Yesterday's mail

With online applications downloaded every minute and supporting materials coming in by post, the staff in the Shuman Admission Center is working overtime to create applications for members of the admission committee to read. It is not easy to work through the piles of mail in such a short period of time. The Andover Admission Team accomplishes this task with attention to detail, patience, and humor. With their tremendous effort, the 2012 selection process is officially launched!

One of our hard-working staff members creating files

Please do not worry about the status of your application in the near term. It takes the staff time to process all of the information. Once we work through the many application pieces, we will send emails to all candidates whose files are incomplete. You will have a chance at that point to send us the missing piece(s) of your file. We are as eager as you are to complete your file!

Please follow me on Twitter @jfoleyfried for updates on the selection process.

Cheers,
Jane

We often field questions about new student transition – how we, as an institution, help students adapt to our unique boarding and academic environment. The structures in place are numerous and oft-described in our publications and on our website. Orientation Weekend welcomes new students with activities, music, food, and fun. New students pair with senior Blue Key leaders who volunteer as student mentors and maintain close relationships throughout the year. House counselors and student resident assistants (called prefects and proctors) serve as resources in our dormitories. Academic advisors guide students through course selection and toward academic resources. Classroom teachers encourage student interaction during regular conference periods. Teachers double as coaches, advisors, and mentors outside the classroom, as well. Ours is a true living-learning community, with more than 95 percent of our faculty living on campus and an open line of communication among students, parents, faculty, and administrators.

Transition applies to parents as well as students. Communication is key, not only during your child’s time at Andover, but also during your school search, as you consider issues such as the aforementioned notion of fit. Campus visits and admission receptions provide a wealth of information, but consider the fact that Andover parents offer a truly unique, firsthand perspective, especially for families who live in areas where boarding school is not the norm. Our Parent Network consists of parents of students, whether currently enrolled or recently graduated, who invite you to contact them directly with questions about the Andover experience.

The letters (below) from Parent Network volunteers Nobu ’78 and Marcia Ishizuka and Cathy Lamb offer advice, encouragement, and an invitation to tap into the Parent Network as you continue to consider schools. These letters exemplify the type of feedback you can expect from Parent Network volunteers.

Letter from Nobu ’78 and Marcia Ishizuka, P ’08, ’11

Letter from Cathy Lamb P’12

As Cathy writes, “Attending Andover is not always easy, but it is life-changing and stimulating. The incredible experience of being a part of Big Blue will never, ever leave your child.”

Good luck, and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!

Andover students left on winter break on Friday, December 9, and they don’t come back to campus until Tuesday, January 3. One of the nicest things about boarding school is the really long school vacations! Our faculty don’t assign work over the break, so our students can all go home and really be home, spend quality time with their friends and families, and rest after a long fall trimester of hard work.

I know that many of our seniors are using this winter break to work on their college applications. Similarly, I know that you—our prospective students—are busily working on your applications to Andover! I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you some advice on how to approach the essay section of our application:

A: Answer the question!

As you can see from the Andover application online, we have six essay questions from which to choose. Please answer the question that resonates with you the most. Students with a strong interest in creative writing, for instance, might choose Essay B – “Write a children’s story with you as the main character.” On the other hand, students with a strong interest in science might choose Essay F and design a personalized, one-year research project. No matter which option you select, please make sure your response actually answers the question without straying too far off topic.

N: Narrow your focus!

You don’t have to tell your life story, or mention all of your extracurricular achievements (which are listed elsewhere in the application anyway). Some of the best essays I’ve read have focused on one specific topic. One of the most memorable came from a young man who wrote about his size-14 sneakers! Consider your essay to be just a snapshot of a moment or aspect of your life, not an entire photo album.

D: Do it yourself!

Just as you shouldn’t help your parent(s) fill out the Parent Statement part of the application, your parent(s) shouldn’t help you with your short answers and essay. Nor should anybody else! We want your essay to be your work and your work only. We also advise against relying heavily on a thesaurus. First, a thesaurus might give you a word that doesn’t actually mean what you want to say. And second, we want to hear your voice, not Roget’s.

