Phillips Academy

Not to be confused with Phillips Exeter Academy.
Phillips Academy Andover

Non Sibi
(Not for Oneself)
Finis Origine Pendet
(The End Depends Upon the Beginning)
Location
Andover, Massachusetts
United States
Information
Type Independent, College-prep, Day & Boarding
Established 1778
1973 – merged with Abbot Academy
CEEB Code 220030
Head of school John Palfrey
Faculty 222
Grades 9–12
Gender Coeducational
Enrollment 1,122 total
831 boarding
291 day (2015-2016[1])
Average class size 13 students
Student to teacher ratio 5:1
Campus Suburban, 500 acres (2 km2)
Color(s) Blue and white
Athletics 30 sports
Athletics conference NEPSAC
Team name Big Blue
Rival Phillips Exeter Academy
Average SAT scores (2015) 2112[1]
Endowment Increase US$1 Billion (November 2014)[2]
Tuition $48,850 boarding
$38,000 day
Website www.andover.edu

Phillips Academy Andover (also known as Phillips Academy, Andover, or PA) is a highly selective, co-educational preparatory high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate (PG) year. The school is located in Andover, Massachusetts, United States, 25 miles north of Boston. The school has 1,122 students,[3][4] and is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization.

Overview

Phillips Academy Andover is the oldest incorporated high school in the United States,[5] established in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, by Samuel Phillips, Jr. Phillips's uncle founded Phillips Exeter Academy three years later. Phillips Academy's endowment stood around $800 million in June 2011, the fourth-highest of any American secondary school. Andover is subject to the control of a board of trustees, headed by Peter Currie, business executive and former Netscape Chief Financial Officer, who took over as president of the Phillips Academy Board of Trustees on July 1, 2012.[6][7] On November 14, 2012, John G. Palfrey, Jr., Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, was named the 15th Head of School.[8]

A view of Samuel Phillips Hall and the Bicentennial Statue

Phillips Academy admitted only boys until the school became coeducational in 1973, the year of Phillips Academy's merger with Abbot Academy, a boarding school for girls also in Andover. Abbot Academy, founded in 1828,[9] was the first incorporated school for girls in New England. Then-headmaster Theodore Sizer oversaw the merger.

Andover traditionally educated its students for Yale, just as Phillips Exeter Academy educated its students for Harvard, and Lawrenceville prepped students for Princeton.[10]

The school's student-run newspaper, The Phillipian,[11] is the second oldest secondary school newspaper in the United States, the oldest secondary school newspaper being The Exonian, Phillips Exeter Academy's weekly.[12] The Phillipian was first published on July 28, 1857 has been published regularly since 1878. It retains financial and editorial independence from Phillips Academy, having completed a $500,000 endowment drive in 2014. Students comprise the editorial board and make all decisions for the paper, consulting with two faculty advisors at their own discretion.[13] The Philomathean Society is the oldest high school debate society in the nation, established in 1825.

Phillips Academy also runs a five-week summer session for approximately 600 students entering grades 8 through 12.

History

Student body, Phillips Andover, 1910

Phillips Academy was founded during the American Revolution as an all-boys school in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr.

Phillips Academy's traditional rival is Phillips Exeter Academy, which was established three years later in Exeter, New Hampshire, by Samuel Phillips' uncle, Dr. John Phillips. The two schools still maintain a rivalry. The football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making it the oldest high school rivalry in the country. In 1882, the first high school lacrosse teams were formed at Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy and the Lawrenceville School.

Several figures from the revolutionary period are associated with the school. George Washington spoke at the school in its first year, and Washington's nephews later attended the school. John Hancock signed the school's articles of incorporation. The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere.

For a hundred years of its history, Phillips Academy shared its campus with the Andover Theological Seminary, which was founded on Phillips Hill in 1807 by orthodox Calvinists who had fled Harvard College after it appointed a liberal Unitarian theologian to a professorship of divinity. The Andover Theological Seminary was independent from Phillips Academy but shared the same board of directors. In 1908, the seminary departed Phillips Academy, leaving behind its key buildings: academic building Pearson Hall (formerly a chapel), and dormitories Foxcroft Hall and Bartlet Hall.[14] These buildings later became part of the Andover campus, which was expanded in the 1920s and 1930s around this historic core with new buildings of similar Georgian style: Samuel Phillips Hall, George Washington Hall, Samuel Morse Hall, Paul Revere Hall, Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Commons, the Addison Gallery of American Art and Cochran Chapel.[15] Small portions of Andover's campus were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and himself a graduate of the school.[16]

