<p>Which schools do you think students are most overworked and overwhelmed at? Which schools do you feel students are the most laid back at? Thanks!</p>
<p>Not sure about which one is the “most overworked and overwhelmed”, but all the so called HADES schools (not limited to these 5) are pretty demanding. Exeter and Hotchkiss are said to be very intense. The most laid back? That’s an even harder question. I doubt anyone can tell you which school or schools are MOST laid back.</p>
<p>Andover is rumored to have a laid-back vibe, but no doubt, they still work really hard! I guess the laid-back-ness (let’s pretend that’s a word) just reflects on their personalities? </p>
<p>Exeter, Groton and Hotchkiss, I think, have the most… intensely academic reputations, I think. : P</p>
<p>I think rather than work hard all the time, a lot of Andover kids (like me…) opt for hardcore relaxing, in which no working/thinking/thinking about work is aloud, knowing they can flip a switch, go on a work binge, and still come out with both fun times and sixes. For some people, balance just doesn’t work. :)</p>
<p>Andover is laid back? My cousin goes there. He used to be this really fun, goofy, chill guy and now he is really sarcastic and looks tired and stressed all the time. maybe it’s just him growing up or something, idk. But it’s wrong of me to judge Andover just by my cousin, ill try to stop :)</p>
<p>My d is a rising upper at Andover and a natural, high-intensity student. She simply loves to study and learn, even takes an extra course-and she somehow manages to have active social and athletic lives as well. But I think she’d be the last to describe the academic (as opposed to cultural) atmosphere at Andover as “laid back”. It is a great deal of work and never enough sleep. When she comes home at the end of each term she is exhausted. Don’t choose Andover thinking you can cruise through with less than 100% effort, you cannot. None of the top boarding schools are laid back in that sense as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>Yea, I think people are confusing laid back academic wise or laid back in relation to personalities and the general atmosphere.</p>
<p>If Andover is the most laid back of those 5, I’m really glad I chose Andover instead of the others. I find it depends on what you choose to do with your time. I need rest time mixed with moderate amounts of stress to work my best, so I didn’t do assignments that wouldn’t be collected to give myself the time I needed. Some people thrive when being overwhelmed. I don’t envy them one bit. Some just relax and don’t care obsessively about grades, and some do that and still come out with incredible grades. I’d imagine any of those schools would be a pressure cooker in general, though.</p>
<p>I felt in my time at Andover that almost everything ceded to work; if one’s laid back, it showed through what one did with respect to one’s work. If one’s not, one will be very intense and always stressed out about one thing or another, even if one doesn’t need to be.</p>
<p>Does Andover still have Saturday classes?</p>
<p>Yes, Andover has them, but only on a few Saturdays. Usually 2 or 3 in the fall and 2 or 3 in the spring. Also, the two classes that you have on Saturday you don’t have on Friday.</p>