16 McKenney Cir
Andover, MA 01810

Our school has many students. However, we don’t have enough teachers, especially since the school decided to go on a budget to build the new school. This has become an issue, especially for juniors like me, who are trying to get into a good college. Our guidance counselors are too overwhelmed with so many students and not enough of them, and so are the teachers. My guidance counselor promised me she would help me choose some colleges, but she never got to it because of how many other students she had. I felt like it was students and teachers against the budget. Bathrooms are constantly getting locked, and sometimes I have to go to the next floor up or even down just to access a decent bathroom, and it ends up causing more problems than solving them. I feel like many teachers truly have a passion for learning but they are being burnt out from having so many students to deal with, and it would be amazing if we could have more teachers instead of firing the ones we already have. I also feel like people are always on their phones, especially in class. Some people also get up to “go to the bathroom” to meet up with friends to take laps, which ends up costing them 10 minutes of class time. I feel like many students have so much potential, but thanks to the budget, they feel like their efforts aren’t being recognized. Most of the students are nice, if you are nice to them. I also had a good overall high school experience here, and made so many memories. Our athletics and clubs are also a strong part of Andover High, and a highly valued part of it. Team bonding, especially among sports, has caused a close knit community. One advice Id give to new students is to always be nice to everyone and be as unobtrusive as possible, because rumors spread really fast at this school. Be careful what you say in public and even what you post, because people will definitely talk about it at some point. Just focus on your studies, look presentable, join athletics and clubs, and people will automatically like you.

We absolutely had great experiences with West El so far. Great teachers and great school. The new Shawsheen project is an example of how this school is making progress that the community can benefit from.

very tiring and draining, tons of homework imo but maybe im just too lazy for it. not very diverse and kids constantly say slurs and discriminatory things. my friend is trans and was bullied for it here, i think she had to move because of it. kids (especially boys) are always screaming and doing inappropriate + nsfw things and barely get disciplined for it, once in a blue moon they do which i love to see though. hallways are also very loud especially the science hallwayfor some good parts, the field trips are great we go a lot of fun places. i also like the food in the cafeteria + it's free. some kids are nice too but most are the same and if you don't fit in w/them you probably will have a very small friend group (if you can get one)overall if you're going here it might be a pretty hard time (unless you're straight, white, cis, neurotypical, all that and you get good grades). but it's tolerable and you'll survive hopefully