Revere's design of the school's seal incorporated bees, a beehive, and the sun. The school's primary motto, Non Sibi, located in the sun, means "not for oneself". The school's second motto, Finis Origine Pendet, meaning "the end depends upon the beginning", is scrolled across the bottom of the seal.[17]

Phillips was one of the schools where students on the Chinese Educational Mission were sent to study by the Qing dynasty government from 1878 to 1881. One of the students, Liang Cheng, later became the Chinese ambassador to the United States.[18]

Phillips Academy curriculum and extracurricular activities include music ensembles, 30 competitive sports, a campus newspaper, a radio station, and a debate club. In 1973 Phillips Academy merged with neighboring Abbot Academy, which was founded in 1829 as one of the first schools for girls in New England and named for Sarah Abbot.[19] After existing at Phillips Academy almost since its inception, secret societies were officially disbanded in 1949. Despite this, at least one secret society continues to exist.[20]

Phillips Academy is one of only a few private high schools (others include Roxbury Latin and St. Andrew's School) in the United States that attained need-blind admissions in 2007 and 2008, and it has continued this policy through the present.[21] In 2013 it received 3,029 applications and accepted 13%, a record low acceptance rate for the school. 79% of those accepted went on to matriculate at the Academy.[22]

Academics

Phillips Academy follows a trimester program, where a school year is divided into three terms, with each term lasting approximately 10 weeks. Classes are held from Monday to Friday, with the first period of the day beginning at 8:00 am and the last period ending at 2:45 pm. On Wednesdays, classes end early at 1:00 pm in order to provide more time for athletics, clubs, and community service.[23]

Many courses are year-long, while others last only one to two terms. Most students take five courses each trimester. Four-year students at Phillips Academy are required to take courses in English, foreign language, mathematics (through calculus), history and social science, laboratory science, art, music, philosophy and religious studies, and physical education.[24] Students may also choose to pursue an independent research program in a topic of choice under the guidance of faculty members if there are no more courses suitable for them in one or more disciplines.

Andover does not rank students, and rather than a four-point GPA scale, Phillips Academy calculates GPA using a six-point system. The Office of the Dean of Studies claims that there is no formal equivalent between the zero-to-six system and a conventional letter-grade system. However, a six is considered outstanding and is (theoretically) rarely awarded, a five is the lowest honors grade, and a two is the lowest passing grade.[25] Grades earned in classes are sometimes weighted at the discretion of the instructor, and the school provides no uniform scale for converting percent scores into grades on the six-point scale.

Facilities

Academic facilities

Student facilities

Western dormitory quadrangle ("West Quad").

The school also has dormitories to house the roughly 800 students that board. These buildings range in size from housing as few as four to as many as 40 students. Two notable dorms are America House, where the song America was penned,[29] and Stowe House, where American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) lived while her husband taught at the Andover Theological Seminary.[29] Stowe is also buried on campus in a cemetery behind Samuel Phillips Hall.[30] None of the original buildings remain; the oldest dorm is Blanchard House, built in 1789. Several dorms are named after prominent alumni, such as Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War during World War II, and men instrumental in the founding of the Academy, such as Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. Shortly before his death in 1799, President George Washington delivered a speech from a second-floor window in Carriage House, now a dorm, to the citizens of Andover. Also located on campus is The Andover Inn. Built in 1930, The Andover Inn is a New England country inn with 30 rooms and meeting space.

Museums

Winslow Homer's Eight Bells, part of the Addison Gallery's Permanent Collection

The Addison Gallery of American Art is an art museum given to the school by alumnus Thomas Cochran. Its permanent collection includes Winslow Homer's Eight Bells, along with work by John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Thomas Eakins, James McNeill Whistler, Frederic Remington, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, and Andrew Wyeth. The museum also features collections in American photography and decorative arts, with silver and furniture dating back to precolonial America, and a collection of colonial model ships. A rotating schedule of exhibitions is open to students and the public alike. In the spring of 2006, the Phillips Academy Board of Trustees approved a $30-million campaign to renovate and expand the Addison Gallery.[31] Construction on the Addison began in the middle of 2008 and, as of September 7, 2010, is complete, and the museum is once again open to the Phillips Academy community and the broader community of the town of Andover.[32]

The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology was founded in 1901 and is now "one of the nation's major repositories of Native American archaeological collections".[33] The collection includes materials from the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mexico and the Arctic, and range from Paleo Indian (more than 10,000 years ago) to the present day. Since the early 1990s, the museum has been at the forefront of compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It currently serves as an educational museum for the students of Phillips Academy, but is also accessible to researchers, public schools, and visitors by appointment.

