St. Alban's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

At least they didn’t call it StA’s.

Does no one refer to it as STA? I feel like it makes sense considering there's BVR and NCS.

Yes, it’s STA. That’s my point. Very annoying when people call it StA’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

For any boys transferring in from public, be prepared for a significant jump in workload and sky high expectations for writing skills. Boys in 9th are expected to write at the level of college sophomores. Several of your classes will be taught at a freshman college level: history, biology, English, Spanish/French. Geometry is taught at such a high level that freshmen from public schools who are repeating have trouble with it.

Big exaggeration. Huge.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

For any boys transferring in from public, be prepared for a significant jump in workload and sky high expectations for writing skills. Boys in 9th are expected to write at the level of college sophomores. Several of your classes will be taught at a freshman college level: history, biology, English, Spanish/French. Geometry is taught at such a high level that freshmen from public schools who are repeating have trouble with it.

Big exaggeration. Huge.

+1

+1
But it is one of the more rigorous high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error. I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban. From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error. I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban. From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."

Yes, that’s always made me curious and kind of amused. As a grammar/word nerd I find it interesting to see which of the various saint/bishop-named schools use the possessive form and which don’t. Such as how we ended up with St Stephen’s and St Agnes School when the two schools—one possessive and one not—merged. But STA may be unique in using the S but not the apostrophe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

At least they didn’t call it StA’s.

Does no one refer to it as STA? I feel like it makes sense considering there's BVR and NCS.

Yes, it’s STA. That’s my point. Very annoying when people call it StA’s.

Ohhhh, I see. Got it. I completely overlooked that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

What do you mean "but"?

St Albans is a decent school, but coming from public has zero to do with admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error. I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban. From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."

Yes, that’s always made me curious and kind of amused. As a grammar/word nerd I find it interesting to see which of the various saint/bishop-named schools use the possessive form and which don’t. Such as how we ended up with St Stephen’s and St Agnes School when the two schools—one possessive and one not—merged. But STA may be unique in using the S but not the apostrophe.

If you were curious perhaps you should have explored a bit more. St. Albans draws its name from St. Albans Cathedral and the town named after St. Alban, founded some time in the late 8th century.

Apostrophes were not introduced into written English until the 16th century. The name of the cathedral and the town in England predates the apostrophe and to this day is “St. Albans Cathedral” and the town is “St. Albans.”

When St. Albans School was founded, it was named after the English cathedral. Hence, it is also spelled without the apostrophe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

What do you mean "but"?

St Albans is a decent school, but coming from public has zero to do with admissions.

Of course it does. The majority of admitted students come from other private schools. This is both because private schools favor students who have been in the private system and because private schools know how to advocate for their students during admissions.

Public school applicants have a harder time being admitted to Big 3s as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

For any boys transferring in from public, be prepared for a significant jump in workload and sky high expectations for writing skills. Boys in 9th are expected to write at the level of college sophomores. Several of your classes will be taught at a freshman college level: history, biology, English, Spanish/French. Geometry is taught at such a high level that freshmen from public schools who are repeating have trouble with it.

Big exaggeration. Huge.

So you say, non-STA parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error. I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban. From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."

Yes, that’s always made me curious and kind of amused. As a grammar/word nerd I find it interesting to see which of the various saint/bishop-named schools use the possessive form and which don’t. Such as how we ended up with St Stephen’s and St Agnes School when the two schools—one possessive and one not—merged. But STA may be unique in using the S but not the apostrophe.

If you were curious perhaps you should have explored a bit more. St. Albans draws its name from St. Albans Cathedral and the town named after St. Alban, founded some time in the late 8th century.

Apostrophes were not introduced into written English until the 16th century. The name of the cathedral and the town in England predates the apostrophe and to this day is “St. Albans Cathedral” and the town is “St. Albans.”

When St. Albans School was founded, it was named after the English cathedral. Hence, it is also spelled without the apostrophe.

You’re right, I wasn’t curious enough to bother looking it up. Thanks for the history lesson, that’s pretty interesting. I could have done without the side of condescension, but the info is appreciated all the same.

[Anonymous]

OP is your kid a POC? That would help.

The admits I know personally from the past 4 years are

white/rich AF/smart AF/no sports whatsoever
white/rich AF/pretty smart/decent at 2 sports
mixed race/UMC/pretty smart/okay at one sport

All 3 from private/parochial schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - it is St. Albans. No apostrophe.

You are correct, but one has to wonder who made that grammatical error. I mean, the saint's name was St. Alban. From where does the "St. Albans" in "St. Albans School" come from if not intended to be possessive of St. Alban?

Note that the adjacent church is "St. Alban's Church."

Yes, that’s always made me curious and kind of amused. As a grammar/word nerd I find it interesting to see which of the various saint/bishop-named schools use the possessive form and which don’t. Such as how we ended up with St Stephen’s and St Agnes School when the two schools—one possessive and one not—merged. But STA may be unique in using the S but not the apostrophe.

If you were curious perhaps you should have explored a bit more. St. Albans draws its name from St. Albans Cathedral and the town named after St. Alban, founded some time in the late 8th century.

Apostrophes were not introduced into written English until the 16th century. The name of the cathedral and the town in England predates the apostrophe and to this day is “St. Albans Cathedral” and the town is “St. Albans.”

When St. Albans School was founded, it was named after the English cathedral. Hence, it is also spelled without the apostrophe.

You’re right, I wasn’t curious enough to bother looking it up. Thanks for the history lesson, that’s pretty interesting. I could have done without the side of condescension, but the info is appreciated all the same.

Perhaps you could have avoided the snarky know-it-all tone and being amused that people were making grammatical errors by not using the apostrophe. Some might call it condescension.

[Anonymous]

Based on what I have experienced, St Albans is highly desired by a small, homogeneous slice of the local population.

Since they only admit a relative handful of boys, it doesn’t take a lot of applicants for the school to have a very low admission rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is it to gain admission during an entry year (9th grade)? My DS is very intelligent but has been in public for ES and MS. Would appreciate any insights as well as any experiences others have had recently with their DS. Thanks!

For any boys transferring in from public, be prepared for a significant jump in workload and sky high expectations for writing skills. Boys in 9th are expected to write at the level of college sophomores. Several of your classes will be taught at a freshman college level: history, biology, English, Spanish/French. Geometry is taught at such a high level that freshmen from public schools who are repeating have trouble with it.

Big exaggeration. Huge.

+1

+1
But it is one of the more rigorous high schools.

Hah! No one who has had a kid in public school and another at STA would dispute the earlier description of rigor. Or at least not those whose kids had the pleasure of being taught by Dr. D, Dr. S, and Dr. O.