<p>@wavyboy: I think you question is best to be answered by one (ideally more than one) parent who has kids who go to both schools at about the same time, which is closest to by someone who went to both schools and is less rare. In general, the workload and learning pace are determined largely by the students not by the teachers as teachers have to make sure that the majority of the students can keep up, so in theory an Exeter can be more demanding than a Hotchkiss, but by how much or whether it’s a significant difference is an unknown. Another consideration is the number of motivated and capable peers, which has to do with the size of the student body. If you want a better class ranking or want to stand out, you’ll need to work harder and/or be more capable in Andover or Exeter. Hope this makes some sense.</p>
<p>@aero</p>
<p>By no means was I trying to scare anyone away from Exeter. I am sorry if it came across that way.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I was trying to convey a realistic picture of what life at Exeter is for my S and to paint a picture of what types of kids attend. I know there are some who do more than he, (way more in some cases), and kids that do less. Life at Exeter is what you make it. Of course, there is a minimum standard that you are expected to uphold, which may be higher than at other schools. Still, if you can really focus on getting work done there will be time for EC’s, and socializing. Maybe not as much as other places, but there is time.</p>
<p>Only you know your daughter well enough to determine if the rigor at Exeter is something she would thrive in or even if it’s what she wants. That, I think, is the key. If she is prepared and knows what will be required of her and still wants it, then I think she will fit right in.</p>
<p>To answer a few questions I saw above:</p>
<p>APs are useful for some subjects in college, if only for placement. For example, my D is taking AP accelerated chem at Exeter now in order to place out of intro chem at college (not for credit). Historically, Exeter was one of the first schools to start AP in the 70’s, but as the AP curriculum got very specific, Exeter prefers to teach above AP level in most classes. Many students take APs if they will make sense for college, and most score 5. The college counseling “info for colleges” on the Exeter website has the exact numbers and distributions. Also, interesting that many college no longer take AP credit (Caltech, MIT, Dartmouth are just some). </p>
<p>My D enjoys the other students the most. She also loves the sports, and has made most teams she tried out for, even without much background in the sport. She has quite an active social life, but also gets her work done by being organized. And she gets 8 hrs of sleep, or turns into a frizzle.</p>
<p>The type of student who would do best at Exeter would enjoy active discussion at the Harkness table, exploring different viewpoints, and learning to both speak up and work collaboratively. Harkness is the soul of Exeter. Most staff, faculty and students are truly kind, and for most kids this interaction is a pleasure. </p>
<p>Because the other students each have an amazing passion, a new student needs their own “thing” that they can feel pride and achievement in. As my daughter says, she often feels like she is sitting around the table with 11 other brilliant kids who work even harder than she does. It helps to have something you are very good at to bolster up one’s sense of self worth, because there are almost certainly smarter kids than you in most every class, better musicians in most every orchestra, and better athletes on most every team. So resilience is needed, and defining oneself as the “smartest kid at school” evaporates quickly first term. </p>
<p>Lastly, it helps to be relatively independent, avoid social drama, and pay attention to the rules.</p>
<p>As far as AP tests go, the following is from the Exeter website.</p>
<p>ADVANCED PLACEMENT SCORES</p>
<p>In 2008, Exeter declined participation in the College Board’s Advanced
Placement audit, as all Exeter departments offer coursework
that goes beyond the College Board’s AP curriculum. While
the Academy no longer offers AP courses, some students
choose to take AP exams. Exeter students are not required to
take AP exams for any class. In May 2012, 196 students took
369 AP exams in 29 subject areas.</p>
<p>As my D is only in her second year, I cannot give you any information as to what the kids have to do to prepare for the AP tests, if anything. </p>
<p>As for the right fit, I pretty much agree with the above posters. I would add that the C should have a good dose of self-confidence and not be easily intimidated. There are a lot of really bright and extremely talented kids there. If your child needs the validation that would more easily come from being a bigger fish in a small pond, then Exeter may not be the place for him/her. Having said that, the BEST thing about Exeter is the academic and EC talents of the student body. My D gets so motivated by the kids around her. I believe that, around a Harkness table, they challenge her and bring her to a level that she would not achieve if she were sitting at a desk listening to a teacher. </p>
<p>@Aero123 -
I thought I was reading a description of my D as I read your post. I know that my D works very hard, but she is also involved in so many things she is passionate about. I look at my D’s schedule and all of the ECs in which she participates and I wonder how she does it all. I think her favorite part about being at Exeter is her ability to try so many new things. Her favorite part of the week is her singing lessons she started this year (something she would have never considered before). I think that the majority of social time during the week takes place with people either in her dorm or in her ECs. The casual social interaction or chatting gets done on the weekend. </p>