Mrs. Kristen Jurgens, now a college counselor at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, CA, was once senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Tufts University. She was actually the admission officer who admitted me to Tufts. I remember her saying, “Your essay should be so personal that your best friend couldn’t write it.” I applied to Tufts back in the mid 1990s and have never forgotten that piece of advice.

O: Organize your ideas!

While it is absolutely not necessary to follow the standard five-paragraph essay format, it is a good idea to organize your thoughts and make sure your essay flows naturally. Some things to think about: an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention, transition words between sentences and paragraphs, and a solid conclusion that wraps up your thoughts.

V: Visualize the reader!

While all of us here in the Andover admission office love our jobs, we do have to read a lot in a relatively short period of time (more than 3,000 applications in only six weeks). We read them in the morning and we read them at night. We read them in the midst of the cold, dark New England winter. As with any piece of writing, you should “know your audience.” Please try your best to adhere to the stated word limits. Good writing is concise, not flowery or overly wordy. Please also remember that slang words or text-speak (e.g., LOL, BFF, etc.) is not appropriate in this kind of writing for this particular audience.

E: Edit, edit, edit!

Please take the time to proofread your essay for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If you are applying to multiple schools, please make sure that you are submitting the right essay to the right school. Ending your essay with “…and that is why I want to go to Valenzuela Academy.” is fine if you’re sending it to Valenzuela Academy, but not to Andover!

R: Read it out loud!

The application essay is the only part of the application—besides the interview—where we as admission officers get to “hear” your voice. Obviously the admission committee will look at your grades from school and your standardized testing, and read your teachers’ and mentors’ recommendation forms. But YOUR voice is very important. We want to get to know the real you. By reading your essay out loud, you can figure whether or not your essay sounds like you. A well-written essay should sound like the way you speak, as if you were telling us a true story about yourself. Reading it out loud can also help you find any awkwardly written phrases or run-on sentences, or anything else you might want to change before submitting your essay.

And there you have it—my advice on how to write your application essay. Answer the question, narrow your focus, do it yourself, organize your ideas, visualize the reader, edit, and read it out loud! Dean Fried shared her own “personal statement” and words of wisdom about writing the essay in a blog entry from last year.

On behalf of Dean Fried and all the members of the admission committee, we look forward to reading your applications this winter. Thank you for your interest in Andover, and best wishes for a happy holiday season!

I am regularly asked, “How much information is too much information in an application?” This is a good question, because it is true that a student or family can, in fact, submit too much information for the file. It is important to keep in mind that the application should be an honest reflection of who you are as a person and the interests you have developed to date. All middle- and high-school students are “works in progress.” There is no expectation that you will be perfect or that you will have one area of highly specialized talent by the time you apply. Some of our admitted students have “pointy” profiles that demonstrate specialization, while others are “well rounded.”  We need both profiles to make the Andover community work!

Given our move to an environmentally sustainable online application, we cannot accept hard copy papers, folders, or portfolios. You should not bring this type of information to the interview with the expectation of leaving it with your interviewer, nor should you mail (or e-mail!) this kind of information to the office with the expectation that it will be included in your file. With more than 3,000 applicants, we simply do not have the office space to process and include this information in your file. While this may be disappointing to some of you, please be reassured that the admission committee is much more interested in your recent achievements and experiences than those from your earlier years in school. Moreover, we have no need to see your certificates/medals/letters of achievement. It is best to describe them in the achievements/extracurriculars section of the Gateway to Prep Schools application.

