<p>Has anyone noticed that St Paul's beats out the other top four schools (Andover, Exeter and Deerfield) by a huge margin for "views" on the threads dedicated to each school? That's the one that gives the school name and location - ie "Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA"</p>
<p>The breakdown (approximate numbers):</p>
<p>Exeter - under 6,000 views
Deerfield - under 6,000 views
Andover - about 17,000 views
St Paul's - about 145,000 views!!!!</p>
<p>Reasons -- started much earlier?, others?</p>
<p>Quite a few St. Paul’s parents hang around on CC. It does look to me like the school is doing a good job in winning the hearts of the families, who in turn give back incredible loyalty to the school. Then the fact that the thread started early and has been “pumped in blood” constantly by a couple of frequent posters is another reason.</p>
<p>The St. Paul’s thread was started in 2008. The thread has also benefited from Winterset’s dedication. Winterset has kept the thread from falling into no-man’s land with regular updates. I think it helps a school’s visibility on this forum to have a few dedicated parents contributing.</p>
<p>You can compare other factors:</p>
<p>St. Paul’s: 31 threads with “St. Paul’s” in the title
Andover: 200 threads with “Andover” in the title (I did not search PA)
Exeter: 200 threads with “Exeter” in the title (I did not search PEA)
Deerfield: 151 threads with “Deerfield” in the title</p>
<p>Haha you guys are really taking these figures seriously…</p>
<p>The reason SPS doesn’t appeal to me as much as PA/DA does is the super high legacy rate(30%+?). Is it that elitist??</p>
<p>[hopefully I’m not starting a controversial topic. Don’t be mad at me lol] but the school itself is just amazing.</p>
<p>Of the 10 great BS’s to which my son applied last year, SPS was my favorite (although not my son’s favorite). Also, of all of the schools to which he applied, I thought that SPS was the one BS least probable to accept him. Why? Legacies. Still, legacies or not, SPS is a great school. Also, I have to believe that one of the reasons that SPS is so great is because of its legacies. Lesson learned? Unless you are a legacy or have some other strong hook, don’t get too pumped up about SPS… until accpeted. If accepted, however, be really pumped up and get yourself to SPS ASAP.</p>
<p>Would be on the priority list for football count as the strong hook?</p>
<p>Heads up–I was told by several SAOs and advisors that deal with admissions that having a legacy is not factored into the admission process. Therefore, the idea that you have to be a legacy to get into SPS is crap. I’m not a legacy. Most people aren’t legacies. It’s probably because SPS is such a lovely school, parents who have gone advocate for their children to go as well.</p>
<p>/rant over</p>
<p>From what I understand about the SPS football program, it needs all the help it can get. So, if SPS has decided to up-grade its football team and you, yjun212m, have sizeable pigskin talents, then you just might have in your paws one big fat juicy hook. That said, you need to look elsewhere to determine whether or not football is very important to SPS these days. I’m clueless on this point.</p>
<p>** *** CORRECTION *** **</p>
<p>**St. Paul’s legacies = 17.1% <a href=“Not%2035%”>/b</a>
Let me repeat that: **St. Paul’s legacies = 17.1% <a href=“Not%2035%”>/b</a>
It varies by Form (grade) but even the highest form is not remotely close to 35%!</p>
<p>1) Seriously gonnastop, if you are going to post something, try to be accurate. I have a list of all students on my lap right now, with all legacy ties to SPS, no mater how remote. I saw and appreciated the ? next to your number, but you are off by a factor of 2x. And no gonnastop, I am not “mad at you”, but change the # in your head. It is simply wrong. Maybe someone wants to post accurate #’s for other schools. Go there if you need to, but SPS is 17.1% (actually that was last year, it is a bit lower this year). </p>
<p>2) The presumption about legacies is that they must have lower SSAT’s, grades or whatever and they are only admitted because of their family. If that is your assumption, then here is a strange fact (at SPS): legacies have higher grades than non-legacies. Go figure. </p>
<p>On the other discussion. Yes I started that thread. Mostly to avoid all the competition and negativism I was seeing. I suggested on the moderators thread, that all schools should start their own. I am absotutely thrilled that a number of schools have. If my effort to side-step the endless ranking causes us to rank the threads, then I guess I have to just give up. </p>
