PHILLIPS ACADEMY ANDOVER · PRIVATE SCHOOL GUIDE
Andover has about 1,170 students on a campus 21 miles from Boston, and its admission is need-blind. Start here to picture daily life and prepare each part of your application.
Fall 2027 entry
GET TO KNOW THE SCHOOL
Andover had 1,172 students in 2025–26, including 861 boarders, from 41 U.S. states and territories and 53 countries. Every student belongs to one of five clusters.
IN CLASS
Classes average 13 students. You’ll normally take five courses a term, in three terms of about ten weeks each.
IN YOUR CLUSTER
Each cluster has a handful of dorms, more than 200 students, faculty families, its own dean, and student leaders. Day students belong to one too.
YOUR CORE TEAM
Every student has a point person, an adviser, and a cluster dean. If you board, your point person is your house counselor. If you’re a day student, it’s your adviser.
Every student takes part in an afternoon activity, with 67 interscholastic teams in 23 sports, more than 50 performing arts groups, and community service to choose from.
Your course load: Ninth and tenth graders take five or six courses a term, and uppers and seniors take five. Each course means about six to nine hours a week of class and homework, and placement tests can move you ahead in math, languages, and music.
Grades: Andover grades on a scale of 0 to 6 and doesn’t rank students. It offers only three official AP courses: AB Calculus, BC Calculus, and Statistics.
Graduating: You need 54 term credits if you start in ninth grade, 51 in tenth, or 48 later. Everyone must meet a swimming requirement, students who start by eleventh grade have an arts requirement, and your senior year must be at Andover.
Boarding in ninth grade: You live in a junior dorm with house counselors, who are teachers living there, and older student prefects. Lights go out at 11 p.m. before class days, and boarders in grades 9 to 11 sign in by 8 p.m. for study hours.
Day students: A day student lives at home and comes to campus each day, belongs to a cluster, and can sleep over in a dorm on weekends with permission.
Help with learning: Study centers for math, science, and writing offer help from teachers and peer tutors, and outside tutors aren’t allowed on campus. Student Accessibility Services decides accommodations case by case after reviewing documentation, so those from your current school don’t carry over automatically.
Entry points: Andover admits boarding and day students to grades 9 through 12 and for a postgraduate (PG) year. It calls ninth graders juniors, followed by lowers, uppers, and seniors.
Typical places: Andover usually enrolls more than 200 new ninth graders, about 85 new tenth graders, 20 to 25 new eleventh graders, and 30 to 35 new seniors and PGs together.
Where you’ll live: New seniors and PGs live in the same dorms as everyone else and take part in the full residential program. New lowers, uppers, seniors, and PGs are usually paired with another new student in the same grade or program.
Transcripts: Grade 12 and PG applicants send a complete high school transcript.
UNDERSTAND WHAT ANDOVER LOOKS FOR
It looks for students who will both contribute to the school and benefit from it. Its admission officers can’t see your family’s financial information, so your application is read on its own terms.
YOUR ACHIEVEMENT
Andover reads your grades and test scores alongside your recommendations, writing, and activities.
Letrado’s adviceContext matters. If your school offered few advanced courses, show how you went further with what was available.
YOUR TALENT
You can add an arts or athletics supplement or a special-interest recommendation for a talent you want to show.
Letrado’s adviceOnly add extras that show something new. Andover says it’s perfectly fine not to submit anything extra.
YOUR CHARACTER
Andover seeks students of intelligence and integrity, and it requires a personal recommendation alongside your teachers’ letters.
Letrado’s adviceAsk an adult who has seen you help, lead, or show up for others. A former teacher can write this one.
WHAT ANDOVER DESCRIBES
With a campus tour; limited availability
A live virtual interview; limited availability
Answer questions on video; always available
The interview is optional, and interviews run through January. You book it in the Andover Application Portal after submitting your Candidate Profile. Discover Andover open houses run on fall Saturdays, with a virtual session on January 7, 2027, and families are asked to register for just one.
WHAT ANDOVER REQUIRES
SSAT or ISEE (Upper Level), PSAT, SAT, or ACT
Use Andover’s code: SSAT 5758, ISEE 220030, or SAT 0156
Results go straight to Andover
The SSAT and ISEE are private-school admission tests. The SSAT opens with a 25-minute writing sample that isn’t scored but goes to the schools that get your scores, and the ISEE ends with an unscored 30-minute essay.
If you’re applying for aid, the Andover portal explains how to request a testing fee waiver, which doesn’t cover late-registration fees.
WHAT THE APPLICATION SAYS
Andover’s admission pages don’t set a rule on AI. Gateway’s Candidate Profile includes a certification that everything you submit, including any essays, is “factually accurate and honestly presented.” It warns that an admission can be revoked if that isn’t true.
2025–26 SCHOOL PROFILE
Andover doesn’t publish a current admission rate.
PLAN THE APPLICATION
Andover uses Gateway to Prep Schools for boarding and day applicants, with one deadline: February 1, 2027. Admission decisions and financial-aid awards are released together on March 10.
Application and aid
Feb 1, 2027Decisions and aid awards
Mar 10, 2027Andover hasn’t yet published its reply date for students admitted for fall 2027. For fall 2026 entry, it was April 10, 2026.
Gateway to Prep Schools is an application many private schools share. A parent or guardian usually creates the account, and you start with the Candidate Profile. The fee is $60 for U.S. applicants and $125 for international applicants, and you can pay it after the Candidate Profile.
From your principal or counselor, your current English and math teachers, and a personal recommender. Your school sends this year’s first-term grades and the two previous years.
Required. Send one of the SSAT (Upper Level), ISEE (Upper Level), PSAT, SAT, or ACT, according to the grade you’re applying for.
