Whats the skinny on this school. I see these little kids with St. John's jackets and logos every damn where.

Is this school the end all be all? Hard to gain admittance? Worthy of the tuition costs?

sjl's kids go there.

SJL - what say you?

k-12 school. tuition ranges from $13K-$20K. A lot of kids have scholarships. The movie 'Rushmore' was loosely based on this school. Sports are pretty good. Good academics that have been nationally recognized to get you into top universities.

St. John's is an exception school, however puts way way way too much emphasis on education rather than the over all high school experience. Don't expect your kid to be an athlete, in the arts, drama, etc if they are going to St. Johns

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however puts way way way too much emphasis on education

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i know what you're trying to say, but it reads as a funny criticism when describing a school.

that's like saying the Katy Tigers put too much emphasis on football!

One thing i can say for sure is that your kids are guaranteed the highest quality drugs and prescription meds available. So that's a plus...

They have, by far, the highest average SAT scores for each graduating class of any private or public school in Houston. Kinkaid, Strake & Cooper are all competing for a distant second. About half of each graduating class are National Merit Scholars or semifinalists. That said, the kids always seemed miserable to me and they supposedly have a serious drug problem there (hard drugs like Cocaine, not just pot). I grew up nearby and knew a couple of kids who went there and they were pretty unhappy. The acceptance rates are typically below 15% from a highly qualified applicant pool. If you have a kid who is truly gifted who wants some serious academic rigor, it might be a fit. If you're just a hyper ambitious yuppie parent forcing your children to do things for your own ego benefits, your kid will probably be miserable and wash out.

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sjl used her political clout to force the mildly left leaning, lilly-white administration of SJS to admit her childrenin order to avoid an embarassing spectacle

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FIFY

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sjl's kids go there.

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Incorrect, at least on one count. Her son was in a bunch of my classes in high school and I did not go to St. Johns

[This message has been edited by bluefire579 (edited 2/8/2011 4:42p).]

Leroy Lee wasnt her son jerk. Newsflash: not all colored people look alike you f'n racist twit!!

Bias: I went to Strake Jesuit.

SJS is a good (great) school, but that is about all they do. As mentioned before, most of the ones I met were smarter than I, but didn't do much else. At Strake, you were highly encouraged to do other things.

The top 10 kids were voted on by the school's teachers as to who is the Valedictorian and Salutatorian. This way those at the top who also do other things (sports, band, etc.) get recognition that they would have "better" grades if they didn't do those things.

SJS is alst frickin' expensive. Moreso than the other private schools of Houston.

~egon

Strake definitely encouraged kids to do more than study.

I was more than happy to appease them.

gotta pay to play son.

"SJS is alst frickin' expensive. Moreso than the other private schools of Houston."

Kinkaid and EHS are both more than SJS...

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they supposedly have a serious drug problem there (hard drugs like Cocaine, not just pot).

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Definitely true. Several coke heads who got kicked out ended up across the street at my high school. I had a couple of friends from middle school who went to St. John's. Very smart people (both finishing med school this year) but pretty much fell off the face of the Earth during high school. St. John's kids kinda end up in their own isolated world.

george07: Were you incarcerated at Lamar too? I hated every day at Lamar. I was just counting the days until I could get the hell out of there and go off to college.

I went to St Johns from first grade until graduating in 1995.

I am unsure of how it is changed since, but while I was there I was never around anyone doing drugs, and I had a wide range of acquaintances for a class consisting of 120 or so

My classes at St John's were better than many that I had at A&M, especially in terms of promoting intellectual interest

The idea that SJS is just about academics is simply ridiculous. I played three sports and participated in other extracurriculars

At one time at least one of SJL's kids must have been at SJS . . . unfortunately

Buck, yeah I went to Lamar. I liked it though. Definitely much worse high schools I could have gone to.

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I had a couple of friends from middle school who went to St. John's. Very smart people (both finishing med school this year) but pretty much fell off the face of the Earth during high school. St. John's kids kinda end up in their own isolated world.

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I agree with that assesment but I think St. John's overemphasis on academics comes at a high cost. I know two people from middle school that went to St John's and then on to Rice but both ended up duds (so far) in the "real world". They were VERY smart people, but seemed to lack a certain real world savvy and frankly lacked any social skills at all. That would be a big downer to me as a parent.

