Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is a coeducational university preparatory private school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12, including postgraduate students. Located in Exeter, New Hampshire and founded in 1781, it is the sixth-oldest boarding school in the United States.
Phillips Exeter Academy
1781
- John Phillips
- Elizabeth Phillips[nb 1]
300185
217
- 1,078[nb 2]
12 students
6:1
700 acres (280 ha)
Lively Maroon and Grey
- 22 Interscholastic sports
- 62 Interscholastic teams
Big Red
- NAIS
- TABS
PEAN
$1.5 billion (June 30, 2023)
$64,789 (boarding)
$50,604 (day)[2]
Exeter's financial endowment stands at $1.5 billion as of June 30, 2023, and its $1.4 million endowment per student exceeds that of most colleges and universities. Along with its athletic rival Phillips Academy (Andover), Exeter is one of only two co-ed high schools in the United States to both admit students on a need-blind basis and provide financial aid covering 100% of students' demonstrated financial need. The academy's financial resources also allow Exeter to teach classes using the Harkness system, a seminar-based conference format where a small group of students interacts with minimal teacher involvement. In the 1930s, Exeter became the first school to adopt the Harkness system.
Exeter has educated several generations of the New England establishment and prominent American politicians, as well as entrepreneurs and business leaders. The academy's list of notable alumni includes U.S. President Franklin Pierce, U.S. Secretary of War Robert Lincoln, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Academics[edit]
Courses and grading[edit]
Exeter uses an 11-point grading system, in which an A is worth 11 points and an E is worth 0 points.[68] The academy's student-teacher ratio is 6:1, and 93% of Exeter faculty have postgraduate degrees.[65]
Students who attend Exeter for four years are required to take courses in the arts, classical or modern languages, computer science, English, health & human development, history, mathematics, religion, and science. Most students receive an English diploma, but students who take the full series of Latin and Ancient Greek classes receive a Classical diploma.[69]
Although Exeter administrators helped originate the Advanced Placement program,[70] Exeter no longer offers AP courses, asserting that some of its courses "go well beyond the AP curriculum" and sometimes reach "the pace and level of college courses."[68] Exeter was one of the first private schools to begin phasing out AP classes, starting in the early 2000s.[71]
Harkness teaching method[edit]
Most classes at Exeter are taught around Harkness tables. No classrooms have rows of chairs, and lectures are rare. The completion of the Phelps Science Center in 2001 enabled all science classes, which previously had been taught in more conventional classrooms, to be conducted around the same Harkness tables.[72] Elements of the Harkness method, including the Harkness table, are now used in schools around the world.[73][74]
Finances[edit]
Tuition and financial aid[edit]
In the 2023–2024 school year, Exeter charged boarding students $64,789 and day students $50,604, plus other mandatory and optional fees.[93] 44% of Exeter students are on financial aid, which covers, on average, $56,251 for boarders and $36,353 for day students.[65]
Exeter and Andover are the only two co-educational prep schools in the United States that both admit students on a need-blind basis and offer financial aid that covers 100% of demonstrated financial need for every admitted student.[94][95][96] Exeter also guarantees free tuition for families with incomes under $75,000.[95]
Endowment and expenses[edit]
Exeter's financial endowment stands at $1.5 billion as of June 30, 2023.[65] In its Internal Revenue Service filings for the 2021-22 school year, Exeter reported total assets of $1.91 billion, net assets of $1.71 billion, investment holdings of $1.22 billion, and cash holdings of $242.6 million. Exeter also reported $124.0 million in program service expenses and $25.3 million in grants (primarily student financial aid).[97]
Exeter's endowment is the third-largest of any American secondary school, behind Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii ($15.1 billion as of June 2022)[98] and the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania (over $16 billion as of July 2023).[99] Its $1.4 million endowment per student exceeds that of most colleges and universities.[3]
Athletics[edit]
Exeter offers 65 interscholastic sports teams at the varsity and junior varsity level, 27 intramural sports teams, and various fitness classes. All students are required to participate in athletics.
Water polo, wrestling, swimming, cycling, soccer, squash, cross country, crew, and ice hockey teams have won recent New England championships.[114]
Exeter has graduated multiple elite athletes in the past few decades. For example, crew Olympians include Anne Marden '76, Rajanya Shah '92, Sabrina Kolker '98, and Andréanne Morin '02. Georgia Gould is an Olympic medalist in mountain biking, while Joy Fahrenkrog is a member of the United States Archery Team. Duncan Robinson plays for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association. Tom Cavanagh played in the National Hockey League. Sam Fuld played 8 years of Major League Baseball, and became the General Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020.
