St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St. Paul's School |
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325 Pleasant St.
, 03301
United States
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| Type | Private, Boarding |
| Motto | Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in coelis (Let us learn those things on Earth the knowledge of which continues in Heaven) |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Episcopal Church |
| Established | 1856 |
| Founder | George C. Shattuck |
| CEEB code | 300110 |
| Rector | Kathleen Carroll Giles |
| Faculty | 111 (2023-24) |
| Grades | 9 to 12 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Enrollment | 540 (2023-24) |
| International students | 22% (2023-24) |
| Student to teacher ratio | 5:1 (2023-24) |
| Campus size | 2,000 acres (809 ha) |
| Campus type | Suburban |
| Houses | 19 (9 boys', 9 girls', 1 all-gender) |
| Student council | StudCo (founded 1918) |
| Color(s) | Red & White |
| Song | "Love Divine" |
| Athletics | 51 Interscholastic teams 17 Interscholastic sports 8 Intramural |
| Athletics conference | Lakes Region League SSL |
| Mascot | Pelican |
| Nickname | Big Red |
| Accreditation | NEASC |
| Newspaper | The Pelican |
| Annual tuition | ,410 (2023-24) |
| Affiliations | ESA NAES NAIS TABS TSAO |
| Acceptance rate | 13% (2024) |
| Faculty with advanced degrees | 77% (2023-24) |
| Students receiving financial aid | 38% |
St. Paul's School (also called St. Paul's or SPS) is a special kind of high school. It helps students get ready for college. It's a boarding school, which means students live there. The school is in Concord, New Hampshire, and is connected to the Episcopal Church.
St. Paul's has a huge campus, about 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) big! About 540 students from 37 different states and 28 countries attend. The school started in 1856 for boys from wealthy families. Later, it became one of the first boys' boarding schools to welcome girls. Now, it has students from all kinds of backgrounds. St. Paul's is one of the few high schools in the United States where all students live on campus. Many students get financial help to attend.
Contents
History of St. Paul's School
How St. Paul's Started
In 1856, a doctor from Boston named George C. Shattuck started St. Paul's. He turned his summer home in New Hampshire into a school for boys. He wanted his sons to learn in a quiet, natural setting. He also hoped the school would teach sons of other wealthy city families.
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For the first 50 years, two brothers, Henry and Joseph Coit, ran the school. Henry Coit admired English schools and wanted St. Paul's to be like them. He brought in traditions like "forms" (grade levels) and special church services. The school's religious services were very traditional, and at first, only Episcopal students could attend. Henry Coit even tried to make cricket more popular than baseball!
St. Paul's quickly became popular with upper-class families. Dr. Shattuck had attended a famous school called Round Hill School. It was expensive but offered a great education. He believed that in a boarding school, teachers could better help students grow.
The school began with only three students but grew fast. By the 1860s, it was full. By 1895, there were 345 students.
Getting Ready for College
After the Coit brothers, Samuel Drury became the head of the school in 1911. He stayed for 27 years and helped St. Paul's become very strong. Drury improved the school's academics a lot. He hired better teachers and made sure students followed rules.
Universities liked the well-prepared students from St. Paul's. In 1940, almost all students who applied to Harvard from St. Paul's were accepted.
Drury also wanted to make the student body more diverse. Even though many people wanted to get into St. Paul's, he saved some spots for students who did well on a special test. He also raised a lot of money for the school. This money helped more students get financial aid. From 1920 to 1938, the number of students on scholarship almost tripled. For 22 years, the tuition stayed the same, which helped many families.
Big Changes and Growth
After World War II, the school continued to change. Henry Kittredge became the first head of St. Paul's who was not an Episcopal minister. St. Paul's continued to send many students to top colleges like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.
Under Matthew Warren (1954-1970), the school saw even more changes. Tuition went up, but more students still applied. The campus was also updated. However, colleges started to accept fewer St. Paul's students.
The school slowly became more open to different people. It stopped requiring students to be Episcopalian. In 1957, the first Black teacher joined the staff, and the first Black student arrived in 1959. A big change came in 1971 when girls were first admitted to St. Paul's. This made it a coeducational school.
William Oates took over in 1970. He listened to students and let them have a say in some decisions. He also made changes to daily life. For example, students didn't have to eat all meals together, and chapel attendance was less strict. He also made the arts program bigger. Oates was great at fundraising and doubled the school's money, making St. Paul's one of the wealthiest boarding schools.
St. Paul's Today
In the 1980s and 1990s, the school wanted to improve its academic reputation. David Hicks became the head in 1992 and started a new way of teaching humanities. The school's academics improved a lot. By 2001, St. Paul's was one of the top schools for sending students to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
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New buildings and updates have made the campus modern. A new library opened in 1991, a large athletic center in 2004, and a science and math center in 2011. The old art building became the Friedman Community Center in 2017, and a new arts building opened too.
Today, St. Paul's welcomes students from many different backgrounds. It also continues to educate students from wealthy families and international students. The school has amazing financial resources, which helps it create a diverse community. Many students who get financial aid receive a big discount on tuition.
In 2019, Kathleen Giles became the head of St. Paul's. She had led another school before joining SPS. Under her leadership, St. Paul's is known as one of the only high schools in the country where all students live on campus.
Campus and Buildings
The school's campus is in a rural area and is sometimes called "Millville." It started as 50 acres but now covers over 2,000 acres! Most of this land is undeveloped woods and wild areas. The campus has four ponds and part of the Turkey River. In 2018, Architectural Digest magazine called St. Paul's the most beautiful private high school campus in New Hampshire.