Athletics

History

An Andover crew races on the Merrimack River.

Athletic competition has long been a part of the Phillips Academy tradition. As early as 1805, football was being played on school grounds, according to a letter that Henry Pearson wrote his father, Eliphalet Pearson in 1805, saying, "I cannot write a long letter as I am very tired after having played at football all this afternoon."[34] The first ever interscholastic football game between high schools was in 1875, when Phillips Academy played against Adams Academy.[35] One of the oldest schoolboy rivalries in American football is the Andover/Exeter competition, started in 1878. That year, the first Andover/Exeter baseball game took place, and The Phillipian returned from hiatus, named its first Board and began publishing regularly.[36] Similar boarding school traditions include the Choate-Deerfield rivalry and Hotchkiss-Taft rivalry.

Today, Phillips Academy is an athletic powerhouse among New England private schools. Since the Constitution of the Phillips Academy Athletic Association was drawn up in 1903 with the objective of "Athletics for All,"[36] Andover has established 29 different interscholastic programs, and 44 intramural or instructional programs, including fencing, tai chi, figure skating, and yoga. Andover Athletes have been successful in winning over 110 New England Championships in these different sports over the last three decades alone, and have even had the chance to compete abroad, in such competitions as the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley, England, for crew.[37]

The athletic directors of Andover and the other members of the Eight Schools Association (ESA) compose the Eight Schools Athletic Council, which organizes sports events and tournaments among ESA schools.[38][39][40] Andover is also a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council. As a way to encourage all students to try new things and stay healthy, all students are required to have an athletic commitment each term. A range of instructional sports are available for those who wish to try new things, and for those already established in a sport, most teams have at least a varsity and junior varsity squad.

Sports

Many sports are offered:[41]

Fall athletic offerings

Winter athletic offerings

Spring athletic offerings

  • Track
  • Baseball
  • Softball
  • Crew
  • Cycling
  • Ultimate frisbee
  • Golf
  • Lacrosse
  • Tennis
  • Girls’ water polo
  • Boys’ volleyball
  • Dance (Ballet, Modern, Hip-Hop; Beg-Adv levels)
  • Fencing (instructional)
  • FIT (Fundamentals In Training)
  • Gunga FIT ('Extreme' version of FIT)
  • Pilates
  • Outdoor Pursuits (S&R)
  • Squash (instructional)
  • Swimming (instructional)
  • Tennis (intramural)
  • Yoga
  • Ultimate frisbee (intramural)

Affiliations

Andover is a member of the Eight Schools Association, begun informally in 1973–74 and formalized in 2006. Andover was host to the annual meeting of ESA in April 2008. It is also a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, founded in 1956. There is a seven-school overlap of membership between the two groups.[42] In addition, Andover is a member of the G20 Schools group, an international organization of independent secondary schools.

Alumni

Andover has educated two American presidents, six Medal of Honor recipients,[43] and many other notable people.

In popular culture

Andover, often linked with Exeter,[44] is often understood symbolically as an "elite New England prep school," connoting privilege. Writer William S. Dietrich II described Andover and other elite prep schools as being part of a "WASP ascendancy" during the first half of the twentieth century.[45] Elite universities such as Yale and Princeton tended to accept disproportionate percentages of prep school students while using quotas to deny admission to minority applicants.[45] An account in Time in 1931 described the two schools as having "flourished", and that both schools were "twin giants of prep schools in size and in prestige",[46] essentially feeder schools for Ivy League universities such as Harvard and Yale, according to Joseph Lieberman.[47] A cultural image from the 1960s was young men who had "perfect white teeth" and wore Lacoste shirts,[48] with a look easy to identify by young women at the time:

They can tell just by looking at him whether a boy goes to an Eastern prep school or not. Not only that, they can tell which prep school, usually St. Paul's or Hotchkiss or Groton or Exeter or Andover, or whatever; just by checking his hair and his clothes.
— Tom Wolfe in his book Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine[49]