Exeter's main rival is Phillips Academy Andover. The two schools have been competing against each other in both baseball and football since 1878 (in those first games, Exeter defeated Andover 12–0 in baseball, while Andover won the football game, 22-0).[115] Today, Exeter-Andover weekend is still a large tradition in both schools.
Other athletic opponents include a variety of New England private schools such as Belmont Hill School, Berwick Academy, Deerfield Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, Brewster Academy, Choate Rosemary Hall, Groton School, The Governor's Academy, Loomis Chaffee, Tabor Academy, Milton Academy, Avon Old Farms, Worcester Academy, Cushing Academy, and various other northeastern prep and boarding schools.[116]
Sexual misconduct[edit]
Exeter has struggled to deal effectively with multiple incidents in which students were sexually abused by faculty and staff.
An incident of sexual misconduct that occurred in the basement of the church in late 2015 first brought criticism to the school.[129]
A more in-depth investigation by an outside law firm uncovered sexual misconduct that occurred at Exeter since the 1970s and involved at least 11 members of the faculty and staff. The report harshly criticized the school for not supporting the victims when they reported the incidents and for a pattern of not including these allegations in the faculty members' files. In April 2016, Exeter hired a law firm of Holland & Knight LLP to investigate allegations of past misconduct by Exeter faculty and staff. A report was released in August 2018 providing an overview of the investigation and the findings of Holland & Knight LLP.[130]
Through this process, Holland & Knight was assigned and completed 28 investigations. Of those 28 matters, 26 involved reported misconduct of a sexual nature by an Exeter faculty or staff member towards an Exeter student occurring at various points spanning from the 1950s to the 2010s. During the course of these 28 investigations, Holland & Knight conducted approximately 294 interviews of over 170 individuals.[131] The persons interviewed were located in various states, as well as in multiple countries. According to the findings, the school maintained two sets of files, and would keep the more sensitive material away from Human Resources and prospective employers. Some of these faculty members would then leave Exeter but get hired at peer schools. In at least one case, the teacher then molested students at their next school. The allegations involve staffers who have since been fired, left the school or have died. Several have been named in the past by the school. In a letter, Exeter officials apologized to the school community, including victims who have come forward and those who have remained silent.[132][133]
Emblems[edit]
Academy seal[edit]
Exeter has two chief symbols: a seal depicting a river, sun and beehive, incorporating the academy's mottos; and the Lion Rampant. The seal has similarities to that used by Phillips Academy—an emblem designed by Paul Revere—and its imagery is Masonic in nature. A beehive often represented the industry and cooperation of a lodge or, in this case, the studies and united efforts of Academy students. The Lion Rampant is derived from the Phillips family's coat of arms, and suggests that all of the academy's alumni are part of the "Exonian family".
Exeter has three mottoes on the academy seal: Non Sibi (Latin 'Not for oneself') indicating a life based on community and duty; Finis origine pendet (Latin 'The end depends on the beginning') reflecting Exeter's emphasis on hard work as preparation for a fruitful adult life; and Χάριτι Θεοῦ (Greek 'By the grace of God') reflecting Exeter's Calvinist origins, of which the only remnant today is the school's requirement that most students take two courses in religion or philosophy.[134]
School colors and the alumnus tie[edit]
There are several variants of school colors associated with Phillips Exeter Academy that range from crimson red and white to burgundy red and silver. Black is also a color associated with the school to a lesser extent. The official school colors are lively maroon and gray. The traditional school tie is a burgundy red tie with alternating diagonal silver stripes and silver lions rampant. The school’s athletic teams today wear the Pantone Matching System color PMS201.
