Eight grade students across the St. Louis region eagerly awaited the arrival of their high school acceptance letters last Friday, and 257 boys adorned themselves with SLUH attire and celebrated their acceptance into the U. High class of 2025.

“When I received the letter I was just excited because I knew that I was officially in SLU High. It was just relieving to know that you were in and that’s where you are going next year,” said Andrew Moritz, a member of the class of 2025. “I am excited about being part of the SLUH tradition and being challenged and all of the new opportunities ahead.” 

Of the 284 applicants who have applied so far, 257 of those boys were accepted into the class of 2025. Even with the declining population in Catholic elementary schools, 70 percent of those accepted come from a Catholic grade school, with St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gabriel sending the most out of any grade school, with 11 each. 

Like preceding classes, the class of 2025 is made up of a diverse set of 65 zip codes from Missouri and Illinois.

Despite the significant number of applications, the admissions team ran into issues when the pandemic prevented them from hosting many in-person marketing events early on for prospective families. The one that impacted them the most was the inability to host shadow students, an admissions event that had just been started a year earlier and had found great success with advertising to the class of 2024. Another popular event for prospective families that also was canceled was the annual Open House. The cancellation of both of these hands on visit opportunities created a difficult atmosphere for the admission team to work in. 

 “We didn't have a lot of traditional things which had an impact on admissions,” said Director of Admissions Ann Murphy. “I think families are still evaluating their options, and it's just a different year for everything.”

This year over 280 hopeful eighth graders applied to SLUH, and the number may continue to grow with the implementation of a rolling admissions timeline this year.

“We are extending to what we call a rolling timeline so students can still apply if they want to, which allows for public school families that may have not been in the know about that regular St. Louis Archdiocese timeline to still apply if they want,” said Murphy. 

Despite having to cancel many of the in-person admissions events, this year has led to SLUH looking for new creative approaches to marketing the school to prospective families.

 “We need to be more creative in our social media advertising and how we utilize technology,” said Murphy. “I think it's at least giving us an awareness of the general public and looking at reaching out to different populations through technology.” 

Last year the shadow visits played a critical part in the admissions team’s strategy for marketing to prospective students as it provided those students the chance to picture themselves as Jr. Bills. Instead, the team tried to accomplish this same effect but in the form of a personal tour of SLUH for an individual family. Eighth graders and their parents would come to SLUH and be guided around what a normal day would look like. While not as engaging as a typical day of shadowing, the system did help prospective students imagine a day in the life of a SLUH student. 

“(The tour) meant a lot to me because I've never really had the feeling of being part of a community quite like SLUH or being part of a community quite as historic as SLUH,” said Jonah Moore, a member of the class of 2025. 

“Even though we faced a pandemic, the admissions office adjusted to create virtual Inside SLUH visits, virtual Shadow@SLUH opportunities and offered one-on-one family tours,” said Murphy. 

Even though their journey at SLUH has just begun, the class of 2025 is ready to make its mark on the halls of SLUH and embark on their journey through high school. 

“I hope to play basketball,” said Moore. “But most of all I hope to take advantage of all that SLUH has to offer.”