Best things about Andover

TomTheCat
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 06:23:09 +0000

Swissbrit, we have ten minutes of passing time between classes. It’s necessary given some buildings are half a mile from the center of campus. I often find myself using my full ten minutes, but very, very rarely am I late for classes. For most people, the longest walk of the day is in the morning on the way from one’s dorm to class (or hopefully to breakfast in Commons). The walk from my dorm to the Gelb Science Center is about 15 minutes.

As for rappelling off the bell tower, nah, that doesn’t happen anymore, I’m afraid.

BlueRaven, of course Andover doesn’t hold a monopoly on the smart kids of the prep school world. However, I can tell you that large schools like Andover and Exeter do hold a virtual monopoly of the VERY MOST academic kids - especially in terms of math and science. Why is this? The SIZE of the schools makes it possible and practical to offer courses that go FAR BEYOND the high school level, while still offering classes that cater to the rest of the student body. I’ve mentioned these classes and I’ll mention them again; Chem and Physics 580, for example. They finish covering the AP curriculum in mid-February, and then go on into science that most kids NEVER cover unless they choose to MAJOR in it in college. My French 520 course did the same. Then, for the kids who complete these classes there are even more advanced ones: Fluid Mechanics at Andover comes to mind.

Most schools offer AP-level courses. That’s great. But relatively few schools offer courses that cover material usually encountered in the second or third year of college. That’s a SIGNIFICANT draw for the VERY brightest of kids. This is evidenced in Andover’s SAT range. Andover’s average SAT score is 2076, yes, but the curve is SHARPLY upward from that point. The 75th percentile SAT score at Andover is around 2250, for example. Andover’s breadth of courses due to its size is an important factor for some of the very most academic kids.