<p>So would u advise someone else to apply as a repeat? Bc im seriously considering it</p>
<p>How hard is it to get accepted. Are the SSATs very important?</p>
<p>Hoping, I’d only really recommend it to those applying during their sophomore or junior years. All indications point to it being simple to enter as a Lower after having left one’s previous school as a freshman. After Lower year, it gets harder to adjust and one simply feels like they don’t have much time.</p>
<p>Smiley, Andover is America’s second most selective boarding school after Deerfield. The acceptance rate last year was 16.7% and the average SSAT score of accepted applicants was 94th percentile. To my knowledge, however, the SSAT just ticks a box for admission officers. If it’s above a certain point, maybe the low 80s, the box is ticked and the office knows you’re “smart” enough. That’s definitely not to say that no one with scores below that gets in, but having a higher score definitely helps. Just remember that in the grand scheme of things, the admissions office won’t distinguish too much between scores of 87th percentile and 99th.</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>alright, thanks 
(im applying as a sophmore btw)</p>
<p>You would definitely be fine coming in as a sophomore. Three years would be fine, and anyway, Lower year is definitely partially structured around welcoming in new students. Upper year… Isn’t. Except for the required New Upper English class (English 301).</p>
<p>i meant that i am a sophmore applying for upper year, sorry for the confusion</p>
<p>If i was you Hope, considering you’re young for your year I’d repeat. It’d improve your chances by a lot. Just my opinion. As a girl what should I wear for my interview at Andover? There seems to be heaps of advice for guys but not girls.</p>
<p>Something moderately conservative, “smart-casual” sort of I guess… I’m a guy but most girls I see when I give tours for the admissions office are dressed nicely but certainly not “over the top.” Also for your tour it’s likely you’d feel more comfortable walking around campus if it didn’t look like you were dressed for your prom since Andover’s dress code is casual slash virtually non-existent. Yes, though, dress semi-formally.</p>
<p>P.S. Oh boy! 1,000th post. I’m a “senior member” now! Represent</p>
<p>Congratualtions! I hope by the time I’m a senior member I’ll have been accepted somewhere although at the rate I’m posting it’ll probably before March. I don’t have to wear a dress/or skirt then? That’s a relief because I don’t own any.</p>
<p>No, you definitely don’t. Just wear something “nice”-ish that you feel comfortable in. I remember when I came in for my interview, I was the only guy not wearing a blazer and dark pants. I was wearing khakis and a button-down shirt with tie under a plain, dark v-neck sweater. I was definitely the least formally-dressed person there, but hey, I still got in.</p>
<p>Can you summarize an Andover student in three words? And ‘everyone is diverse’ is not an excuse :P</p>
<p>TTC is on CC!!!</p>
<p>Haha, Izzy, indeed. As are you! Shockkkk</p>
<p>Hmm, an Andover student in three words… Independent, motivated, kind.</p>
<p>how do you think we procrastinators would fair at such a ‘rigorous’ school?</p>
<p>I see what you did thar, Rad ;D</p>
<p>shhhh! don’t let the threads know im cheating on them haha. they might…thread my eyebrows in my sleep? idk ha</p>
<p>three words… motivated, talented, sincere</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I’m bored. And don’t want to write college apps. And like talking about Andover more than I like talking about myself. And these paragraphs don’t decide my future? haha. So here are my random ramblings based on your questions, perhaps a different take on what’s already been said. Enjoy. Oh, and I go to PA. duhhh.</p>
<p>Coming in to boarding school is always an adjustment, no matter what grade you come in. (There actually was a great article about this in the phillipian awhile ago. If you’re really interested in seeing what Andover is like in a way different than just what the admissions office sends you I think reading the phillipian (phillipian.net) is a great way to do so!). It just depends on what kind of adjustment. Freshman year is nice to come because everyone is new and there is lots of transition time, etc. But at the same time it can be hard to leave home at such a young age. From the people I’ve talked to about this (which is quite a lot!) there is a general consensus that being a new lower is just about the best possibility. Because you don’t have to go through the awkward freshman experience, you don’t get as sick of the “Andover Bubble” but there’s still some coddling and lots of new kids; however, freshman year is a real bonding experience and it’s definitely sad to have missed out on being part of that. Being a new upper is definitely a cultural shock and there’s minimal guidance (except for new upper English which is the BEST and actually Andover is the only school that I found that had any sort of new upper program), but at the same time you’re at a better age to arrive. It’s much easier to catch on to things and you really appreciate Andover in a way the kids who haven’t had much of another high school experience can’t.
That being said everyone transitions to Andover differently, some smoothly and some not so smoothly and with bumps in different areas. I had no problem academically with Andover. I actually secretly believe that my old school gave me stronger writing skills than they teach here at Andover. Managing my time and trying new things? That was the bigger challenge for me. It took me almost a year to find and get involved in all of the activities I now love, and there was definitely an awkward time my first winter where I only really hung out with like 6 people. (Just a heads up, your first winter will be the hardest. Or at least it is for most people. You’re over the honeymoon period and its cold and gross outside and people are sick and not as cheery when they’re stuck inside all day).</p>
<pre><code>I wouldn’t call the grading “brutal” persay. I mean the biggest thing is that EVERYONE here is smart. So it’s not like your old school where you could count on other kids doing so badly that your work got curved to a good grade. You WILL be challenged when you’re here. Andover is nothing if not a lesson in humility and hard work. But if you put in that hard work you can definitely do well. Around 40% of the kids at Andover make honor roll (which is getting at least a 4.8 on the 6-point scale) each term. So it’s definitely not impossible. But you have to do the work. And there is a lot of it. I mean it obviously depends on your classes but for example my English teacher expected us to do 50 pages of reading a night, 100 for the double. I needed to read and commit to memory about 2 chapters in my AP science textbook per week. One weekend I remember having to do 70 pages of reading in French (and no, I wasn’t behind!). My light weeks contained 2-3 major assignments (tests, papers, presentations, etc.) I can’t honestly tell you how much math homework I had cause I rarely ever did it due to just not having time. I mean, I am a senior and I’m taking hard classes, but you get the picture.
