In the next two months, some 1,400 teen-age boys and their parents all
over the U.S. will tremulously collect the credentials—IQ scores,
grades, test results, recommendations, interviews—needed to apply for
admission to what they are sure is the nation's best prep school:
Massachusetts' Andover. Many applications will come from Eastern boys
with good primary education and some wealth and social standing. But
not all. Even now, Andover alumni are searching slums and back-country
towns for bright boys who may have little money and position but who
“need” Andover. Recruiters are grilling newspaper circulation managers
for the names of deserving paper boys, asking forest rangers to suggest
suitable rural applicants, checking big-city youth clubs for promising
kids—and then helping the boys apply. By Jan. 15 all of the applicants, rich and poor, will be listed on a big
chart in Andover's admissions office. Studying each boy's credentials,
three faculty men and an admissions director, working individually, will
grade the applicant from 1 to 5, with 5 representing total disapproval.
The four grades will be added . About one fifth
of the boys—that is, those with low totals—will be accepted. The
rest will be turned down. Then, and only then, will Andover consider whether the applicant has
the $1,800 a year that going there costs. Probably three-fourths of the
boys will be able to pay full freight. For the rest, rich Andover will
dip into its pockets for scholarships and loans tailored to the boys'
needs. Thus will be formed the group of next year's new boys at a
school that aims by intensity and excellence to be No. 1 in the U.S.* The Way to College. The increasingly competitive admissions crush at
Andover does not mean that public schools are being abandoned: only
2-3% of U.S. schoolchildren go to the nation's 2,400 independent
schools . But within that fraction
there is room for much experimentation, pacesetting, quality and
growth. In Florida and Colorado, the number of independent schools has
doubled in five years. In Manhattan, some schools have to turn down
eight out of nine applicants. The big spur toward private schooling is getting into college. The
country's 1,708 independent secondary schools, with an enrollment of
about 250,000, send 95% of their graduates to college, against 40% from
public schools. This faith in private schools is chiefly rooted in
their freedom. They can select better students. They can pay teachers
by merit, make innovations, borrow ideas from anywhere. On every score
they can outpace all but a few crack public schools.
