St Albans vs St Anselm's
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Anonymous
Love this! |
Anonymous
| I have a son at St. Anselm’s. I would emphasize that it is a Benedictine school. It is on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery, the monks are a critical part of the governance of the school, monks teach at the school, and Benedictine principles guide the decision making. I think a couple of ways that this plays out that make St. Anselm’s unique is that there is pretty much no bro culture even though it is an all boys school and the school believes sports exist to be played by all boys, not just the ones who have specialized in that sport since they were five years old. For us these aspects are huge positives, but they might not be for others. |
Anonymous
| My DS is an 8th grader and is applying to both schools. And so are a couple of his classmates. |
Anonymous
Both great schools, and people who have taught at both have said that about the top 20 boys at Prep could handle the required curriculum at St. Anselm's. Both good choices for the right kid. |
Anonymous
+1 I was thinking the exact same thing |
Anonymous
Perhaps things have changed since I was in HS here (I have girls, so neither school was on our radar this round). Back in the day, there would have been zero overlap. One school was studious and the other sporty. One privileged, the other not. One primarily WASP and the other almost entirely catholic. Completely different vibe. Would be like a kid going to college and torn between West Point and Oberlin. |
Anonymous
This. I believe the posters who say they are considering both or know people who are considering both, but they are so different it’s hard to imagine them being equally appealing to someone. Maybe someone who just really has no preferences and would be happy anywhere and simply wants a good education - in which case, go with the least expensive. But also, admissions are very competitive, so don’t assume you’ll get to make a choice. |
Anonymous
This is crazy. It is nothing like this. Sure, there are elite families who would not consider SAAS and Catholics who would not consider STA but there is decent number of families who are just looking for a top education for their son, especially at the high school level. We're a STA family and are in that group and we also considered SAAS (ruled it out as too far of a commute from our house) but applied to Gonzaga, GDS, Potomac, School without Walls, Sidwell, etc. Schools that really have very little in common with each other except for their ability to provide a very good education. There are quite a few people like us, including many families at STA. My son's best friend at STA applied to all the Catholic options (Prep, Gonzaga, SAAS) as well as STA. Sure, there are elites who would consider nothing less than Sidwell or STA but there are a ton of kids who join in 9th grade who apply all over. You really have to if you're not elite or a VIP and want a top private school spot. |
Anonymous
I get that kids might be torn between Prep and Albans -- they're pretty similar but SAAS is a whole different thing. Really hard to see both being equally appealing to the same kid. I guess a parent might view one as an acceptable alternative. |
Anonymous
They certainly have different cultures. Nonetheless, there are kids at Prep and STA who are not trying to be the top jock on a high school team; they would be perfectly happy at SAAS. And even SAAS has at least one kid per year who is recruited in sports (out of about 35 boys per class). This year was swimming, last year was wrestling, before that was fencing, golf, the year before that was rowing, before that speed skating, and at some point there was a gymnast recruited with a scholarship for cheerleading. It’s a tiny school that emphasizes academics, but there are all kinds of boys there. |
Anonymous
For what it's worth, St. Anselm's has the confidence to release the actual SAT score of its average student: 1395. St Albans does not, but Niche's upwardly-biased score for them is 1420. So St. Anselm's may actually be outscoring them. |
Anonymous
STA does not release test scores for the same reason it does not allow students to do instagrams announcing where they’ve decided to matriculate for college. It’s tacky. Even a mediocre student at STA will hit 1400 on the SAT. 800s on the math section are commonplace among students who aren’t even taking honors math. The top 20% or so will score above 1550. Niche is worthless. Their methodology is anecdotal. Why would you even use them as a point of reference? |
Anonymous
Niche’s “upwardly biased” average SAT for St Anselm’s is only 1380 |
Anonymous
My kid's year it was 1440. There are only 30-40 kids in a class, so those averages can vary quite a bit year over year. You can see each class's average on the counselor's college report. I don't get why anyone feels the need to quibble about this little school, tucked away in NE DC where 40% of students receive financial aid. If you think your son can handle a 10-period academic day, with three years of required Latin, 4 years of required modern language, three years of required fine arts, four years of college level theology, and a minimum of 7 AP courses in history, math, English, and science, and 150 service hours completed in the local community during the school day, then you might visit SAAS. If you prefer STA, go there. It's also a great school. |
Anonymous
| FWIW, despite the apparent academic rigor of SAAS, the Instagram list of college acceptances in years past has been pretty meh. A lot of second tier Catholic schools. I realize that STA doesn't post and others are obviously not a complete list, but the schools have been solidly 50-200 with a few outliers. They wipe out the previous list every year, but the two so far for '25 are Davidson and Alabama (with the former as an athletic recruit). |