I’m a freshman (prep) at Exeter, and am happy to answer any questions or concerns about PEA. I applied from my hometown of South Pasadena CA, but my family has relocated to the town of Exeter, so I can offer prospective as a non-New Englander and a a day student. I play football, wrestle, and row crew, sing in two choral groups, am a member of several clubs, and host a WPEA show.
What do you wish you had known before coming to Exeter? Also, what was your favorite class?
Thanks for doing this, by the way. Just got the email and am so happy.
@Beat.andover - interesting to note your admission experience of moving from CA after admit (prospective non-newenglander and day-student). How does that work - did you apply as a day student to start with or changed it afterwards. just wondering if being a day-student has any advantage in getting admitted. Also can a student change residence status after the admit ?
Hey everyone, I’m a current senior at Exeter who can answer questions too!
@soxdad I can’t answer for @Beat.andover about their family, but on competitiveness of the day student vs. boarder pool, it really depends on the year. In my year, the day students are crazy talented, so I bet it was quite difficult to get in my year as a day stud. You may think, how is this possible? There are so fewer day students and so many spots? But in reality, because people in the local area are aware that Exeter exists, many/most of the super talented kids apply, whereas across the world, Exeter is only known by a niche of people, so only a handful of the super talented kids apply. (By handful, I mean handful of the entire U.S.)
@LogStar100 Before coming to Exeter, I wish that I’d been more aware of how much of a culture shock I’d have. I’m from the rural Midwest and my family is not wealthy, so coming to Exeter where half the kids are significantly wealthy was something for me to get used to.
I also wish that I’d known that Exeter is so willing to help with something that you need, whether that be you can’t afford a plane ticket home, or you can’t find your lioncard, or your dog got sick at home and you need support, or you are really struggling in physics and you need help… Exeter finds a way to help, but you have to ask for that help.
Right now, my favorite class is Chemistry. I’m not currently taking it, but I love chemistry so much. Out of the classes I took last term, I really loved my English class and my math class.
How long does it take to finish HW? How many hours of sleep do you get? R u required to take fall sports? I just got in today and I’m just wondering
@Bunny8280 Homework can take anywhere from 2-5hours depending on the night. I probably got an average of 3.5hours last term.
I usually get 6-7.5hours of sleep.
You’re required to do a sport all 3 seasons, or a fitness class or a club sport.
As a prep, you’ll take prep PE unless you do a sport.
Thank you for the response. I am really not a fall sport guy so is weight room an option? Can I go to the gym and play basketball as I saw some kids do hat during my tour (October).
@Bunny8280 For me, I’d agree and say it can vary from 2 to 5 hours of HW, but for upperclassmen, club head and dorm duties can take up just as much time as a class, sometimes more depending on the night.
I usually get 7 hours of sleep a night.
Like @GryffinHunter said, you’re required to do something athletic all three seasons, but uppers and seniors can choose to not do something athletic for one term upper year, one term senior year. “Something athletic” can mean doing the play or musical (they have a short athletic part of the day), doing a JV or Varsity sport, dance, doing a club sport like club soccer or club basketball, or doing a fitness class.
@LogStar100
I also wish I had known how great the assembly speakers are. They somehow 9/10 times find amazing people who are so successful, creative, and inspiring.
I wish I had known how many opportunities Exeter will give you to go abroad and how supportive they are.
I’ve gone/am going to France for three weeks, The Island School for a term, the Adirondacks for Two Weeks, and Russia for a month.
My favorite class was Evolution, which I took last term. There were only 5 students and our conversations were great!
(I’m a current Lower, btw.)
@LogStar100 I wish I had known more about homework structure. What I mean by that: in Latin (favorite class) we usually start a lesson by learning the new grammar. Then we translate a story and learn the new vocabulary for the lesson. Then we’ll have a quiz on the new grammar and vocabulary. Most classes have some kind of pattern like that. If I had known more about that pattern for each class, it would’ve been more helpful for organizing my work. Also, take your transition to Harkness learning slowly. Don’t feel as if you must be comfortable with it from the get-go and have to talk all the time.
@Bunny8280 Homework can be anywhere from 3-6 hours a night. I get around 6 and a half hours of sleep. As for sports in the fall, you could just take PE, and workout when you are free.
Any notable clubs that are interesting?
Where can I get an academic calendar?
Thanks
Thank you thank you thank you Exeter 
How much “free time” or time to yourself, do most students have at Exeter. For those in or went though 10th grade, I applied for 10, do you think missing freshman year would be impact me in a negative way?
@Bunny8280 New lowers are great! I was a new lower several years ago, and many people say that we’re at Exeter for the perfect amount of time. There are some traditions that you will miss out on as a new lower that it sucks to miss, but overall, the Exeter experience as a new lower is a good one.
Regarding “free time,” it’s a bit complicated. The Exeter schedule has a lot of gaps built into the day, so you’ll have time, but that time is often filled with club work and homework and some social time. As an underclassmen, though, your weekends will probably have more true free time to spend as you please, especially if you don’t do sports (but I recommend sports!).
NOTEABLE CLUBS: Feminist Club (we do cool activist things!), GSA (gender and sexuality alliance), Dem Club or Pub Club but in Dem club, we are pretty active during campaign season, which is really cool. Through Dem Club, I have seen or met Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Lincoln Chafee, Maggie Hassan, all Dems in NH, and more. WPEA! It’s the campus radio station, and I’d recommend it for anyone. Chemistry club is great too. Join ESSO Clubs! ESSO are the community service clubs on campus, and I think there something like 100 of them, so there’s something for everyone. Besides all these, there are many AMAZING clubs on campus, and there will be a club fair in the fall that showcases every club.
@inlabMC I’m not sure that Exeter has a public copy of it anymore, but I’ll look. You’ll definitely get access to the academic calendar once you enroll.
@infinityprep1234 Congratulations! Feel free to ask us any questions.
http://exeter.edu/current-students Here are a lot of helpful links for all of you newbies! @inlabMC there is this year’s calendar and the daily schedule here as well.
beat.andover Are you glad you chose latin? Is it your only language or a second language? Thank you.
Hi all,
Before we decide, can we discuss course selection? Who should we contact for this? Will there be an assigned counselor/advisor to a student from prep all the way to senior?
@hpmindo the exeter website has all of the courses listed. your child will be assigned an advisor.