Best Private Schools in St. Louis? (Arnold, Creve Coeur: school tuition, closing, move)

[Tnim]

What is the average tuition for these Catholic schools?

[TGS]

The average is about $15,000 a year for Visitation, Villa, and Sacred Heart. If that is too much, there are a lot of excellent schools that are much, much less.

Information for all of the Catholic secondary schools, including tuition, can be found in the "Red Book" published by the Archdiocese. You can download it here:
http://www.archstl.org/education/images/stories/directories/redbook/redbook.pdf (broken link)

For elementary school, you can do a search here and look at the individual school websites:
Catholic Education (http://www.archstl.org/education/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=251 - broken link)

The parish elementary schools run about $3-6,000 a year, with steep discounts for additional children. The private/holy order elementary schools run about $10-15,000 a year for each child. There are certain parish schools that are as well regarded as the private schools.

[lisamarieslp]

The Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles costs about $4000 for pre-primary (half-day, 5 days/week) and twice that for primary-8th grade. As the previous post noted, parochial schools (those affiliated with parishes) are less costly. However, most of the independent schools offer financial aid to those who qualify.

[Tnim]

Which parish schools have good academic reputations? Would these compare to Rockwood public schools?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Tnim

Which parish schools have good academic reputations? Would these compare to Rockwood public schools?

Most parish schools have good academic reputations. St. Margaret of Scotland in Shaw, St. Gabriel's in St. Louis Hills, St. Ambrose on the Hill, St. Charles Borromeo in St. Charles, Our Lady of Lourdes in University City, Mary Queen of Peace in Webster Groves, or St. Peter's in Kirkwood are the best ones I am familiar with. I am not overly familiar with the ones further out in West County.

All of the parish schools take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills every fall. You can ask to see their scores. Some of the schools have "inclusion programs" (special education programs), so that will drag down the overall scores of some schools. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the school isn't as good as the ones that don't accept special education students. Also, remember that the Rockwood District removes its special education students and puts them into the "Special School District" of St. Louis County. So do most of the public schools in St. Louis County. This greatly inflates the test scores of those schools.

Probably the best indicator of how well the school is regarded is how well they place their students into the private high schools. The ability to place male students into SLUH should be the best indication of the school's reputation; the ability to place female students into St. Joseph's and Cor Jesu should be a secondary indicator. What you do NOT want to see is most of the kids continuing on to public high school.

[Tnim]

Thanks for the info. I am moving into the area in the next couple months and am exploring different education options for my children. We do not have the $$ to send them to the expensive schools so parish schools may be the best fit. When you say "place the students into the private high schools," how does that work? Do they offer scholarship programs?

[aragx6]

TGS just means acceptance rate. There are some scholarships available at all the top private schools. I knew a guy who went to SLUH on scholarship, but my understanding is that full rides are generally few and far between.

[TGS]

That is right, I did mean acceptance rates, sort of. The application procedure from the parish schools to the Catholic high schools only allow the kids to apply to one high school at a time, so the kids don't apply to a large variety of schools.

The way it works is that there is a common application, and the kids list their top three choices. The application is sent to the first school. If that school rejects them, then the application is passed on to the next school. All of the applications are sent to the high schools at the same time, and the acceptance letters are delivered at the same time (after all three schools have had a chance to accept or reject). That way, as long as the third choice was a safety school, every kid should get an acceptance letter on the same day.

Therefore, the placement rate is different than the standard "acceptance and matriculation" rates you would see from high school to college, where kids can apply to a ton of schools, even schools that are generally considered out of their reach. Most parish kids will put their first choice as a school they think will accept them, not necessarily a reach school. The process is somewhat similar to the medical residency match program, if you are familiar with that.

As far as scholarships, each high school has a different program. My child's elementary school also has small scholarships for their graduates. The high schools run by the Archdiocese (Bishop Dubourg, Rosati-Kain, JFK, St. Mary's, Trinity) are not all that expensive compared to the private order high schools.

[Mom62507]

Viz is a great school! You should really think about sending your daughter there in the Fall.

[Mom62507]

Viz is a great school! You should really consider sending your daughter there. What questions do you have?