St. Xavier High School ( ; often abbreviated St. X) is a private, college-preparatory high school located just outside of Cincinnati, in the Finneytown neighborhood of Springfield Township, Hamilton County, Ohio.Home. Saint Xavier High School. Retrieved on June 26, 2019. "600 W. North Bend Road Cincinnati, OH 45224" - Even though the tagline is "The Jesuit High School in Cincinnati" the school is not in the Cincinnati city limits. The independent, non-diocesan school is operated by the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus as one of four all-male Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Aside from colleges and universities, St. Xavier is the second-largest private school in Ohio and one of the 100 largest schools in the state, with 1,415 enrolled students as of the 2025–2026 school year.
St. Xavier is the oldest high school in the Cincinnati area and one of the oldest in the nation. It grew out of the Athenaeum, which opened in 1831 in downtown Cincinnati. From 1869 to 1934, the high school program formed the lower division of St. Xavier College, now Xavier University. The high school moved to its present location in 1960.
History
Downtown origins
St. Xavier, once a part of Xavier University, traces its history to the Athenaeum at Seventh and Sycamore streets in Downtown Cincinnati. The institute, which included a seminary and lay college, was dedicated by the first bishop of Cincinnati, the Most Rev. Edward D. Fenwick, O.P., on October 17, 1831. It was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Just a week later, the city's first public high school, Woodward College, opened its doors. The Athenaeum stood until 1890, next door to The Catholic Telegraphs printing press.
In 1840, at the behest of Bishop Fenwick, the Society of Jesus began operating the Athenaeum's lay college, which it renamed St. Xavier College''', after St. Francis Xavier. The Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) took over the seminary in 1841, and the college was granted a 30-year state charter in 1842. St. Xavier College originally offered six years of integrated primary, secondary, and post-secondary education, in keeping with the Ratio Studiorum and the original Jesuit college in Messina, Sicily, predecessor to the University of Messina. Day schoolers came from all over the city, while boarders hailed from the Deep South, Mexico, and Cuba. School closed on Thursdays and Sundays until 1917. Originally, until 1851, admission was granted to students ages 8 to 16. Later, a tuition-free elementary school division opened to complement the college. In 1844, the school's elementary division opened a boarding school campus in Walnut Hills but was forced to close its doors two years later and return downtown.
In the 1850s, falling enrollment, threat of bankruptcy, and cholera brought about proposals to close the high school division. Jesuit schools had opened in the South, contributing to declining enrollment. The situation was worsened by the local anti-Catholic and Know Nothing sentiment that culminated in the Cincinnati riot of 1853. Beginning the fall of 1854, St. Xavier stopped admitting boarders altogether, becoming a primarily local institute, to reduce the financial burden on its students' families.
On May 7, 1869, St. Xavier's charter was extended in perpetuity by an act of the General Assembly. Later that year, the school began distinguishing between academic and collegiate departments. Three years of high school would be followed by one year each of the humanities, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy.
At the close of the 19th century, St. Xavier's athletic teams competed in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Cincinnati.
Expansion and separation
In 1910, St. Xavier College transitioned to an American-style eight-year program. Some students took typing classes at the St. Xavier Commercial School nearby. On October 1, 1906, another branch campus opened in Walnut Hills. This time, St. Xavier Branch High School or "St. Xavier on the Hill" served first- and second-year high school students. Tuition was $60 downtown and $80 at the suburban location (equivalent to $ and $, respectively, in ). Classes were held in Walnut Hills until December 1911.
In 1912, the Branch High School moved into the Avondale Athletic Club in North Avondale and became Xavier Academy. On September 10, 1919, Xavier Academy closed as the College of Arts and Sciences moved into its campus. However, science classes remained at the high school downtown, for the time being, as did the evening classes from the Schools of Law, Commerce, and Sociology.
In the late 1920s, St. Xavier High School began competing against Elder, Purcell, and Roger Bacon high schools in baseball, basketball, and football. On October 6, 1931, the four schools founded the Greater Cincinnati League, known today as the Greater Catholic League.
On August 4, 1930, the college became Xavier University, to reflect its transition to the American university model and garner more prestige ahead of its centennial the next year. St. Xavier High School formally split with St. Xavier College in 1934, with Fr. Aloysius J. Diersen, S.J., serving as the High School's first president, but the two schools continued to share resources. Xavier's School of Education conducted practice teaching at St. Xavier. Also, St. Xavier's senior classes studied under Xavier professors in Avondale from 1944 to 1946, to compensate for Xavier's loss of cadets from the Army Air Corps 30th College Training Detachment during World War II.
Finneytown relocation and recent history
St. Xavier began its move from the original location in downtown Cincinnati in April 1955 when its president, Fr. John J. Benson, S.J., purchased a plot in Finneytown. In September 1960, St. Xavier High School moved into its newly built facilities, designed by local architect Albert Walters, in unincorporated Springfield Township. At the time, the facilities were nicknamed the "Finneytown Hilton" for their price tag of over $ (equivalent to $ in ). The original high school building was later torn down and is now the site of a parking lot.
