<p>@TomTheCat, I know there are very few entering 11th graders, so (I don’t know if this has been answered before or not!), what was your hook? Or what did u do that set you apart from all other Prospective students? Eight actually seems quite high. I wonder if Exeter or any other school has more or less…</p>
<p>There are more than eight new uppers each year. When I entered there were 22 new uppers, but last year admissions decided to downsize that number so there were just 14 this year. I’d assume the number would be similar this year. Some other schools like SPS only admit new 11th graders in order to make up for 10th graders they lost the previous year, but Andover actually seeks to add numbers to the class in order to make the Andover experience possible for those who got to the game late.</p>
<p>In terms of hooks, I’m not too sure what tipped the scales for me. First of all, I should note that I’m a legacy - my mom was a new upper, too, in 1976. But upon application I had straight A’s in advanced classes at a private school and a 99th percentile SSAT, so I’m hoping those are what helped, not the fact my mom went. Plus, she gives like $25 a year, so I’m guessing my legacy wasn’t a huge factor. Additionally, I’m British and live in London. My parents are both teachers, so maybe admissions thought that was kind of interesting. But, as far as I can see, those are as far as my “hooks” in the true sense go. I’d say I had other helpful attributes, too, but I wouldn’t call them hooks.</p>
<p>The general trend that I see in current and former new uppers is that about half of them are remarkable athletes. The other half are international. All are ludicrously interesting and smart. For illustration, the number 1s in Varsity girls’ cross country, Varsity boys’ cross country, and Varsity A boys’ tennis last year were ALL new uppers that year. They still hold these positions of honor this year. In my mom’s senior year, she was tri-Varsity and captained both the Varsity field hockey team and the Varsity lacrosse team.</p>
<p>Tom,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Housing process: painless or pain in the neck? </p></li>
<li><p>Placement exams in math and foreign language: good, bad, or ugly? </p></li>
<li><p>American History 300: joy or a drudge? </p></li>
<li><p>Exeter Geek Day: fun and slightly mean or really fun and completely justified?</p></li>
<li><p>Walking from one end of campus to the other: epic hike or casual stroll?</p></li>
<li><p>Dorms: the Ritz or Hotel 6?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>PS Congrats on your college acceptance!</p>
<p>Hey, SergeantFriday! Thanks, I appreciate that. I’m really excited :)</p>
<ol>
<li>First-year students will receive housing forms electronically at some point over the summer. They’re pretty intuitive, really; the forms ask questions of the student including whether he or she keeps a neat room, goes to bed early or late, listens to music while studying, which size dorm he or she would prefer to live in, and, importantly, which type of room he or she would prefer: a single or a double. These requests are usually honored but are limited simply by the numbers of each room type available.</li>
</ol>
<p>Returning students have four options: they can stay in their current dorms, have a friend officially pull them into his or her dorm as a roommate, pull a friend into his or her current dorm, or enter the housing lottery. Kids who enter the housing lottery specify top choices for placement and are randomly assigned numbers. The lower the number the better: i.e. whomever is assigned number 1 automatically gets his or her first choice dorm. It’s the higher numbers where placement becomes less predictable.</p>
<p>Kids don’t usually stress too much about the return housing process; if they are worried the process will be stressful, they are often more inclined to simply stay where they are or pull in a good friend. I simply chose to stay in Bishop because I LOVED it - and it’s an even more awesome group of people this year than it was last. There’s serious chemistry!</p>
<p>Additionally, upperclassmen have the option of requesting to “stack.” “Stack” is both a noun and verb. A stack is a small house, often in the downtown area, which can support between four and seven students plus house counselor. The stack application process differs from that of standard dorms; if you want to stack, you gather your four, five, or six best friends and apply together. If you win your stack, you get to live with your best friends for the next year in a house rather than a traditional dorm!</p>
<ol>
<li>I’ll start with math. There are several math placement exams, but not everyone needs to take more than one. The first is administered to all new students and tests everything from basic algebra through to geometry and more advanced algebra. For students whose most logical next step in math would be calculus, there is an additional placement exam that is administered at school before classes begin (I did not take this exam). The exam I took was fine - I was familiar with most of the concepts. I didn’t feel bad about not being able to answer certain questions because placing ahead of where I belonged was the last thing on my mind - I was worried enough about keeping up with classes!</li>
