New Student FAQs

Math and foreign language placement tests will be sent to you in May and must be completed and returned to St. Mark’s within two weeks of the date they are provided.

Course planning materials will be sent to you during in May and must be completed and returned to St. Mark’s by within two weeks of the date they are provided.

Preliminary course schedules will be sent to you in early August. Please note that these schedules will be subject to change.

Please call the Academics Office at 508-786-6159 (or email DeanofAcademics@stmarksschool.org), or the Admission Office at 508-786-6118 (or email admission@stmarksschool.org).

Your advisor will be a faculty member who the Deans’ Office feels is a good match for you, based on academic or athletic interests or personal background. New students will find out and meet their advisors on the first day of Orientation. While most students do stay with their advisor for their whole time at St. Mark’s, students wishing to switch advisors may do so by filling out an advisor preference form at the end of the academic year for a new advisor for the next year.

You will receive an email about the summer reading in the late spring. 

If you have provided us with your student email address, as assigned by your current school, and it will be disabled over the summer, please email us at admission@stmarksschool.org to provide us with your new primary, personal email address, or your parents' primary, personal email address.

If your family will be traveling over the summer and has an alternate postal address to which mail should be sent, please also send that information to admission@stmarksschool.org along with the dates when mail should start and stop at that address.

International students should go ahead and schedule their visa interviews as soon as possible. Until further notice, your I-20 will be sent to you via email, near the beginning of June. Please let us know what date your visa interview is scheduled for so that we can determine when we will be able to send your I-20. It is imperitive that you do not forward the document to anyone as it then becomes invalid. Please remember that the name on your I-20 must match your passport. If you provided a different name on your application, and the name on your enrollment contract does not match the name on your passport, or you believe other information on the I-20 is in error please contact us at admission@stmarksschool.org so that we can issue your I-20 with the correct information. NOTE: We are in close contact with SEVP and we will let you know as soon as possible if any of this information changes.

If you are an international student currently attending a school in the United States, it is the responsibility of your current school to transfer your I-20 to St. Mark’s.

You will be matched with your roommate based on your personal interests and background, as presented in your admission application. You can also fill out our roommate questionnaire to give us more specific information. The questionnaire will be sent by email in June.

You will find out who your roommate is when you arrive on campus for Orientation.

Yes, E&R Laundry provides a full-service laundry and dry cleaning plan for boarding students. Information about how to sign up for laundry service will be posted under "Getting Ready" in mid-June.

For their house (dorm) rooms, each boarding student needs to bring a bedspread, blanket, pillow, sheets (beds are US standard twin size), pillowcase, hangers, laundry basket, alarm clock, desk light (no bulbs exceeding 60 watts or halogen lamps), power strip with surge protector, overnight bag, plastic bucket for toiletries, dry-erase board for door, and a key chain.

For classes, each student needs to bring notebooks, highlighters, pens/pencils, a pencil sharpener, scissors, stapler and staples, scotch tape, ruler, dictionary/thesaurus, and a TI-83 Plus or TI-84 Plus* calculator**.

For sports, each student needs to bring sweatshirt/pants, running shoes, cleats (for soccer, field hockey, football), a water bottle, and sport-specific equipment.

*We do not recommend the TI-Nspire calculator for our classes.
**Please note: Students who are enrolled in Algebra I or Geometry are not required to bring a TI calculator.

To ensure that all students have equitable access to the tools they need to pursue their studies St. Mark’s requires each student to have a laptop computer, either a Mac or a Windows PC, but not a Chromebook, as Chromebooks do not support some desktop applications used in our classes. By ensuring that all students have comparable devices, the school better supports instruction in the classroom, allowing faculty to plan for predictable and reliable access to technological tools throughout the curriculum.

Please refer to the Technology information on Getting Ready for more information on computers and the campus network. We also recommend bringing a 10’ to 15’ long Ethernet cable.

As of right now, there is no official carpool program for day students. However, many families from the same or nearby towns do set up car pools with each other. As stated in the Student Handbook, permission for students to ride with other drivers will be given in accordance with parental permission forms.

If you are an athlete participating in pre-season athletics, you will be invited to arrive on campus early by the coach. The athletics department will be in touch regarding your arrival to campus. All other new students are expected to arrive on the morning of September 4, 2024.

New student orientation begins on September 4, 2024. New students and their parents/guardians should plan to arrive on campus between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Parents/guardians are included in orientation throughout the day on Wednesday.

You will not be able to move in early.

The athletics department and coaches will reach out to pre-season athletes. If you have any questions regarding your attendance, please contact the athletic department.

The Pathways program promotes awareness around sociocultural differences and provides affinity opportunities for students whose identity needs are not reflected in the dominant culture at St. Mark’s School. This program is the umbrella under which all student affinity groups are housed.

The Pathways Orientation program introduces all new students to the Community and Equity work that we proudly and intentionally do at the school. Guided by Pathways student leaders, new students are given the opportunity to learn basic vocabulary about DEIJB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belong) and analyze the many different identities they have already developed or are still exploring. They are encouraged to take a deeper dive into the understanding of themselves while getting to know St. Mark’s and each other.

The Pathways Orientation program also provides space for affinity group conversations centered on sharing experience and building community. It is our goal to help each student bring their full self to a new community while simultaneously creating space for others to be their full selves. This includes opportunities for students to reflect upon personal experiences related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, nationality, and more. Such reflections and conversations are key to living in an intentionally small and incredibly diverse community which requires us to practice curiosity, grace, empathy, and patience with each other.

Please refer to our Campus Map and Directions page for a list of local accommodations, airports, and travel information.