The WASP ascendancy began to break down around the 1960s and onwards when the admissions policies of elite prep schools and universities began to emphasize merit rather than affluence.[45] Still, images of exclusivity based on unfairness tended to remain. Gore Vidal suggested that Andover and Exeter had a "style that was quite witty."[50] If the WASP ascendancy has waned, the image of unaffordability continues to persist, with one writer deploring how the schools cost $30,000 and more annually.[51] Recent reports from graduates, however, paint a picture of educational excellence and diversification. For example, Cristina Hartmann, who attended Andover from 2001-2003, described the school as having a need blind admissions policy.[52] She suggested the student body was mostly diversified, and that the school had dedicated buildings for specific subject areas, was challenging academically, and had flexible teachers and peers who were "smart and driven".[52] She elaborated that Andover provided two sign language interpreters, free of charge, to help her academically to cope with her deafness.[52] While the overall image may be changing to one which emphasizes greater diversity and respect for individual talent, the image of the school in the media continues to connote privilege, money, exclusivity, prestige, academic quality, and sometimes negatively connotes chumminess or clubbiness or arrogance. The school is often mentioned in books and movies and television shows such as the following:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "2015-2016 School Profile" (PDF). Phillips Academy Website. Phillips Academy. Retrieved July 2015.
  2. ↑ Boston Business Journal, November 24, 2014, , Accessed December 13, 2014
  3. ↑ "Fast Facts". Phillips Academy Website. Phillips Academy. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  4. ↑ Bernhard, Meg P. (December 13, 2013). "The Making of a Harvard Feeder School". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Phillips Academy (school, Andover, Massachusetts, United States) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Currie '74 Elected to Succeed Tang as Board President July 2012". Phillips Academy. February 15, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  7. ↑ "New members join Andover Board of Trustees". Phillips Academy. July 19, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ John Palfrey (October 1, 2010). "Solutions Beyond the Law". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2013. John Palfrey is the Henry N. Ess III professor of law at Harvard Law School ....
  9. ↑ "Abbot Academy". The Independent. July 6, 1914. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  10. ↑ The pattern of strongly favoring Yale began in the 1840s and continued through the 1940s. During those years, when the senior class numbered around forty, Andover graduates matriculated as follows: 1858 – 20 to Yale, 10 to Williams; 1863 – 21 to Yale, eight to Brown, five to Harvard; 1868 – 25 to Yale, 12 to Amherst, 12 to Harvard. The height of matriculation to Yale was 1937, when one freshman in ten at Yale was an Andover alumnus. That year, 74 percent of the class matriculated at Yale, Harvard, or Princeton. By 1957 only 47% matriculated at those institutions. Amherst consistently ranked third after Yale and Harvard for many years in this period, but declined after the 1940s when the school sought to admit more public school graduates. In 1950 for the first time in over a century, more graduates were admitted to Harvard than Yale (64 and 46, respectively) (See Youth From Every Quarter: A Bicentennial History of Phillips Academy, Andover, by Frederick S. Allis, Jr. (University Press of New England, 1978)).
  11. ↑ The Phillipian
  12. ↑ http://pdf.phillipian.net/1954/03111954.pdf
  13. ↑ ""
  14. ↑ "Andover Historic Preservation: National Register Properties". Mhl.org. January 6, 2010. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  15. ↑ Zorthian, Julia (May 21, 2009). "Andover Campus Evolves Over the Centuries, 1778 to Present". Phillipian.net. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Phillips Academy, Memorial Bell Tower Dismantled". Andover.edu. March 7, 2005. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Seal & Motto". Phillips Academy Andover Website. Phillips Academy. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  18. ↑ He, Amy (February 20, 2015). "Andover to deepen China ties". China Daily. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  19. ↑ "A singular school : Abbot Academy, 1828-1973". University Press of New England. 1979. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Secret Societies once Clubs, Now Underground. The Phillipian". Phillipian.net. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  21. ↑ "Financial Aid".
  22. ↑ Morris, Amy (April 18, 2013). "Historic admission rate yields exceptional 236th incoming class". Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  23. ↑ "Phillips Academy - Daily Class Schedule". Phillips Academy. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Phillips Academy Course of Study 2014-2015" (PDF). Phillips Academy Office of the Dean of Studies. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  25. ↑ "Phillips Academy School Profile 2013-2014" (PDF). Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Phillips Academy Andover, New Gelb Science Center". Rdkengineers.com. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  27. ↑ "About the Library, Director's Welcome Message". andover.edu. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  28. ↑ "Den at Paresky Commons named in honor of Susie Elson". Phillips Academy. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  29. 1 2 "Information about ''America'' and Stowe House". Icma.org. January 1, 1970. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  30. ↑ Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe at Find a Grave
