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Phillips Exeter Academy

School rating 4 / 5 by

20 Main Street Exeter NH 03833 United States
Boarding
9th to PG
Day
9th to PG
Gender
Coed

Academic

Phillips Exeter Academy review by .

Faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy were extremely accessible. They lived inside the dorms, and even if they don't they all have an affiliation with at least one dormitory and are required to do dorm duty, which essentially means they will get to know ALL the students in that dorm AT LEAST by first name, last name, and class. All the faculty in my dorm knew me much better than that. I had several conversations with them about any and everything. Faculty are there because they are genuinely interested in the development of the students. They are very approachable. I think I was always shy talking to adults when I was a child, but being in that environment allowed me to open up and talk! Also, living with intelligent faculty inevitably gives you access to informal "tutoring". I lived in a dorm with a health instructor, math professor, history teacher, and language teacher. Needless to say, when I needed homework help, there was always someone who could help me aside from my peers! Anytime you hear about Exeter, you will hear about the Harkness table. I won't even bother to give a definition. But the benefits of this system are invaluable. You cannot hide at the Harkness, but it rather forces you to think critically, express yourself, and to work in groups. In fact, around the Harkness, you sometimes learn more about yourself than you do about the subject you and your peers are studying.

College Counseling

Exeter's college counseling program is intense. We had our first introduction to the college counseling....

Sample insights on college counseling

  • They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...
  • For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

The admissions process was like a mini college admissions process. Be prepared to take a....

Sample insights on admissions

  • For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

Exeter was a terrific experience -- a world-class education, erudite and accessible professors, passionate and collegial peers... it can't get any better than that! Students were competitive but at the same time down to earth and genuinely interested in helping each other. The friends I made at Exeter are still my closest friends. You become more than peers; in many ways, your peers turn into your extended family, forever bound together by your common experience....

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