Andover v. Exeter
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Anonymous
| DD received admissions from PA and PEA. Visited both for interviews but couldn't tell which one is an obvious choice. PEA is all Harkness and appears to be stronger in STEM. Any insights as to the pros and cons of these two? |
Anonymous
| Exeter is more highly regarded than Andover, academically, at least, but both are solid schools. |
Anonymous
| Exeter seems more academic focused, Andover seems more all-arounder (if that makes sense). DD goes to Andover. Good to great sports teams, nice kids, academics will be as hard as you want to make them. College+ equivalent in STEM subjects and many students choose to continue beyond the 500 level (AP level) into 600 level (college equivalent of sophomore year). Either choice is excellent. If going to a revisit day at Andover, highly recommend not a Friday if offered. |
Anonymous
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They're equally outstanding and I doubt anyone can say that one school is more highly regarded or academic focused than the other.
Would suggest visiting both schools during revisit day and decided which one your DD likes the best. |
Anonymous
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I also got into both. Congrats to your daughter!
I chose Andover in part because of its location. Exeter is very isolated. However, you can’t go wrong with either. It isn’t true that Exeter is stronger than Andover in STEM or academics in general. |
Anonymous
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Does your kid like Harkness? Exeter uses Harkness for every class, which is actually very exhausting. Their math courses are entirely problem-based and don't have formal instruction. Exeter is good for self-directed learners, and there's an expectation kids do a lot of self-teaching. This can be very frustrating for students.
Andover has Harkness for humanities but more traditional instruction for STEM, which makes things a little less intense. However, both schools give tons of work and are stressful. Both of these are great options for independent teenagers that want a very rigorous high school experience. They are both bad choices if your kid needs a lot of hand-holding. They're notorious for being "sink or swim" boarding schools. |
Anonymous
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Congrats to your daughter! She must be a very accomplished young lady.
May I ask what profile of child gets into these schools? With the volume of applicants they receive , it can't just be grades and SSAT scores alone, since I am sure they have more applicants with perfect GPAs and test scores than they have space for ... but then being high schools, I am not sure what type of extra curriculars, other than sports, a child can stand out with at 13. Just genuinely curious as to what it takes for someone to be accepted into both super selective schools. |
Anonymous
Disclaimer: this was 20 years ago. I got into 8 NE boarding schools, including Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Choate, etc. I was a typical Jewish girl from NY. I had straight As from a strong public school. I think what made me stand out was how passionate I was about school and how self-motivated I was about going to boarding school. I talked about my love for early American history, how I memorized the Declaration of Independence in 3rd grade, etc. I didn’t have unusual extracurriculars or anything. I played cello in county orchestra and took piano lessons. |
Anonymous
OP here, thanks! Can you please elaborate on the location aspect. I also heard people saying Andover is better location wise. But do Andover students really go out to the city that often? Or you are saying because it's close to Boston ppl get additional opportunities?
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Anonymous
Thank you. I think maybe it's the combination of a lot of things. GPA and SSAT are important but there are many many students out there having similar or better numbers. I think it's more important to put everything together into a coherent theme that truly reflects that a student is passionate about what she has been doing. And because of that, everyone's story is unique. Also both PA and PEA emphasize "non sibi," which I personally think it's very necessary for the schools to keep such a large number of smart and ambitious kids together.
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Anonymous
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These two schools are more alike than they are different. Both offer outstanding education. The only way to distinguish how a specific student will fare at each is to attend the revisits.
As for locations, the best boarding schools are campus focused. So whether you are 45 minutes or 2 hrs from a city does not really matter, if you are doing it right. |
Anonymous
I went to Andover many years ago, and yes, we went into Boston for the day. Not every weekend, but maybe once a month for those that enjoyed it - we could take the train or the bus and hang out in the city (or Cambridge), and as we got older, visit friends who were in college there. I dont think this is a huge differentiator, but i was a city kid and I definitely enjoyed getting off campus. |
Anonymous
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Exeter alum here. I probably only made it into Boston once every 4-5 months when I attended. In part, that was because we often had a half day of classes on Saturdays, so by the time you finished classes and ate lunch, you still had a 75 minute one-way bus trip down to Boston. And unless you had permission to stay overnight w/ family, you still had to get back in time for check in that evening.
Of course, this is also assuming that you're not doing a sport that has a meet against some other school on that Saturday afternoon. If you did, that pretty much ruled out your being able to go into Boston on that particular weekend. Finally, keep in mind the immense amount of homework that Andover/Exeter hands out. Yes, your DC could take a break every now and again and visit Boston. But they may find that more often than not, they'll be staying on campus. I will add that one of my classmates went down most weekends to Boston, but that was because he was also the first chair violin w/ the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and was going down there to practice w/ the orchestra, not sightseeing. |
Anonymous
| Also let's remember these are high school kids. It's nice that they can take a break and go to a city from time to time but isn't it enough that they have a pretty bustling town at their disposal? I am a PEA (Exeter) alum and I was pretty happy with walking to Dunkin Donuts (probably Starbucks now) or the local deli and theater. I didn't have a ton of free time as the PP mentioned so it didn't matter anyway. Remember there's a lot going on on campus too for 14-17 year olds. If you want your kid to have access to city stuff, these NE boarding schools are probably not what you're looking for. |
Anonymous
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PP, glad to report Dunkin is still there. RIP, IOKA and Billingsgate, you are missed.
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