Is it advisable to bring extra information with you to the interview? There is no one answer to this question. I encourage you to think about how you can best engage in a conversation with your interviewer. In my opinion, reviewing information that the admission committee will read in your application, unless it is highly unusual, is not the best use of this time. Looking down at a series of transcripts or certificates does not give me a sense of the person sitting across from me. I watch for facial expressions—which often communicate more than words—and the way a student might shift in his/her chair when I hit upon a topic that is exciting to him/her. In most cases, all you need in the interview setting is you. I have had rap-loving students who freestyled responses to my interview questions. I once had a girl dance an Irish jig right in front of me! I have watched students break out in tears out of nervousness, or when sharing of the loss of a loved one. (A hot cup of tea can set these situations right.) All of the above are fine, as is staying in your chair and having a straightforward chat about the things that are interesting to you, including Andover.

If you are a very talented artist, the one thing that you can bring to the interview would be a portfolio of your work. Painters, sculptors, and photographers explaining the inspiration behind various pieces of work have mesmerized me.

Once the information is submitted, students sometimes feel that they must upload artwork, or an athletic or music performance to the online application. You are invited to include this additional information to your file only if you have a serious interest in that particular area and you intend to continue this interest at Andover. We do not expect that every applicant will have experience/talent in any one of these areas. Uploading information that does not demonstrate a real commitment will not improve your chances of admission. Again, we do not expect that middle- and high-school students will have identified a particular passion in advance of attending Andover. In fact, this may be one of the reasons for your search for a new learning community.

Additional letters of recommendation beyond the current English and math teachers’ recommendations and one personal recommendation are also not necessary.  Are there any occasions when they are helpful?  In cases where the student has moved recently, or has a very unusual story, one or two extra recommendations may be appropriate. However, additional recommendations should be kept to a minimum, AND sent only if the recommender knows the candidate well.

When in doubt, think about the admission reader. How will that person feel when pressed for time if he/she is asked to read a lot of extra application materials? Make sure additional pieces of the application are necessary and will work in your favor.

Good luck!

If you would like to schedule an on-campus tour and interview, please call our office at (978) 749-4050. Students who cannot make a campus visit can interview locally with an Alumni Admission Representative.

While a visit to campus is a great way to learn about a school, it is not always feasible. With limited time and resources, prospective families can take advantage of websites, publications, and local presentations by admission staff to help educate themselves about the vast array of schools and narrow their list of schools to consider.

If you are selected for admission to Andover or another school, take a moment to congratulate yourself for a job well done. Do not forget to write thank-you notes to those who have helped you along the way. No one is accepted by his or her effort alone. Every student admitted to Andover has at least one adult who has encouraged and guided him or her. These are important people to thank and hold onto as you continue your life journey. Parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, family members, and neighbors play a role in your success. Take a moment to say thank you.

Sharing the news with friends is a little more challenging. First, your good news may signal leaving your home, friends, and community—perhaps the same people who helped you gain acceptance. Be thoughtful about how, when, and where you share your news. It may be best to wait to be asked. Special care is necessary if other members of your school community have also applied. Jumping for joy and screaming with delight is best done at home. This is one of the reasons that we mail our decisions. Our intent is to avoid having students look up their decisions online at school and run through the halls sharing their news.

Think about this: how would you feel about a student sharing his/her good news if you had received a waitlist or deny letter? Humility and graciousness are the most important qualities to model if you have been admitted to Andover or some other wonderful place. There will be ample time to celebrate later.

We are sorry to mail disappointing news to so many wonderful young people. We realize that for some of you this may be the first disappointment of your young lives. We also know that you and your parents may not be fully prepared for less than positive news.

We live in a culture that does not readily present opportunities for disappointment. Failure is too often perceived to be an experience to be avoided at all costs. But is it better not to try than to be disappointed? And is one person’s success another’s failure? Is not being admitted to a secondary school a failure?

Each year my heart breaks when parents call the office to find out what their children did wrong in an unsuccessful attempt for admission. In the vast majority of cases, the child has not done anything wrong. The committee chose students who were perceived to be better matches for Andover’s program. The students who are not admitted will go on to be successful at secondary schools all over the world. Success does not begin at Andover, and it does not end with a waitlist or deny letter. My advice to parents and students is as follows:

Parents can be good models of resilience and reason. Please give the advice that every person needs after receiving disappointing news. When one door closes, another opens. This may sound trite, but we all know it is true. If you or your child dwells on the closed door, your child will never walk through the open door. School matches are made by the admission staff and the family. Do not waste time thinking about what could have been. Get excited about what is.

