St. Andrew's School, DE - Review #2

I think that the small student body and close knit community of St. Andrew's makes it very unique. With a student body of only about 300 students, you know everyone's name and they know yours. You get to know just about everyone through classes, sports, or assigned lunch tables. Advisors and dorm parents are like your real parents and they just foster a sense of community that makes you feel right at home. Family Style lunch is a huge part of that community builder. Everyone has sit down lunch together at the same time and you are randomly assigned a table and you get to have friendly conversation with all different people from all different grades.

I was able to find my place in a wide variety of different activities. I didn't have to just be a studious kid or an athletic kid. I could do well in English and run on the cross country team and dance and be a part of the chapel program. I met a lot of different people through all these different groups and I was able to branch out and be not so shy because I was given all of these opportunities to be social and meet new people.

I would have told myself not to worry, that everyone is a little bit freaked out. In my first couple months, I kept looking around at everyone else and thinking that they had it all together and I didn't. I found out later(like junior year) that everyone was just as nervous and freaked out as I was and that everyone looks around and thinks that everyone else has it all put together. Just slow down and take it one day at a time and everything will work out for the best.

I loved being part of an inclusive and welcoming community that will always be there for me to go back to. I love that I have made friends who I will likely stay friends with the rest of my life.

Go take a walk on the front lawn! People hang out there all the time and play Frisbee and soccer and its a good demonstration of the community that we have. It's also beautiful!

Academics are rigorous and largely discussion based. I liked that classes were not lectures and that you got to give your own insights and opinions on material as well as hear from your classmates. Class discussion was usually lively and engaging, and students took the discussion where they wanted to take it. I liked that even in Math a lot of discussion was involved in talking about different approaches to solving problems. There was a lot of group work in math where we collaborated to solve problems and we really pushed ourselves to figure it out on our own. Not being spoon fed the answers by a teacher was a very rewarding experience.

For athletics , someone can come in being really great at a sport and be able to continue with that sport and really excel in it. Someone can also come in and have never played a certain sport (or any sport) before and be able to start from scratch and work their way up. I never played any of my sports (cross country, squash, crew) before SAS and I was able to learn how and work my way up over the four years. I also liked that sports (or other afternoon activities) were required so that everyone was active in the afternoons and getting involved with things around campus. I also loved going to the state tournament games for boys basketball and soccer to cheer our teams on. Everyone was always really into cheering and those are some of my best memories.

People can come in having never tried an art before and they can start from the basics, or they can come in being very experienced in an art and continue to get better. All skill levels are welcome. I was a dancer and performing for this student body was always fantastic. Everyone was so supportive and enthusiastic. The performances that I watched (theater, orchestra, choral) were always very well put together and very impressive. The a capella group (the Noxontones) was very good.

There are a bunch of different student organizations. Some of them were silly, like the Polar Bear Jump Club, and some of them were serious, like Operation Smile. People are very passionate about the clubs they are a part of. Anyone can start a club if there is enough interest in the topic. People are involved in a wide variety of different clubs. Community service is not required but almost everyone participates in it anyway. People mentor and tutor at local elementary schools and students are always looking for new ways to get involved in the middletown community.

Dorm life was my favorite part about SAS. I love that we are 100% boarding. Everyone is with each other all the time. After study hall, everyone just hangs out in the common room and plays games or watches TV or talks about random topics. Dorm parents are great about planning games and crafts and snacks. Seniors all live on dorm with underclassmen and it is great leadership to have on dorm and then you have friends across grades.

One big dining room. Breakfast is cafeteria style, lunch is family style, dinner is cafeteria style. Best meals were Sunday brunch (omelet bar, waffle bar) and Wednesday grilled cheese. There is always a salad bar and PB&J option. Very healthy choices for hot meals and cafeteria open at convenient times. Dining services would spice things up every few weeks with a fun and exciting dish or station like a coffee bar.

Middletown doesn't have a ton of stuff, but it has gotten a lot of new additions over the pas few years. There is a movie theater and some new shopping places. There is a Wal mart for grocery items and shampoo and stuff. There are some good local restaurants. Starbucks and Froyo place within walking distance. Middletown is also only about 2 hrs away from DC and 1 hr away from Philadelphia

Everyone has their own smaller friend group, but everyone kind of floats around and is friends with a bunch of different people. Grades sit all together at dinner and no one is separated by their own little "clique". There was always a lot of fun and creative things going on on the weekends around campus like dodgeball tournaments or some kind of festival or dance on the front lawn.