St. Mark’s School of Texas: Serious Opportunity, Serious Work, and a Boys-School Culture to Test Closely

Boys-school model

Character, chapel, and daily brotherhood

St. Mark’s builds its school day around preparing boys for leadership and responsibility.

Character education runs across Grades 1 through 12 through head, heart, and hands—engagement, service, and leadership. Boys record that progress in a Path to Manhood portfolio alongside advising, athletics, chapel, and wilderness trips.

The school is nonsectarian with historical Episcopal roots, and an Episcopal priest serves as chaplain. Weekly chapel brings each division together for music, sacred literature, prayers, and talks, marking Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and cultural observances.

The Lower School curriculum notes boys attend twice weekly.

Community life pairs traditional standards with a diverse student body: the school reports 53% students of color and sponsors a student-led Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Council alongside workshops and a multicultural night. Daily dress is specific: oxford shirts, gray bottoms, trimmed hair and facial hair, and no earrings, tattoos, dyed hair, ponytails, or man buns.

To foster closer ties across grades, student leaders launched the Telos initiative after acknowledging past issues with bullying, discipline, and distance between older and younger boys.

Academics

Academics from Grade 1 to Upper School

Academic breadth starts in first grade. Boys learn from specialist teachers in science, fine arts, computer science, and Spanish alongside core reading, writing, and mathematics.

Middle School introduces departmental sequences across humanities, math, science, and foreign language. Boys take fine arts at every level alongside daily physical education or athletics, learning to manage distinct academic subjects across different classrooms.

Upper School centers on Harkness discussions, seminars, and tutorials. Schedules are capped at six courses per semester, and the school does not rank students.

Advanced Placement and Honors courses open up primarily in junior year, and new entrants generally do not step straight into honors courses without departmental petition.

Workload

Workload, testing, and academic boundaries

St. Mark’s publishes clear homework expectations, and parents should take them literally.

Grades 5 and 6 expect 20 to 30 minutes of homework per academic subject each night, plus an outside-reading book every two weeks; the school advises reserving several hours daily. In Grades 7 and 8, that rises to 30 to 40 minutes per subject.

To keep testing within bounds, Middle School caps exams at two per day and requires three days’ notice, though tests can cluster near trimester ends. Teacher comments track progress throughout Middle School, with grades added in Grades 7 and 8.

In Grade 8, May exams carry 10% to 20% of the grade.

Upper School grades on an unweighted 4.0 scale with added weighting for Honors and Advanced Placement. Course changes tighten after five or ten class days; later withdrawal is rare and can produce a withdrawal-pass or withdrawal-fail notation.

One public court record shows how a grading dispute can escalate: after an Upper School student received a zero on an Advanced Placement Statistics final following an alleged cheating incident, the family sued. A 2023 Texas appellate opinion voided an emergency order on procedural grounds and did not decide whether the student cheated.

It is a reason to ask about notice, evidence, and appeal rights, not a verdict on the school.

When a boy falls behind, the school directs him to his teachers first, followed by recommendations for outside tutoring or testing. Some students must complete summer courses or repeat a grade, and Middle School policy notes re-enrollment may be withheld if the environment proves too strenuous.

Arts and athletics

Arts, athletics, and the Pecos wilderness

Every boy takes fine arts starting in first grade. The school offers 54 arts courses spanning woodworking, ceramics, film, photography, drama, choir, band, orchestra, drawing, and design.

Athletics is central to campus life, with 16 sports and 46 varsity teams; 85% of Upper School boys play at least one sport annually. For younger families, one crucial distinction applies: school-sponsored interscholastic teams begin in Grade 7.

Sports for Grades 1 through 6 run through parent-volunteer community leagues.

Wilderness education is required from Grade 6 through the summer before Grade 9. Every Grade 9 entrant must complete the ten-day Pecos trip unless exceptionally excused.

(In 2026, nearby forest fires forced that trip to end early.)

Support and wellness

Support, counseling, and accommodation boundaries

Each division has a dedicated behavioral-health clinician at the Marksman Wellness Center. The center provides short-term student counseling, screening, parent consultations, and referrals to outside community providers.

The school sets an explicit boundary around care: on-campus counseling is short-term and focused on acute school-day distress and functioning. It does not replace comprehensive, long-term psychotherapy.