I don’t know much about our diving team, but I do know that it’s GOOD and that there are girls getting recruited for it. Sooooo, yeah. GO BIG BLUE
So if you’re planning on going to Andover, you should know it’s always Andover/exeter never Exeter/Andover. Not only are we superior in every way (Ok, I might be a LITTLE biased…) but we are also older and alphabetically superior as well, and it just sounds better!
Ok, like I said before I am MAJORLY biased, but I will give you my impressions of the differences between A & E and why I chose Andover when I also was accepted at Exeter.
No Saturday classes. That actually wasn’t a major thing in my decision, but looking back at senior fall, I can’t imagine it with Saturday classes. I spent most of my Sundays sleeping in/doing work/going to clubs. I don’t even always get to sleep in because they’re so busy. If I had class on Saturday, along with sports games or SATs or whatever, I pretty much wouldn’t have a weekend. Andover and Exeter are both high pressure environments. People frequently run themselves into the ground. Having a relaxing weekend to just take a break is KEY to being successful here and not burning out.
But the thing that did make a HUGE difference in my decision was just the different attitudes I got from the school. Exeter is big on SCHOOL. They love the fact that they are so academic, and have their dress code and their fancy library. My friend told me that her tour guide proudly exclaimed that Exeter was “the darker, less social Phillips”. For some people that’s the right environment for them. That kind of pressure propels them to succeed. For me, however, I’d crash and burn. I love how fun Andover is. I mean, obviously we work hard, but we don’t want that to be all we do. We have SO much school spirit (I mean just take the A/e football game. It may have been a miserable day and we may have lost, but if you think for one minute that Exeter would’ve had that many fans out at an away game, in that weather, while getting kind of crushed? I’d call you out on being wrong.) and its just present in everything we do. I can always count on my friends coming to my concerts/games and I love watching/trying all the crazy things they do. Andover is just more free. One of my friends who attended and loved his Exeter experience says that in actuality he hated the school itself, he just got SO close to his friends and had such an incredible time, but they got close due to bonding bonded over how miserable they were. But those friendships made the whole experience worthwhile and valuable to him. Of course, again, that’s just one story and I am terriblyterribly biased. (And not particularly explaining myself well…oh well.) GO BIG BLUE (again) 
I mean, the dating scene is pretty typical. We don’t have anything weird like Exeter does where you take dates to church (??)…sorry, forgive the bias. It just comes out. I think relationships tend to be more intense than at regular high schools just because you’re with them ALL the time. But I mean it’s really up to you. I’m more a fan of the casual hookup scene, and that’s worked out fine for me.
I don’t sleep. I mean, it’s mostly cause I’m a horrible procrastinator. Which oh! Was another question. Yes, procrastinators do fine here. Actually there are tons of them. We have secret meetings! Well, not really. But there are a large group of girls in my dorm that always end up in our common room chatting about silly things at around 11 every night, and nope, our homework for the next day isn’t done. But back to the topic of sleep. It depends on how big of a priority sleep is for you. If I ever really need to sleep I can get it. Does this mean I sometimes don’t do my math homework (who am I kidding, I never do my math homework) or have to be really focused on homework? Yes. So I choose instead to not sleep as much (as most people do! Although I don’t think many of them acknowledge it as a choice). I love my clubs, I love my sport, I love my friends, I actually love doing my homework a lot of the time. Wednesdays, for example, I am busy from 3pm until sign-in at 10. This means if I haven’t worked ahead Tuesday or been productive during my frees, I don’t even start my several hours of homework until 10pm, which of course means I’ll be up past midnight (at least!). But is this my choice? Yes. Do I regret it? Sometimes when getting out of bed is a real struggle. Am I ok with it? Totally. I mean how many clubs you want to do, how hard of classes you choose to take, how much you procrastinate (that’s a big one!) is really what determines how much sleep you get. As a whole though, I don’t think the Andover population gets nearly enough.
I’m surprised that repeating is being quite as championed as it is on this board? I didn’t repeat and while there are times I wish I had, I am INCREDIBLY grateful right now that I didn’t. It’s hard enough watching all my friends get into college because they applied early decision. I can’t imagine having to wait another year. There’s only so much high school you can take. And I would’ve actually started running out of classes to take in some subjects if I had decided to repeat. And I mean there are definitely classes that I wish I could’ve taken that I don’t have room for, but most of the classes I would’ve gotten to take if I had repeated wouldn’t have been those classes, because they’re mostly senior electives. So I don’t know. That’s not to say repeating is a bad thing. For some people it’s really worth it, to catch up academically, have more time to play a sport, etc. It really helps in getting leadership positions, as those tend to go to kids who have been around longer. It is much harder for new uppers to get positions than say new lowers or especially kids who have been doing that activity since they were freshman. Also, I almost think coming as a new senior is silly. 1year is just not enough time. I honestly don’t think I had fully transitioned until the start of my senior year. Also, coming back as a returning kid is just such a satisfactory feeling after having to be new the year before.
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<p>Umm. Can’t think of anything more to say. Hope that made sense? I might answer more questions. But I might not. Haha.</p>
<p>woah…good synopsis of Andover
haha</p>