Students: in addition to feeling disappointed for a certain period of time, consider this experience one that will prepare you for the future. It may be helpful to think about what you may have learned through the process. Has applying to Andover taught you something about yourself as a person? As a student? Will it help you in future application processes? Is this an opportunity to show that you can bounce back from disappointment, which is a key life skill? Were you admitted to another school? Is there a chance that the other school may be a better match for you?

Recognizing that this may be your first disappointment, I surveyed my admission colleagues. The following is some of their collective wisdom:

Bill Leahy, Director of Admission:

“Don’t let the decisions of others define you. Rather, be defined by your own decisions.”

Jim Ventre ’79, Director of Financial Aid and Admission Operations:

“In my own personal life, I have always used these moments of disappointment as a motivating force to pursue another direction.”

Vivien Valenzuela Mallick, Senior Associate Dean of Admission:

“I didn’t have the opportunity to attend a private high school or an Ivy League university, and I have no regrets about that. To me, the name of the institution isn’t what matters. It’s what you do when you’re there. I made the most of my four years in public high school and I absolutely loved my college experience. I really wouldn’t have it any other way. At the end of the day, I don’t dwell about life’s disappointments. I try to remember what’s good and what’s important about my life. I am a happy, confident, hard-working, and kind person, a good wife and mother, and a good friend.”

Lisa Joel, Associate Dean of Admission:

“When I coach the girls’ varsity soccer team, I am certain my team grows the most—as a group and as individuals—not from our wins but from our losses. A loss on the soccer field gives us an opportunity to look at what we could have done better, a reminder that in life things don’t always go your way, and a reality check that there are a lot of great players and teams, just like us, out there too. It can be the case that you can prepare very well, play your hardest (maybe even play your best), and still not win. We might ask, didn’t we deserve to win? We trained so hard….we were the better team…we did everything we could. And still we might have to deal with an outcome that disappoints. I tell my team that we learn the most about our character by how we respond in this moment. We can be angry or sad; we can point fingers and assign blame. Or we can boldly accept an outcome as part of the game, show up the next day to practice, put our best foot forward, look ahead and not back—ready for the next challenge and willing to go for it all over again.”

Jill Thompson, Associate Dean of Admission:

“If the outcome of your application to Andover is not as you would have liked it to be, think about how much more prepared you will be to apply for college now that you’ve gone through this exercise. Writing about yourself and your accomplishments does not usually come naturally to many students in today’s society, so having completed an application to Andover will serve you well down the road when you embark on the college search process. You’ll be that much more prepared to articulate what you want colleges to know about you having had practice as a high school student.”

José Powell ’91, Assistant Dean of Admission and Director of Student of Color Recruitment:

“I often say to parents that a negative decision is not an indictment on the child’s humanity, while an admission decision is not an anointing, nor is it a guarantee of perfection. We are not rejecting a person or a human being. Every year, the applicant pool is different. The needs and interests of the institution change from year to year. It is those needs that guide our decision making.”

Angie Francisco Flygh ’97, Assistant Dean of Admission

“To paraphrase something I read in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago: you can choose how you think about and react to disappointment in one of two ways. One way can lead you to bitterness, and the other can lead to wisdom and growth.”

Kevin Graber, Assistant Dean of Admission:

“The application process is a learning experience in and of itself. Even if you’re not offered admission, the process of putting your best foot forward academically and presenting yourself to an admission committee is valuable.”

Marisa Zepeda, Assistant Dean of Admission:

“Whenever I face disappointment, I think about how everything happens for a reason. When I look back at past rejection, I realize that I am a better person for having gone through it.”

