To the Editor:
It is that time of year again, when many colleges that are popular choices among Andover students release the results of the early action and early decision round of applications to their respective applicants. Because of Andover students’ college-oriented mindset, such results have a have a tendency to affect the entire community’s atmosphere. For some, the news will be cause for celebration, but others will receive more disappointing news.
To avoid any descent into a negative atmosphere, I suggest that, this year, we are all careful with whom we tell about our acceptances and and rejections. It is one thing to tell your close friends the results of your early application, to share a trip downtown or an exclamatory text message, but it is another thing entirely to use social media to publicly congratulate yourself or others, or to gossip in Paresky Commons and dormitories about who did and didn’t get into their first-choice school. This kind of behavior is simply unnecessary, and only serves to engender ill-will and tension and exacerbate the already competitive environment.
Admission to any educational institution is influenced by more than one factor. It is impossible to pinpoint the reason any individual was accepted or rejected because often, it is simply arbitrary. Unlike many high schools in America, Andover always sends all of its graduating students to excellent four-year schools. Furthermore, Andover sends us off well-prepared to succeed, academically and socially, at these schools.
During this cold and dark Winter Term, let us as Seniors not allow these decisions to embitter and divide us. Instead, let us appreciate one another more because, believe it or not, we only have a little more than five months left together. After all, perhaps the greatest privilege of being a Senior is the realization that for all its academic prestige, it is the people at Andover, our friends, teachers, house counselors and advisors, who make this place so special.
Sincerely,
David Gutierrez ’15
Student Body Co-President