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The most important building on campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, often called the "New Chapel." It was built between 1886 and 1888. An architecture critic once called it the best work of its designer, Henry Vaughan. The school also kept the smaller Old Chapel, built in 1858, which is used for special events.
The Ohrstrom Library, which overlooks the Lower School Pond, was updated in 2016. It has 75,000 print books and almost half a million e-books online. The school's alumni magazine said its digital collection is as good as some major universities. The Lindsay Center, for science and math, has a greenhouse and an observatory for looking at the stars. A new admissions center is also being built and will open in early 2025.
There are 19 dorms where students live: nine for boys, nine for girls, and one that is all-gender. Each dorm has 20 to 40 students from all grade levels. The dorms have different styles, from the old-fashioned "Collegiate Gothic" to more modern designs.
School Costs and Help
Tuition and Financial Aid
For the 2023-24 school year, St. Paul's tuition was $65,410 plus other fees. However, financial aid covered about $57,000 of that cost for students who received it.
St. Paul's offers financial aid based on what families need. The school promises to cover 100% of the proven financial need for every student it accepts. Families with a yearly household income of $125,000 or less usually get full tuition help. About 38% of students at St. Paul's receive financial aid. The school spends about $10 million on financial aid each year.
Most financial aid at St. Paul's is based on need. But the school also offers a few special scholarships for students from certain states and Mexico.
School's Money (Endowment)
St. Paul's doesn't share the exact size of its financial endowment anymore. The endowment is a large sum of money that the school invests. The money earned from these investments helps the school run and provides financial aid for students. In June 2021, the school said its endowment was $731 million.
St. Paul's has always been one of the wealthiest boarding schools in the United States. In 2019, St. Paul's was the wealthiest boarding school in New England based on how much money it had per student.
Getting In and Student Life
Admissions
In 2024, St. Paul's welcomed 141 new students. Only about 13% of students who applied were accepted. These new students came from 24 different states and 22 countries. In 2023, about 71.7% of accepted students chose to attend St. Paul's.
Student Diversity
In the 2023-24 school year, St. Paul's reported that 48% of its students were people of color. Also, 22% of students were from other countries. The students came from 37 states and 28 countries around the world.
The school works to have a diverse student body. For example, at the end of the 2021-22 school year, St. Paul's announced that 47% of its new students were non-Caucasian, and 19% were from abroad.
Sports at St. Paul's
Popular Sports
George Shattuck, the founder, believed in outdoor activities. St. Paul's was one of the first schools to focus on physical development.
St. Paul's has a long history with ice hockey. Many people believe the first hockey game in the United States was played on the school's Lower School Pond on November 17, 1883. This happened after a teacher, James Potter Conover, saw the game played in Montreal.
- In 1885, the first written hockey rules in America were created at St. Paul's by a student named Malcolm Gordon. He later coached hockey at the school and is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
- St. Paul's hockey teams were very strong in the early 1900s. They even beat college teams like Harvard and Princeton. Some SPS alumni might have even started the hockey programs at Harvard and Yale.
- The award for the best male college hockey player, the Hobey Baker Award, is named after former SPS student Hobey Baker.
The first squash courts in the United States were built at St. Paul's in 1884. James Potter Conover, who brought hockey to the U.S., also introduced an early version of squash to the school.
St. Paul's boys' and girls' rowing teams have won many international competitions. The boys' team won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1980, 1994, and 2004. The girls' team won the Peabody Cup at the Henley Women's Regatta in 1996, 1998, 2001, and 2019.
Sports Leagues
St. Paul's is part of the Six Schools League and the Lakes Region League. The school's athletic directors also work with other schools in the Eight Schools Association to organize sports events.
Until 2017, St. Paul's was in the Independent School League (ISL). The school left the ISL because of rules about scholarships.
Life at St. Paul's
St. Paul's uses the Harkness method for its Humanities classes. This means students and teachers sit around a table and have discussions. This helps everyone share their ideas and learn from each other.
Learning to Lead
Students at St. Paul's learn how to be leaders and work well with others. The school helps them develop skills like talent, hard work, and different cultural experiences. This prepares them to be successful in a diverse world.
School Traditions
One fun tradition is the "Dorm Run," now called the "Charles B. Morgan Run." It happens in the fall. Students run a 2-mile (3.2 km) cross country race to earn points for their dorm. The fastest student record is 9 minutes and 48 seconds!
In the spring, St. Paul's has a public speaking contest called the Hugh Camp Cup. Finalists give speeches in front of the whole school, and students vote for a winner. The winner's name is carved on the prize. Former student John Kerry won this award when he was a senior.
St. Paul's students have also enjoyed music. The band Phish played in the Upper Dining Hall in 1990. The famous DJ Steve Aoki performed at the school's Athletic & Fitness Center in 2015.
Summer Programs
Advanced Studies Program
St. Paul's School started the Advanced Studies Program in 1957. This summer program is for high school juniors from public and private schools in New Hampshire. Students live and study on the St. Paul's campus for about five and a half weeks. They focus on one subject they choose, like astronomy or Shakespeare. Besides classes, students also pick a daily activity or sport to do in the afternoons. In 2014, 267 students from 78 different high schools took part in this program.
Famous People from St. Paul's
Notable Teachers
- James Milnor Coit, teacher
- George A. Gordon, a United States Ambassador
- Richard Lederer, English teacher and author
- Gerry Studds, who later became a U.S. congressman
- John T. Walker, the first African-American Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C.
- John Gilbert Winant, governor of New Hampshire and ambassador during World War II
Images for kids
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The Upper School c. 1905
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Students on the ice of Lower School Pond, 1890
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Students playing leap frog outside the Big Study, 1890
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"The Lower School"
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"The [Old] Chapel"
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"Dining Room at the School"
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