As Benilde-St. Margaret’s welcomes new students every year, the Red Knights have been curious about the admissions process. All incoming BSM students must go through a similar procedure for being admitted into the school. The admissions office has refined the steps for touring, applying, and testing.

The process for joining Benilde-St. Margaret’s, a 7th – 12th college preparatory school, usually starts in seventh or ninth grade. Although Senior High Admissions Director Betsy Van Cleve talks about how a student can join BSM at any grade level seven through twelve, the majority of new students enter in seventh and ninth grade. “So, [the] primary entry point here [at BSM] is in seventh and ninth grade. So those are the primary pockets of people that we work with. However, we do see transfers in 8th grade as well as 10th, 11th, and 12th grade,” Van Cleve said.

Being admitted into a college preparatory school like Benilde-St. Margaret’s involves multiple steps and multiple people. Van Cleve talks about how valuable it is for the school that its incoming students see the campus prior to applying. “We want students to visit campus first, to fall in love with us, to really get a feel for what the BSM community looks like. And then they go through a full application process, which has a couple of different steps to it,” Van Cleve said.

To get to know the campus better prospective students can spend a school day in the life of a Red Knight. Following them throughout the day and going to their classes, the approach is known as shadowing. A visitor will be a specific student’s shadow for the school day. Van Cleve speaks about BSMs popular program that has many student representatives willing to give tours. “We have over 150 student ambassadors here on campus, and so those traditionally are going to be the students that host visitor shadows when they’re on campus here,” Van Cleve said.

One important part of the application process is taking the admissions exam. It sounds daunting but Van Cleve reassures the exam is really just for class placement and grade point averages; it isn’t a pass-fail type of test that can permit you from getting into BSM. “It helps us not only determine academically, in conjunction with transcripts if they’re well suited to be successful here, but it also helps us with course placement down the road,” Van Cleve said.

The school accepts applications from many schools but because of its Catholic principles many of the students come from a Catholic education background. Van Cleve mentions multiple schools that feed into the student population at BSM such as “K-6 schools like Good Shepherd, Holy Name, St. Barts, and Catholic K-8 schools such as Our Lady of Grace and Notre Dame Academy,” Van Cleve said.