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Phillips Academy Andover

School rating 4 / 5 by

180 Main Street Andover MA 01810 United States
Boarding
9th to PG
Day
9th to PG
Gender
Coed

Academic

Phillips Academy Andover review by .

Academics at Andover are excellent, as reputation will tell you. Classes are usually about 10 students in size, rarely going above 20 in certain math classes. Teachers give basically unlimited individual attention if students ask for it. There's a lot of work, so you need it. The workload is a valuable lesson when it comes to college, in terms of work management, allowing for social time, and more.

College Counseling

Most students will go to school in the US, obviously. A small but significant number....

Sample insights on college counseling

  • They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...
  • For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

Admissions process required one essay as well as several short answers with an eye on....

Sample insights on admissions

  • For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

Andover is a lovely town. The local community is fairly affluent, so we find all the little shops that we might expect. All day-to-day needs are provided by the school, although students occasionally like to order restaurant delivery. The town notably lacks a convenient video rental store, but the school library has a growing collection of its own. Safety is not a problem in this town. Dorm populations range from 4 to 30s and 40s. The process for choosing a place to live is fairly free and equitable. Every housing unit has at least one faculty house counselor....

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