Early alumni of Exeter include US Senator Daniel Webster (1796);[135] John Adams Dix (1809)[136] a Secretary of the Treasury and Governor of New York; US President Franklin Pierce (1820);[137] physician and founder of Sigma Pi Phi Henry McKee Minton (1851); Abraham Lincoln's son and 35th Secretary of War Robert Lincoln (1860);[138] Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. (1870);[139] Richard and Francis Cleveland;[140] "grandfather of football" Amos Alonzo Stagg (1880);[141] Pulitzer Prize-winning author Booth Tarkington (1889)[142] and Hugo W. Koehler (1903), American naval spy during the Russian Revolution and step-father of United States Senator Claiborne Pell.[143][144] John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace and Peace Breaks Out, was a 1945 graduate; both novels are set at the fictional Devon School, which serves as an analog for his alma mater.[145]
Exeter alumni pursue careers in various fields. Other alumni noted for their work in government include Gifford Pinchot,[146] Lewis Cass,[147] Judd Gregg,[148] Jay Rockefeller,[149] Kent Conrad,[150] John Negroponte,[151] Bobby Shriver,[152] Robert Bauer[153] and Peter Orszag.[154] Alumni notable for their military service include Secretary of Navy George Bancroft, Benjamin Butler,[155] and Charles C. Krulak.[156] Authors George Plimpton,[157] John Knowles,[145] Gore Vidal,[158] John Irving (whose stepfather taught at Exeter),[159] Robert Anderson,[160] Dan Brown (whose father taught at Exeter),[161] Peter Benchley,[162] James Agee,[163] Chang-Rae Lee,[164] Debby Herbenick,[165] Stewart Brand,[166] Norb Vonnegut,[167] and Roland Merullo[168] also attended the academy.
Other notable alumni include businessmen Stockton Rush, Joseph Coors,[169] Michael Lynton,[170] Tom Steyer,[171] Mark Zuckerberg,[172] David Goel,[173] and Stephen Mandel;[174] lawyer Bradley Palmer;[175] entrepreneur and presidential candidate Andrew Yang,[176] journalist Drew Pearson,[177] Dwight Macdonald,[178] producer and entrepreneur Lauren Selig, James F. Hoge, Jr.,[179] Paul Klebnikov,[180] Trish Regan,[181] Suzy Welch,[182] and Sarah Lyall;[183] actors Michael Cerveris,[184] Catherine Disher,[185] Jack Gilpin,[186] and Alessandro Nivola;[187] film director Howard Hawks;[188] musicians Phil Wilson,[189] Bill Keith,[190] Benmont Tench,[191] China Forbes,[192] Ketch Secor,[193] Win Butler[194] and William Butler;[195] historians Robert Cowley,[196] Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,[197] and Brooks D. Simpson;[198] writers Roxane Gay[199] and Joyce Maynard;[200] screenwriters Tom Whedon[201] and Tom Mankiewicz;[202] baseball players Robert Rolfe[203] and Sam Fuld;[204] educators Claudine Gay,[205] Jared Sparks[206] and Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.;[207] composer Adam Guettel;[208] musician and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway, humorist Greg Daniels;[209] mathematicians Shinichi Mochizuki,[210] David Mumford,[211] and Lloyd Shapley, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics;[212] economist Paul Romer, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics,[213] computer scientist Adam D'Angelo (co-founder of Quora);[214] and philosopher Daniel Dennett.[215] Serial killer H.H. Holmes also attended the school.[216]
Other academic programs[edit]
Summer school[edit]
Each summer, Phillips Exeter hosts over 780 students from various schools for a five-week program of academic study. The summer program accommodates a diverse student body typically derived from over 40 different states and 45 foreign countries.[217]
Exeter's summer school is divided into two programs of study: Upper School, which offers a wide variety of classes to students currently enrolled in high school who are entering grades ten through 12 as well as serving postgraduates; and Access Exeter, a program for students entering grades eight and nine, which offers accelerated study in the arts, sciences and writing as well as serving as an introduction to the school itself. Access Exeter curriculum consists of six academic clusters; each cluster consists of three courses organized around a focused central theme. Some of Exeter's summer school programs also give students the opportunity to experience studies outside of Exeter's campus environment, including interactions with other top schools and students, experience with Washington D.C., and travel abroad.[218]
Workshops[edit]
The academy offers a number of workshops and conferences for secondary school educators. These include the Exeter Math Institute; the Exeter Humanities Institute; the Math, Science and Technology Conference; the Exeter Astronomy Conference; and the Shakespeare Conference.[219]
The "On Beyond Exeter" program offers one-week seminars for alumni. Most courses are held at the academy, but some meet in the locations central to the course's topic.
Historical endeavors[edit]
In 1952, Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, Harvard, Princeton and Yale published the study General Education in School and College: A Committee Report. The report recommended examinations that would place students after admission to college. This program evolved into the Advanced Placement Program.[220][70]
In 1965 Exeter became the second charter member (after Andover) of the School Year Abroad program.[221] The program allows students to reside and study a foreign language abroad.