Culture of St. Anselm’s Abbey school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless your child has already been in a competitive middle school, I would be reluctant to send a child with executive function weakness to a tougher high school like SAAS. The workload at SAAS is challenging with a lot of memorization and short answer work every day. If he’s a better project kid, then look for that type of high school.

Thanks for this. DS is currently in a strong MS program. It has projects, but that is not the primary learning tool. In fact, the projects are probably more of an executive function issue because there are so many different steps to keep track of, or to get hyper focused on, and they require more long term time management. I'd say for executive functioning, a more direct, traditional style is probably a plus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly do you think a school will be able to tell you they will not be able to support your kid when they know they can easily get 30k a year from you in this era of diversity and inclusion? All private schools, whether parochial or not are run like businesses these days... sorry to say.

This is absolutely not true of the Abbey. They will, and have, turned down applicants who they did not believe could handle the work and left seats vacant. If you have been accepted, they believe your son can succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read on another thread that this school is for gifted boys. Is this correct?

"Gifted" is a loaded term. SAAS administers admissions tests (the OLSAT and SCAT) that are quite different from the SSAT/HSPT that most private schools use in that they are more abstract and harder to prepare for. I don't konw what score they look for, but I think it is more about whether they think your DS is a good fit and can handle the rigor, with or without the gifted label. I think there is general consensus that the academics at SAAS are more rigorous than the other all-boys Catholic schools (e.g., Prep, Gonzaga and Heights) in that all classes are at least honors level and many are AP. It's also much smaller (about 40 per graduating class) so you probably get more homogeneity in terms of academic abilities ranges. That said, by all accounts it not a pressure-cooker, cutthroat atmosphere, and the boys there seem to be very bright and welcoming, if somewhat more inclined to march to the beat of their own drum.

The school actually was founded to educate gifted boys who traditionally were not well served by the school system, and the tests are screening tests for gifted kids. However, I do not think they use that term in modern times. They are looking for bright boys who demonstrate intellectual curiosity and a desire to work hard and learn. Most of the time, but not always, they hit the mark. Some boys to transfer out when they get the first set of grades (at least it happened a lot in my son's class).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly do you think a school will be able to tell you they will not be able to support your kid when they know they can easily get 30k a year from you in this era of diversity and inclusion? All private schools, whether parochial or not are run like businesses these days... sorry to say.

This is absolutely not true of the Abbey. They will, and have, turned down applicants who they did not believe could handle the work and left seats vacant. If you have been accepted, they believe your son can succeed.

Not true at all!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly do you think a school will be able to tell you they will not be able to support your kid when they know they can easily get 30k a year from you in this era of diversity and inclusion? All private schools, whether parochial or not are run like businesses these days... sorry to say.

This is absolutely not true of the Abbey. They will, and have, turned down applicants who they did not believe could handle the work and left seats vacant. If you have been accepted, they believe your son can succeed.

Not true at all!!

We were very interested in St. Anselm's and took a private tour. The Admissions Director was very straightforward with us and said that the environment used to be very "sink or swim" but that they've gotten the monks to be less stern over the years... I have heard only good things about the school from fellow parents who I deeply respect, but this comment told us that it might not be the right fit for our child who is bright, but needs learning support. They also continue to do the majority of their work/tests on paper, and they prefer it that way, which would be difficult for my child. The families I know who do attend are some of the kindest, most thoughtful people I know and their sons are thriving, so it is a wonderful place for boys and I appreciated the admissions candor.

[Anonymous]

That was something we also appreciated about the school. They were very open to talk candidly with us one on one to explore whether the school might be a good fit or not, even before testing or applying.

[Anonymous]

NP. I’m interested in the school for the next application cycle, so I’ve been doing some research. Based on what I have read so far, the school is challenging and the average SAT score is impressive. But the school’s college placements don’t seem particularly strong. Before anyone starts to launch grenades, I am not obsessed with college placements and am not a parent who believes private school education is a means to an Ivy or some such. I am, however, genuinely curious - for such academically bright group of boys, why are the college matriculations not as strong as one might expect? And yes, I recognize that top universities are extremely competitive, especially around here, but is that the full story?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I’m interested in the school for the next application cycle, so I’ve been doing some research. Based on what I have read so far, the school is challenging and the average SAT score is impressive. But the school’s college placements don’t seem particularly strong. Before anyone starts to launch grenades, I am not obsessed with college placements and am not a parent who believes private school education is a means to an Ivy or some such. I am, however, genuinely curious - for such academically bright group of boys, why are the college matriculations not as strong as one might expect? And yes, I recognize that top universities are extremely competitive, especially around here, but is that the full story?

