Program Description

The Phillips Academy Summer Session

Summer School
Andover, Massachusetts


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For More Information, Contact
Maxine S. Grogan, Dean of Admission and Interim Director
The Phillips Academy Summer Session
Phillips Academy
180 Main Street
Andover, Massachusetts 01810-4166
978-749-4400
Fax: 978-749-4415
http://www.andover.edu/summersession
E-mail: summersession@andover.edu

Type of Program: Academic enrichment, precollege
Participants: Coeducational, boarding and day, rising grades pre-8–12
Enrollment: 570
Program Dates: June 30 to August 5
Head of Program: Maxine S. Grogan, Interim Director

Location

The buildings and facilities of the Academy are located on 500 acres of landscaped campus. Andover, Massachusetts, incorporated in 1646, is an attractive elm-shaded community 25 miles north of Boston and close to historical sites, the mountains, and the seacoast locations of New England.

Background and Philosophy

Fostering a passion for lifelong learning, the Summer Session combines a full boarding (precollege) experience with small classes in a multicultural community. Innovative pedagogy complements traditional areas. The Summer Session offers its students five weeks of intensive academic and personal growth—growth that can certainly make a difference beyond the limits of this program and this campus.
The Summer Session program encompasses demanding classes, recreational afternoon activities, college counseling, engaging trips to colleges, social and cultural opportunities, and welcoming dormitories that prepare students for collegiate residential life in an environment designed for their age group.
Here for five weeks, students with impressive academic goals prepare for the rigors of the best colleges and for the rigors of thriving and serving in this complex world.

Program Offerings

There are more than sixty course and program offerings in literature and writing, computer programming, computer animation, mathematics, the natural sciences, philosophy, the social sciences, languages, speech and debate, English as a second language, and SAT prep, as well as an Intensive Writing Workshop specifically for day students; the average class size is 14. In addition, there are courses in the visual and performing arts.
Rising eighth-grade students may select from three interdisciplinary courses in math/biology, history/archaeology, and English/theater/film. Students enrolled in one of these three interdisciplinary institutes enjoy a team of teachers, an integrated curriculum, curricular trips off campus, and, if boarding, a residential experience tailored to younger students.
The Summer Session has an organized recreational activities program. Sports such as basketball, tennis, swimming, soccer, softball, volleyball, instructional skating, dance, physical fitness, and squash are offered. All activities are coed. The numerous Academy music studios, playing fields and tennis courts, the gymnasium, and the six-lane swimming pool provide excellent facilities for both scheduled and informal activities. Of additional interest are a number of activities, such as Outdoor Adventure, Social Dance, and Gospel Choir, that are not always available in secondary schools.

Enrollment

Summer Session students represent an extraordinary diversity of geography, religion, race, and economic circumstances. They represent approximately forty-five states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and more than thirty-nine countries; approximately 15 percent are granted financial aid.
The Admission Committee looks for evidence that the applicant has the intellectual ability, the industry, and the character to make the most of the Summer Session opportunity. The committee expects the applicant to have a strong school record and a serious desire to spend the summer in challenging, disciplined study.

Daily Schedule

Classes meet Monday through Saturday, and the daily schedule depends on the courses or program selected. Students minimally spend 18 hours per week in class and can expect 3 to 4 hours of homework each evening.
College workshops are held Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons, and individual meetings with the college counselor are available. Academic resource areas, including the Math Center, Writing Center, library, photo lab, art studio, music studios, and all computer labs, are available for use by all students. Study hours are kept in dormitories and academic resource areas.

Extra Opportunities and Activities

Special trips and tours offer travel to museums, amusement parks, the beach, a whale-watching expedition, shopping malls, and other activities. There are also trips to nearby colleges in addition to the regularly scheduled college counseling workshops.
Weekly colloquia provide the opportunity to hear and discuss ideas on a range of contemporary topics with scholars, artists, activists, and other speakers. The diversity of the community is highlighted in international celebrations, and students share their talents in self-initiated shows.

Facilities

In addition to six classroom buildings, the campus encompasses a 120,000-volume library, an impressive athletic complex, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Gelb Science Center, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, the Moncrieff Cochran Bird Sanctuary, the Elson Art Center, Isham Health Center, a computer center, a theater complex, and forty-three dormitories. All students are assigned an Andover e-mail address for the summer, and all boarding students have Internet access in their dormitory rooms.

Staff

The teaching faculty members, from private and public schools and colleges as well as Phillips Academy, are selected for their excellence in the classroom and their understanding of young people. The senior teaching staff is augmented by a corps of some 25 teaching assistants, recent college graduates, and strong college juniors whose enthusiasm for learning serves as a model for serious but joyful intellectual inquiry.

Medical Care

The Isham Health Center is licensed as a hospital by the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Registered nurses are on duty at all times, and, in addition to having usual office hours, a physician and consulting psychologist are always on call.

Religious Life

In the town of Andover, there are Protestant churches of several denominations, a Roman Catholic church, and a Jewish Reform temple, all of which welcome students of the Summer Session for worship. Information about other places of worship is readily available.

Costs

In 2008, the charge for boarding students in the Upper School was $6200, which included tuition, board, room, linens, and supplemental medical insurance. Students taking individual courses were charged per course: major course, $2200; minor, $1100; extended major, $3300; extended minor, $2000; afternoon activities, $600; and college counseling, $600. This tuition covered supplemental medical insurance and all meals. The Lower School Institute and the ESL Institute tuition for boarding students was $6400, and the day student tuition was $4400, which also included supplemental insurance and all meals. The nonrefundable application fee ($50 for U.S. students, $100 for international students) must accompany the application. Within two weeks of acceptance, the student must pay a nonrefundable $1500 deposit, which is credited toward the tuition charge.
Expenditures for books, trips, tours, and extras (such as spending money) should be approximately $500–$700.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is awarded according to financial need. The Summer Session Financial Aid Form must be requested, completed as directed, and postmarked no later than March 1.

Transportation

The Academy provides transportation upon arrival to and departure from Boston’s Logan International Airport and the Manchester–Boston Regional Airport (Manchester, New Hampshire) at specified times. Train and bus access is also available.

Application Timetable

Catalogs containing application forms may be obtained in November. Courses often fill quickly; it is therefore advantageous to apply as early as possible. The suggested deadline is April 7.
All application materials—the recommendations, transcript, autobiographical statement, other required forms, and fee—should be placed in the envelope provided and mailed to the Phillips Academy Summer Session.