On April 17, The Phillipian, vol. CXLIII, sent out the 2020 “State of the Academy” survey to all Andover students in the hopes of obtaining valuable information about the school community.
Despite the challenges of not being on campus, The Phillipian received a participation rate of 93.2 percent of the student body— 1043 participants— surpassing our expectations. The anonymous survey asked a comprehensive set of 185 questions, comprised of ten sections: General, Politics & Worldview, Wellness, Sex, Drugs & Alcohol, School, Campus Culture, Community Diversity, Discipline, and COVID-19. The 2020 issue is the first to include a Campus Culture section, as well as a COVID-19 section. We sincerely thank members of the student body for their willingness to share information and personal experiences for this special issue of The Phillipian, and we hope that the State of the Academy will serve to inform, enlighten, and create a more holistic narrative of the students at Andover.
Access the traditional PDF version of SOTA here.
Website by Anthony Kim and Samson Zhang with contributions from Jeffrey Pan and Alex Turk.
At Andover, 13% of respondents identify as Conservative while three times as many respondents (39%) identify as Liberal. 93.3% of Conservatives report needing to censor themselves due to their political leaning, compared to 38.6% of Liberals. While 43.2% of respondents believe reverse racism exists, that number is 62.9% among Juniors and 29.6% among Seniors. 97.4% of respondents support “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” while 65.1% of respondents consider themselves feminists. The majority of respondents (65.9%) believe that humans are entirely responsible for climate change, 33.4% of respondents believe humans are partially responsible, and 0.8% of respondents say humans are not responsible at all.
This year, respondents were asked to answer a series of questions aimed to shed light on campus culture at Andover. 87.8% of four year students and 57.1% of one year students who responded believe that the Student Council is unable to implement meaningful changes. 73.8% of respondents believed that Andover should pursue a more comprehensive climate curriculum, although only 5.9% of respondents regularly attend Climate Cafe events. When compared with political belief, 62.4% of respondents who identify as Conservative believe that Andover does not promote ideological diversity within its speakers. 87.5% of respondents disagree with Andover’s decision to prohibit Uppers and non-Andover students from attending prom.
At Andover, students spend an average of four hours on homework per day. In comparison to previous years since 2016, this year’s respondents hold the highest average rounded Winter 2019-2020 G.P.A. of 5.25. 45.9% of respondents have switched or attempted to switch teachers in order to attain a better grade, while only 20.5% of respondents believe a “4” is a good grade. While 41.0% of respondents have considered leaving Andover permanently, 90.8% would still make the decision to attend Andover in the first place. Additionally, 69.6% of respondents participate in extracurricular activities because they believe it will help their chances of attending a selective college.
When an Andover student has committed a major offense, they are called upon a Disciplinary Committee (D.C.), although only 14.7% of respondents fully understand how the process works. 4.8% of respondents have sat before a D.C., and 70.1% of students believe that the D.C. system favors students with privileged backgrounds. When correlated with income, 61.8% of students whose net family income is $500,000 or above believe that the D.C. system favors privilege as opposed to 91.9% of students whose net family income is $34,999 or below. 43.0% of respondents have committed a major offense without being caught, and 30.4% have cheated on tests, quizzes, or in-class assignments while at Andover.
At Andover, 88.4% of Juniors, 67.2% of Lowers, 50.2% of Uppers, and 37.8% of Seniors have never engaged in sexual activity—defined as digital, oral, vaginal, or anal sex. 83.6% of respondents believe that there is a hookup culture at Andover, but only 32.9% of respondents have felt pressured to participate in it. 37.7% of respondents have had sex under the influence of drugs or alcohol. 76.5% of men feel comfortable telling friends that they masturbate, while only 32.2% of women feel the same way.
57.0% of respondents have recreationally consumed alcohol either on campus, off campus, or both. 71.3% of respondents believe that the use of recreational drugs or alcohol is normalized at Andover. By cluster, the highest percentage of boarders who feel that their dorms significantly influence how they think about or use drugs and alcohol lives in Flagstaff. Additionally, 43.5% of student leaders have consumed drugs or alcohol in their dorms.
On average, Andover students sleep just over 7 hours per night and spend 2.44 hours on social media each day, up slightly from 1.97 hours last year. 15.7% of respondents believe social media impacts their life more negatively than positively. 65.4% of respondents report skipping meals to catch up on sleep or homework. While 86.7% of respondents consider themselves happy at Andover, just 77.2% of respondents think that Andover students are happy. 74.7% of respondents have felt insecure about their intelligence, and 76.1% of respondents have felt insecure about their physical appearance. When correlated with gender identity, 56.9% of men feel insecure about their physical appearance as opposed to 93.2% of women. 82.2% of respondents believe they have an adequate support system on campus, with 94.1% of respondents finding that support in their friends.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread closures across the world, pushing Andover’s spring term online. 89.2% of SOTA respondents returned home for the spring term, and 97.8% are staying with family. As of the closure of the SOTA survey, 49.0% of respondents personally know someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. 89.1% of respondents believe that Andover has had enough of a reaction to the pandemic, while 50.6% of respondents have found their remote learning experience adequately educational.
In regards to what causes social divide between students at Andover, 40.0% of respondents believed it to be sexual orientation, 53.1% of respondents believed it to be political belief, 56.5% of respondents believed it to be socioeconomic status, and 59.8% of respondents believed it to be race (respondents may overlap). 90.5% of respondents from the Class of 2020 believe that social divides exist at Andover, while 58.6% of respondents from the Class of 2023 believe the same.