November 2007
We write at a time of great energy and promise for Phillips Academy and the students it serves. This is the first in a series of updates we will be writing on the Strategic Plan adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2004, reporting to you on progress in meeting Strategic Plan objectives, and previewing action we will initiate in coming months. We also write with gratitude to so many of you for supporting these efforts.
As you will recall, the Strategic Plan focused on one ambitious goal:
"To reaffirm the mission of Phillips Academy to be a school that educates…outstanding youth from every quarter by effectively challenging them to develop their potential and to depart as thoughtful, versatile, responsible participants in the global community."
This goal includes three critical components: students, program, faculty. This letter highlights the remarkable progress made to date on the first—the students component. In summary, we have opened the opportunity of an Andover education through increased access and affordability. We have both focused and extended recruitment, and expanded financial aid dramatically each year since 2004.
The most compelling news is that, starting next year, admission to Andover will be conducted on a 100 percent need-blind basis. What does “need-blind” mean at Andover? Beginning in September 2008, Andover will be able to admit the most qualified students regardless of their families’ ability to pay the cost of an Andover education and will meet 100 percent of all families’ demonstrated need. We are grateful to preceding generations for continuing attempts to achieve need-blind status. Building on this foundation, we are confident we will secure the resources to achieve this initiative.
Our ultimate aim could well be described as “from every quarter, to every quarter.” As an American school with a dynamic worldview, we search the United States and the globe for students with the most to gain and the most to give. We educate extraordinarily talented students, and they leave equipped with the knowledge and desire to make a positive difference, no matter what their path in life.
Opportunity & Access
Providing opportunity requires access. Finding the most promising youth from every quarter—and making the opportunity of an Andover education affordable—has been a core value of the institution from the beginning. Andover seeks to ensure access to young people of talent, intelligence, and integrity from diverse cultural, geographic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Presently, Andover’s 1,090 students represent 46 states and territories, and 31 countries.
The following achievements reflect our progress toward increasing access:
- Andover received more than 2,400 student applications for admission last year—the largest applicant pool among our peer schools. Our admit rate is highly competitive: 20 percent. Our yield (the number of students admitted who chose to attend) is 74 percent, the highest in our peer group. Our yield among financial aid admissions is 83 percent.
- The admission team’s national and international travel has increased 40 percent, resulting in a 21 percent increase in applications over the last three years. More than 500 Alumni Admission and Parent Network Representatives conduct interviews and serve as event hosts and “ambassadors.”
- We have expanded our targeted recruitment areas to the U.S. Southeast, West, and Midwest, and internationally to South Africa, China, India, Brazil, and Great Britain.
- Looking to the future, a committee is considering the composition of the student body. Comprising faculty, administrators, students, and trustees, it is charged with guiding the admission office in developing an understanding of “youth from every quarter” in our time, and how this should shape priorities for admission outreach and programming.
- The Academy is one of five independent schools selected to partner with the Shelby Davis family to pilot a program enhancing domestic and international diversity within secondary schools. The program will support the admission of up to 10 students to Andover each year, who would then be eligible, upon graduation, for continued scholarship support in college.
Opportunity & Affordability
Since 1778, Phillips Academy has been committed to providing access to academic excellence to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. This is a matter of affordability. There have been scholarship students at Andover since day one; the first endowed scholarship dates to 1789. When the Board of Trustees voted to set the goal of need-blind admissions in the Academy’s 2004 Strategic Plan, the problem of socioeconomic status as the most accurate predictor of access to America’s best educational opportunities was beginning to be highlighted by new research. In the three years since the board’s decision, that concern has only increased, and in the interim several other institutions have joined us in this pursuit.
Andover attracts by far the largest and most diverse applicant pool among peer schools. Given the strong representation of all socioeconomic groups within that pool, the Academy sets no prescribed ceiling on family income when offering full scholarships. By looking at the overall picture (income, assets, number of children, and payments for other tuition-charging institutions), we guarantee the flexibility required to respond to each family’s circumstances and meet need fully where it exists.
Andover’s long-standing commitment to providing financial aid scholarships across the socioeconomic spectrum—specifically the lower-, middle-, and upper-middle-class income bands—will be enhanced by this important new policy.
The following achievements reflect our progress toward the Strategic Plan’s core objective in terms of affordability:
- Since 2004, the Board of Trustees has increased the financial aid budget by 42 percent, and the average financial aid grant has increased from $22,200 to $27,500. During this period of growth, the Academy has increased the percentage of the student body on aid from 36.5 percent to 41 percent, while maintaining 10 percent of the student body on full scholarship.
- Increasingly, financial aid packages are not limited to tuition, but include, for example, computers and books, medical insurance, travel to and from school, and support for a wide range of summer enrichment opportunities.
- The board voted to replace all student loans with financial aid grants beginning in September 2007.
- As mentioned above, admission to Andover will be on a 100 percent need-blind basis beginning in September 2008.
Sustaining Opportunity
To support and sustain this critical initiative, our intent is to build upon our existing strong legacy of support for term scholarships and financial aid endowment by raising upwards of $60 million in new funds for financial aid. To date, approximately 20 percent of that goal has been met.
We are confident we will be able to ensure Andover’s continuing relevance, its commitment to youth from every quarter, and its strong leadership in advancing the ideals of inclusion and opportunity for the rising generation’s most promising leaders and servants of society. Our historic commitment to urge our students toward a higher purpose continues to challenge us. We educate them to go into the world as leaders who see service as an integral part of leadership.
Once again, we thank you for your help in advancing this critical work at Andover. We welcome your thoughts on these important topics and encourage your participation as we move forward. Please e-mail any comments or questions to strategicplan@andover.edu. A copy of the Strategic Plan is available online in PDF format. CLICK HERE to download it.
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