<p>@omgjusttellme There is a bus every Wednesday that runs to the Walmart, but most things can be bought at the school bookstore, which sells all the textbooks and stationery. </p>
<p>What’s the first day like? It’s a lot of fun, mixed with a bit of healthy nervousness. There will be people floating around everywhere, lots of smiling faces and exchanges of “Hello’s” and “Welcome to Exeter!”. For me the campus seemed huge, and I ended up getting lost a few times in the first week. This will seem cliched but you really can ask anyone for help. Especially if you’re boarding and have bags to unload, a dorm proctor will always be around to help and introduce you to everyone else. I think on the firrst day/first weekend there is an outdoor barbecue and ice-cream social organized by the Principal where you can meet everybody and make tons of friends. It might seem overwhelming, but there are lots of others who are just as nervous and excited! </p>
<p>For a new lower, at first it might seem that all of the social cliques are set, which is definitely not true. The others in your class are eager to meet you, and you’ll be meeting friends left and right. Apart from that its not that different from being a new first year student.</p>
<p>Edit: And sorry about being late O:-) If you need anything at the start of the year or have a private question feel free to send a PM!</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats I’d say its difficult to generalize for everyone and really depends on the family. Boarding isn’t for everyone, but pretty much everyone I know at school maintains a healthy communication with their parents. Families are invited to come at Parent’s Weekends’ and are always welcome to visit their kids at school anytime. Being away from home gives kids a lot of responsibility with accompanying independence, which can be healthy as a preparation for living at college and eventually moving out into the real world. They also get a chance to understand more about themselves by living alone, and lets kids mature. However, some kids might not be ready for it the age of 14/15, which is entirely normal.</p>
<p>@omgjusttellme I’m assuming if there isn’t a walmart then there’ll be some kind of store where you can buy supplies bcuz there’s as huttle to the mall and other places</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats the kids who go there pretty much choose to go there. They grow accustomed to the lifestyle even if/when they do get homesick. Kids who go there generally love it and appreciate the great curriculm,independence,etc.</p>
<p>@needtoboard Hmm, there are social groups set inherently by dorms because you live with them, but really they are mostly random. Smaller subsets are usually by ethnicity or similarity of interests, but it’s really like most other schools in that aspect, albeit with a lot of diversity.</p>
<p>@omgjusttellme If I had to average among most of the students, 50 per month/roughly 200 a term would be my guess. Really depends on how often you plan on going out to eat/buying stuff. </p>
<p>I’ll answer everyone’s questions as soon as I get home to a computer.</p>
<p>@wcao9311 I finally got in contact with some of the members, quoted verbatim: “Resources: handouts (often made by Mr Feng or senior members), a few problem books, and lots of whiteboards. Membership: this number depends very heavily on the time of year. Towards the end of the year, membership died to about 20 people, but at the beginning of the year there were probably around 35 or 40.” Hope this helped a bit and to the previous questions about the math club and teams!</p>
<p>@boardingjunkie You won’t be placed in a language and have the option to choose from a variety of languages. The graduation requiremnent for languages I believe is the same for new 10th graders as it is 9th, 3 continuous years of that language.</p>
<p>@omgjusttellme If you’re in sports I’d say maybe 2 or 3 clubs in which you have an active role. The majority of the big ones meet at dinner once a week, so if you have mid-afternoon sports thats fine, but many of the sports overlap a little after 6 which is when a lot of the clubs start. You can always push for more, but some of them like Model UN and Mock Trial have bigger time committments than a political dinner club. </p>
<p>@needtoboard For preps and lowers there is a mildly enforced lights out at 11 (I say mildly because some dorms are stricter than others), so generally I was in bed around then and got up at ~7 for 8AM classes. You can easily get 9-10 hours if you manage time well, but I usually don’t start work until 8PM and work till 11PM. So as an average throughout the year I’d say 7-8 hours. </p>