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Prep School Admissions
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<p>@girlasmuse</p>

<p>If your still reading, I am using an XPS 15 right now (yes, I’m a PC). It is FAR from bulky, and isn’t ugly if you use dell’s designer to design the top of the laptop. The white thing that is general was probably the most ugly thing I had ever seen. I found out that for an extra $30 (or is it $75) they will create a different top for you (you have to choose out of their extensive list of designs) I really wanted it. If you want to look at what my computer looks like, I have the XPS 15 with a threadless cover (name of company). It is blue and has a picture of a city in one view and a forest on the other. I just thought I would add my 2 cents.</p>

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<p>Hey, Zenxan!</p>

<p>Andovergirl covered part of your first question, but about Halloween: there’s a big Halloween dance that is, of course, Halloween-themed. It’s definitely one of the most popular dances of the year. Everyone wears a costume, and a lot of people really get into it! The dance is usually held in Borden, which a pretty large venue, so there is a catwalk put into place in the center of the dance floor for people to showcase their costumes. There’s also a competition for best-disguised. Outside of the dance, there is “campus trick or treating.” Essentially, the academic buildings are set up with faculty who distribute candy to passing costumed students. Needless to say, Andover students are a little old to legitimately go trick or treating downtown.</p>

<p>As for the GSA, it’s really active! I’m one of the GSA’s Directors of Outreach so I help to coordinate events and communicate with other clubs for joint meetings and the like. We also run a ton of our own events; for instance, in about October I DJ’d the GSA-sponsored dance, the Dubstep Dance. Hate to toot my own horn, but it was INSANE! Dubstep was and remains a staple on the Andover campus. If you don’t know what it is, it’s electronic music with a heavy, oscillating bassline. My favorite dubstep song of all time is the Jakwob remix of Starry Eyed, originally by Ellie Goulding. 587 plays in my iTunes library and it still makes my spine tingle: [YouTube</a> - Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix)](<a href=“Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix) - YouTube”>Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix) - YouTube)</p>

<p>Oh yeah, we were talking about the GSA, weren’t we! Well, club leadership this year is 100% gay but that hasn’t historically been the case. Club membership is pretty evenly split between LGBTQ students and allies, and the crowd at meetings is different every week. We hold our meetings in a private reception room in Paresky Commons at 6 on Monday nights, which means we all bring our dinner to the table for the meeting. It’s informal, casual, informative, and a lot of fun.</p>

143

<p>Thanks everyone for all the helpful responses! The MacBook Pro sounds like it has the upper hand, but I’m still a bit tempted by the amazing deal on the new XPS 15. I just looked at the optional covers on the Dell website - they look gorgeous! Thanks overandover98 for the tip :slight_smile: I think I’ll just swing by the Apple store sometime to check out the new MacBook Pros and make my decision from there. </p>

<p>Also, I just thought of another question. Next year, I’ll be coming to campus as a new lower. My interviewer had also joined as a new lower and told me that “although new lowers and returning students are good friends, new lowers tend to stick together because the returning students already developed strong friendships, formed cliques, etc.” Does anyone have any input or thoughts on her statement? </p>

<p>Thank you guys for all the time and hard work you put into answering our questions! You guys are fabulous!</p>

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<p>girlasmuse, I’m gonna be a new lower next year, too. I’m sooo excited :)</p>

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<p>Well, I am a returning lower so I’ll try to break down the new/returning lower relationship. I think depends a lot on the person: I know some new lowers that have completely integrated into returning lower groups while I know some that pretty much hang out exclusively with the new lower groups. And yes, most new lowers are in the latter group. I don’t think this is because of the existing bonds between returning lowers, but rather the bonding that occurs between new lowers over the fact that they are new. Despite this, some of my absolute closest friends are new lowers and the fact that I was at Andover a year without them never crosses my mind. All this being said, I think as the years progress, the distinction becomes less clear. More new students come in, and by senior year, I don’t think new vs returning lower makes a big difference.</p>

146

<p>I’m entering as a new lower too!</p>

147

<p>Here’s a recording of The Yorkies performing “The Sweetest Thing.” You’ll probably be shocked that it’s a high school a cappella group giving the performance!</p>

<p><a href=“https://files.me.com/thurstonsmalley/yn1oit.mp3[/url]”>https://files.me.com/thurstonsmalley/yn1oit.mp3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^ DUDE ELLIE GOULDING ROCKS <3 In other words, thanks for the link to the remix :). And the info on GSA! It’s great to hear there is a supporting and large (yes?) tolerent environment. </p>

<p>But now for more academic questions haha - what have been your favorite classes at Andover? How did you do on the French AP, if you’ve taken it, and what are the French Lit classes like? I’m likely to test into AP French for freshman year, do you think it’ll be overwhelming? Esp if I take Latin at the same time lol. According to what info I could find on Andover’s website, when you hit senior year, you’re done with reqs - is that really true? b/c I thought most schools required 4 years of English. </p>

