Ask questions about Phillips Exeter Academy

what if your kid has all As and only one A_ in the school in first two years.

@infinityprep1234 Do you have a specific question regarding all A’s and an A-?

Not at all, thanks for posting the info.

@theidoit I have a 86 percent on the SSAT, i am applying to Exeter as a day student, I don’t need financial aid.I had terrible essays and not that good interview. Do I have a chance? Also, what is your SSAT score? Do people get rejected even if they don’t require financial aids?Can you tell me about your statistics, Ecs, SSAT, interview, essays, hooks, and anything else. Thank you very much, I hope to get a response from you.

@Andoverguy I have a feeling the OP is long gone…

Yes.

Can you be valedictorian if you’re a two year student? I’m coming in as a junior. Just curious (:

@jchen2002 The short answer is yes. https://www.exeter.edu/news/commencement-2017-0 See the Cox Awards and the Faculty Award listed on that page.

In terms of how often that has happened to a two year senior and how realistic it is to compete against four-year seniors with two years of prior experience in the PEA system…who knows.

The (single) valedictorian at Choate is the person chosen to give the valedictory (farewell) address, not necessarily the person with the top GPA, just FYI. Valedictorian at BS may not be based on the same criteria as other schools. To clarify (at least when our son graduated), “valedictorian” simply referred to the person who gave the valedictory address. The person with the highest GPA received a different honor and was not called “valedictorian” as the traditional meaning of that term describes whoever gives the good-bye speech.

The student speaker at Choate for 2017 was the elected President of the senior class, not any valedictorian or academically ranked student.

@ChoatieMom To your excellent point, what I’ve read or heard is that the recipients of those to academic awards are chosen by the faculty. They are certainly among the people with very high GPA’s but not necessarily the highest. The rigor of the courses taken is “weighted” in some non-disclosed way to determine the award winners.

From the perspective of four-year vs two-year seniors, I would not be surprised if first and second year PEA courses are weighted higher than equivalent courses taken at other high schools but that is pure speculation on my part.

The prize winners at Choate as you said are chosen by the faculty. They are typically students not necessarily with any weighted grades, but kids who show enthusiasm in a particular subject and or contributed to the community in some way.

If you are coming in as an academic rock star no. Your grades are pre determined.

There are no weighted courses at PEA, and valedictorian (faculty prize) and cox medals (top 5 students) are awarded based on GPA and nothing else. @jchen2002 2-year students can be valedictorian and/or win a cox medal, and that actually did happen within the last 10 years (can’t remember exactly when…). The only students who can’t win a cox medal are one-year students. A lot of times students who enter PEA later on (2-year and 1-year students) end up with higher GPAs partly because they usually have a lot of requirements waived. Those requirements are often some of the courses that can trip up students grade-wise the most (the U.S. history sequence, physics, certain math courses). Hope that helps.