</ol>
<p>I took the French placement test. I don’t remember any multiple choice - there was short response and an essay. I didn’t find it difficult (I had taken full immersion French in Europe since 6th grade) and placed right into French 600, the post-AP college seminar French option. I switched out and into French 520, AP French, as soon as I got to school because I wanted preparation specific to the French AP exam. With the help of that class I earned a 5 on the AP and am now about to start my third term of French 600.</p>
<ol>
<li>Some people complain about History 300 (and 310, the spring term US history class) but I really enjoyed it. I guess it depends on how you feel about your teacher. I had Dr. Rotundo, a leader in the field of gender studies , and I had a fantastic time in that course. It was tough and Dr. Rotundo is a difficult grader (especially on papers!) but he is absolutely fair and his class was absolutely one of my favorites of last year. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I signed up to take Dr. Rotundo’s gender studies course this past term. That was great, too.</li>
</ol>
<p>Certainly not everyone was as enthusiastic about 300 as I was, but you definitely get out what you put in.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Rationally speaking, fun and slightly mean. Actually, I’m not sure I’d call it mean - it simply pokes fun at a stereotype. Traditionally, Exeter is usually the one to take things like this over the top. For instance, a couple years ago, Exeter’s A/E t-shirt depicted a bunch of dead and dying smurfs covered in blood with the heading “Dead Smurfs Tell No Tales.” Speaking for my friends at Andover, we at least consider the rivalry goodnatured. Exeter, perhaps, wants to see the rivalry a little differently.</p></li>
<li><p>I guess it really depends on which “end” of campus you mean. There are certainly destinations that take a long time to get to from particular destinations; anyone with science and music next to each other on their schedules can tell you that the walk from Gelb to Graves is a burly trek. The kids who live in Abbot Cluster have it worst: the dorm farthest from the center of campus is located in Abbot and is 0.7 miles away from Commons, our eatery. The majority of the time, however, the ten-minute passing time between each class is more than adequate to get where you need to go. What sucks is when it’s raining or snowing - no way to avoid pretty severe discomfort in that event.</p></li>
<li><p>Dorms are really variable in quality, though I think it’s fair to say that all of the dorms are better than adequate. My dorm, Bishop, is the least recently renovated dorm on campus, but we still enjoy most of the same facilities that much more recently renovated dorms enjoy. My biggest complaint in Bishop has to be the carpet in my room. Man is that thing ratty. There are these questionable pink stains in certain places and, while I’m certain the floor is sanitary, it’s just not very pretty and could definitely use a refresh. I don’t complain, though - we have two pianos, a decent TV with cable, a vending machine, a ping pong table, and a pool table as well as a large silent-study basement, and that’s plenty to keep me happy.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There are other dorms on campus, though, that are like five-star hotels. Johnson, an upperclassman girls’ dorm in West Quad South, immediately comes to mind. It was very recently renovated so the furnishings look a lot more modern and it has a great kitchenette in the basement where there is also a massive, 50" LCD TV complete with new couches. It’s, uh… Pretty nice.</p>
<p>Which is better?</p>
<p>Go to a high school like PA where you can get burnt (as you say it’s pretty hard) and do ok in college or Go to a good high school, enjoy the experience, and excel in college?</p>
<p>I’ve had an absolute ball at Andover and plan to continue to excel at Edinburgh for the next four years. Why would PA kids do just okay in college? We’ve had among the best preparation in existence. The consensus among PA grads is that college is quite often a breeze after Andover. <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07prepared.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07prepared.html</a></p>
<p>However, the answer to your question will vary from person to person. Boarding school is not for everyone - not because not everyone is academically prepared but because the experience of living away from home is harder for some than for others. It’s a simple (but complicated) matter of preference; nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>I see that the ivy+SM matriculation at PA is less than 30%. What happens to the rest of the 70%, that’s almost 190 kids? Since all of these students are at the top of their school before they come to PA, do you think these 70% of the kids would have gone to better colleges had they stayed back at their local school?</p>
<p>No, I don’t - I explained that back on page 2, but for your sake, I’ll quote:</p>
