COLEGIO SAN CARLOS

Colegio San Carlos is unique among the private schools in Colombia.  Founded in 1960 by U.S. monks from the Order of Saint Benedict, San Carlos was established to educate the Colombian leaders of tomorrow.  The school is widely recognized as the source of future national leaders.  Among the school’s alumni are the current President, a former President, the World Bank President for Latin America, a former Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the editors and publishers of the largest daily newspaper in Colombia.  For more than fifty years, Colegio San Carlos has been educating future scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers and others to be leaders in their professions and their communities.

 

School Structure

 

Colegio San Carlos educates young men from first grade though twelfth on a campus with more than 1300 students.  Admissions are made through a process of rigorous exams that each year selects 110 students from among more than 400 applicants to begin first grade the following year.  Approximately 80% of each graduating class completes the twelve year program.

 

As already mentioned, the Order of Saint Benedict established and administers the school along principles that have guided the Order’s educational efforts for more than 1400 years.  Adapted to today’s educational requirements, the school’s programs focus on three areas:  science, mathematics, and languages.  The school is bilingual (English and Spanish).

 

Each year about 3% of the school’s students apply and are accepted by U.S. colleges and universities.  Although the goal of Colegio San Carlos is to prepare students for Colombia’s many fine universities, recent graduates have also attended Syracuse University, Vanderbilt,  the University of Maryland, Notre Dame, Hobart and William Smith, Cornell, Florida Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona and many others.

 

In summary, Colegio San Carlos has a long history of preparing students to successfully compete for admissions to some of the best colleges and universities in the U.S.

 

Programs

 

Since most graduates of Colegio San Carlos will attend universities in Colombia, the school does not offer Advanced Placement or college credit programs.  However, the majority of academic areas are on a par with honors or college preparatory programs offered by U.S. high schools. These include such areas as European History, Economics, American Literature, British Literature, World Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Algebra, Advanced Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Philosophy and many others.

 

Grading is on a 10 through 100 scale and is rigorous.  Additionally, each subject area evaluates a student’s progress with a system of objectives.  For example, English programs have 20 annual objectives (five objectives per grading period).  These objectives include grammar, writing skills, reading comprehension, literary analysis, and computer research skills.  Thus, a student’s progress and accomplishments (as well as weaknesses) are clearly defined for both students and parents.  Students and their parents are required to meet with faculty at the end of each grading period to review results.  This ensures that students meet expectations.

 

On a final note, grade inflation has not hit the school curriculum.  This is evident from a look at the grade distribution for the graduating class of 2014:

 

                                     Range of Averages              No. of Students in the Range

 

                                         100 – 89                                             10                                      

 

                                         88 – 79                                              43                                          

 

                                         78 – 70                                              34        

 

                                         69 – 10                                                2

Colegio San Carlos has maintained rigorous academic standards that continue to help our students compete and succeed at the university level.

 

The Spirit of the School

 

School spirit is difficult to define.  At Colegio San Carlos it is clearly understood.  The school’s spirit begins in the wisdom and work of Saint Benedict:  the belief that each young man can and must be free to work and pray in his own individual way.  The young men of Colegio San Carlos are given daily examples of this attitude.  This attitude is returned in the genuine love and loyalty our students have for their school.  The years spent in high school give each student the opportunity to use his personal freedom in his own appropriate way.  Many students have said, and continue to say, that the best decision of their lives has been to be a student at Colegio San Carlos.

 

 

                                                                   

 

 

                                                                                            Revised August, 2014