In 1965, St. Xavier produced its first three African-American graduates, Phil Cox, Michael Walker, and Peter D. Samples. The same school year, Myron Kilgore was hired as the school's first African-American faculty member.
Since its move away from downtown, St. Xavier has expanded its facilities dramatically. In 1969, the school added Keating Natatorium, which featured a $500,000 Olympic-size swimming pool (equivalent to $ in ). St. Xavier's worship space was replaced by Xavier Hall, a multipurpose facility, in 1986. In 1998, a $ expansion project moved science classes from the basement into a new, three-story wing and added the Holy Companions Chapel and a dedicated intramural gym. During the 2003–04 school year, St. Xavier renovated the football stadium around Ballaban Field, which was built in the late 1960s, and renamed it Ballaban Field at St. Xavier Stadium. Along with the stadium, the school opened a 500-seat theater space, as well as a black box theater, art studios, and renovated music rooms. A new track field replaced the track that once surrounded Ballaban Field. St. Xavier also converted the former Girls' Town of America location across the street into its "South Campus", which includes new baseball and soccer fields. The school added a makerspace in the fall of 2017.
On December 15, 2017, St. Xavier named its first lay president, Tim Reilly, who succeeded Fr. Tim A. Howe, S.J., in July 2018. Until then, all of St. Xavier's presidents had been ordained members of the Society of Jesus.
In 2018, two priests affiliated with St. Xavier during the mid-1960s were named in the Midwest Jesuits' list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse. In 2020, the school removed a chaplain upon receiving allegations of abuse by him during the 1990s.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Xavier returned to in-person learning as soon as the stay-at-home order was lifted. The school credited this policy with increased enrollment.
In March 2021, RDI Corporation, a Blue Ash–based outsourcing firm, gave the school $ to endow its football program. In recognition, St. Xavier Stadium was renamed RDI Stadium. In August 2021, Keating Natatorium reopened after a $ renovation.
In 2022, the Midwest Jesuits established Xavier Jesuit Academy at a former parochial school in Bond Hill to serve underprivileged students in the third through eighth grades. Its opening on August 14, 2024, marked the first time the Jesuits provided elementary school education in Cincinnati since St. Xavier Elementary School in the 1850s.
Academics , St. Xavier has 1,415 enrolled students, the most of any Catholic high school in an area with the nation's second-highest private school attendance rate. Tuition is US$17,350.00 for the 2025-26 school year. According to St. Xavier, tuition is $1,000 less than the cost of educating a student there. During the 2025-26 school year, 77% of students received financial aid, awarding $ in financial assistance. St. Xavier accepts school vouchers from the Ohio Educational Choice Scholarship Program (EdChoice).
The faculty consists of 120 full-time teachers, including six Jesuit priests. Eighty six percent of the faculty have a master's degree or higher. Four full-time staff members assist with Individualized Education Programs.
Admissions and demographics Students apply to St. Xavier High School by taking the High School Placement Test (HSPT) and submitting an elementary school transcript, teacher recommendations, and an enrollment application. Other factors are also taken into account. , approximately 56% of freshman applicants are admitted, down from 70% in 2014. About a quarter of these students are admitted due to legacy, defined as an alumnus or current student in the applicant's immediate family.
Students come to St. Xavier from throughout Greater Cincinnati, Southeastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. , students of color make up 21% of the student body, up from 12% in 2015. About 80% are Roman Catholic.
In addition to students from the Greater Cincinnati area, St. Xavier admits students from overseas through various foreign exchange programs, such as American Field Service. In particular, partner school Col·legi Casp–Sagrat Cor de Jesús in Barcelona has sent students to St. Xavier and received them into its (baccalaureate) program since 1995.
Curriculum and scheduling All students at St. Xavier are part of the school's college preparatory program, requiring 23½ credit units for graduation. The program is accredited by AdvancED, the Ohio Catholic School Accrediting Association, and the Ohio Department of Education. Students are not ranked. Grade point averages are computed on an unweighted 100-point scale, which can be converted to a standard 4.0 scale.
The college preparatory program encompasses a variety of subject areas as part of an emphasis on cura personalis ("well-rounded individuals"). , the school offers 29 electives aligned with Advanced Placement curricula:
Biology Calculus AB Calculus BC Chemistry Chinese Language and Culture Computer Science A Computer Science Principles English Language and Composition English Literature and Composition Environmental Science European History French Language and Culture German Language and Culture Human Geography Latin Macroeconomics Microeconomics Music Theory Physics 1 Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Physics C: Mechanics Psychology Spanish Language and Culture Statistics Studio Art 2D Studio Art Drawing U.S. Government and Politics U.S. History World History
As a Roman Catholic school, St. Xavier requires all students to study various aspects of religion and theology each year.