<p>"Yes, kids who are talented enough to be accepted here will, most likely, be successful at any high school, private or public. However, I would not posit that their college matriculations would be the same. I do not think I would have been accepted at Edinburgh if I hadn’t come to PA. This is, in large part, because of the extracurriculars and the sheer resources that PA offers. I wouldn’t have been able to win a $20,000 grant to bring Ray Suarez to campus at my old school because my old school does not have an equivalent of Andover’s Abbot Academy Association. I wouldn’t have been able to be president of the International Club, and bring its membership up to 360, the largest membership of any club on campus, at my old school because my old school does not have an International Club. I wouldn’t have been able to be a Head Tour Guide, because my old school does not use student tour guides.</p>
<p>I also probably wouldn’t have scored above 2300 on the SAT at my old school, because I simply didn’t have to work as hard there. You see where I’m going with this.</p>
<p>For many students, Andover functions as an extension to their education - many students who enter after 9th grade do so because they have exhausted the offerings at their old schools. Andover takes brilliant students and forces them to continue working, and to work harder than they had ever imagined - to achieve more than they had ever imagined."</p>
<p>However, I really need to add that the Ivies aren’t the only excellent colleges in the country. If you want Andover to function as a stepping stone to an Ivy, you’re making a big idealogical mistake - and the same goes for expecting that of any school. Really, pulsar - “less than 30%”? As if that’s not a remarkably impressive statistic. What do you think the percentage is at most American high schools?</p>
<p>For each successful TomTheCat at PA, is there a JerryTheMouse that’s not so successful? We only hear from people who go to U of Edinburgh on CC, but we don’t hear from those who go to U of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>There’s absolutely a full spectrum here, but I don’t think it’d be fair to blame the school for one of its SAT 1700 students ending up at Penn State. In fact, PA might actually help that student in terms of college admission; at least colleges can be assured that the student “survived” in a really academically intense environment for a number of years. But, if my conjecture simply isn’t enough for you, let me refer you yet again to the list of college matriculations; as you can see, kids who go to truly poor colleges are few and far between (and speaking as someone who’s known a few of these kids… they kind of “had it coming” and it would have happened no matter where they went to high school).</p>
<p>[Phillips</a> Academy - College Matriculations & School Profile](<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/Academics/CollegeCounseling/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx]Phillips”>http://www.andover.edu/Academics/CollegeCounseling/Pages/SchoolProfileCollegeMatriculations.aspx)</p>
<p>Is Andover Math Team home grown or recruited from China and Korea?</p>
<p>Additionally, as someone who knows the college counseling department, none of the people would let a kid “get screwed” by the college process. None of them.</p>
<p>God, you’re really drilling me here!</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know. I only know one member of the math team and she’s from NJ. I know Exeter recruits from Asia, but I honestly can’t tell you anything about Andover’s math team. Sorry.</p>
<p>Pulsar, why are you grilling TomTheCat about Andover ? I thought you were headed to Hotchkiss or Deerfield ? Anyway, good luck Tom !</p>
<p>You need to learn what happens at other schools as they are your competition for sports and ECs.</p>
<p>Where are you going to school, pulsar?</p>
<p>Also… Don’t you think you should win competitions on your own merits and not by gaming the system?</p>
<p>If I had known it, I would have gone to A. jk.</p>
<p>Okayyy pulsar… I’m going to interject and agree with swissbrit and Tom here. And why so passive aggressive? No need to make Tom type so much and be so thorough in answering your incessant questions if you’re just going to make borderline snide comments about his school.</p>
<p>For all I know my siblings will apply to Andover. So I need to research. I’m surprised that you see this as putting down a school, far from it.</p>
<p>I’m absolutely happy to answer questions, pulsar - you know how much I love sharing Andover with others. On a personal level, though, I’m just a little intrigued at your level of interest given you haven’t indicated you’re applying/have applied to Andover.</p>
<p>Let me get to know you a little better. Where are you applying, or have you already applied? If so, what are your options? Is Andover among them? My own reading of your posts has been that they are, indeed, sometimes a little edgy, and I’d hate to think you were asking me all these questions this whole time because you had some kind of vendetta against Andover. That’s just not why I give my time to share what I know.</p>
<p>However, as I said before, I remain happy to answer questions - if they’re posed a little less aggressively.</p>