<p>Ahem…so it’s okay to dish it out but you can’t take it? Develop a thicker skin before you head off to BS and live in a dorm full of teenage boys. And I do mean that sincerely. No sarcasm intended. :)</p>
<p>Hell, what can I say? I’m a belligerent teen - about to go and live in a dorm full of other belligerent teens. I’ll be fine.</p>
<p>There’ll always be a few. At the moment, they just happen to operate the Features section of the Phillipian… I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so disturbed by newspaper cartoons…</p>
<p>And yes! I’m not growing up in a hurry, to be honest =)</p>
<p>The “campus empties out on weekends” stereotype is a fallacy insofar as Andover is concerned (and I’ll bet Exeter too). Each has far more boarding students than most smaller schools that are exclusively or overwhelmingly composed of boarders. Furthermore, a significant percentage of Andover’s day students are children of faculty and staff living - you guessed it - on campus. They live in faculty units, sometimes in the same dorm they’d live in if they were considered boarding students. The largest group, however, live in Andover or North Andover and other towns within 10 minutes of campus (many within biking distance). It’s relatively easy for them to get involved in activities and programs even on evenings or weekends. Most of my daughter’s activities involve a a lot of day students. </p>
<p>To the extent that boarders do leave campus on weekends the most popular activity is taking the 45 minute train ride into Boston for the day. I’d prefer that to a shuttle to the mall, but many of today’s kids virtually grew up in malls so their perception may be different.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to the largest middle schools in our state. It was very important for us to find a smaller school that felt like a “community.” So for us St. Paul’s felt like the right fit.</p>
<p>I personally know a few kids coming from bigger public schools don’t like small private schools. They quickly get bored with the quiet campus, “nurturing” styles and limited opportunites. SPS may be different but I bet it is a different style than A/E. Again we are talking about fit and personal preference.</p>
<p>definitely.
I think each school has incredible strenghs and weakness for everyone, its interesting to see people’s opinions of each school. I choose sps because of the teachers, community, and arts.</p>
<p>personally…i prefer andover over the other 2 because it is a better fit for me from what i see what the school have to offer on the websites and i know of people attending as well so it would be an easy transition.</p>
<p>Perhaps some children from large public schools don’t thrive once they get to a smaller private school. However, since my daughter attended my husband’s 25th reunion in 4th grade, SPS has been her goal. Our public school has no opportunities, so all extra curriculars must be pursued outside of school. It willl be nice to have it all right there for her. She is psyched to take ballet as a credit class next year. So in our opinion after revisits SPS is #1</p>
<p>My son is enrolled for a full year of theater next year at SPS (not acting) as a credited class. Do the other schools offer that? When I was at L’ville in the 1600’s I was heavily involved in theater, but it was an extra curricular. And later, Salisbury didn’t have any theater courses for me at all.</p>
<p>I know that Andover offers theater courses for credit. Most cover different aspects of the end of term production such as acting, lighting, and set design. Others are separate and cover topics such as theory or directing.</p>
<p>I’m not sure where “SPS is the best” is coming from. From my knowledge, Phillips Andover and Exeter are far superior in reputation, education, and environment than pretty much every other school in the nation. With teachers who might as well be college professors, beautiful campuses, incredible intelligent students, competitive sports teams, an infinite number of extracurricular activities, resources to do anything from write a novel to do extremely high levels of science research, I guarantee that these two schools cannot be beat. Trust me. St. Paul’s does not even come close. There is no big 3 in prep schools. There is a big 2 - Andover and Exeter. Don’t even try and say that St. Paul’s compares. The number of students that get into Ivies/Top 15 colleges in the nation are 1/3 of the graduating class at both Andover and Exeter. So, stop spreading bad advice…</p>
<p>LOL (10 char)</p>
<p>Cubbies, thanks for your ignorant, unsubstantiated, pompous, bloviation.</p>
<p>:) cubbies7177, are you just trying to make a point about powerblue93’s earlier post, or are you serious? Either way, nice shot - I guess you don’t have to be “politically correct” all the time. Tom, I wonder what kind of LOL you are having?</p>
<p>The kind of LOL that agrees with what he said but thinks the way it was said was ridiculous and something that I would have blown up over if it hadn’t been so complimentary to Andover. That kind of LOL ;)</p>
<p>Ermm, I’m pretty sure SPS has proportionally better Ivy matriculation than Andover and Exeter…</p>
<p>College matriculation shouldn’t be a point. It’s hard to compare two schools that different in size. So proportionally SPS is better, but considering their size, A/E are remarkable too because no matter how good the students are Ivy colleges can only take that many from one school.</p>
<p>back to Andover’s Need-Blind admissions policy…I would like you note that Andover often gives LESS financial aid than other schools…I know TEN accepted students to Andover who all reported that Andover gave the LEAST financial aid of any of the schools they applied to.</p>
<p>just fyi</p>
<p>First, where did the TEN students you were talking about end up with?</p>
<p>Secondly, we received FA from three schools, and what you said is not true with our case. There, next time at least you can say that the 11th student reported not so.</p>
<p>FYI: on Andover website, the average FA amount was $33,100 for boarders, and the tuition in 2008 was 39,100.</p>
<p>With respect to financial aid, another thing to consider is that Andover’s tuition(and Exeter’s) isn’t as high as some others.<br>
Andover, Exeter: about 39K
SPS: around 42K
NMH: over 45K
So even if Andover’s offer is less, it may be leaving the family with the same amt to pay as some other schools. I can’t tell from andoverwarrior6’s comment how financial aid was measured. But, whatever.</p>