<p>Hey, DAndrew. This year was a bumper year for college admissions, actually, and the rate is still above 30%.</p>
<p>a question:
What sports does Andover actively recruit freshman and sophomores for?</p>
<p>Thanks, Tom, but only 220+ students have reported so far, and based on a class size of 330, the ivies+sm rate is much lower than 30%. Knowing this is far from a full list, I wonder how many ivies+sm matriculants haven’t reported. That said, I see an impressive overall picture with a big number of students going to top colleges like Amherst, Bowdoin, Duke, Washington U at St. Louis, Carnegie Mellon and Oxford, etc.</p>
<p>Tom, that is a stunning list. (Hope it’s ok that you posted it.) Nice to see some gap years in there, too. My daughter says that 2011 has the reputation for being really smart, and 2012 has other “gifts”, but I’m hoping the good results continue! Kudos to you all. </p>
<p>I was curious to see that the prom pairings are boy+girl, even for openly gay students. Hope that’s some happy tradition, I can’t imagine any intolerance there for a same sex pair.</p>
<p>What do you call a place full of die-hard liberals? Not meant to be a brain teaser. :D</p>
<p>Invent, you say that like being liberal is a bad thing…</p>
<p>Invent, many of us are indeed liberal. There are several same-sex couples going to prom. Our Protestant chaplain is a married lesbian. 12% of our students pay no tuition and 45% of us are on financial aid. We have a gender studies library. We preach tolerance and understanding of differing ideas. We have an annual energy-saving contest between dorms and our peer schools.</p>
<p>But you need to remember that Andover has graduated 2 Republican presidents as well as numerous Republican policy-makers, including L. Paul ‘Jerry’ Bremer III, the man responsible for overseeing the invasion of Iraq. We’re hosting several Republican and Democratic presidential candidates during All-School Meetings next year. There are plenty of fiscal conservatives on campus, and even a few socially conservative self-proclaimed Tea Partiers. And I think they’d all tell you that none of them feel out of place here; they certainly complain whenever a green activist speaks on campus, but no one lets political ties get in the way of friendship, because why should they?</p>
<p>Hey, lemonade! Glad you enjoyed the list (while it was up). As I said in a previous paragraph, there are, indeed, several gay and lesbian couples attending prom, and I can tell you right now that no one will bat even an eye lash. Many other gay and lesbian students are simply attending with their best friends.</p>
<p>Hey, Alexindigo! Andover recruits for football, basketball, baseball, tennis, lacrosse, swimming, hockey, cross country, crew… If we have a Varsity team for it, we recruit, but not usually very heavily. There were three boys’ basketball recruits this year, maybe around six for football. They’re usually upperclassmen, but grade doesn’t matter as long as you’re an upstanding student and exceptional athlete. It’s important to note that no one here gets in on athletic merit alone.</p>
<p>Keep these questions coming! I’ll sign on whenever it makes sense for me to do so.</p>
<p>Oops, did I say Republican and Democratic candidates? Not so, I’m afraid - as of yet, Obama is not scheduled to speak at PA ;)</p>
<p>I think Barney Frank is an Andover alum. Although, I would not be proud of that if I were you.</p>
<p>Barney Frank went to his local high school in NJ (Bayonne High) before going to Harvard for all his degrees: his AB, grad work in political science and government, and a JD.</p>
<p>@lemonade</p>
<p>your right! I just looked it up, but I could have sworn that I read somewhere that Barney Frank went to Andover, but I guess not.</p>
<p>How many colleges do most of the Andover seniors apply to? If it’s being rated as “Unlikely”, do you still apply it anyway? Or it makes no sense to do so. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey, hope!</p>
<p>Most PA seniors with whom I’ve talked about college applied to between seven and fifteen schools. My understanding of the college counseling department is that they’re only supposed to allow or encourage you to apply to two unlikelies. Unlikelies are defined as schools at which you have a 5% or less chance of being accepted. I only applied to one unlikely, Stanford, and was rejected. This year, I didn’t hear of a single person getting into a school that had been deemed unlikely for them, but then again, I don’t talk to everyone in the class, either.</p>
<p>I’ve been posting this around, and I really think people should watch it - it’s a time lapse video by one of this year’s PA seniors, filmed entirely on campus and created entirely by him. Watch it in HD - it’s a masterpiece!</p>
<p>[Andover</a> Time Lapse on Vimeo](<a href=“http://vimeo.com/25291118]Andover”>Andover Time Lapse on Vimeo)</p>
<p>Thanks! TomTheCat. The video was AMAZING indeed and you’re ALWAYS so helpful!</p>
<p>Not a problem! It’s my goal to always be as helpful as possible. I’ll be going away on vacation and then for a job relatively soon, and obviously after that comes college, so I won’t be able to speak as a current student anymore. That’s too bad, but hopefully belonging to another institution will provide me with some helpful perspective that I can share with you all here. I don’t imagine I’ll be on as often, but I’ll make an effort to stop by.</p>
<p>Tom the cat, hopefully you have not left on vacation yet. I was just accepted at Andover but only there for one year. Given your experience, what would you recommend I sign up for right away? What would you do if you had only had one year to enjoy such a great school?</p>
<p>I would definitely sign up in the Paresky Commons first.</p>
<p>Sorry for my ignorance but what does that mean :)</p>
<p>Not to be nosy, Tom, but what college did you get in to?</p>