<p>P.S. Are you able to put the Yorkie’s perf on youtube? I know you had it on your mobileme but I can’t seem to watch it?</p>

149

<p>Hey! Well, my favorite class last year was probably French 520 (AP French) and I liked it so much I decided to continue with French 600 this year. That said, I also really, really liked English 301, which is New Upper English (you, unfortunately, won’t get to take that class unless you come as a new upper). I learned not just a lot about close reading and expository writing, but a lot about myself, as well. However, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to have the same teacher, Catherine Tousignant. She’s amazing!</p>

<p>My favorite class this year - well, it’s hard to say since the year isn’t over - but so far, it’s probably a tie between PHRE-500 (Existentialism with Thomas Hodgson) and HIST-SS571 (Existentialism with Tony Rotundo, about whom I’ve raved previously on CC). However, I’ve also REALLY enjoyed PHYS-440 (Astronomy with Caroline Odden). As we speak I’m watching a BBC documentary called “The Wonders of the Universe,” actually, so my interest in astronomy remains strong despite the fact that the class is over. I like the show because the narrator is throwing around all these terms like “event horizon,” “neutron star,” and even “pulsar” that I can recognize and even preempt before he explains their meanings.</p>

<p>As for the French AP, I earned a 5 on the AP exam last May. However, that was nothing special; I only know one person from my class who didn’t earn a 5 on the exam. That said, not everyone bragged to me about their results, either. But I have to emphasize the intensity of that course. I took 520 with Dr. Claire Gallou who remains one of the most impressive teachers I’ve ever met, and boy did she demand the best out of every student. We wrote so many papers in that class, and she really picked them apart when she graded them. However, she allowed rewrites, which she highly encouraged but did not require. If you decided to rewrite your paper (which was never an easy task - they took hours) you would turn it in and the grade on the rewrite would factor into your overall paper grade provided you earned a better score with your rewrite than on the original, which wasn’t always the case. In that way, we students had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and I think we all gained a lot.</p>

<p>Cependant, je n’encouragerai pas de certitude en tant de placement dans la classe 520. C’est une classe vraiment difficile; en fait, il y avait trois </p>

150

<p>Tom,</p>

<p>Do entering uppers have to fulfill an Arts requirement? If so, it would be great if you could explain what it is as well as the best way to satisfy it. </p>

<p>IF I have a free afternoon and evening to explore the campus and the town of Andover the day before my Spring Visit, any suggestions about what I should do and see? </p>

<p>What have you heard about the three-term course in Modern European History? </p>

<p>In addition to Astronomy, are there any courses in the Science Department that you would particularly recommend? </p>

<p>As always, thanks for your help!</p>

151

<p>What is your least favorite class at PA and why?</p>

152

<p>Hey, SergeantFriday! I’ll tackle your questions one by one in the order that you asked them:</p>

<p>Entering uppers do, indeed, have to fulfill an arts requirement; the requirement is one term or more of either music, visual art, or theater. I’m taking photography next term to fulfill my requirement. Entering uppers can fulfill this requirement at any time during their PA careers.</p>

<p>For your pre-spring revisit visit, I would definitely recommend visiting the Addison Gallery of American Art. It’s one of PA’s two museums and its collection includes 110,000 pieces of American artwork valued in the tens of millions of dollars. One particularly impressive piece currently housed on the second floor of the museum is a large, full-color book filled with original paintings of every type of bird imaginable. This book alone is valued at $15,000,000. Deerfield used to have one but sold it in order to fund a new building. Other pieces include some by Eggleston, Whistler, and a bunch of other instantly recognizable artists and photographers. The Addison is housed in its own enormous building and is without a doubt one of Phillips Academy’s crown jewels and sets it far apart from every other high school in the world. Learn more about it here: [Phillips</a> Academy - Addison Gallery of American Art](<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/museums/addison/Pages/default.aspx]Phillips”>http://www.andover.edu/museums/addison/Pages/default.aspx)</p>

<p>I haven’t actually heard much about the European history course - that could partially be because I took AP European History before I came to Andover. However, a bunch of my friends took it lower year and they said the workload was insane!</p>

<p>I’m not actually a big science guy, but I’ll tell you what my friends tell me. A few of my senior friends this year are taking Fluid Mechanics (PHYS-630) and complain ceaselessly about the workload but also rave about the concepts they learn, in particular the purely theoretical stuff; my friend Cam, who is the guy in my gallery who uses physics to make Commons cups “jump,” related to me a fascinating theory that states that if the viscosity of any liquid were reduced to zero, that liquid would crawl UP the inside of containers, effectively ignoring gravity. Awesome! That said, the prerequisites for that course are insane, too: it requires completion of calculus based physics (PHYS-550/PHYS-580) (which requires prior completion of MATH-590). So if you do the coursebook math, you’ll see that you need to have completely AP Calculus BC before upper year in order to take that course. I wish I had!</p>

