Is Andover just too competitive??

Benley
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:32:07 +0000

I want to take a moment to talk about the notion of “sink or swim”. I’ve heard of it a few times over the years on CC, and it seems to me it’s a term “reserved” to describe Andover. And every time when the term is thrown around, somehow it’s used in a way as if it’s self-explanatory and doesn’t need further evidence to support it. But, what does it really mean? As many other families on CC, we researched, toured, applied and revisited a few schools before making a final choice of a BS to attend. In comparison with other schools, Andover does strike us as less structured. Specifically, the differences compared with some other schools as we see are: 1) No centralized and/or monitored study hall (unless a student gets a restriction of any kind or on academic probation, in which case they’d be required to study in a designated area); 2) No restriction in phone or Internet use at any time of the day. I am not sure how unique these are among schools, but can someone who is versed in “sink or swim” tell me if this is what the label means?

I am still trying to think of things - operation and administration wise, in terms of rules, disciplines, structure, review process, and approachability of advisors and faculty, etc. etc. - in Andover that make it uniquely “sink or swim” compared with other schools. Based on my knowledge about BS gathered over time, I honestly do not see them. Looking at the results, for such a competitive school, it has an attrition rate of < 2% and as someone upthread showed most students are doing fine or more than fine academically depending on how you see it. I don’t see the “sinking” happening that much. And then tell me about a school where everyone is “swimming”. There I said it, for the record.