I happen to know the author of post #10 very well, and she tells me that she’s too lazy to read the entire thread so post #10 was an answer to the OP’s original question.
Back to the question at hand! My freshman year, I went to one of the top public high schools in the state, which has the reputation of being competitive and high-achieving and has state awards for different academic contests. I had a perfect GPA in all honors classes and higher than average world language and math placement. I also went to state competitions and even a few national competitions. My first term Andover, I put in the same amount of work that I put in at my public high school and landed firmly in the middle of the pack. My second term, I did a lot better (though nowhere near perfect), but I also worked a lot harder/better.
@Center As a non-athletic woman of color and child of immigrant parents, it is possible that I am so removed from that side of campus that I don’t see all the legacies and athletes who are not also talented students. However, I will say that even the rich and sporty people I know at Andover would have done really well academically at my last high school (which, yes, I know is not Stuy).
I do know many (maybe even most) of the underrepresented minorities (I’m going to assume you meant underrepresented b/c the idea of the Asian 25% of Andover having it easy in college admissions is hilarious.) I would say the same for them. I also want to add that 45-50% of Andover students receive FA. The average grant is over 3/4 the tuition. 13% of students have full aid. The odds that Asian and scholarship kids are legacy are just low. They are some of the most high-achieving kids at the school and the college admissions disfavors them.
Thanks for all the different inputs guys!
I do happen to be of Asian descent, and attend my local public school with a perfect GPA in my honors/AP classes.
However, the academics aren’t that bad and the amount of courses they provide are fairly generous.
But I guess I’ll just have to work harder at Andover.
One quick other question. Sorry for asking so much! :-S
If you receive a scholarship, does that contribute to paying for the amount of financial aid given or is it just a form of recognition?
I was just wondering because the papers that I got for a scholarship I received were also in the FA folder.
I am personally not a scholarship/FA student, but what I know from my friends who are is that any scholarships you win from an outside source, can be applied in addition to FA. I don’t know exactly what scholarship you are talking about, but since it was in your FA folder it must be from Andover. You most likely have to read into the fine print. For example, we have around 20 “Phelps Scholar-Athletes” here, who received a Phelps Scholarship, but it was technically just full FA. I would contact admission/FA officer about what this scholarship means. For example, it may just mean that a certain fund within the alumni/board association is funding your FA. This is the case with the scholarship I mentioned above.
Also, thanks to @natakwali for your post. I think too many people on here who haven’t actually gone to Andover are making gross generalizations and overestimation about the type of students, and the amount of legacies we have here at Andover.
The bulk of our Ivy admits are not athletic recruits. For this year, 2016, I know of only 5 students being admitted to Ivy schools for athletics. These are also not Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.
@eldredgeknot , to the best of my knowledge, when Andover offers Financial Aid, they don’t just indicate the amount, they also link the financial aid to the donors of the scholarships. So, in your package it probably notated the “name” or donors of your scholarship. Sometimes the scholarships are the family name of the contributors, sometimes they have honorary names for funds that were donated in the name of a special teacher or coach or someone who contributed greatly to the school. Hope that helps! :-h
We did go over this, but the conclusion was not as you claim. My take was that there was not enough evidence to tell if there is no appreciable academic difference between them, if not the other way around. In fact, that was rather a minority opinion not well supported by logic and evidence.
@laenan: What is you connection to this thread? This is a thread to help students/parents navigate and understand the world of BS. Not to make comments about a specific LPS or region.
From my DD’s experience, it is very hard to stay at the top. She entered BS with a top SSAT and went immediately into Honors level classes. She had to kiss her 98/99 averages goodbye the moment she entered the hallowed halls of Choate! Yet her advisor tells her how “great” she is doing with her B+s! 
@mexusa – I teach part-time at one of the Universities in Boston. My connection to this thread is that as an educator I wanted to pass along that this is not a BS specific issue and is one that my students face every semester. The same thing happens in youth sports. The superstar in middle school can get lost in the shuffle in HS. The pond is getting bigger.
I think what is not being considered in this thread is that how hard it is to stay on top is really a matter of how challenging of an environment the participant is coming from. To say you are coming from the top LPS of your state doesn’t mean as much if your state is Arkansas vs. California.
