Cistercian Preparatory School

Cistercian Preparatory School is a Roman Catholic school for young men located in Irving, Texas, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas. Serving grades five through twelve (though previously having a 4th grade pre-form), the school has a population of about 350 boys. Each grade is assigned a priest or a dedicated teacher as a "Form Master," who follows the class over the years and is responsible for building a feeling of community.

Cistercian Preparatory School
Address
3660 Cistercian Road Irving , (Dallas County) , Texas 75039 United States
Coordinates	32°51′19″N 96°55′17″W
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Ardere et Lucere (To Enkindle and Enlighten)
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic
Established	1962 (1962)
CEEB code	443-558
Headmaster	Paul M. McCormick[1]
Teaching staff	54.5 (FTE) (2015–16)[2]
Grades	5–12
Gender	Boys
Enrollment	347 (2015–16)[2]
Student to teacher ratio	6.4∶1 (2015–16)[2]
Campus size	82 acres (33 ha)[1]
Color(s)	Black      White
Athletics conference	Southwest Preparatory Conference
Mascot	Hawks
Publication	Reflections (literary/art magazine)
Newspaper	Informer
Yearbook	Exodus
Website	school.cistercian.org

The school's roots lie with a group of Cistercians who came to Texas in 1956 to help found the University of Dallas, located adjacent to what would become the Cistercian campus. Later that year, an uprising in communist Hungary allowed a group from Zirc Abbey in western Hungary to escape, and they joined their colleagues in Texas, founding a new abbey near the University of Dallas campus. The monks of Zirc had a long tradition of teaching in the abbey's college preparatory schools, so in 1962 they started Cistercian Preparatory School to continue their work in secondary education.

Noted for its academic rigor, Cistercian has been rated one of the most prestigious private schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth region,[3][4] and was ranked #50 in Business Insider's 2015 ranking of the "smartest private high schools in the United States,"[5] and as the second-best Catholic high school in the country by Niche in 2016.[6] One distinguishing feature of the school is that many of its classes are taught by monks of the Cistercian Order from the adjacent Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas, who comprise 25% of the school's faculty.[7][5]