This year, 208 ninth graders will enter the Phillips Academy Class of 2007. A total of 1245 youngsters–600 boys and 645 girls–applied for the available spots in the Class of 2007, a number that outpaces any other boarding school, showing that PA’s appeal to students both domestic and foreign still outdoes that of any other school of its kind. Each year the Admissions Office strives to find the right mix of perspective students who will best perform in Andover’s environment. An essential part of the forming of each successive class is attention to diversity of skill, experience, and interest. Andover prides itself in having a diverse community, and the incoming class will add to that diversity. Members of the Class of 2007 hail from 26 states and 4 foreign countries. The most popular home states are Massachusetts and California , but they are supplemented by students from Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Dakota as well as Bulgaria, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Dean of Admissions Jane Fried offered examples of the varying interest in the incoming Junior class, a class that consists of numerous gifted athletes, actors, musicians and all around exceptional young people. According to Mrs. Fried, several members of the Class of 2007 acted as leads in their school plays. Three ninth grade girls aspire to be vets, and another student trains seeing-eye dogs for the blind. Another student attends circus camp in the summer, while other members of the class include a violinist who plays with the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra and a singer who has performed at both the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. The class posted impressive results on the SSAT, the standardized test for secondary school admission, with a median total score in the 91st percentile. Additionally, the median class rank was in the 99th percentile. Adding to the diversity of the class is the spectrum of previous academic institutions, with 54 percent of incoming Juniors coming from public schools, 9 percent from parochial and foreign schools and 38 percent from private schools. Thirty-eight percent of the class will receive financial aid, a number up 5 percent from last year.
