At Indian Springs School, we believe in individualizing the educational experience. This allows students to construct their own unique, rigorous curriculum and to learn to explore their passions.
Our graduates may attend the most prestigious colleges around the country and across the world, but our approach to academics means that they discover something even more valuable—how to grow as a scholar, an individual, and a citizen.
Set on 350 idyllic acres, Indian Springs School is a resource as much as a retreat. Our Fertile Minds Learning Garden and top-quality sports facilities help feed the body. Our sustainably designed facilities help feed the mind.
Emphasizing the quality of student life, our environment embodies the values of community, responsibility, and opportunity. Whether you are on campus for the day or make it your home for the year, this is a space for exploration, education, and engagement.
Louis “Doc” Armstrong, Springs’ founding director, suggested that our important work is “to bridge the gap between what is and what might be” in the ways we learn, think, act, and participate in the wider world. This work is undergirded and extended by the generosity of all who share our mission.
Every gift makes a difference. Regardless of your age or situation, we have a means of giving to the school that suits your circumstances. Our Advancement staff stands ready to help.
Indian Springs School sophomore Joon Soo Sea ’17 has earned a perfect score on the SAT college entrance exam.
The odds of achieving a perfect score are low. Of the 1.6 million college-bound seniors who took the SAT in 2014, fewer than 600—under .04 percent—achieved a perfect 2,400, according to data available from the College Board.
“It is extremely difficult to earn a perfect score on this nationwide test,” says ISS Director Gareth Vaughan. “Joon’s accomplishment is a testament to his dedication and diligence, qualities that we believe enable our students to achieve in all aspects of their lives.”
This is the second perfect score by an Indian Springs School student on a college entrance exam this school year. In the fall, ISS senior Tristan Trechsel ’15 earned a perfect score on the ACT.
The ACT includes tests in English, math, reading, and science and measures what students have learned in high school. The SAT features tests in reading, writing, and math and is designed to assess academic readiness for college.
Sea, a boarding student from Daegu, South Korea, first took the SAT as a 7th grader for a summer camp opportunity. He did well but felt he could do better, so he began studying vocabulary words and paying close attention to “little things” that teachers mentioned in class. As a 9th grader, he started working through his college-age sisters’ notes and a variety of SAT prep books.
“You could probably fill an Olympic-size pool with all the books,” he says. “I think we have every single edition in print.”
Sea was with his family in Daegu when he learned his score on the December 2014 test. “Everyone was hugging me,” he says. “The people who live under us were like, ‘Man!’—but they were happy too.”
Sea believes that working hard and listening carefully to ISS teachers paved the way for his perfect score. His SAT essay, for instance, included information that he has learned this year in his AP European History and Music History classes. “A lot of what teachers tell you really helps,” he says. “Even the little stuff that they mention in class—grammar and small details—all of it helps in writing, reading, and math.”
Though only a sophomore, Sea has begun looking at colleges with strong programs in business and economics. “I want to make an impact on something in whatever I do,” he says.
Indian Springs School, an independent school recognized nationally as a leader in boarding and day education for grades 8-12, serves a talented and diverse student body and offers admission to qualified students regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Located in Indian Springs, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, the school does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other school-administered programs.