Page 6 - Priorities #36 2007-January Annual Report

Fast Facts Fall2006 School Community:
A small school by choice and design.
High School: 254 Middle School 96 52% male, 48% female
Boarding Students: 49 45% female
55% male
This year, international boarding students are from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, India, Germany, China and Hungary. Most U.S. residents live within a 50-mile radius of the campus with a few coming from Northern California, the Midwest and Puerto Rico. International and United States residents are about equally divided.
Tuition, Financial Aid and Cost of Education
Tuition: $26,700 for day students and $34,932 for boarding students (includes lunches and most school activities). Twenty-one percent of students, both day and boarding, received some financial aid. From a pool of $1.28 million, the average grant was $17,288. Eighteen percent of the financial aid budget went
to targeted less-advantaged student populations. Three students were awarded Benedictine Scholarships for graduates of local Catholic schools. That scholarship pool was $45,000.
The actual cost of a Priory education is nearly $4,000 per student more than tuition and fees. This difference is covered mainly by the Annual Fund, Auction and special gifts to the school. About 90% of parents and many members of the Priory’s extended community of alumni, relatives and friends help close this gap.
Scholastic Achievement
National Merit—eight commended scholars, one semifinalist; almost 13% of the senior class. Advanced Placement Test Scores—116 students took 259 exams. On a scale of 1 (highest) through 5, 90% of these exams scored 3 or better; more than 73% scored a 4 or 5.
Advanced Placement Scholars—39% of students who took the exams achieved scholar status. Fourteen were AP Scholars, 13 were Scholars with Honors, 18 were Scholars with Distinction and 2 were National Scholars—the highest designation.
SAT Scores—Mathematics average: 658, Critical Reasoning average: 628; Writing average: 630
Courses and Activities
H-Block Clubs and Activities—36
Some are for course credit, some are without credit to allow students a chance to explore without concern for their grade point average.
Advanced Placement Courses—19
New Course Electives— nine, including Marine Biology, Oceanography, History of Rock & Roll, History of Islam, Visions of Excess, Theology through Lit and Film, Beginning Computer Programming, Master Acting Lab, and Writing for Performance.
Most popular activity—athletics, with nearly all Middle School and about 75% of High School students participating in team sports. Visual and Performing Arts also score high in student participation.
Student-Teacher Ratios
Class size—Average is 12.4 students. The vast majority of classes are between 14 and 18 students. Some classes in grades 10-12 have smaller numbers of students.
Teacher/Student Ratio—The full-time-equivalent teacher/student ratio is 9 to 1. The ratio of teachers and student support staff to students is 6 to 1.
Admissions
Locally, the day student applicant pool for both the High School and Middle School remained stable. There was a significant increase in boarding student applications from American as well as international applicants. Campus leadership continues to
reach out to our international community as a
way of becoming a truly global community. The establishment and active role of Priory Parent Associations around the world is very welcome and encouraging.
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