What's the biggest difference between Exeter and Andover?

<p>^^ are you going to back that up?</p>

<p>When speaking of sTudents of color, maybe we should distinguish underrepresented students of color versus over represented students of color. My recollection is that sps has about 35% students of color of which approx 5% each are hispanic and A-A ( total 10% ). The rest would seem to fall into students of color that are not underrepresented.</p>

<p>I assume that when you refer to students of color that are not underrepresented, you are referring mostly to Asians?</p>

<p>Timmeister, yes........Ask any asian if they feel underrepresented when they try to break through the glass ceiling imposed upon them during the college admission process.
By the way, I understand that the boarding school review is somewhat outdated as is petersen's but, the BSR has exeter studdents of color at 12%.</p>

<p>Exeter is need aware. They plan to go to need blind if they hit their fundraising goals. Right now applying for aid does affect your chance of admission. </p>

<p>Remember, increasing financial aid costs more than the simple expense of the aid awards. First, by enrolling fewer full-pay students, you have fewer families that can afford large gifts to the school. Since all of these schools rely on annual giving to meet their budgets, and occasional larger gifts to grow their endowments, this is a real, and substantial cost.</p>

<p>There are other costs that are less obvious. Increasing diversity of wealth of families impacts the courses the school can offer: There are plenty of students from modest income families who are smart enough and talented enough to handle the Exeter curriculum. However, many such kids have not attended top private or wealthy suburban schools through junior high. They may not have both parents with college or advanced degrees. Therefore, there is a group of potentital students who may be plenty smart enough, but who are not as well educated as the typical Exeter student. As an example, consider math. Most Exeter 9th grade students are taking geometry or something more advanced. However, they do offer Algebra 1 for those who have not taken it. Now Exeter easily could fill its 9th grade with students who have taken Algebra 1. But if it did that, it would exclude these "smart, but their school did not offer algebra in middle school" students. This is rarely a problem for well off students whose parents can pay full freight. They usually assure that their kids get a good middle school education. Opening the doors to kids with talent, but fewer opportunities requires offering courses to get them up to speed. </p>

<p>So offer a lower level math course. This requires teachers to teach that course instead of something else. In order to avoid short changing the more advanced math students, you need to teach them appropriate courses as well. That means you need more math teachers. </p>

<p>Run this principle across the entire curriculum, and reaching out to less priveleged students becomes an expensive proposition, even before you have paid a dime in financial aid. </p>

<p>Each school has to decide where to come down on this equation. Groton-another school with a huge per student endowment- has a limited curriculum and a far smaller percentage of students on financial aid.</p>

<p>afan--it is a difference of 2 class days over the course of the year, but since saturday / weds are not full class days, it's not even that, not really.</p>

<p>and exeter is need blind as of this year, going forward.</p>

<p>I'd say Harkness is the biggest difference, academically.</p>

<p>Does having the Harkness or not actually make Exeter a better school than Andover?</p>

<p>And what about faculty. I think that's very important if you're applying to any of these schools because they're practically going to be your parents for the next four years if you attend.</p>

<p>From just during the admissions process, I find the faculty at Andover a bit more welcoming than Exeter (you may have a different opinion)</p>

<p>Andover also uses the Harkness method, just not as much as Exeter does. Some teachers at Andover love the Harkness method, and others prefer to more directly influence the class, but student participation is very high. The same can be said for history. Even in some math classes, learning from each other in groups is more common than the teacher lecturing.
I felt the same about the teachers and students in general as EuNixD. In fact my tour guide disliked it there so much that she was basically telling me to think twice before I went there.</p>

<p>This happens every year, neither school has the market on the best, or harkness, or whatever. Suffice it to say that both schools are very good as are many other schools. Can we say for sure unless you attend the actual school? IMO, the best school is the one you attend whether it's pea, pa, sgs, pmfret, etc. You guys argue about the harkness table, middlesex proudly uses the socratic method.lol</p>

<p>Relax. In the words of my uncle, PEA '79 "You just sit around a table."</p>

<p>lol sounds very comfortable.</p>

<p>Hey, they can all be very good--I'm just saying they can all be very different, too. Hence, what works best for one person might not be appreciated as much by another.</p>

<p>On a recent SPS tour they claimed the guide claimed they use Harkness more than PEA.</p>

<p>
[quote]
they use Harkness more than PEA.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>:-) It's hard to see how that's possible given that every single class at Exeter is taught with the Harkness method (inlcuding all the math and science classes).</p>

<p>Is the harkness method THAT important? Or is it just a way of making a school sound better?</p>

<p>some major differences include:
Exeter has Harkness in every class room, Andover only has it in some.
Exeter has a dress code...Andover does not.
Andover only has a few weekends with sat classes...Exeter has it almost every weekend.
Andover is in a little bit of a bigger town.
Andover has a nicer hockey rink...exeter has a turf football field.
Andover was the original phillips..exeter came second
Exeter is known for their "math and science"...(i dont know how much of a difference there is between the two schools)
Andover campus is more spread out, while the Exeter campus tends to be more condensed.
Exeter's boathouse is on campus...Andover's is off campus
Andover students are "a little more laid back" while exeter students are known to be more "nerdy"
Andover's newspaper is older and better known
ANDOVER WRECKED EXETER IN FOOTBALL THIS YEAR 43-14...YEA BABY</p>

<p>I live 2 minutes from exeter NH and have lived there for 12 years but i go to the real Phillips Academy which is in Andover. I think this assesment is pretty correct considering i have been exposed to both schools for a while.</p>

<p>question about the dress code at exeter..are uniforms worn or are simple rules upheld (girls: no halter tops?) thanks.</p>

<p>there are no uniforms at exeter. There is a dress code. Boys need to wear a tie and shirt to class . I think the rules for girls are a bit more relaxed-- turtlenecks or sweaters for example.</p>

<p>Boys = shirt \ tie OR turtleneck.
girls = basically no dress code. Short of spaghetti straps (even then) it describes street clothes, in practice, so enforcement is virtually nil.</p>

<p>Enforcement varies by teacher to a certain extent, but boys can't get away with all that much, whereas girls can easily not be in dress code 24/7 (classtime, that is).</p>

<p>I find dress code to be total bs and it's the single thing I hate most about Exeter. But, um, that's a rant for another time. (Some of it is online at my old vice-prez website, samjackson.org/m, under the 'campaign platform')</p>

<p>Complete dress code rules are online in the e-book, which is readily available on the exeter website.</p>

<p>I know this is off-topic, but I have to agree with Cozmo about formal dress code for boys and almost anything goes for girls. It is so obviously unfair, and looks so silly. I don't understand what benefit the schools derive from this. In a school with minimal dress code, ask teachers about the typical problems and they refer to cleavage and midriffs -- generally not a boy problem. So why do boys bear the brunt of dress code in coat and tie schools or in Exeter's case, shirt & tie (or turtleneck)? Sorry for the rant, but I just don't understand. Even IBM gave up formal dress code perhaps 15 years ago.</p>