“It’s hard, with the course load at any of these schools, to find time to do this outside your other obligations, so if that’s her dream, curricular support could help”. @gardenstategal is absolutely right. My DS has found very little time to write outside of classes. Between classes, HW, sports, and his other ECs there just isn’t time for him to write for personal enjoyment anymore.
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The better school is the one that admits you. If you are lucky to have multiple acceptances, each of those schools has strong English departments and writing courses.
I would not say that PA is heavily geared towards mathematicians, and I don’t know that any of these schools would characterize themselves that way (or want to be characterized that way). Rather, I think all of these schools purposefully build student bodies such that there will be students who have varied interests and talents. I’m sure the course catalogs for each of the schools you mention will offer a good variety of elective humanities courses, including writing courses, and the schools have students who actively want to take such courses in lieu of elective math-related courses, though the opposite is true as well.
Hi,
Are there any large differences between boarding and day students? Besides dorms, do day students miss out on anything else (friendships, leadership opportunities, etc.)?
Also, is it worth it to move to a day student town (presuming you don’t live in one already) instead of being a boarder?
No. The only difference is where they put their heads at night. Day students are often on-campus through dinner and study period, and on the weekends. A benefit is that they provide boarders an oppy for a place to stay on the shorter breaks and store stuff on longer breaks.
I really don’t think the difference in acceptance rates is statistically significant. Nor could I imagine my 13 year-old self telling my parents. “Sell the house and buy another house. Figure out if there are any capital gains implications later.” Clearly there are parents who would do that, but mine were certainly not amongst them.
Bump. I know M10 (M9? M8?) is rolling around (good luck!!), but if anyone still has questions they would like to ask, send 'em over!
Does the student body size at Andover ever seem too big to you?
@willmo Heyo! To be honest, I very often forget just how big the student body is at Andover. Though you do share the campus with ~1100 or something students, you get close with so many people and so many faculty members that the campus doesn’t even seem that big
Hey, just heard about the HoS change. Do you think this will be a big change for new and existing students alike?
My answer from another thread:
Way too early to speculate, but change in academia traditionally occurs at a glacial pace. However, I have the upmost admiration and respect for Jim Ventre, and am confident that Andover will do well under his stewardship. Even though he is, at this point, only an interim HoS, I imagine current students are very happy. New students will be too.
@skieurope Good to know! With M9 coming up, I guess it would be beneficial to find out some more about what is happening at these schools.
I came back to CC for decision season. If anyone has any questions, please ask away. To those accepted (in a couple of hours), we hope that you #SayYestoAndover! Good luck everyone 
Hi everyone! I’m a new lower (tenth grader) from Phillips Academy. Like @AndoverKid257 said above, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them! #SayYestoAndover and good luck
How does the advising system work? I am confused about whether the student’s advisor is the faculty member who lives in the dorm or someone else.
Do the student and advisor meet regularly? At some schools, there seem to be some regularly scheduled periods where the advisor meets with the advisees and eat, talk, hang out, or something, so the advisees in the group also get to know each other. Does Andover have something like this?
@mairlodi For 9th and 10th graders, your advisor is a house counselor who lives in your dorm. After that, you can put down some preferences for who’d you like your 11th and 12th-grade advisor to be, but it’s usually someone from college counseling.
There’s a 1/2 hour period every Friday for advising groups to meet and talk. Most advising groups in 9th and 10th grade tend to be tight because they live in the same dorm, but 11th and 12th-grade advising groups also become quite close.
Hope this answers your question
@alyang period 6 is superior 
@AndoverKid257 agree to disagree
But just saying we had the blue plate dinner
@alyang hmph! 
we should have done that
@AndoverKid257 and @alyang thanks for doing this.
Did you have options when you were admitted to Andover? If yes, why did you choose Andover? What would you advise a prospect to focus on during revisits? What would you change about the school? Thanks.
@TheSwami Honestly, Andover was pretty much my only option when I got admitted but it also was my favorite school so I didn’t mind. My only worry was that Andover would be too hard for me and that I would succumb to pressure. However, afterwards, I came to realize that it’s not the education, the endowment, the buildings, that make Andover, but the people. And no matter what happened, I knew that Andover was the best place for me because of the diversity and kindness I experienced there from people from all walks of life (gosh I sound like a catalog now…) but point of the story is, the people make the experience.
I didn’t go to revisit, but during your revisit try to focus on what interests you the most. If you’re a musician, take time to visit the music building, talk to music teachers, and ask questions to students involved in the department. The admissions committee usually does a great job of matching prospects to students to ensure that they share similar activities and/or backgrounds.
If I could change one thing about Andover, I think it would be a bit of the culture. There is a drug/hook-up/competitive culture at Andover, or just private boarding schools in general, but if it doesn’t interest you, it’s pretty easy to avoid. I’ve heard a lot of stories about it but I’ve never experienced or witnessed it.