As per Andover’s website, our community is “an intentionally diverse community.” We’ve all heard this phrase before; it’s on our website, highlighted during school tours, and praised in ASM. Yet, if Andover is a place that values curiosity and excellence, diversity should happen inadvertently and naturally. Our school shouldn’t strive to be intentionally diverse but rather to be unintentionally diverse. We should be a community where inclusion emerges as a byproduct of genuine excellence and shared humanity, not as a requirement to be met. If there are truly talented people from all over the world who apply to Andover, their origin should matter only insofar as it shapes their perspective, not their chances of admission. Diversity should follow quality, not precede it.
The flaw in intentional diversity is the possibility that identity may be perceived as a quota, rather than a quality. When institutions try to intentionally “look” diverse, they often go beyond merely seeking different perspectives to a point where they begin designing diversity. This can mean curating demographics to achieve a desired image of inclusion or structuring programs to signal progressiveness rather than to cultivate genuine intellectual variety. In doing so, diversity becomes something to be quantified, measured, and maintained rather than “lived”. The focus shifts away from a student’s ideas or achievements and toward what they represent demographically. Admission starts to prioritize optics over cultivating genuine excellence.
This approach to diversity not only diminishes merit but can also unintentionally burden students with expectations tied to their identity. Studies by social scientists and education scholars have found that when institutions intentionally recruit for demographic representation, students from those groups often feel pressure to act as spokespeople for their background, constantly proving that they “deserve” their place. The journal article “Tokenism and Its Long-Term Consequences: Evidence from the Literary Field,” found that when institutions intentionally recruit minorities, members of those groups face disproportionate visibility and are often expected to speak on behalf of their race, culture, or gender in discussions, rather than being seen as individuals with independent ideas. This constant spotlighting can make them feel isolated or reduced to their demographic traits, rather than recognized for their intellect or character. This problem is evident on our campus; the SOTA 2025 survey reveals that 21.6 percent of students believe their race significantly and consistently affects their level of comfort in a classroom setting. Therefore, only when institutions move beyond the optics of intentional diversity can they begin to embody the deeper moral and intellectual richness that comes from true diversity. To understand what that looks like in practice, we must envision a community where diversity isn’t engineered but emerges naturally from genuine connections and a shared pursuit of excellence.
Unintentional diversity isn’t the absence of identity, but the outcome of a culture where identity naturally coexists with merit, curiosity, and shared purpose without needing to be highlighted. In a truly inclusive environment, diversity emerges as a natural consequence rather than a planned outcome; people from different backgrounds are drawn together organically, united by shared purpose rather than separated by identity categories. One might argue that without intentional effort to connect people across backgrounds, we risk losing valuable perspectives. After all, throughout history, inclusion has rarely occurred spontaneously; progress often requires a deliberate effort to break down barriers and expand opportunities. This is true, and intentional diversity was necessary previously to cultivate a place of diversity; yet the goal of such intentionality should be transitional, not permanent. At this point, promoting diversity can be approached in different ways, such as raising awareness of what Andover has to offer to gain a broader range of applicants, while still maintaining the values of merit.
Diversity would occur naturally because excellence attracts excellence, and connections extend beyond background. An unintentionally diverse Andover would be where a classroom conversation features varied ideas simply because those who attend think differently, and not because they are selected based on their demographics. An unintentionally diverse Andover would be a place where a sense of belonging doesn’t have to be publicized; where nobody feels the need to speak for an entire group; and where identity brings richness to who an individual is, rather than defining who they are. Such diversity occurs naturally and stems from being authentic. A classroom at Andover might include students from urban, rural, and international backgrounds; individuals who converge not because of demographic design, but because of shared excellence and curiosity. Research from Indiana University reinforces this point, noting that “bringing students from historically underrepresented groups to campus does not automatically improve the campus climate for diversity or enhance learning opportunities.” When diversity arises organically from mutual commitment to learning rather than institutional engineering, it creates authenticity, intellectual freedom, and genuine inclusion.
This principle is evident at Princeton Univeristy, where President Christopher Eisgruber noted that students receiving the highest academic rating (Academic 1) increased from less than 20 percent of the matriculated class in 1990 to approximately 50 percent in recent years, while the student body has simultaneously become more diverse. As Eisgruber observed, “College admissions at Princeton and its peers have become more competitive not because we have forsaken merit but, on the contrary, because we are finding it in more places. Diversity and excellence go hand-in-hand.”
In the end, intentional diversity is a mirror, reflecting what we wish to be seen as, while unintentional diversity is a window, reflecting who we are. Andover might find that, if it could be authentic before being diverse, the authenticity would bring the world to its doorstep and keep it there.