From what I've seen, many of the boys go to colleges that offer them significant money (either merit or need based scholarships). In normal times, the seniors are allowed to post their college acceptances on their lockers as long as they black out any monetary awards and a good number of those letters have blacked out sections. And these boys are not the type to chase big names. And they've been at a pretty small school for four to six years, so some of the huge, rowdy campuses may not appeal to some of these boys.

As the parent of a high school student, I can see that St. Anselm's has taught my son so much about himself and his work habits. He will definitely have opinions about college environments when it comes time to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I’m interested in the school for the next application cycle, so I’ve been doing some research. Based on what I have read so far, the school is challenging and the average SAT score is impressive. But the school’s college placements don’t seem particularly strong. Before anyone starts to launch grenades, I am not obsessed with college placements and am not a parent who believes private school education is a means to an Ivy or some such. I am, however, genuinely curious - for such academically bright group of boys, why are the college matriculations not as strong as one might expect? And yes, I recognize that top universities are extremely competitive, especially around here, but is that the full story?

I actually looked at this in some detail, including aggregating matriculations for several years and plotting them against the Forbes college rankings (which combine universities and liberal arts colleges and generally pass the eyeball test, at least for me). The bottom of the top 10% matriculated to UChicago (Forbes #16); just missing went to Northwestern (#17). The bottom of the top 25%, Boston College (#41); just missing, UNC-CH (#45). The middle of the class, Whitman (#89) and WPI (#93). Top of the bottom quartile, Mason (#177) and Marquette (#180). Top of the bottom decile, RIT (#337) and VCU (#345).

If you think of the families choosing St. Anselm's as something of a mix of "Sidwell families" and "Gonzaga families," the matriculation distribution makes sense (at least to me).

[Anonymous]

Except for Univ of Chicago these are not impressive college acceptances. With 1400 SAT scores and AP classes I would expect at least some soft Ivies ( Brown, Williams, UCLA, Dartmouth). I am concerned with the schools outplacement.

[Anonymous]

Two things about the Abbey students that may keep them out of the elite colleges—a school de-emphasis on sports and a number of strongly Catholic families who may prefer Catholic Universities. However children with an overall portfolio designed for the elite schools can still get into such schools. And the Abbey leaves it’s graduates well-prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

I am curious why then college acceptance rates do not bare this out. The school appears to be academically rigorous, well run and is churning out nice boys with high SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except for Univ of Chicago these are not impressive college acceptances. With 1400 SAT scores and AP classes I would expect at least some soft Ivies ( Brown, Williams, UCLA, Dartmouth). I am concerned with the schools outplacement.

That's obviously not the complete list and it's not meant to impress you. It's objective data at the 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 90% marks. Above Chicago are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. Below WPI (so in the bottom half of matriculations) are Case Western, Tulane, VA Tech, and other sweethearts of these boards--but that's just cherry-picking and pandering to a silly audience...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious why then college acceptance rates do not bare this out. The school appears to be academically rigorous, well run and is churning out nice boys with high SAT scores.

SAAS annual reports are posted publicly and include matriculation lists (see, e.g., page 37 here: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1600196924/stanselms/qvg5r3t8chu6ggvm0hfk/AR1920.pdf )

Last year's class of 37 included matriculations to Columbia, Penn, Duke, Chicago, Georgetown (2), Rice, Vandy, UVA, W&M (2), Notre Dame (2), Haverford, Boston College (3), Tulane, and Lehigh. That's over half the class (and there are plenty of other fine schools on the rest of the list). Have a look. I don't know where this "unimpressive placements" nonsense comes from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious why then college acceptance rates do not bare this out. The school appears to be academically rigorous, well run and is churning out nice boys with high SAT scores.

SAAS annual reports are posted publicly and include matriculation lists (see, e.g., page 37 here: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1600196924/stanselms/qvg5r3t8chu6ggvm0hfk/AR1920.pdf )

Last year's class of 37 included matriculations to Columbia, Penn, Duke, Chicago, Georgetown (2), Rice, Vandy, UVA, W&M (2), Notre Dame (2), Haverford, Boston College (3), Tulane, and Lehigh. That's over half the class (and there are plenty of other fine schools on the rest of the list). Have a look. I don't know where this "unimpressive placements" nonsense comes from.

PP I think these are acceptances not enrollments. A student might have got accepted at Columbia but did not actually enroll there per the matriculation list on Anselms website - Columbia is not listed.