Eighth graders across St. Louis received letters of admission to St. Louis U. High last Friday, Jan. 27. They were able to visit Backer Memorial for the first time as Jr. Bills to buy merchandise and take pictures with the Billiken on Saturday. In total, 292 students were admitted to the class of 2027 from 60 different zip codes.

“It's a very strong academic class, and a very, very diverse group as well, which is great to see. So we're very excited about the class getting to meet them next week at the welcoming event,” said Principal Ian Gibbons, SJ. 

While the admissions process culminates in the adrenaline rush of decision day, months of work go into creating the incoming freshman class each year. Middle schoolers are recruited at open house, high school nights, Inside SLUH visits, and summer programs. Students who are interested then go through an online application, a family interview, and high school placement tests before making their final decision.

“I’ve been around SLUH for a while and I’ve just always liked the feel of it,” said incoming freshman Elliot Marsh. “I went to the Upward Bound camp, and I love the teachers. I just loved the vibe of it.”

SLUH admissions is an ongoing process. Now that the class of 2027 is admitted, the Admissions department is already moving on to recruitment for current seventh graders.

“Building the incoming freshman class is a several-years-long project including engagement with sixth, seventh, eighth graders through SLUH’s summer programs and invitations to campus for shadow visits and open house,” said Gibbons. “It’s not simply a date in late January where suddenly we just make an announcement. It's really quite an extensive project and we’re very proud of the system that we have in place.”

Admissions is both about selling SLUH to potential Jr. Billikens as well as recruiting the best and the brightest that St. Louis grade schools have to offer.

“There are a lot of great high school options here in St. Louis, but SLUH continues to attract really, really talented students who will thrive and succeed here,” said Director of Admissions Jennifer Thomas.

Despite the ramifications that Covid has had on learning in high schools and grade schools alike, SLUH has continued to draw a talented pool of applicants who are prepared to succeed as Jr. Billikens. 

“Our applicant classes are always very strong, but it seems like the last couple of years kids were still reeling from the instructional loss and the online learning experience,” said Thomas. “This year, they now have two years back in the classroom, and in some cases they’re coming in with more confidence in their academics than maybe the last couple of years, even though they were very academically strong in the last couple of years as well.”

In January, when it comes time for a defining decision to be made, the admissions committee considers four principal criteria in its applicants.

“There’s what we call four quartiles are four major characteristics of what we are looking for in a strong candidate for becoming a Jr. Billiken: Academics, leadership potential, interview and engagement with school personnel, and then alignment with mission,” said Gibbons. “Anytime there’s a deficiency in any of those four areas, the committee needs to explore it in greater depth.”

The environment surrounding high school and high school admissions is ever changing. One change to the admissions process this year was that SLUH implemented a new application portal. While this changed nothing in the user interface for prospective families, it made it much easier on the administrative sign for SLUH to guarantee a seamless experience.

“It works similarly to our in-house portal, but we have now an entire army of tech support people behind us that can help us with it,” said Thomas. “So that’s been the biggest change, and it is completely transparent to our users. But on the inside, there’s going to be a lot more robust reporting that we can do because of it.”

Alongside the portal for applying students, the events leading up to application are morphing just as much, and for the better. 

“One of the biggest changes to our admissions process is our open house program is no longer really an eighth grade program, we're finding that it's really becoming more of a sixth and seventh grade activity,” said Gibbons. “It’s a major evolution in our process, as well as the shadow experience which has become a major contributor to our admissions process.”

The class of 2027 will also experience changes to the freshman initiation experience. SLUH will require a new class for all freshmen called SLUH 101, which focuses on executive functioning skills that will help students face the challenges of high school.

“It’s somewhat to help counteract the effects of Covid and some of the learning loss from that,” said Thomas. “But also, just because you’re strong students, doesn’t mean we can assume that you guys have those strong executive functioning skills of how to organize your time and how to prioritize your work. So we’re going to be even more intentional about that through SLUH 101 now.”

A welcome event for the class of 2027 will take place next Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. The rising Jr. Billikens will finish out their eighth grade year and then begin their SLUH journey with Direction Days in early June.