post above regarding differences between the two schools. I found your post interesting & enlightening.

Particularly intrigued by the allocation of leadership positions for senior students.

In brief terms, what were the some of the things happened at SPS? or is it all public on the web?

As a new student parent, I am wondering where I could see dorm assignment. It was said that the information would be released on August 1st. Anyone happens to know this?

When we met Ms. Giles at a MX event, she stressed that their Mindfulness program had had a dramatic impact in reducing disciplinary issues at MX. I wonder if she’ll bring that to SPS


@jminmother The housing information is on millville.sps.edu under Apps>Housing. You should have received the login information already. Please feel free to DM me if you can’t figure it out and want me to look it up for you.

@calimex Although not as “focused” as MX, SPS already has some mindfulness training. In two of my son’s classes they began each day with a short mindfulness focus. In addition, there are mindfulness sessions in the evenings several times per week.

At MX it is mandatory for freshmen


@Heading2HS, the Owen Labrie trial. Yes, very public.

Is Middle Dormitory at St. Paul’s a Boys or Girls Dormitory?