  31. ↑ "Addison Campaign News". Web.archive.org. July 27, 2008. Archived from the original on July 27, 2008. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  32. ↑ "Addison Gallery Homepage". Addisongallery.org. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  33. ↑ "Phillips Academy - The Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology". Andover.edu. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  34. ↑ Henry Pearson to Eliphalet Pearson, Andover, October 26, 1805, in the Pearson Papers, Phillips Academy Archives.
  35. ↑ Quinby, Phillips Academy, Andover on Diamond, Track, and Field (Andover, Mass.: The Andover Press, 1920), 10.
  36. 1 2 Harrison, Fred H., Athletics for All: Physical Education and Athletics at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1778–1978 (Andover, Ma.: 1983)
  37. ↑ Forsberg, Chris (July 20, 2006). "Andover crew reaches semifinals in Henley regatta - The Boston Globe". Boston.com. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  38. ↑ "Drive Time Radio (Sort Of) (As Far As You Know)". Nedgallagher.com. May 2, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  39. ↑ Ned on (May 3, 2009). "A Lawrenceville Story (As Far As You Know)". Nedgallagher.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  40. ↑ "Meeting, Meeting, Meeting (As Far As You Know)". Nedgallagher.com. April 11, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  41. ↑ "Private School Innovator".
  42. ↑ Taylor Smith, "History of the Association," The Phillipian, February 14, 2008; Tim Ghosh and Charles Shoener, "Eight Schools Association Convenes At PA," The Phillipian, April 24, 2008
  43. ↑ "Andover and the Military » Alumni Military Register » Medal of Honor Recipients". Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  44. ↑ Christopher Jencks, PBS Frontline, Views of Authorities on Intelligence & Testing, "...privilege of the guys who went at that time to Exeter and Andover...", Accessed June 24, 2013
  45. 1 2 3 William S. Dietrich II, Winter 2010, Pittsburgh Quarterly, The WASP ascendancy, "...In 1930, eight private schools accounted for nearly one-third of Yale freshman: Andover (74), Exeter (54), Hotchkiss (42), St. Paul’s (24), Choate (19), Lawrenceville (19), Hill (17) and Kent (14)...", Accessed June 26, 2013
  46. ↑ June 15, 1931, Time Magazine, Education: Exeter's 150th, "...twin giants of prep schools in size and in prestige...", Accessed June 24, 2013
  47. ↑ Joseph I. Lieberman and Michael D'Orso, Simon & Schuster, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7432-1440-7, In Praise of Public Life, "I arrived at Yale as an outsider, a public school kid among the preppies from Andover and Exeter...", Accessed June 24, 2013
  48. ↑ Adam Gussow, 1998 Pantheon Books, Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir, "...Preppies were the Andover/Exeter/Miss Porter's crowd..." Accessed June 24, 2013
  49. ↑ Tom Wolfe, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd, 1967, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine, "...Not only that, they can tell which prep school, usually St. Paul's or Hotchkiss or Groton or Exeter or Andover, or whatever; just by checking his hair and his clothes.", Accessed June 24, 2013
  50. ↑ Gore Vidal, Esquire Magazine, August 1, 2012, Mailer and Vidal: The Big Schmooze , "... there was an Exeter/Andover style that was quite witty....", Accessed June 24, 2013
  51. ↑ Jonathan Kozol, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, "...Exeter or Andover ... were able to absorb some $30,000 yearly for each pupil...", Accessed June 24, 2013
  52. 1 2 3 Cristina Hartmann, June 19, 2013, Slate Magazine What Is It Like To Attend a Top Boarding School? , Accessed June 24, 2013
  53. ↑ Spark Notes, Chapter Summary, Summary Chapter 17, The Catcher in the Rye, "...Sally irritates Holden by flirting with a pretentious boy from Andover, another prep school,...", Accessed June 21, 2013
  54. ↑ ALEX WITCHEL, The New York Times, June 21, 1990,The Life of Fakery and Delusion In John Guare's 'Six Degrees', "...Stammers, a student at Connecticut College, who had attended Andover with both couples' children....", Accessed June 21, 2013
  55. ↑ F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gutenberg, This Side of Paradise, "...There were Andover and Exeter with their memories of New England dead—large, college-like democracies...", Accessed June 21, 2013
  56. ↑ Allen C. Soong, The Harvard Crimson, February 26, 1993, The New-Boy Network: The popular image of the prep school is based on outdated stereotypes that many preppies now find insulting, Accessed June 21, 2013
  57. ↑ William A. McEachern. "The Education of a Beautiful Mind". The Teaching Economist. Cengage Learning.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phillips Academy Andover.
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Coordinates: 42°38′50″N 71°07′54″W / 42.6473°N 71.1316°W / 42.6473; -71.1316

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