A graded writing sample and an essay response on Gateway, plus a short video response in the Andover portal.
A statement from a parent or guardian, submitted on Gateway.
On campus with a tour, online, or recorded, through January.
Three parts on Gateway: Part 1, the Candidate Profile, covers your background, activities, and family. Part 2 holds Andover’s essay, graded writing sample, and parent statement. In Part 3, you send requests, and your recommenders and school submit their forms directly.
Boarding or day: Since 2025–26, you can choose either, wherever you live, and Andover treats the choice as final once you submit.
The Andover portal: A day after you submit the Candidate Profile, you get a login to the Andover Application Portal, where you book interviews and events, complete the video response, and see what’s missing.
If you’re admitted: Your aid award comes with your decision. For fall 2026 entry, admitted families could choose from four Spring Visit days, and enrolling families paid a $6,000 non-refundable deposit, with enrollment agreements due May 1, 2026.
If you’re on the waiting list: It isn’t ranked, and you keep your place by returning the reply form. Offers can come as early as April or as late as August. Andover may ask for a final transcript, but you don’t need to send anything more.
English tests: If you attend a school outside the U.S. where English isn’t the language of instruction, Andover asks for a TOEFL iBT, IELTS, or Duolingo score (its TOEFL code is 8127). Its guidelines of 100, 7.5, and 135 aren’t minimums, and you can email the office if the cost is a problem.
Fee and recommendations: The application fee is $125. Recommenders who don’t speak English can write in their own language, and an official translation helps but isn’t required.
Financial aid: International families are welcome to apply through Clarity, without U.S. tax forms. Andover’s aid instructions are written for “all applicant families, both international and domestic,” and say admission officers can’t see your financial information and your aid status isn’t considered in the admission process.
Health insurance: International students were billed $3,100 for the school’s health plan in 2026–27, unless a waiver was approved by July 1.
Visas and arrival: Andover’s international student coordinator issues the I-20 for your U.S. student visa and runs an orientation before school starts. Over breaks, some students go home and others stay with host families.
WRITE IN YOUR OWN VOICE
Prompts appear in your applicationAndover doesn’t publish its essay, video, or parent-statement prompts. You’ll find them in Gateway and the Andover Application Portal.
Andover asks for three kinds of evidence: an essay response, a graded writing sample from school, and a short video. Together they show how you think, how you write for class, and how you sound.
Letrado’s adviceChoose a graded paper that shows your thinking, not only your polish. For the video, speak as you would to a teacher you like.
Read the prompt closely and answer it directly, using real moments from your own life.
Choose a recent piece you’re proud of because of the thinking in it, not just the grade. Gateway asks for an assignment written in English this school year, preferably from English class, with a brief description of the assignment and course.
Andover introduces the video in a short film on its application page. Treat it as a conversation, not a speech to memorize.
It’s a required part of the application. Parents can share what they see day to day, which no one else can.
The Candidate Profile asks how you spend your time outside class, including jobs and hobbies, and notes that some students have more chances for organized activities than others. If you work or help at home, list it.
MAKE ROOM FOR THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
Applying for aid doesn’t affect your admission decision. Andover meets 100% of demonstrated need with grants, not loans, and 47% of students receive aid.
ANY FAMILY INCOME
Andover sets no income ceiling for full scholarships. It doesn’t include the value of a family’s home up to $650,000 when counting assets, and families who don’t own a home get a rental allowance.
FULL SCHOLARSHIPS
attend on a full scholarship, and nearly half of all students receive some aid.
INTERNATIONAL FAMILIES
International families apply through the same Clarity application, without U.S. tax forms.
Andover measures need against the full cost of attendance, not only tuition, and it doesn’t leave a gap between your demonstrated need and your award.
Andover’s financial-aid requirements (opens in a new tab)PUBLISHED 2026–27 TUITION · BOARDING
$79,800Day tuition is $63,840. Both include all mandatory fees; new students also see a $1,200 course materials charge on their first bill. Every student needs a laptop, and aid can help with one. Travel, music lessons, and medical costs aren’t included.
For fall 2027 entry, use the 2027–28 costs when Andover publishes them.
Tuition and financial aid (opens in a new tab)Letrado’s adviceIf there’s any chance you’ll need aid, apply in the first year. Andover requires it, and applying doesn’t affect your admission decision.
Through LEAP, Andover pays for some U.S. students applying for grades 9 and 10, and one parent, to visit campus in December. For fall 2027 entry, students need an educator’s nomination, and the LEAP application and Gateway Candidate Profile are due November 2.
The LEAP program (opens in a new tab)ADMITTED TO ANDOVER · A.R.
He was a New York City public-school student, a vivid writer with an uneven algebra record and weekend shifts at his family’s grocery, and his family needed substantial aid. We helped him explain each fact plainly, then compare offers his whole family could sustain.
Customers at the grocery often asked for help, credit, or translation without saying so directly. His essay showed how he learned to notice.
His algebra grades dipped after a teacher change and improved later. He said so briefly, with context rather than excuses.
They weighed each offer’s aid, travel, and other costs beyond tuition, not reputation.
At a need-blind school like Andover, applying for aid doesn’t affect your admission decision, so you can plan for cost from the start, as A.R.’s family did.
AI illustrationHIS ANDOVER OUTCOME
Offered a place at Phillips Academy Andover
HIS CHOICE: LAWRENCEVILLEMemorial Hall, The Lawrenceville School · Photo: Bmzuckerman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Cropped.
Comparing the actual offers, including travel and costs beyond tuition, showed which school his family could manage. He also felt he could find his way in Lawrenceville’s residential system.
ALSO ADMITTED TO
WHEN YOU’D LIKE A HAND
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