The academics at Mercersburg are quite solid in all respects. The average class size at Mercersburg is 8-10 students, usually arranged in a seminar style using the Harkness method, especially in the English, History, and Religion departments. Other classroom configurations are usually small tables of four or individual desks in most science classes. Mercersburg runs on a system of classroom rotations, where students course choices are assigned to one of seven (formerly six) rotations, and the order of these are from highest to lowest, shifting back one every day. Since most students only take five classes a term, one or two of those rotations is a break or study period. Students in performing arts or music performance groups use one of those periods for rehearsal. The academic day runs from 8:00 AM to 3:40 PM. At Mercersburg, the course offerings may not be quite as extensive as some larger schools like The Hill School or Lawrenceville, but the many courses it offers are very well taught, and most of them are tested and established programs. Mercersburg offers an abundance of AP Courses, 40 of them to be precise, but the school is being careful to make sure that not all upper-level electives are AP-affiliated. A good example of this is the Math department, where the school offers many courses above the BC Calculus AP level, including Linear Algebra, Multi-variable Calculus, and in one case a custom course designed for a student who has completed both of those. Mercersburg has very strong history and science departments, offering a good deal of elective courses, many of which are chosen because of special expertise in that area. A good example of this is a rotating series of ecology and whole-organism biology courses taught by a faculty member who also works as a muskrat specialist in the Cumberland Valley. The academic environment is competitive, but its effect is lessened because teachers strive to make the classroom about learning and discussion first, with test scores and class-rank (something that the school rarely mentions) as a lesser consideration. Students are competing more against themselves than others, although some competitions take place in class for its fun and educational value. Of course, no institution is without its flaws, Mercersburg included. One concern is that the class day schedule is congested, and often times classes can run long and make it difficult to proceed to the next class in the rotation with enough time. Irvine Hall, the building where classes take place, becomes very crowded, and there is no space for students to keep their belongings (like lockers). The Modern and Classical Languages department used to be very short on faculty, and classes are larger than they should be sometimes (the largest would be 15-16 students, but that issue is now very uncommon, since Mercersburg has many new foreign language faculty. Overall, academic problems are minimal, and when students are facing academic issues, the school is ready to offer expansive resources for support and guidance, especially from the very well run Learning Services Center. Outside the classroom, Mercersburg is a very intellectual place. There are many seminars and lectures by visiting artists, university scholars, scientists, and journalists, many of which are of national renown. Just last year, actor Benicio Del Toro, Mercersburg Class of 1985, led an acting and theatre workshop with the Arts Department director Laurie Mufson and two theatre classes for two days. Other notable speakers have included Stanford neurobiology professor and author Robert Sapolsky, journalist Robin Wright, and poet laureate Robert Pinsky. To sum up, Mercersburg boasts a very robust academic environment, which is strong both inside and outside the classroom, and students and faculty interaction is extremely frequent and encouraged. Not mentioned earlier, since many faculty live on campus (many of them in the dormitories themselves), during reasonable hours they strive to make themselves available for student questions when they are at home.