As many of us suspect, the two schools are quite similar indeed, except some “perceptions” of students from one school about the other are noticeably different than those of their own. One other difference I have noticed is the middle schools they attended (public vs private). Andover seems to have more students coming from private schools than Exeter does. Of course, stats are stats. You can’t always draw conclusions on why and how solely based on numbers. But FWIW, something to check out and speculate on!
@panpacific Our observations in the admissions process re Exeter verses Andover were verbalized to us by two sets of parents and kids we met the first days of school. (Hearing it actually made us feel better about our choice) Interestingly both of those families have another child at Andover. Without going into too much detail the feeling was that Andover is much more rah rah and socially aggressive. Many more come from private schools and the legacy is heavier from that group so there are much more prominent cliques of students. My child much preferred Exeter, in fact was turned off of Andover completely (also influenced by the dozens of kids we knew there from NYC private schools whereas at Exeter there was one who was graduating)
I wish all schools provided that data: what % of their students come from public vs. private schools. While I’m wishing, I’d also like to know attrition rates, and % of students who live within a 2-hour drive of school (the “States Represented” stat is pretty meaningless IMHO).
Getting those numbers is not difficult; knowing the reason behind those numbers is. Why did the student not return? Was it the family’s choice or the school’s? Was the reason due to academics, economics, environmental/social? A statistic like this without context is meaningless, IMO.
@Center you are speaking from your own experience. Who can object to that? Speaking from my experience, however, we didn’t have any of the concerns you mentioned about Andover. We all loved the experience there and loved the school!
As I’ve said many, many times on this forum, a lot of time, it comes down to fit, both from the school’s perspective, and from the student’s/family’s. There are a few schools, which are talked about a lot here, that I visited that I absolutely hated. Are they bad schools? No, but I knew that they were not schools in which I would be happy for 4 years.
@skieurope I apologize, my comment wasn’t intended to put down Andover but more to say that the things that made my child like one school over another seemed to fit with other similar types of people. I thought I somehow conveyed that by the fact that the parents of Exeter kids had kids at Andover so clearly they had children with different personalities etc.
Reading and reflecting on this thread, it has occurred to me that the private vs. public middle school statistic is perhaps not as relevant as some may make it out to be (and as I initially thought as well). There are many public schools with more rigorous academic programs and more robust extracurricular offerings than many private schools. There are also many private schools which are more financially accessible than having a residence in a strong public school district and/or may offer substantial financial assistance. It seems to me that the only generally true difference between private and public schools is that public school kids tend to live close to their peers whereas the private school kids may have peers that are more geographically far flung. More telling background factors for me are household income and the level of education of the parents.
@Center No need to apologize; I did not interpret it that way. I just wanted to convey that some kids/families will love the Exeter tour/experience, and hate Andover, while it will be the opposite for others. There is no one-size-fits-all for boarding schools (or colleges for that matter).
@Center Your thinly veiled criticism of a school that you had no direct experience with and probably has nothing to do with you is sad. It just shows that there’s a chip on your shoulder, somehow. Seriously, what “effect” do you expect to bring to a school like Andover by bad mouthing it on a barely alive prep school online forum? Or just to sleep easier convinced your child has selected a “better school” than Andover - whatever that means.
@panpacific I think your comments are nuts! Andover is arguably the most prestigious BS in the world. My kid didn’t care for it for reasons that seem to be common with a certain type of kid (as previously discussed) but other than that I don’t get your thinly veiled criticism? In fact I just agreed with someone that it seems to be commonly accepted that a large majority of kids will select Andover over Exeter when given the choice. I can see why-- it is far less intense. That doesn’t make either one better …but if given the choice I can see why one would select Andover.
@Center That wasn’t our perspective after having visited both schools. And perceived intensity/rigor was not the determining factor for AppleKid’s ultimate choice.
This has me puzzled as well. Our sense after visiting the schools was that all kinds of kids made up the respective student bodies, and in fact that was the desire and goal of both the admissions departments. What characteristic are you thinking of that would be common to most of the kids who prefer Exeter over Andover, and which is missing in the kids who prefer Andover over Exeter?
