Exeter Q&A

As far preseason arrival for varsity athletes, it is traditionally only for fall sports and by invitation only I believe. Registration for courses happens in the summer and usually you don’t get final course schedules until a few days before the term starts. I think roommate and dorm info come out mid August as far as I can remember.

Preseason is for varsity fall sports only and by invite. Swimmers may be invited if there is a strong chance of them making the varsity waterpolo team. This would be something to contact coach mills about of you have expressed your interest in WoPo.

We finally got around to doing my daughter’s course selection last night. She’s an entering prep. Could anyone else have used a bit of help with that? It was so confusing! Her interests are music, dance and theater and she didn’t want to take classes in them her first year because she didn’t want to “waste” them. At one point she somehow decided that her only option was “History of Japan.” We had to steer her off the cliff. (No problem with the course itself – just that it had nothing to do with her or her academic interests at this point. She can take “History of Japan” later when she’s figured out her path more!)

@ProudDramaMama Don’t forget that your daughter’s interests can be pursued as extracurriculars (drama club, ensemble, etc). At least for the first year, focus on getting the graduation requirements - and getting to know different subjects to figure out her path.

@ProudDramaMama my advice is prep fall let her start with an elective that is needed for graduation, that will be equally interesting and challenging for her. As this is the one term that doesn’t count toward her gpa, it’s best to take an elective that is outside her comfort zone. One of the main reasons we allowed our kids to attend BS was to discover what their passions were. Guess what, none of them left PEA with the same passions they entered with. I won’t bore you with the details- but all left as unique individuals with totally new interests that we could not have predicted. Our youngest is entering college as a Russian, philosophy major. The ivies she was admitted to commented on how great it was that she had such a unique perspective. Her senior year classes included marine biology, ethics of Silicon Valley and an advanced photography class. None of which applied to her intended major.

@ProudDramaMama - know what you mean about prep course selection being confusing. My DS and I looked briefly last week, certainly you have to think about the full 4 years given the freedom you have to do many courses in any year you like.

@vegas1 - DS said he wants to take Russian. I was well pleased given he has no prior exposure to it and that he doesn’t want to take Latin/Greek. If he likes it then there’s the possibility of spending time in St. Petersburg.

Even if you are not invited a day early for Varsity Fall sports, will you still be able to try out for them?

@balbinusthrax I think you should still be able to try out for them.

Hi guys! I was admitted to PEA as a prep and I have several questions about the course selection (mostly CSC related).

  1. Is CSC 405 only one-term long? Or is it a full-year course?
  2. It says on the course catalog that “students with prior programming experience may prefer this course to CSC205 or CSC208, though no such experience is required for this course.”
    To current PEA students who are or have enrolled in this course, do you see a huge gap between those with experience in coding (C+, Java, Python, etc) and comp-sci novices? In short, is it too much of a challenge to enter CSC 405 without such background? If so, would you recommend CSC 205 or CSC 208 and what is the difference between the two?
  3. Would I still be able to take CSC 590 in my upper year even if I enter the sequence with CSC 205/208?
  4. How much time do you have to commit to comp-sci outside the classroom? Is the homework reasonable enough?
  5. Do students who are more into STEM than humanities take religion in their prep/lower year, or do they tend to wait until senior winter/spring?
  6. Do you recommend finishing the 3 non-US history HIS courses in prep year? – HIS 203 (Classical Greece), HIS 204 (Classical Rome), and HIS 205 (The Medival World) seem to be connected to each other material-wise. Or since it’s all pass/fail in the first term, would it be better to take advantage of that and take CSC 405?

Thank you!

If you start prep year in MAT21t whats the general yearly progression (standard pathways)? What year would we usually get to calculus?

Prep
MA21T
MA 220
MA 230
Lower
MA 310
MA 320
MA 330
Upper year
MA 400
MA 410- intro to calc

Then the 4 term calc sequence begins and if you continued to take math every term you will finish BC by graduation.

Is there a National Honors Society chapter in PEA?

How many girls are there usually in Amen or Dvnbar?

@B1ackUnicorn Because they’re large dorms, I’d say like 60?

@B1ackUnicorn Amen is smaller then Dunbar and mostly singles (also one of the few dorms with an elevator). I can give you a closer number once I get back from my business trip. Both are centrally located between the academic buildings and fields.

Exeter pushes students hard. The volume of work is intense and the students are definitely competitive. The students are also wonderfully open minded and supportive of each other. My daughters are exhausted the last few weeks of each term. There are many opportunities for support both academically and emotionally…but Exeter is a tough ride. It remains to be seen whether they will be better prepared for College/University…I certainly hope so. As students on financial aid my kids have never been made to feel awkward about their financial status. Kind, generous, curious, outgoing, high energy describes most of the PEA students we have encountered. Parents are warm and friendly as well.

The dress code is more relaxed than you might think. No athletic wear in class and no t-shirts. Golf/polo style shirts are fine. Most students wear jeans to class.

@vegas1 Thanks! I just wanted to know about how many girls in each around per year.

@B1ackUnicorn looks like last year around 40 in Amen and 65 in Dunbar. I asked my daughter today if she had to go back and pick a dorm knowing what she knows as a senior- which would she pick? She surprised me with McConnell.

I’m personally hoping for Webster, Cilley, or Wentworth.