Academic services include screening, psychoeducational referrals, assessment review, Individual Learning Plans, and accommodation coordination. Typical accommodations include 50% extended time, laptop use, class notes, and preferential seating.

A physician’s diagnosis alone is insufficient for academic accommodations. The school requires a full psychoeducational assessment.

Daily logistics

Hours, aftercare, and the Preston Road commute

The campus sits at 10600 Preston Road in Preston Hollow (described as roughly 40 acres on the campus page, and 42 acres in other school material). Lower School opens at 7:35, with classes from 7:55 until 2:50, while Middle and Upper classes run from 8:30 until 3:25.

St. Mark’s provides no transportation.

Families must drive or arrange carpools across a wide metropolitan area, factoring in rush hour, practices, performances, and away games.

Lower School offers after-school care until 6:00. No comparable supervised option is published for Middle and Upper School, so plan on a 3:25 pickup or an activity that runs later.

Entry points

Entry points, selectivity, and visiting

The main surprise for parents of younger boys is that St. Mark’s has no Kindergarten.

The school starts in Grade 1, and applicants must attend Kindergarten or Primer during fall 2026. High school admissions close after Grade 11, with Grade 10 and 11 openings depending entirely on attrition.

Admissions concentrate in four main doors. Published recent admission averages show 32 boys entering in Grade 1, 18 in Grade 4, 22 in Grade 5, and 20 to 25 in Grade 9.

Applying in other grades is far narrower. Grades 2 and 3 admit an average of only two boys each per year.

Grades 6 and 7 average 6 to 8 admissions, and Grade 8 averages 4 to 6. While the school reports an overall acceptance rate of 15% to 16% (and 90% yield), a boy's real odds depend on his entry grade.

Families can visit without worrying about a demonstrated-interest penalty. The Lower School open house is October 14, 2026, and the Grades 5–11 open house is October 28.

The school also offers parent coffees with tours and one-hour family campus tours.

Admissions

How to apply: deadlines, testing, and interviews

The admissions calendar revolves around three application deadlines. Applications for Grades 2–3 are due November 9, with remaining files due December 14.

Grade 4 applications also follow the November 9 deadline. Grade 1 applications are due December 14, 2026, and applications for Grades 5–11 are due January 8, 2027.

Supporting materials for Grade 1 and Grades 5–11 are due January 29. Decisions arrive March 12, 2027.

St. Mark’s charges no application fee, but outside testing is required.

Grade 1 testing costs $475 ($325 for CATS cognitive testing and $150 for virtual ATS achievement testing). Grade 4 requires both CATS and ISEE Primary, totaling $510.

Grades 5 through 11 require the ISEE ($165 in person, $240 at home). Testing assistance is available.

Lower School applicants attend an on-campus classroom observation with peers and teachers. Grades 5 through 11 applicants choose between an afternoon campus interview, a shadow visit with an interview, or a virtual interview.

Dallas–Fort Worth boys are encouraged to interview in person, while out-of-area applicants can interview online.

Cost and aid

Tuition, full costs, and financial aid

For 2026–27, tuition runs from $33,432 in Grades 1 and 2 to $37,346 in Grade 6 and $42,697 in Grade 9 ($41,856 in Grade 12). While the school’s overview page cites an average tuition of $36,720 including books and fees, upper grades sit well above that number.

All-in budgeting extends beyond tuition. Applications are free, but testing costs $165 to $510.

Grades 5 through 12 require a laptop, and textbooks ship home. Families must also budget for required uniforms and physical-education clothing, Lower School aftercare, wilderness gear for the Grade 9 Pecos trip, and daily driving.

Philanthropy is also a visible norm: 86% of parents contributed to the 2024–25 annual fund.

The school states that asking for financial aid does not affect admission. Applicant aid files are due February 15, 2027 through Clarity (a $60 fee).

St. Mark’s reports more than $4 million in annual assistance and an average grant above $21,000.

Roughly half of grants go to families earning above $175,000.

Families below $140,000 receive an average $35,639 award, with the school funding about 90% of tuition on average for this group rather than full calculated need. More than $150,000 in supplemental aid helps cover tutoring, technology, travel, wilderness, arts, and athletics.

Homework, support steps and real costs at St. Mark's

St. Mark's workload is substantial, so ask how boys balance nightly homework, what support steps exist, and what the year costs beyond tuition.