Julie Wadland ’06, Admission Counselor

“There is so much in the application process that’s beyond your control, but you can always control your effort and work ethic. As disappointing as it may be to receive a decision letter you aren’t hoping for, take comfort in the hard work and preparation you put into the application process. You did your job, and you did it well. The most important part of facing disappointment? Standing taller than you did before. When I was playing lacrosse at Dartmouth, there were victories, but there were also disappointments. I had to rebound from the trying times, and the quicker the better—not necessarily because I wanted to, but because 26 teammates counted on me to help move the team forward. In this case, YOU are my 26 other teammates. Your future and goals depend on your ability to persevere.”

I hope this advice from Andover’s admission counselors is helpful to you as you look forward to next year.

Thank you for sharing your stories with us. We enjoyed getting to know you. If you receive an admit letter from Andover, we look forward to seeing you at the Spring Visit Program and/or hearing from you during the March 15 simulcast, about which you will receive information in the near future. If your path leads you to another school, we will delight in hearing about your successes from afar and will know that our loss is the gain of another school community.

Take care,
Mrs. Fried

As applicants, you most likely will not have an opportunity to meet them, but please know that they play an integral role in the admission process. They make it possible for us to read applications from all over the world! Thank you, Shuman Team!

So when I think of a theme song for this part of the admission season, I am reminded of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by the fabulous Marvin Gaye.  It is a classic and well worth a listen. Really, no matter what kind of music you favor, you will enjoy this song.

Please read last year’s blog entry, The Beehive, for more inside information about this part of the admission season.

Instead I try and encourage family members and students to “do that thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt coined this phrase and I have adopted it as my guide. Fear of the unknown or fear of failure can be paralyzing, especially in today’s world where we have grown unaccustomed to disappointment and risk-taking. In my experience, the feeling that I may not succeed in an endeavor grabs my attention and interest like little else. I try to organize my life in a way that I regularly experience the need to sharpen my pencil or senses, as the case may be, and strike out on a new adventure. Recruiting students in a new area, developing a new program in the school community or in the admission arena, or taking on a novel personal challenge are all examples of endeavors that pique my interest and test my skills.

This year I have focused on more personal challenges. Just before vacation, I adopted a rescued dog from Tennessee through an organization called Critter Calvary. My family and I love dogs and have raised three golden retrievers from puppyhood to old age.  In October we had to put down our 14-year-old beloved dog, Clark. His buddy, Lewis, (yes, Lewis and Clark, the explorers) was very sad without him. We, therefore, adopted Strider, a very skinny chocolate lab who was found roaming in a rural area outside of Nashville. We picked up Strider on December 18 and are working tirelessly to help him grow comfortable in a house, on a leash, and in a car. It is a new experience adopting an older dog who has a lot to learn about family living. However, he is smart and eager to learn, and we are learning from him each and every day. Sometimes harder is better. I love the challenge.

Later on this summer, I intend to face a long-held fear of the ocean. I am not sure where it originated, but my sense is that it developed, in part, from a misadventure on a small sailboat off the coast of Monomoy Island when I was a child. As the boat began to sail away and I tried to pull myself aboard, I kept slipping back into the water.  I panicked and felt myself losing control. Eventually I succeeded, but that fear of dark water still lives with me. The movie JAWS did nothing to lessen my anxiety. Finally this summer, I am going to face my fear by participating in a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) sea kayaking trip to Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska. Although I will be nervous and will be one of the least skilled paddlers on the trip, I look forward to learning from my NOLS friends, developing a new skill set, and gaining comfort in an environment that will foster strength and confidence. What fear will you face this year? Confidence comes from achieving a goal you believe to be beyond your reach. Reach out. Grab hold. Have fun. Learn and live.

You may wonder why I choose to share such personal information. Consider this my personal essay to you as you, in turn, write your personal statement for Andover. So often applicants and their parents feel that to put one’s best foot forward in the admission process, one has to show a “picture perfect” persona – no weaknesses, a well-laid-out plan from high school to college and beyond, no risk. We read a wealth of these essays. While impressive, they rarely tell us who the student actually is and what makes him or her tick. Andover is a community that encourages students to step outside of their collective comfort zone. In your statement to the Andover admission committee, show us how you will manage the challenges offered by this new community.  How do you handle your fears and disappointments? It is okay – we know you have them.  Tell us or, as demonstrated above, show us.

