St. Xavier High School graduates will automatically be admitted to Xavier University under a new partnership between the two Jesuit schools.
Direct admission is conditional on each student’s successful graduation from St. Xavier while maintaining good academic track record during all four years of high school. They must also remain in good disciplinary standing.
Each St. Xavier student will still have to submit a formal application during the fall of their senior year along with all required materials.
As part of their admission, all St. Xavier graduates who enroll at Xavier will receive a newly funded annual $1,831 merit scholarship award, emblematic of each schools’ founding year. Students will remain eligible for other scholarships that they may qualify for as part of the admission process as well.
The partnership begins in fall 2024.
“This is a historic agreement, providing each and every St. X graduate with the immediate opportunity for an excellent college path, including scholarship dollars to support their next step,” said Tim Reilly, president of St. Xavier High School.
Xavier President Colleen Hanycz described the program as offering the young men at St. Xavier High School an opportunity to continue their Jesuit tradition through college.
Founded in 1831 as the Athenaeum in downtown Cincinnati, Xavier and St. Xavier share a long tradition. In 1840, the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, assumed operation of the Athenaeum and renamed the school St. Xavier College.
St. Xavier College was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Now Xavier University, the institution is the fourth-oldest Jesuit university and sixth-oldest Catholic university in the United States. In 1919, Xavier moved from its downtown location to Victory Parkway, and in 1960, St. Xavier moved to its current location on North Bend Road.
While both institutions have distinct campuses, the leadership of the Jesuits and the connection to the schools’ patron, St. Francis Xavier, remain to this day, noted Hanycz. She described knowing St. X students to be “young men of rigorous academic preparation who show care in their support of each other and those around them.
“(St. Xavier’s) focus on the ‘Graduate at Graduation’ ensures that these young men are open to growth, intellectually competent, loving, faithful and committed to doing justice,” Hanycz added.
Both Xavier and St. Xavier are approaching 200th anniversaries as the predominant Catholic institutions in the Cincinnati area. This year, St. Xavier celebrated 13 national merit semifinalists, saw 93% of its students achieve at least a score of 3 across all AP testing, and witnessed 90% of students perform voluntary service.
Xavier received a school record for applications for admission – more than 16,000 – this year and just enrolled the most diverse class in its history. XU’s class of 2022 had a record graduation success rate of 99%.