<p>just wondering, are there st. paul's clubs in major metropolitan cities, similar to the Harvard Club and Princeton Club (or Exeter Club) in places like NYC or Chicago?</p>
<p>lol chenchen, you've been updating.</p>
<p>anyways, like him, i go to exeter and although i feel like paleozoic has some good points about sps, it would have to be deemed slightly biased? haha, and here's another biased opinion from an exonian.</p>
<p>first of all, exeter is more difficult to get into than st. pauls because of the division between boarders and day studs. the dorms are also awesome at exeter. i think one of the good things about exeter being bigger, is that you have a tight-nit community within the dorm, and your friends (from classes or just randomly met ones) but theres also the opportunity to meet new ppl. by the end of the first month, everyone looks familiar and ppl greet you on the sidewalks even when you've never met them before. </p>
<p>what attracted me to exeter was the science building...i couldn't resist and even now, it's great to be able to learn in such an amazing environment. learning at exeter is what you want to make of it. the harkness discussions are awesome. you realize how smart other ppl your age are. sure, there are dorks, but you'd be surprised at the number of non-dorks/jocks or whatever categories you want to place ppl in. largeness=more diversity.</p>
<p>for me, exeter is a special place. its a place of growth, maturity, friendships, and bonds with everyone- from faculty members to fac brats to dhall staff to students. its campus is centered enough so you can be around others but its also large enough that you can escape. a walk in the woods is always available.</p>
<p>sps is an awesome place though. my final decision ended up being between sps, milton, and exeter. one of the prep schools sayings is that andover is for extracurrics, such as athletics, sps is for the arts, and exeter is for academics.</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>azngirl06. Thank you for your characterization of the three schools. Although I think that academically there is nothing to choose between the three schools,the sheer range of science and math courses at Exeter puts it into a league by itself. Mentally I bracket Exeter with Harvard and St. Paul's with Princeton. Milton in its sheer intellectual virtuosity reminds me of the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>Time for my two cents. Our older son graduated from SPS about 5 years ago and our younger son is currently at Deerfield - having been accepted at Deerfield, St. Paul's and Exeter. As a parent observing the experience that our older son had at SPS, I would say that it is almost beyond being a magical place. I truly feel blessed that older son was able to be there for four years. </p>
<p>Deerfield too is wonderful. Deerfield was third on younger son's list before his Spring revisit and it moved to the top after his revisit for reasons that were important to him. I was personally holding out hope that SPS would be his choice, but it wasn't. As parents, our view was that they are all terrific schools so "go where you want to go". </p>
<p>My wife and I have four children. They have all gone to fine schools - from their years in kindergarten through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. The three oldest are either attending or have completed their years at an Ivy League university (Brown), one of the best public universities in the country (Michigan), and one of the top LAC's in the East (Trinity). Of all of their educational and social experiences in an academic setting, the four years that our older son exprienced at St. Paul's was the best. Go there if you can.</p>
<p>If you have the opportunity to go to St. Paul's, go there - unless , of course, your heart truly lies somewhere else.</p>
<p>yeah, st. paul's did seem like a special place when i applied. my interviewer sent me a personal card for my bday, and also a note accompanying my acceptance letter. it was nice to see that they cared so much about their applicants. and if st. paul's is for princeton, man, i should have gone there. haha, its my top choice xD but then again, exeter had 14 early acceptances to princeton, 17 actually matriculated</p>
<p>So, what were you guy's stats. Also, do any of you know anything in particular about the Walker Scholarship for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans? I'm going to apply for it? How hard is it to get?</p>
<p>Esa: stop obsessing about your stats and start learning something about St.Paul's if your really want to go after the Walker scholarship. Maybe you could start by reading browninfall's post as it reflects the values of the place. It might just be that the people awarding the Walker share those values. </p>
<p>azngirl06: In many ways I think your Exeter experience will likely be superior to your undergraduate experience even if you get to Princeton. The best part of Columbia, Harvard or Chicago in my day was the Western Civ-Great Books sequence and this presupposed a kind of shared literacy that now only seems to exist like places such as St. Paul's, Exeter or Groton. Count your blessings!</p>
<p>Browninfall, since you have very rare knowledge of both St. Paul's and Deerfield, could you please tell me what you see as the differences however subtle? My parents favor St. Paul's but I am strting to lean to Deerfiled. St Paul's seemed a little too quiet on my last visit. I love the new gym but Deerfield is going to have the most awesome science building early next year. I appreciate any comments.</p>
<p>Browninfall, any comments?</p>
<p>Cubfan: It's unfortunate Browninfall did not reply to your post as I as well would have been interested in his comments. I do hope you will apply to both St. Paul's and Deerfield and keep us apprised of your experiences. For us, though we did look at Groton and Exeter there was never any question that if our daughter got into
St. Paul's she would go anywhere else. Mercifully, despite a perfect SSAT score and an A+ school record she did not get admitted to Groton or Exeter so in the end it turned out for the best. My suspicion is that Admissions at both Groton and Exeter decided that she would be happier at St. Paul's. Maybe like Oxford colleges these schools talk to each other. Anyway, you sound as if you have some sense of why you want to be at Deerfield and if you do don't agonize too much.</p>
<p>Wow,paleo, I'm surprised your daughter wasn't admitted to the other schools. Can you tell me if at St. Paul's she is at the top of her class, middle or lower? Does she find the work difficult? I am still trying to figure out just how hard these schools are and just how talented the kids are.</p>
<p>browninfall, is your son a current freshman at Deerfield?