Disclosure: I went to Strake. I feel that I received a very well rounded education and attribute a lot of my success in college and the working world to my Strake experience. FWIW, I think St Thomas is also a reasonably good school. In any case, you can find positives and negatives for every private HS, I promise you that much.

[This message has been edited by Fightin_Farmer (edited 2/10/2011 1:56a).]

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I had a couple of friends from middle school who went to St. John's. Very smart people (both finishing med school this year) but pretty much fell off the face of the Earth during high school. St. John's kids kinda end up in their own isolated world.

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Also, this kind of anecdotal evidence fails to get at the fact that most SJS kids go there the entire time. The kids that come in later tend to be more of the nerds and don't assimilate to the same extent that the rest of the class has through more than a decade

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My classes at St John's were better than many that I had at A&M, especially in terms of promoting intellectual interest

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True of my classes at SAA to.

very good school. I know lots of kids that go there. Some do really well and some get overwhelmed by the academic rigor. They have very good sports teams and most kids play sports that I know.

My next door neighbor's son was senior class president last year. He played sports, was an Eagle Scout and was highly ranked in his class...he's now at Harvard. His other choices were Yale and UVA (turned down a Jefferson Scholorship, much to his parents chagrin).

"The have really good sports teams"

They must have gotten much much much much better. There was a decade or so span that they were miserable in just about everything. I can count on one hands the number of wins in the major boys sports that SJS had over KHS and EHS during the mid 90s to mid 2000's. Lacrosse and field hockey are about the only competitive sports I can think of off the top of my head.

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Lacrosse and field hockey are about the only competitive sports I can think of off the top of my head.

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Its a private school... those are the sports that matter to them. Not football, basketball or baseball.

looks like they won the prestigious "SPC Cup" battling powerhouses such as St. Mark's, Country Day and John Cooper!

their football team was pretty good this year, and their basketball team is damn good...doesn't hurt when you have Ricky Winslow's two sons on your basketball team.

Their girls athletics is very good as well.

They've never been good at baseball, but all the other sports are good. And you're right, lacrosse and field hockey are bigh sports inthe SPC.

My small town high school classes were more intellectually stimulating than ATMs to.

You must not have taken Chicken Sex with Dr. Manning!

Ok - on Saturday I attended the SPC men's championship basketball game. It was St. John's vs. Episcopal. Both teams were pretty good and it was a great environment and an even better game. STJ won on a last second shot.

Both teams had a player or two who will play at the next level. EHS has a 6'10" center that I could see playing small college ball. They have a sophmore guard who will pay somewhere...not sure if he will play D1 or not.

Now to STJ. They have a freshman point guard. He's 6'5", jumps out of the gym, can shoot the three, great drives to the hole, and just dominated the game. I think he scored 42 of STJ's 69 points. He will play wherever he wants to play in college. His name is Justice Winslow. His dad is Ricky Winsolw and he played for UH. I did a little internet search on him, and he is considered one of the top 10 freshmen in the nation right now.

I played 5a hoops it the Houston area. I've only seen one other high school player that could dominate like this kid - Shaq. But Shaq was due to his size, this kids has everything. He will be an interesting player to watch.

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sjl's kids go there.

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wrong, went to school with her son (same as bluefire)



my friend went to St.Johns for HS and he was very bright, got a perfect SAT score and ended up at MIT for his bachelors and masters...however, i don't think all the students that went there were extremely bright. most of the people he knew lived in river oaks. also...their football team was pretty bad. anyway, it is a good school but it costs a lot of money.

Was doing a little texags private school research and have to bump this thread due to MAROON's post:

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Now to STJ. They have a freshman point guard. He's 6'5", jumps out of the gym, can shoot the three, great drives to the hole, and just dominated the game. I think he scored 42 of STJ's 69 points. He will play wherever he wants to play in college. His name is Justice Winslow. His dad is Ricky Winsolw and he played for UH. I did a little internet search on him, and he is considered one of the top 10 freshmen in the nation right now.

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Good call.

Very competitive academically. If you ever look a list of where they're graduates head off to college, it's pretty impressive.

My wife is an SJS grad. She tells me that this year there are 17 grads headed to Aggieland. That's unheard of! We are doing something right.