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300 Admitted into Class of 2026: Incoming freshmen excited to embark on their SLUH journey and leave their impression

As is the long-standing tradition for St. Louis Catholic high schools, the SLUH Admissions Committee sent out high school acceptance letters to over 300 area middle school students last Friday. The prospective students’ long journey to becoming Jr. Bills, filled with Shadow@SLUH visits, family interviews, placement tests, and more, finally culminated with them receiving two official acceptance letters—one physical copy in the mail and one that could be accessed online—and the coveted yard signs which spanned 64 zip codes in the greater St. Louis area.

Brock Kesterson II celebrating his acceptance. Photo: Courtesy of SLUH Twitter

The size of the Class of 2026 is expected to be consistent with the sizes of other classes at SLUH with current estimates—right around 250 students.

“We’ve admitted at least 300 students,” said Director of Admissions Ann Murphy. “How many will come and actually enroll will be completely different, and we will have no idea until later. I would guess that it will be roughly 250 but we’ll have no idea until later.”

Further, the Class of 2026 is not just similar to previous classes in its size, but also the students’ performance in grade school and middle school. The class covers 64 zip codes in and around the St. Louis area from schools big and small.

“The Class of 2026 is consistent with other recently admitted classes as far as being a solid, healthy class of incoming freshmen,” said Admissions Coordinator Jennifer Thomas. “They’re academically solid, come from different communities, different elementary school experiences, and different socio-economic circumstances.”

“The size of the school definitely stood out to me just because it’s such a larger population than my grade school and the campus is much larger,” said incoming freshman Uriah Binder of St. Frances Cabrini Academy. “My graduating class only had around 20 students so it’s a pretty big change.”

Liam Linhares, great nephew of Assistant Principal Jim Linhares, posing with his SLUH yard sign. Photo: Courtesy of SLUH Facebook

While it seems like the pandemic has altered virtually every aspect of school life over the past two years, the admissions team and admissions process remains very similar—save for some new improvements—to what it looked like prior to the spring of 2020. Some of these improvements were slight changes to the shadow program and family interview system.

“We were able to go back to shadowing (during this school year), which we only started a few years ago and I think that really helped,” said Murphy. “It just works out well that (the prospective students) are able to experience the school and interact with both (the current students) and the campus. We also had a very strong Open House which was very interactive and showed off each of our departments. We did do a new event in the fall which showed students areas that they might be interested in throughout the building.”

The only change needed was to the family interview format, an important part of the admissions process, as a result of Covid.

“We offered family interviews virtually as well as on campus to accommodate family preferences,” said Thomas.

Clayton Curtis after being accepted into the Class of 2026. Photo: Courtesy of Mrs. Anne Murphy

After the prospective students completed all of their tours, shadow visits, interviews, and more, the admissions team got to work on deciding who would be accepted and who would be respectfully declined. 

“Acceptance is based on, but not limited to: strong academic performance in the classroom, high achievement on standardized tests, exemplary conduct and effort, leadership potential demonstrated through (a student’s) interests and activities outside of the classroom, and commitment to a faith-based education,” said Thomas. 

Moving forward, the class of 2026 has an eventful few months ahead of them starting with their Class of 2026 Welcome Event next Wednesday. The Welcome Event acts as the first time the class will actually be completely together in-person and this year it’s sole purpose is to initiate that class bond.

“The welcome event will be a little different this year but we’re going to be able to have everyone here,” said Murphy. “It’s just going to be a welcome event, and we’ll focus on the course work later on since this event is purely focused on congratulating them.”

 

 


 

 

 

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