I go to Deerfield also and I just entered this early fall.</p>
<p>Cubfan: I was not surprised. I imagine she would be among the better students of her year. Yes the kids are talented and some work quite hard. Don't worry about it. You don't go to St. Paul's because you want to go to Harvard. You go to St. Paul's because you want to go to St. Paul's.</p>
<p>dragonreborn, what is it like? Is it what you expected? glad you went? Let us know. Paleo, I totally agree on the reasons to go. I think not trying to use deerfield or St. Paul's as stepping stones to ivy schools should liberate me and let me enjoy the experience more than many who will be so obsessed with college. that is if I get in. Did not mean to sound so presumptuos.</p>
<p>Hey, my name is Roxanne and I am currently in the 3rd form (9th grade) at St. Paul's and I adore this place. I wake up every morning in my room and look out my window and I am excited for the new day to begin. The campus here is absolutely gorgeous and all of the dorms are so nice and the people here are just amazing. Yes, there have been a few incidents this year so far, but those are not the faults of the administration. After the death of a boy in the 4th form (10th grade), I felt that the community of St. Paul's became so much stronger and so much closer. Speaking of community, the St. Paul's community is amazing. Honesty is key and every morning there is chapel in which the grades sit facing each other and announcements are read, prayers are read, and some of the funniest skits take place. When I applied to SPS I thought I wasn't going to get in because of my grades (for 7th and 8th grade combined I had 3 B+'s, 4 A-'s and the rest A's), but now I know SPS looks at the person as a whole. I do soccer, track, clarinet (8 years), flute, community service (about 144 hours for my 8th grade year), cross country, organizing biking and running for charity, and numerous other things. From the day I got here, I have loved it. Now, as I look out of my window, I know that St. Paul's, even though it has had its ups and downs this year, is the best place I could ever be.</p>
<p>I hope that helped a little...if you are applying to St. Paul's, you can always e-mail me at <a href="mailto:heartinsf@gmail.com">heartinsf@gmail.com</a> or if you have AIM, my screen name is RealityzHurts.</p>
<p>Good luck all!
-Roxanne</p>
<p>I'm glad I chose Deerfield in the first place. The school is just amazing. Academics are challenging yes, which is expected, but I am not bombarded under piles of papers to finish and tests to study every night. I have just the right amount of work that offers time and space for outside extracurriculars. I join a lot of clubs here and so far, they are awesome. I met so many people and learned so much things through them about the school. There're so many opportunities here. I make myself busy by playing the violin, doing sports (I play basketball), joining lots of club, etc etc. What's wonderful is that I find myself learning to forge a stronger self inside me. For instance, this is my first basketball team ever and I have no bb experience whatsoever. But everyone is so supportive and I made so many friends. I learned to persevere through each practice, knowing that I'm the worst player in the team and that I'm still trying and not giving up. At Deerfield, I learn to become a more motivated student while at the same time, growing into a stronger person who discovers more each day about the real side of her. I can't ask for more.</p>
<p>Cubfan/Esa: Merry Christmas and good luck on your applications! As this thread seems to be winding down, it may be useful to note that Heartsinf (Roxanne) as well as dragonreborn gave very good advice. I hope Cubfan gets up his nerve to assume St. Paul's will actually want him/her and if they do not --tant pis pour St. Paul's.</p>
<p>Thanx,
Merry Christmas to you too, paleozoic.</p>
<p>Cubfan</p>
<p>I haven't visited here in a while so I apologize for not responding to your question earlier. My younger son just arrived home from Deerfield for Christmas break and he continues to give Deerfield nothing but the highest praises. The academics are hard, but he is doing well (made the honor roll first semester!). He has commented that he doesn't know how his older brother went to classes six days a week at St. Paul's. His work load is heavy, yet he says not having classes on Saturday makes it easier and less stressful. He has made many friends and from my view he seems to exude great contentment. I must admit that his contentment is starting to rub off on me. </p>
<p>As I indicated earlier, St. Paul's has always held a special place in my heart. There was no other academic environment I had encountered quite like SPS. It projected to me this sense that learning for its own sake was why one learns. It was never really stated or argued by anyone at SPS, I just felt it. You read James Joyce or Thoreau because you learn more about yourself and the nature of man. Reading those great writers in the context of a Humanities program made especially good sense to me, and it all was happening in one of the most beautiful academic settings anywhere. So I felt a sense that one wasn't so much going to school as one was living a life amongst individuals who were passionate about thinking and learning, and who too were also very bright.</p>
<p>Is that really the way that SPS was? I can't answer that part of it for sure because I was just the parent, but I recently asked my son who did attend there if I was accurate in my view. He told me that the passion for learning for its own sake was very strong at SPS, and that he was certainly surrounded by very bright people. Yet he argues too that it probably isn't exactly quite the place that I envisioned it to be. Students still study late into the night because they've procrastinated rather than for the philosophically pure reason of just being eager to learn more. The pressure cooker environment to get into a top college also compels one to try to do well in the classroom for reasons that may not be quite as noble as just wanting to think deep thoughts. Still that doesn't change my view of the place. It just tells me that it may have more similarities to the other great boarding shools than I had originally thought.</p>
<p>I'm coming around to Deerfield, though. It too is in a beautiful setting and my son is showing the same love for his school that the older one did at SPS. I think the bottom line is that Deerfield, SPS, or Exeter are all terrific schools. If you can get into any of them, you've done a great job and should know that you will be well educated at any of them. Thus, in my view it just comes down to what place feels right for you. I can't describe that feeling to you - you'll just know it when it occurs. My older son toured Deerfield, said it didn't feel right for him, and ended up spending four wonderful years at SPS. My younger son had Deerfield third on his list of schools (with SPS his top school) before the revisit days in April, ended up matriculating at Deerfield this fall, and it's working out just fine. We're all pretty happy how things are turning out.</p>