Blanchet Catholic School

4373 Market Street Northeast

Salem, OR 97301

12 Reviews

School District
Grade

6-12
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on October 23, 2024

This school calls itself a ‘college prep’ school. Let’s review the two most important quality measures used to assess ‘college prep’: GPA & SAT score.My sr gets A grades in Honors, AP, and Dual Enrollment classes, but like others here with GPAs = or > to 4.0 can’t break 1200 on the SAT. So, either the grades are inflated or the SAT prep is dismal, or both.Blanchet needs to take a long hard look at this and ask itself, “what exactly does ‘college prep’ mean?”I don’t blame the kids, Blanchet has more than its share of intelligent, motivated students. I don’t blame the teachers that much either. I blame the administration and the school’s board of directors. Those in charge need to look at the admitted student stats of the top US universities, and design a curriculum which enables smart & motivated students to compete for admission to their ‘dream’, rather than their ‘safety’ school.At minimum, “A” students in Math and English should have SAT scores in the 1400-1500 range. Will Blanchet ever be up to this?If you want your kid to maximize their potential, challenge the marketing hype before you wake up to an uncompetitive SAT score.Caveat Emptor.
Submitted by parent on November 01, 2022

My two kids attended in the 2015 range. One graduated and one moved into home schooling. It's a self-funded school (hint, you'll be participating in fundraising), with a full offering of sports, and all about the college prep. Financial aid was made available to us and despite other reviews, I don't believe it made any difference in the quality of education my kids received. It's a smaller campus that your typical Salem-metro high school and people know each other. How your child experiences the surrounding is up to you, but those teachers were there when I needed them and supporting my kids 100%. Both my kids are not religious. They were required to attend a Religious Studies class daily and weekly Mass, they were not required by any means to adopt Catholicism. You'll encounter some not-so-great teachers I'm sure. This may be in part because that teacher isn't a great fit for your child and in this limited structure there might not be an opportunity to change English teachers because there's only one. My son placed baseball and was on the swim team. With smaller teams you'll get play time without having to be a superstar.
Submitted by parent on March 30, 2018

Have had 3 kids go here. While we had a good experience at public school, the Blanchet community (faculty, kids, families) is truly a community. My kids not only have a great education, but an extended faith community.
Submitted by parent on August 09, 2017

Academically challenging, engaged parents, caring teachers and staff. Excellent college prep school.
Submitted by student on October 10, 2015

I'm a international. First thing i like about this school is the friendliness of people. They just have 4 AP courses English, History, Biology and Math. There is nothing you can do if you want to study more, unless get out of that school and go to college for a better class. This is because the school is quite small. In Spanish classes, they can "cheat" their score with EXTRACREDIT - can, food drive. One can or one noodle packet is one point. There was 2 kid brought up to 96 cans, so they got 96 points. Their grade jumped from B- to straight A. And yep, they care about sport more than education. Most of their news is about club, sport and minority is education. I dont really like their religion classes. You learn about the church teaching with out really able to say your own opinion.
Submitted by other on December 30, 2013

Going to this school was one of the worst experiences of my life. I felt very excluded from the other students and experienced a lot of bullying by those who were part of the "popular" crowd. This school only cares about money and the students whose parents donate to the school or pay the full tuition get treated better than the students who are on financial aid. Not only that but their "education" is a joke. None of their classes prepare students for college and when I switched to a public school after going to high school here for a year and a half I found myself behind. I received a much higher quality education at a nearby public school and had the chance to earn 26 college credits before I graduated, a chance I never would have gotten at Blanchet. Do yourself a favor and go to public school instead.
Submitted by parent on October 18, 2013

Although this is a catholic college preparatory school they invite all faiths and even non-faith affiliated students. We attend Blanchet for the education. Having raised my previous children in the public school system I found this to be money well spent. We live on a limited budget. At first glance the tuition scared us. We have found all they do in teaching our child will save us college classes by him being further along than had he chosen the public path. They work hard to also assist their students with scholarships while attending Blanchet, and scholarships for college. We pay the full tuition with no assistance. It has been worth every penny! We never hear a word about teachers being over worked, under paid, etc. I only hear conversations about the students, and their needs. They have exceeded our expectations.
Submitted by parent on October 17, 2013

We moved to Blanchet Catholic School last fall, coming from a local public middle school. At the public middle school we had problems with foul language in the hallways, bullying, crowded classrooms, lack of homework, and presence of drugs. We are so grateful to have come to Blanchet. Academically, and as a college prep school, Blanchet offers challenging work, small classroom sizes, and individual attention. Socially, the students are well-mannered, polite, and respectful. Athletics are easy to participate in, even for new to sport players. There are many extra-curricular activities for your kids. The leadership at the school is incredibly strong. This is the first year the kids have actually been excited for the end of spring break to get back to school. We love Blanchet!
Submitted by parent on August 28, 2013

I have a child at this school and it is amazing! I love the family atmosphere and the warm loving environment. The comments that I have read on here are shocking and definitely NOT the experience that I have had.
Submitted by parent on February 18, 2013

Absolutely Horrible School, with horrible educators. I am a college professor and never in my life have I seen such terrible schooling. I am ashamed for sending my daughters here. Their science lab is a joke, and their sports programs are taken way to seriously. The Vice Principle is mean and intimidating. I do not agree with the one comment where it said "If you don't pay full price, you don't get treated right"....because I payed full price and still got treated like garbage. It has been 5 years, so maybe they have changed, but from what I have heard they are all the same. There was even a teacher that they just fired (after like 10 years) that was reportedly behaving inappropriately toward female students (how disgusting).
Submitted by parent on October 27, 2012

I remember that there was this one teacher that was mimicking and making fun of my daughter right in front of everyone, and all the students joined in and laughed. It was so rude. She ran home crying that day, and I went straight to the school and talked to them but they didn't even care, or do anything for us. I think it was because I was getting financial aid.. I also had another daughter enrolled in Mid High, and she said that one of the teachers told her to 'shut up' right in front of everyone....how unprofessional!!!! I took out both of my daughters and enrolled them in an Early College High School, and it was THE BEST decision I ever made. My daughters are getting MUCH HIGHER education this this joke of a school. And it is true, all of the teachers are so irresponsible and loose assignments frequently. I know I already mentioned this but, if you don't donate a lot of money to this school they pay no attention to you and your needs. I must mention that they have this huge graffiti writing logo thing on their wall when you walk in the mid-high commons and they spelt catholic wrong....tell me again how thats making our kids more educated/ sending the right message??
Submitted by other on September 16, 2012

This school is just downright sad. Oh my goodness don't send any kid here, at all, for their sake.