Lastly, another issue I have seen that challenges top performers to stay on top is the social aspect of BS. At home, parents can force the distraction away or even eliminate it from the home. (i.e. no TV/video games.) At BS, there is more freedom and background “noise” (fun) factor is present in which less disciplined child will be challenged to block out.
@SculptorDad “My take was that there was not enough evidence to tell if there is no appreciable academic difference between them”
Double negative logic? The onous is not on me to prove there isn’t a difference but on you to prove there is one. Just by wishing it to be so doesn’t make it so. That said, please put forth a quantitative measurement system on how you would prove your point. I put forth SAT and matriculation into highly selective colleges. Admittedly not the best measurements but it is a start.
Finally, as both of us are parents of dual enrollies, how does a BS compete academically with a LPS student going to a top 50 University as part of or in replacement of their LPS? This approach is open to anyone that can qualify.
BS are great and I think they do a great job turning out quality alumni but this notion that BS is in some sort of special academic group that is unmatched and unequaled is just not true. A student should not be any more/less intimidated by going to Andover than going to a selective Charter school such as the Advanced Math And Science Academy Charter School.
@laenen, you were no kidding when you mentioned that we went over this ad naseum in another thread. I see no point of redoing it.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Neither do I.
I’ll assume that there will be no further back and forth trying to make a point on a topic that is totally unrelated to the original question. Per Terms of Service, College Confidential is not a debating society. Please feel free to express your point of view and your respectful disagreement of someone else’s. However, you are unlikely to convert anyone to your POV so once you’ve given your opinion, no need to restate it again and again, here or again on a different thread. If you really want to have a discussion on the subject with another user, feel free to PM.
I haven’t read all of the above, but will share my daughter’s experience for the OP’s benefit. She had an A+ average at a large, decent-but-not-insanely-competitive public high school in 9th grade. In boarding school, she is still a top student, just not the top student. She has worked very hard both years. There is more writing at BS, and math is notably harder. All this is to say that a good boarding school is still just a high school, and if you are good at doing high school, you’ll be fine.
There are more motivated and smarter students at a competitive boarding school.
It means that you may have significant peer pressure as well as more demanding course work.
One of the main objectives of boarding schools is college prep and teachers are more demanding.
I agree with @twinsmama, It can be a lot of pressure and very distracting to continuously keep looking at what everyone else is doing and achieving. My suggestion would be to focus on doing your personal best and know that other things are recognized besides having the highest GPA. My son was admitted into Princeton University from High School. There were other children in his high school graduation class who had higher GPA’s than he did. He was by all means an accomplished student. What I believe gave him an edge was his extra curricular and volunteerism/community service activities. The days when all schools looked at was a perfect GPA is a thing of the pass in my opinion (though it is a great achievement).
FYI it’s “ad nauseam.” As in related to nausea. I wasn’t going to say anything since it could’ve been a typo, but because it was repeated incorrectly I thought it should be pointed out since there are young people on this thread who could be misled. And BTW, I was spelling it “ad nauseum” up until today, when I looked it up and found out that I’ve been misspelling it for the last 40+ years!! Wow.
There is a nice perspective on this worry in the NMH School’s validictorian’s graduation speech. You can find it on the school’s website. She talks about how she was afraid when she came to NMH that she would lose her identity as the smartest kid in her class because there were so many talented students, and it turned out her fears were justified - and that turned out to be one of the best experiences she had at school. Being surrounded by people who are more talented than you are has a big upside. Your education should be so much more than just a race to the top.
Hi eldredgeknot. I was a four-year student at Andover and the one thing I found the most difficult was that PA was a shock to my ego. I was at the top of my class at my local public junior high, while at PA I was hardly at the top of my year. My problem was that I had poor study skills, as at my junior high I never had to study hard to get top grades. While I found my niche eventually, my junior year was tough because I expected to be a big fish in a small sea. Coming in as an upper will be difficult, however if you try you will also be able to find your niche and make friends. Obviously you will not be able to be a class president or leader of a club your first year, but there is nothing to stop you from doing so as a senior. In fact, my cluster’s Blue Key head my senior year came in as an upper.
So, good luck, and congratulations for getting in as a new upper! Quite a feat, and you will love your time at PA! I certainly did!