worktowin

Any parents/students at Andover notice the class size getting bigger? Andover has been realizing higher yields and matriculating more students for the past several years - usually exceeding expectations leaving the administration to scrabble for more dorm space.

Correspondingly, I've heard rumors of more doubles and multiple beds in what use to be singles so wondering if that is having a ripple effect throughout the institution. The increasing yield, which is driven by their successes, invariably have negative consequences when too much success dilutes the brand or impacts quality of life/education. Thoughts from people in the know?

2prepMom

Andover parents elsewhere on CC have been openly noting record small graduating classes, and a generalized fear of disciplinary committee actions, whith many kids being asked to leave.

Maybe getting in is not the hard part......

swimdude006

The senior class was hit hard this year as to how many of the original actually graduated. Dorm councilor said in our final meeting that at this year's senior dorm reunion, only 26 out of the original 40 were able to come, everyone else had gotten kicked out/left.

As for the over-enrollment, there has been a scrambeling for rooms. Singles are deff. not being turned into doubles. That would be very uncomfortable. Instead, renovations in some dorme are being made to expand, and some 3 room doubles will become tripples.

exsrch

Wow, what are most kids getting kick out for?

Has the over crowding in dorms consistent with larger class sizes?

swimdude006

Most for drugs, plagarism, etc.

As for the dorm question, dorms aren't separated by grade so it can't really be "consistent" to the larger class sizes

tigerdad

There are many reasons for students leaving. One of the difficulties in knowing why is that the school has a gag policy. Disciplined students may not even let anyone know they have been disciplined, much less why. Much if the time its drugs or, mire often I think, academic dishonesty. What the school calls acad. Dishonesty is so broad however, that at another school it might just get a slap on the wrist.

Momof7thgrader

Maybe a better statistic to measure schools than the almighty yield number might be attrition by graduation.

tigerdad

Agree... or at least a co-statistic to yield. These schools try very hard to minimize public knowledge of the latter statistic. Gag agreements signed at the time of admission, and regulations specifically prohibiting disciplined students from revealing even that they have been disciplined all play into this. I strongly suspect that part of the secrecy is to hide the preferential treatment of some of those charged, as well.

islfan

The mention of gag agreements at the time of admission at Andover piqued my interest, so I pulled up the enrollment agreement (conveniently available online). There is nothing that could possibly be considered to be a gag agreement.

I also took a look at this past academic year's Bluebook (or regulations), also online. I didn't see anything at all like that.

Perhaps you were thinking of a different school?

tigerdad

It may not be in the bluebook but I am absolutely certain the students are prohibited from mentioning disciplinary actions to others. I know of several cases personally.

tigerdad

There is also the "elastic clause" which several students have referred to. I am not certain how much there is to fear from this in actuality, but again, quite a few students refer to it. In short, the school has the right to decide what is and is not "inappropriate" behavior, etc., and act upon that judgment.

swimdude006

I'm pretty sure there is no "gag" agreement. It's more of the fact that kids are afraid to reveal their punishment to their peers in fear of rumors and gossip to spread. I know many kids who are open with their punishments. In the student council, there are elected students called Disciplinary Commity Representatives and during their speeches, most have gone through the discipline system and speek openly their experiences.

blueisbest

worktowin:

An April 19, 2012 article in the Phillipian (Six Percent Matriculation Rate Increase Prompts Need for Extra Beds | The Phillipian Online) addresses the issues you raised in your original post:

• For the five years prior to this year, the Andover yield held rock solid “between 78 and 79 percent.” The yield at Andover did reach “a record high 84%” this year. That increase, however, resulted only in a modest demand for about an additional “20 new beds” in a school where approximately 818 students, or 74% of the total 1,105 enrolled students, are boarders. See, Sort Boarding Schools by Key Criteria - Boarding School Review.

• Like other prep schools, Andover routinely adjusts a "few" beds for boys or girls each year depending on slight variances in the ratio of matriculated male and female students. Nevertheless, it has been about twenty years since Andover last had to add as many as twenty additional beds.

• Andover will meet this anomalous demand as painlessly as possible. For example, three room doubles with two private rooms and a large common area will be made into triples by converting the common room into a third private bedroom. In many other cases, student dorms won't be directly impacted at all because faculty housing will be reduced to accommodate new student rooms.

Next year, Andover will likely fine tune both its expected yield and the number of applicants it admits to compensate for its slight over enrollment this year.

Long story made short: this is a tempest in a teapot.