Saint Mary's School

900 Hillsborough Street

Raleigh, NC 27603

11 Reviews

School District
Grade

9-12
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 06, 2025

Saint Mary's School provides an unparalleled educational environment for young women! My daughters both board and are thriving in academic, social and emotional ways. Many of the educators and administrators live on campus creating a community of support, decades of experience and dedication that my daughters benefit from everyday. SMS has led my daughters to demonstrate and embrace leadership while finding their voices in a school that has challenged them to reach for more and expect more of themselves. There is a reason this school has been around since 1842, several of my daughter's classmates are the third generation to attend. An incredible school where your daughter is embraced and encouraged, where traditions are kept and honored that your daughter can learn independence and self reliance. Best decision we have ever made! Kelly~ Dallas, Texas
Submitted by parent on August 04, 2022

My daughter graduated from SMS with honors. We chose SMS to give her an empowering all-girls experience and she received that and more. She was a day student and enrolled as a sophomore later in the academic year. Not only did the faculty and staff make her feel welcome, the students were so welcoming and supportive that it blew our minds. She was partnered with a "sister Saint" who helped her navigate those first weeks, and soon she was joining clubs and organizations. In her junior year, she joined several extracurricular opportunities (theatre, dance) and thrived. She took on leadership positions and then tried seasonal boarding during the time frame she was part of the theatre cast for a performance in the spring. It helped her balance her academic load, which is challenging, with her need for social and personal growth. We can honestly say that Saint Mary's was the best thing that happened for our daughter and we watched her blossom. She's now a sophomore in college, had absolutely no issues transitioning and has found the academic rigor on par with her high school, as they prepared her for college just as they said they would. She's outgoing, fun loving, dedicated, smart, and we are proud of the work she did at SMS and now in her college today. We recommend Saint Mary's to everyone in our church and at work, if they have daughters around7th or8th grade and tell them to go look and then send them for high school. They will never regret the investment. We are so glad we invested in our daughter's future. Thank you, Saint Mary's School!
Submitted by parent on August 04, 2022

What an amazing school experience for my twin daughters and our family! In addition to helping our girls academically succeed and be prepared for college, the school also centers core teaching and learning on developing social skills, nurturing their spiritual life, and provided numerous leadership opportunities. When they graduated, both were accepted to MULTIPLE colleges and universities, and they are better prepared than others in their peer group who did not go to an all-girls' school. We watched as our girls discovered who they wanted to become as individuals, as school leaders, and how core competencies they developed will be used in college and later in their professional careers. Our daughters were boarding students who had the "full" Saint Mary's experience; they felt safe and nurtured as part of a campus community. We are thrilled with the result. We highly recommend Saint Mary's School! #GoSaints!
Submitted by parent on October 19, 2021

I have to say this school is incredible. My daughter is thriving here. They really teach the girls to be strong and independent individuals. Seeing my daughter so excited to go to school makes it with every single penny.
Submitted by parent on October 04, 2021

My daughter attended saint mary’s for sophomore year and it was a horrible experience. The school does not handle bullying and continues to let it happen. If your child has mental health challenges do not send them here. The school treated my daughter like a burden rather then giving her the support she needed. For the most part the teachers were good but some of the teachers were very unprofessional and rude. The school shows a lot of favoritism to kids who’s parents donate money and look the other way on a lot of situations. The girls that attend this school are very mean and very unwelcoming. I highly recommend finding another school choice.
Submitted by parent on July 31, 2019

My daughter graduated from SMS with honors. We chose SMS to give her an empowering all-girls experience and she got quite the opposite. The school is administrative top heavy (causing an oversized tuition for the value) and the two top administrators are men. That should have been our first clue that women and girls on campus are not empowered. If you are interested in the boost in test scores and self-confidence that results from an all girls environment, I would suggest that at least part of that boost comes from attending a school for girls that is led by women. In this day and age, how is there not at least one woman in the top leadership position of SMS? There are two other all girls boarding schools within hours of SMS (Chatham Hall and Salem Academy) that are both run by women. I suggest that anyone considering SMS go there and simply feel the difference that it makes. I was born in 1972 and attended an all girls boarding school where there was a headmistress. I still remember how much I admired her. Another issue we experienced was that while the administration was top heavy, one area where the school scrimped was college advising. It definitely felt as though unequal attention was given to some of the girls regarding help with college applications. This could be related to the larger scandals in college admissions with money paving the way to more help and attention, I don't know but I certainly did not donate to SMS above the tuition we paid and had to work hard to get any help from the college advisors. Finally, regarding the athletics. Recently, SMS made the decision that learning to be a part of a team was less important than winning. And as a result, they have been recruiting athletes from the greater community thus making it much harder for average kids to be a part of the sports teams. If your child cant make the ultra-competitive teams, she can participate in a sport that doesn't cut such as cross-country or swimming, but these are more solitary sports and do not provide the same benefits later in life. If you would like to know that your daughter can participate in a team sport and experience the support and resilience to stress that team sports give, try another school. There are many other private schools with plenty of spots for kids of all abilities because they do not use tuition dollars to recruit athletes.
Submitted by parent on February 28, 2018

I would rate my experience and my daughter's experience with St. Mary's School as excellent!
Submitted by other on November 21, 2015

This is a lovely, sweet school. I do recommend it, even though it was not right for our daughter and we ended up leaving. It is a safe place for girls who need the nurturing and support and I would/do definitely recommend it to friends. The academics are extremely traditional--lecture and test. Our daughter was interested in learning about advanced topics and maybe doing research in science (she was a Duke TIP participant throughout middle school) and the only courses offered at Saint Mary's were dry AP courses. Even though all the girls had computers, they only used them to take notes and write papers--no programming or making digital movies as we'd hoped. It sounds like I'm being critical--but Saint Mary's is a sweet, loving school for a girl who wants to make friends with like-minded girls, not work too hard, make good grades (just about everyone is on the honor roll) and have lots of opportunities to participate in extra-curriculuars. No cuts in sports, plays or chorus are a huge benefit that come from attending a school this size!
Submitted by student on June 07, 2013

Incredible. I have friends from all over the world not just all over the States and North Carolina itself. I have learned to be an analytical thinker and ask questions. I couldn't have asked for better teachers, and they care more about me than my scores. People at Saint Mary's genuinely want you to have a good experience and to do well. It's so refreshing. The Honor Code is also such a big part in our community. I feel comfortable leaving my backpack anywhere at all, and it will not be taken or gone through. The Saint Mary's community really does emit such an air of trust, and there's an obvious reason why we refer to it as our community not just our school.
Submitted by other on April 15, 2011

My daughter came to Saint Mary's in 10th grade and had many friends in many different groups and grades. That's one of the beautiful things about SMS you get what you put in. It offers strong academics, athletics and cultural arts offerings. The all female environment is a nurturing and challenging environment for today's young ladies. All in a great school- wonderful staff, diverse population, updated technology while keeping the old traditions.
Submitted by parent on January 15, 2011

Really great for my daughter..SMS gave her independance, confidence, and prepared her for the rest of her life. Not only are the courses challenging, they are taught in such a way that she felt comfortable asking questions and learning.