St. Andrew's School, DE - Review #13

There are two things that stand out in my memories of Saint Andrews: the friendships I developed with my peers, and the close relationship I had with my teachers. Nearly every teacher at Saint Andrews lived on campus or in the dormatories, and they made themselves available to students at all hours, which really helped me develop as a student. The devotion of the faculty members to teaching was astounding, especially with the younger faculty members who sacrificed their social lives to teach the students. I developed friendships with many of the teachers in extracurricular settings as well. These friendships created an outlet to see the adult view points on issues affecting my life when I could not talk to my parents or simply did not want to talk to my parents. The friends I met at school are my closest friends, and I do not believe we could have developed such great relationships if we had not lived together in such an intimate comunity.

Being at Saint Andrews taught me how to really learn in my classes as opposed to just getting by. This was apparent when I won an award for greatest academic improvement.

I would have started participating in more school activities my freshmen year. By not participating in any clubs or activities other than sports I missed out on getting to know many interesting people.

The school's size allowed for close relationships with the teachers and other students. If it had been a larger school many of the opportunities afforded to me would not have existed.

If it is a sunny day, have a meal out on the front lawn and just enjoy the atmosphere.

The classes at Saint Andrews had a substantial workload, but it prepared me for college quite well. The transition into college courses was smooth, which was most likely due to the the rigorous academics at Saint Andrews. There are many advanced math and science courses available, as well as a diverse collection of history courses ranging from US history to East Asian history to the colonial histories of India, Africa and central America.

The coaches cared about their players at all levels, and generally stressed having fun and working as a team over winning and being overly competetive. This made playing sports particularly enjoyable.

The teachers in these subjects were particularily strong, and encouraged students to find different artistic outlets. The school has a very strong commitment to the arts, as is apparent with its funding of a new twenty millions dollar art center now being built.

Anyone could join or start a club. The closeness of the community helped all the students gain access to different activities. I particularily enjoyed the polar bear club in which students went for dips in the pond on frigid winter mornings.

Being close to my friends at all times allowed us to develope close relationships. The dormatory regulations were strict freshmen year, and slowly became less strict until senior year when you had the freedom to choose your own sleeping, and social shedule. The helped prepare me for the sudden freedom from regulation in college.

The food was much better than in college dining centers. The required sit down meals kept everyone in the community close.

The town of Middletown is somewhat remote, but the completion of an expressway linking Wilmington (and Philadelphia) to southern Delaware four years created a population boom in the town. The result of this boom is an evergrowing amount of shops and businesses. The campus itself is still slightly removed from town life.

The fact that we got to see our friends seven days a week was great. I got to know my classmate very well.