• by MIT Ivy League and Oxbridge Educated Insiders
  • Trusted by over tens of thousands online subscribers

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 .

The language program is absolutely fantastic, with the opportunity to take nearly every major world-language. I will never forget how incredible it was to be learning Spanish from a man who had gone undercover in the C.I.A to fight against the drug trade in Colombia. The teachers have incredible life stories and many are very candid about sharing them with you. The student body is competitive but the friends you make are forever, so despite a sometimes cutthroat academic atmosphere there is a true sense of solidarity as well. On the weekends, everyone wants to relax and oftentimes you can see that classroom peers, friends or not, really care about each other, not just them selves. There's a lot of group studying and tutoring amongst students. It's awesome and I definitely dont see that as much here at college. It can be very stressful at times when you're a student at Andover if you're not one of the "genius"-es but everyone has an arena/stage/classroom in which they can shine and teachers really notice. Students too. The school truly believes in fostering a love of learning and I know that despite the heavy courseload that teachers were always available and it was never looked down upon/made fun of to enjoy reading a book. (Or doing a math problem)

College Counseling

Because of the closeknit connections between faculty and students, my recommendations from Andover absolutely aided....

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

You had to take the SSAT, the Admissions interview was AWESOME--very informal and yet obvious....

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

Dorms were incredible and warm and supportive with great house counselors, the school food could get monotonous but the dining hall recently underwent a major renovation since I graduated...they have brick oven pizza! Facilities are equitable to many colleges, if not universities. There is no crime in Andover, which can be a very boring suburban atmosphere because it is really insular and not diverse. The student body is ethnically and racially diverse but what is REALLY impressive-and i think rare-is the socioeconomic diversity Many students on scholarship. Andover has a ton of traditions that deal with the rivalry with Exeter....

Popular Comparisons