153

<p>Hey, Pulsar!</p>

<p>Hmm, least favorite course… Probably Math 360. I took that winter term last year. Back then (the curriculum has changed since) it was purely trigonometry and the last term of the precalculus sequence. I had an awesome teacher but just couldn’t really stomach the material because there was never a number in sight (of course, that’s what calculus often is, too) and I just needed to adjust to the shift in material. The prior term we’d been doing stuff that actually seemed to have applications outside of carrying forward into more advanced math classes, but at that point I just didn’t see the applications and therefore wasn’t very interested in the class. Of course, I started BC calc the next term (skipped right over AB… poor choice on my part) and then instantly saw a whole range of trig applications but I didn’t when I was in 360.</p>

<p>However, as I said, the curriculum has changed and I believe 350 is now trig. I don’t know what 360 is now. That class was just a drag, that was all.</p>

154

<p>Hello.
I’m completely inexperienced in this entire site, so I’m going to ask some possibly inane, insensible questions. I apologize if I do. I’m also really bad at phrasing my questions and changing the tone, especially since I sound really stuffy on the internet.
How much money do you typically spend on laundry?
How well do you think the math/science placement test actually places a student? If I feel uncomfortable with a class, will I get other options?
Also, my revisit day is next week. Do you think there is anywhere or anything I should specifically tour?
(Yeah. I’m really bad at asking questions. Sorry about the awkwardness of them again.)</p>

155

<p>No, there’s no awkwardness and your questions are completely legitimate! Welcome to CollegeConfidential, by the way, TheTester!</p>

<p>There are two options for laundry at school. Students can pay a large fee to have their laundry done weekly by the E&R service, or they can use washing and drying machines typically kept in the basements of dorms. I choose the latter because it’s a lot cheaper. The machines are high capacity which means I can do a whole week’s worth of laundry, including me sheets and bedding, in one load. A load in the washing machine costs $1.25 (the machine takes quarters) and a load in the dryer costs $1.25 for 55 minutes. For larger loads or heavier clothes, you can add extra quarters to the dryer. Each extra quarter adds 11 minutes to the drying time. That means that each load costs $2.50. Therefore, laundry costs just $2.50/week, not including the cost of detergent, but last year I only had to restock my detergent once. It’s a much better deal, in my opinion, than E&R!</p>

<p>I think the placement tests do a good job at placement - you just have to follow to directions and not fudge. If the math placement test, which you take at home, tells you you have an hour and a half, only take an hour and a half. If it tells you not to guess on questions, don’t guess. You’re not aiming for a high score - you’re aiming to place yourself where you belong. If you feel uncomfortable in a class, you will most certainly have the option of switching up or down to suit your needs. Many classes, especially in math, are term contained, so if you don’t quite make the cut for math 360, say, you’ll be put into 350, which is just one trimester behind 360. In that way, you don’t “lose any time” and get to dive in right where you belong.</p>

<p>Well, as I said in a post above, I’d definitely recommend you spend some time in the Addison! Not only is it a world class museum but it has a lot of study spaces for students. I’d urge you to check out the Addison Library - that is a BEAUTIFUL space to study - quiet, too.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions, just ask! I’m always happy to help!</p>

<p>Yours,</p>

<p>TomTheCat, PA '11</p>

156

<p>Tom,</p>

<p>I appreciate the answers! </p>

<p>One more quick question: should Art be taken as a fifth or sixth class by entering uppers?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

157

<p>Actually, I work as a student ambassador for the Addison, and unfortunately the Addison will be closed due to repairs necessary due to the heavy snowfall we got this winter. The Addision may remain open for a short period during the spring, but I dont think it will .</p>

158

<p>SergeantFriday,</p>

<p>I’m not sure - it’s case-by-case. If I were you, I’d wait until after fall term to decide whether or not to take art as a sixth course. As an entering upper, it’s unlikely you’d be able to take it as a fifth course at first unless you had fulfilled some other requirement and therefore needed only to take four core classes. That was the case for me - I placed into French 600 - but I elected to carry on with French (520 as I wanted AP-specific prep) though I had, at that point, fulfilled the language requirement. If you do the same in foreign language, math, or bypass History 300 by way of departmental permission, art could be your fifth course.</p>

<p>I really wouldn’t recommend taking six courses until you have a feel for the workload and are certain you could handle a sixth course, though. With my current course load I would never consider taking a sixth course, but some people do and are very successful.</p>

<p>DieterSama: That’s disappointing :(</p>

159

<p>Still taking questions! I hope people are looking forward to revisits!</p>

160

<p>Hey TomTheCat
I’m from Australia and I was wondering if there was any Aussie students at Andover? Thanks for giving us such handy info!</p>