<p>Hi... can anyone who's been to Access Exeter tell me what it's like???</p>
<p>This person I know keeps talking about how much fun it is and all, but won't tell me HOW it's fun... isn't it just taking classes for 5 weeks like in school except it's in Exeter???</p>
<p>And is it so fun that it'd be worth that huge price? </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>the thing is with summer camps... most of them are filled with parties and dresses and lots and lots of dorm fun. you can get as much of the education out of it as you want, but seriously, the majority of the fun comes from your newly acquainted friends :)</p>
<p>the experience is definitely worth it. of course the question is whether you're after the experience of the education</p>
<p>I have posted a few times about Access Exeter. My son attended a couple of years ago, and we feel the experience was really worthwhile. As with anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. "Fun" and "summer camp" are two phrases that don't spring to mind when I recall his time at Access. Let me start by saying what we expected to get out of those 5 weeks. He is our first child, and we knew next to nothing about what boarding schools were like other than they seemed like a very good path for his high school years based on our friends' experiences with their children. That said, the 5 weeks at Exeter in 7th grade seemed like a way to 'try out' the life he would be living if we went ahead and applied that fall. If he hated it, then we save ourselves a lot of money and stress. If he loved it, then we would forge ahead with our eyes open.
It ended up being a transformative experience. Academically, he was challenged. Socially, he learned about living with others and being responsible for getting himself where he needed to be. He met kids from all over the world - living in minimally ethnicly diverse suburban New England this was a plus. Did he have fun? Of course. The polar bear swim at dawn on Rye beach holds many memories. However, as one of the Deans at Exeter often cautions prospective students, Exeter is not " Camp Happy". He worked hard - 2-3 hours a night over glorious summer evenings. This can be tough.
However, he was happy he did it. Especially when the 'can you live independently ' questions crop up in interviews and on applications. As parents, we knew he could, and thrive doing it.
Bear in mind - not all the teachers that you will have during the summer are regular session teachers at Exeter. One of the three was an Exeter teacher. However, his dorm faculty family was a regular session teacher, and she was very supportive during his eventual application to Exeter. So, advice. Be your best self - even when having 'dorm fun'. Grace and courtesy to all faculty and staff will get you far. Also, if you do well and your final teacher comments are glowing, you can ask to have them included in your fall application. They will NOT be automatically included, as the summer school/access Exeter is wholly separate from regular term applicants. Be clear and follow up with making sure your ID numbers merge once you decide to apply in the fall - we kept his original summer ID number. For a while he had two files and it was confusing, they thought there were 2 applicants with a similar name (nickname on one from summer and birth name on fall app).</p>
<p>liddyb4</p>
<p>Has your child done "other" summer experiences? </p>
<p>My son has done the summer CTY residential camps. I know Exeter is a longer program ( 5 weeks vs CTY 3 weeks). Aside from length I was wondering how the academics compare.</p>
<p>I am particularly interested in responses to notnim's question because I have a son qualified for CTY and a daughter applying to access exeter. (She hasn't taken sat yet to qualify for CTY and wants to be gone longer :( ). I would think that the academics would be more intense at CTY, just by looking at the sample syllabi, but have no firsthand knowledge of either program. Of course, if daughter doesn't get FA, she can't go.</p>
<p>I wish I could respond with a great, comparative answer. Access Exeter was the only thing he has ever done other than sports camps. Embarrassingly, I had never heard of CTY until I went on this website, and that was only after we had completed the app process last year. Anecdotely, the consensus from past post seems to indicate to me that the CTY kids (as a group) are less socially comfortable or the program may be more homogeneous. I may have gotten the wrong idea. I do remember that the Access program tried to encourage social interaction on the weekends with dances and movies, outings to the beach or baseball games, long weekend away in Boston, and through inter-dorm contests. A mini slice of BS life. As an aside, the Access kids do not mix with the older summer session kids (10-12th grade) in any way. Separate dorms, classes, outings, dances, and sports.<br>
Access kids seem to draw from a broad swath of backgrounds and interests. Again, we went into it blind - no information of any kind other than the Exeter website. My son was in the math and science oriented cluster, and his roommate did the Land and Sea. I would say those clusters had a bit more homework than the arts based one. Before going to Access, I assumed (wrongly) that it was some kind of feeder for the regular admissions cycle. Strangely, very few kids actually apply for admission to 9th after going through the program. On the other hand, I feel that by doing the program, he did have an edge when he DID apply. I think my son is great, but he is hardly remarkable in the ways sometimes described by CC posters. Nice kid, Ok SSAT scores, good grades from a private middle school, and sports. The only thing that distinguished him from the other 400 kids that fit that profile was Access participation.</p>
<p>Thanks liddyb4!</p>
<p>CTY kids are , as far as I can tell, not socially awkward. Many at least start out a bit shy because they are very smart kids who can't find a 'critical mass' of smart kids to hang with. But there is a strong social scene at CTY camps with dances and other social events - it varies from site to site.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about Access Exeter, but CTY is the bomb as far as my daughter is concerned and I don't think the kids were awkward. Anyone interested should follow up on the summer programs forum here on CC. My daughter still thinks the weeks at CTY were the best weeks of her life.</p>
<p>Bump for science fan and haapykids.</p>
<p>Thanks Liddy!</p>