Editing Phillips Academy (section)

==In popular culture==
Andover, often in combination with [[Phillips Exeter Academy|Exeter]],<ref>Christopher Jencks, PBS ''Frontline'', [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/test/views.html "Views of Authorities on Intelligence & Testing"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505025011/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/test/views.html |date=May 5, 2016 }}, "...privilege of the guys who went at that time to Exeter and Andover ...", Accessed June 24, 2013</ref> is understood symbolically as an "elite New England prep school", connoting privilege. Writer William S. Dietrich II described Andover and other elite prep schools as being part of a "[[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASP]] ascendancy" during the first half of the twentieth century.<ref name=Dietrich/> Elite universities such as Yale and Princeton tended to accept disproportionate percentages of prep school students while using quotas to deny admission to minority applicants.<ref name=Dietrich>William S. Dietrich II, Winter 2010, ''Pittsburgh Quarterly'', [http://www.pittsburghquarterly.com/index.php/Historic-Profiles/the-short-happy-life-of-the-wasp-ascendancy/All-Pages.html "The WASP ascendancy"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317030933/http://www.pittsburghquarterly.com/index.php/Historic-Profiles/the-short-happy-life-of-the-wasp-ascendancy/All-Pages.html |date=March 17, 2016 }}, "...In 1930, eight private schools accounted for nearly one-third of Yale freshman: Andover (74), Exeter (54), Hotchkiss (42), St. Paul's (24), Choate (19), Lawrenceville (19), Hill (17) and Kent (14) ...". Accessed June 26, 2013.</ref> An account in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' in 1931 described the two academies as having "flourished", and that both were "twin giants of prep schools in size and in prestige".<ref>June 15, 1931, ''Time'', [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,846896,00.html "Education: Exeter's 150th"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812031031/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,846896,00.html |date=August 12, 2013 }}, "...twin giants of prep schools in size and in prestige ...", Accessed June 24, 2013</ref> [[Joe Lieberman]] called them feeder schools for [[Ivy League]] universities such as [[Harvard University|Harvard]] and [[Yale University|Yale]].<ref>Joseph I. Lieberman and Michael D'Orso, Simon & Schuster, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-7432-1440-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Qa3tAgqCP2AC&dq=andover+exeter+preppy&pg=PT25 ''In Praise of Public Life''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411085101/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qa3tAgqCP2AC&pg=PT25&lpg=PT25&dq=andover+exeter+preppy&source=bl&ots=xogPrtyCHP&sig=RGE_Ym5Jt6qlOd96Ply7dafnP5E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QrfIUeH4BciZyQGKwYCQBg&ved=0CMkBEOgBMBM |date=April 11, 2016 }}, "I arrived at Yale as an outsider, a public school kid among the preppies from Andover and Exeter ...", Accessed June 24, 2013</ref> A cultural image from the 1960s was young men who had "perfect white teeth" and wore Lacoste shirts,<ref>Adam Gussow, 1998 Pantheon Books, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nkHuFIHN4G0C&dq=andover+exeter+preppy&pg=PA76 ''Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404030058/https://books.google.com/books?id=nkHuFIHN4G0C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=andover+exeter+preppy&source=bl&ots=1jsdlM3uud&sig=IzIMUe9oaNtsd5uSGrD-PtkEn_0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QrfIUeH4BciZyQGKwYCQBg&ved=0CJYBEOgBMA0#v=onepage&q=andover%20exeter%20preppy&f=false |date=April 4, 2016 }}, "...Preppies were the Andover/Exeter/Miss Porter's crowd ...". Accessed June 24, 2013</ref> with a look easy to identify by young women at the time:

{{Blockquote|They can tell just by looking at him whether a boy goes to an Eastern prep school or not. Not only that, they can tell which prep school, usually St. Paul's or Hotchkiss or Groton or Exeter or Andover, or whatever; just by checking his hair and his clothes.|Tom Wolfe in his book ''Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine''<ref>Tom Wolfe, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd, 1967, [https://books.google.com/books?id=clk-TFmZJIQC&dq=andover+exeter+metaphor&pg=PA217 ''Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine''], "...Not only that, they can tell which prep school, usually St. Paul's or Hotchkiss or Groton or Exeter or Andover, or whatever; just by checking his hair and his clothes." Accessed June 24, 2013</ref>}}

The WASP ascendancy began to break down around the 1960s and onwards when the admissions policies of elite prep schools and universities began to emphasize merit rather than affluence.<ref name=Dietrich/> Still, images of exclusivity based on unfairness tended to remain. [[Gore Vidal]] suggested that Andover and Exeter had a "style that was quite witty."<ref>Gore Vidal, ''Esquire'', August 1, 2012, [http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-norman-mailer-0591 "Mailer and Vidal: The Big Schmooze"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805082806/http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-norman-mailer-0591 |date=August 5, 2014 }}, "... there was an Exeter/Andover style that was quite witty.". Accessed June 24, 2013</ref> If the WASP ascendancy has waned, the image of unaffordability continues to persist, with one writer deploring how the schools cost $30,000 and more annually.<ref>Jonathan Kozol, [https://archive.org/details/shameofnation00jona/page/59 <!-- quote=andover exeter. --> ''The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401203922/https://books.google.com/books?id=VWH2u0PKwyAC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=andover+exeter+metaphor&source=bl&ots=jhj0o3P7dR&sig=ZXtsGwvVFs4DQAwOtAbvVgZYfZE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uKfIUbfjG46tygGY5IDwDA&ved=0CMoBEOgBMBQ#v=onepage&q=andover%20exeter&f=false |date=April 1, 2016 }}, "...Exeter or Andover ... were able to absorb some $30,000 yearly for each pupil ...", Accessed June 24, 2013</ref>

Despite some shifts, the school's image continues to connote exclusivity, prestige, and academic quality.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} For example, Florida governor [[Ron DeSantis]] regularly criticized Andover, Exeter, and Groton in his [[stump speech]] during his [[Ron DeSantis 2024 presidential campaign|campaign for the Republican presidential nomination]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Confessore |first=Nicholas |date=2023-08-20 |title=How Ron DeSantis Joined the 'Ruling Class' — and Turned Against It |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/us/politics/ron-desantis-education.html |access-date=2024-03-17 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

The academy is often mentioned in books and film, and on television. Some examples include:
* Chapter 17 of ''[[The Catcher in the Rye]]'', in which Sally Hayes introduces [[Holden Caulfield|Holden]] to a boy who attended Andover.<ref>Spark Notes, Chapter Summary, Summary Chapter 17, [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/section7.rhtml The Catcher in the Rye] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505012333/http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/section7.rhtml |date=May 5, 2016 }}, "...Sally irritates Holden by flirting with a pretentious boy from Andover, another prep school, ...", Accessed June 21, 2013</ref>
* John Guare's play ''[[Six Degrees of Separation (play)|Six Degrees of Separation]]'' has one character who laments that his parents could not afford to send him to Andover or Exeter.<ref>ALEX WITCHEL, The New York Times, June 21, 1990,[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/21/theater/the-life-of-fakery-and-delusion-in-john-guare-s-six-degrees.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm The Life of Fakery and Delusion In John Guare's 'Six Degrees'] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827201723/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/21/theater/the-life-of-fakery-and-delusion-in-john-guare-s-six-degrees.html |date=August 27, 2016 }}, "...Stammers, a student at Connecticut College, who had attended Andover with both couples' children. ... ", Accessed June 21, 2013</ref>
* [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s ''[[This Side of Paradise]]'' has several characters who attended Andover.<ref>F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gutenberg, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/805/805-h/805-h.htm ''This Side of Paradise''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003001/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/805/805-h/805-h.htm |date=March 4, 2016 }}, "...There were Andover and Exeter with their memories of New England dead—large, college-like democracies ...". Accessed June 21, 2013.</ref>