Tick-tock, the admission clock is running. Enjoy these final days of the admission process. January 15 is the application deadline for day students; February 1 for boarders. Applying online assures your materials will “arrive” on time. Your recommendations and school report, which are mailed directly to us, will be entered into our system as they arrive. We receive and process a high volume of mail during a short period of time, so be patient as our staff makes its way through the buckets of mail.

We sincerely appreciate your interest in Andover and look forward to getting to know more about you.

p.s. To help you complete your application, please remember to:

1. Submit your Candidate Profile, Part 1 of the Application, as soon as possible. Once submitted, you will be able to begin working on the Candidate Short Answers and Essay section as well as the Parent Statement in Part 2 of the application.

2. After submitting your Candidate Profile, you will receive instructions on how to access your “MyAndover” account, which allows you to track which documents have been received and which documents are still outstanding.

3. If you have not yet scheduled your admission interview, please do so by contacting one of our more than 500 Alumni Admission Representatives worldwide.

4. You can download and print the School Report and Teacher Recommendation forms from our website.

Have you ever watched a movie with a group of middle- or high school students and listened to some of them ask questions about the plot every few minutes? Why do some of them watch in silence while others need constant clarification? The answer is simple: some are readers and some are not. Beyond developing vocabulary, reading teaches students to follow a story as it develops. They learn the patience to wait until the plot reveals itself. They understand themes and characters. They understand ambiguity.

They also learn about the world. They learn about people, places, cultures, religion, tragedy, and hope. Reading about inspiring people helps them to find the inspiration in their own lives. Reading expands one’s understanding of the world, of one’s family, and of one’s life. It gives students ideas about how others live and helps them think about what their lives can be.

After years of interviewing, I can tell if a student is a reader without asking. They live in a big world and they have ideas that non-readers have yet to consider. They also tend to like language and use it.

The best part is that reading is free, and one can start at any time.

I often am asked how to inspire students to read. The key, in my mind, is to make reading a personal experience. Making one’s way through “the great books” is not the goal. A sophisticated taste takes time to develop. To begin, I encourage students to read whatever they want. Find books about the things the student likes to do or wants to learn more about, and always have more on hand than he can read. Why? Because if one does not catch his fancy, perhaps the other one will. Look to ignite the interest in reading. Depending on the child, it may require more than a few matches or even bonfires. But do not give up.

Make the reading process special. When my children were young, I made it a privilege. Bedtime was 8:00 p.m. But, I told them, “If you want to read, you can stay up until 8:30 p.m.” As they got older, I let them stay up as long as they wanted to, as long as they were reading. Head lamps work well, too. Yes, you read that correctly. Hiking/camping head lamps are an excellent way to make reading fun and special. They are great for night reading on car trips too.

Finally, give kids time to read. When children are scheduled every minute of the day, it is hard to find energy and quiet space to read. Think about moments in the daily schedule other than at bedtime that students can relax with a good book.

E-readers are wonderful tools. I use two different ones; both are effective. They allow students to keep their books with them at all times, to organize their notes and highlight favorite quotes. This is a nice treat for those voracious readers like my daughter who like to reread books or passages. However, the free aspect of the community library cannot be beat.

So, in this holiday season when we are being bombarded with advertisements for the latest gadgets, don’t forget the best gift of all – a book inscribed with a note from parent to child.

I encourage you to leave a comment below with names of books you have enjoyed. Perhaps our list will offer some good ideas for new readers. After recently losing my beloved 14-year-old golden retriever, Clark, I have enjoyed reading the following two books. Both are good reads for animal lovers:

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

For students interested in history, I just finished and highly recommend Nathaniel Philbrick’s The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I also enjoyed The Lady and the Panda by Vicki Constantine Croke.

Happy Holidays.