Dear Reader, Are you going to be a Yield Machine today? Dean of Admissions Jane Fried asked students this unnerving question during All-School Meeting on Wednesday. Admissions officers flooded the Chapel’s center aisle, tossing T-shirts to Andover Ambassadors, all identified by Fried at the podium, as though part of a cheer squad at a sporting event. And apparently Andover is treating the search for the class of 2012 as a competition. It is another Andover-Exeter, as the two schools push to have a higher yield (percentage of admitted students who ultimately attend), and, just like in football and hockey, the Big Blue is hoping for a decisive win. Let’s reconsider that. Revisiting schools can be trying and overwhelming for prospective students, many of whom are barely teenagers. Revisit days should be about finding the right match—not about putting up a better score than our peer schools. We should be friendly and welcoming to our visitors because they are nervous and want to learn more about Andover, not to raise our yield totals and certainly not to be Yield Machines. Tour guides should be frank. There’s nothing wrong with highlighting your favorite aspects of Andover, but when some wide-eyed eighth grader asks you a question, answer truthfully. It’s about the student, not about us. Let the school speak for itself. We don’t need to be Yield Machines to show Andover at its best. This is a time to give prospective students a taste of what Phillips Academy is really like, not dazzle them with an airbrushed picture. Though we would like to think every student would flourish and be happy here, Phillips Academy is not necessarily the best fit for everyone. The Class of 2009, which has seen its ranks decimated since it arrived on campus in 2005, knows that lesson firsthand. This is not about triumphing over Exeter, St. Paul’s Deerfield, or any other peer institution hoping for a sky-high yield. This is not a call to arms for the Big Blue. We may be B-E-T-T-E-R, but if Exeter is a better fit for a student, then he ought to go there.