<p>And I will not defend the recent SPS football record. It’s % of wins last year was only a bit better than our % of legacies.:)</p>
<p>winterset,</p>
<p>This was not an attempt to “rank” the schools at all. It was merely an observation that made me curious as to why there was such a wide gap between SPS and the other three in the number of “views” it garnered.</p>
<p>winterset, i’m curious - do most of the isl football opponent schools use pg’s? how many of sps’s traditional opponent teams, over all sports, are like sps in not having pg’s?</p>
<p>Leanid, Maybe it’s cause they just think I am adorable. Well maybe not that…but maybe the just know we are saints… no. Okay people have a thing for pelicans…no. Maybe they wonder about the place where Harkness that table-builder went to school…no. Could be there are a lot of other schools named St. Paul’s (India, Maryland, heck everywhere) and they were just lost and sort of stumbled in electronically…maybe. I know it’s not the football team… </p>
<p>I got it, we are smaller, down-troddeen by the big boys, we have a weird religious name, and use all those funny English terms (Forms, tuck et.) BUT we started the idea first.</p>
<p>Mariner: I don’t know who uses PG’s. SPS doesn’t.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Endless ranking will always be around. When most adults lack the flexibility of mind to refrain from ranking on concrete terms, how do you expect their children to? And maybe it all works out. Maybe those kids (and parents) who obsess over someone else labeling them as number one will end up at (and be happiest at) a school that encourages competition among its students and worth measured in numbers.</p>
<p>(Wow, that was harsh. I’m a little edgy today. Sorry. )</p>
<p>Don’t give up. I used to think that legacy was a major influence at SPS, remember? I even started a thread about the effect of legacy status on admissions. I, too, was under the impression that SPS had a 30 something percent legacy rate, and while it did not negatively effect my impression of the school, it did make me think it near impossible for non-affiliated students to gain admission.</p>
<p>You and other parents and students have done your school a great service with the SPS thread. It has probably gotten so many views because SPS may seem somewhat mysterious to a lot of people, like most boarding schools, and they want to know what it’s all about.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s probably because there are so many other threads about the other schools. If you added up all the views from the 150+ threads with Exeter, Andover, or Deerfield in the title, it would probably be comparable to the SPS thread.</p>
<p>I think the misinformation about SPS legacies set Winterset off. :)</p>
<p>Then, I had my little moment about rankings in general, which was not directed at anyone here in particular.</p>
<p>You were just sharing an interesting observation, if I understand you correctly, not really ranking them. If my memory serves me correctly, leanid dislikes rankings as much as most of us here.</p>
<p>Well they just “want to know what it is all about” because they see the old school ties, our wooden crew shells, straw boater hats, funny colored blazers worn once a year, discover that two Harry Potters went to St. Paul’s (and one Voldemort), we have two chapels, a Cricket Holiday, horse drawn carriages at Anniversary, legacies are only 17.1%, discover squash was 1st played there (and ice hockey)… and they just aren’t sure if we are real or invented by Rowling.<br>
Okay I need to get off here. Bye. 
:)</p>
<p>Ha! Don’t laugh. If my son hadn’t toured so many schools, he wouldn’t think they were real!</p>
<p>Now Winterset you are being insensitive. Can’t you see that neato is a heartbroken secrete (or no?) SPS lover? :)</p>
<p>Benley, I’m not heartbroken yet. (A bit panicked, perhaps; but not heartbroken.)
:)</p>
<p>The only way I’ll be heartbroken is if we have to move from a town we love because the local school is simply not feasible and son has no place for next year. (I learned yesterday that they have cut the choir program for next year at son’s school. That’s kind of the last straw.)</p>
<p>Mainer95. ISL prohibits PGs.</p>
<p>Not to add to the drama, but I’m a fourth generation legacy on one side and a second generation legacy on the other at SPS and I was wait-listed until pretty close to school starting (july), although I did end up at SPS. (Just one example, I know)
I see it from the other point of view though, because the reason I changed my mind so late instead of staying on the normal track mostly had to do with family ties to the school and how happy it made my grandfather-I am really happy I did though, I love it here.</p>