<p>With respect to the college vs high school feel, I don’t think the size of the school makes it feel impersonal. Like in college, the kids definitely have to be independent and responsible for their work; but, my D has found her second mother in her adviser as far as someone to support her. I can’t believe she would get anyone that would be more supportive in a smaller school. I can’t say whether this is the norm or we just got lucky. From her experiences with other teachers, I know there are a lot of caring adults in the community. Also, I think her world outside of the class revolves around her friendships with the girls in the dorm. They are very tight.</p>
<p>Thank you Ranabona and others for your insight. Could you also describe to me, from a parent perspective, a typical Sat/Sun for an Exeter student who is involved in a sport. What is going on sat night/Sunday outside of the library?</p>
<p>thank you for all the answers about AP classes/exams. AP was originally designed for HS students to work towards college credits. But nowadays AP seems an important criteria for getting into top colleges. Students in our local HS all have at least 6 to 10 AP exam scores on their college applications. That means they have taken that many AP exams already by the end of 11th grade. I just wonder if the lack of AP scores will put Exeter students at a disadvantaged position. Or is it true that Exeter students who go to top colleges just prepare for AP exams on their own even though the school classes are not geared towards the AP exams.</p>
<p>Mom8dad</p>
<p>I would think that a quick review of the exeter college matriculation stats will tell you that kids from there are not being overly penalized</p>
<p>See below. This is the all the schools with double digit matriculations from 2010-12 These three years have a sample size of 925</p>
<p>Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 34 3.68%
Harvard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 34 3.68%
Yale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 32 3.46%
Tufts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 30 3.24%
Alternative Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 29 3.14%
Dartmouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 29 3.14%
Princeton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 29 3.14%
Mass. Inst. of Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 28 3.03%
New York Univ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 28 3.03%
Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 24 2.59%
Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 21 2.27%
Georgetown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 21 2.27%
Wellesley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 21 2.27%
Cornell Univ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 20 2.16%
Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 18 1.95%
Pennsylvania, Univ . . . . . . . . . . . 16 16 1.73%
Carnegie Mellon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 15 1.62%
Trinity (CT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 14 1.51%
Wash Univ. St. Louis . . . . . . . . . . 13 13 1.41%
New Hampshire, Univ . . . . . . . . . 12 12 1.30%
Stanford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 12 1.30%
Boston College. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 11 1.19%
McGill (Canada). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 11 1.19%
Michigan, Univ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 11 1.19%
Wesleyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 11 1.19%
Colby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 10 1.08%
George Washington . . . . . . . . . . . 10 10 1.08%</p>
<p>mom8dad-</p>
<p>I just read a Q&A article with an AO from a top university that was written a couple of years back (I think it was linked by a CCer). He discussed how the AOs are divided by regions to review applications. I can’t imagine that the regional AO from an Ivy isn’t aware of the AP situation at Exeter.</p>
<p>aero123-</p>
<p>I will give my my D’s experience. She participates in fall and spring sports. If you are not doing sports, you are doing a P.E. class. Academic classes end early on Wednesdays to allow for sports competitions. She will have either games or practice on Wed and Sat (depending on the sport or the level) and practice the other days, except for Sunday. If there is not Sat. class, she sleeps in before sports. </p>
<p>She goes to a club meeting on Friday evenings, then usually hangs out with friends. I have heard about activities with advisory group/dorm faculty from making cupcakes to playing games (dungeons and dragons & munchkins are two favorites). If there is a school/dorm run activity that weekend, it will usually be Saturday night (dances, casino night). This coming weekend, my daughter’s dorm has their annual “whiteout” dance for the school that occurs in their rather large common room. </p>
<p>One weekend last term, I met her in Boston on a Friday night, then took her back to campus Saturday night. When we arrived, the girls told her that she missed spa night the night before, where they all gave each other facials. I was there when she checked in that night, and a dorm faculty member was putting out snacks. It didn’t look like anyone was ending their night. Sunday is for sleeping late with Sunday brunch ending at 1:00. Then, sometime in the afternoon, it’s back to work.</p>
<p>Typical Sat/Sun for sport student:</p>
<p>usually involves travel and playing interscholastic sport Sat until midafternoon, if no sport maybe an outing - to ski/snowboard, bike, go to Boston, go to big mall, go to nearby beach with group of friends, Exeter arranges free or low cost transportation for these activities. Some students go independently to Boston by commuter rail for research/internships/volunteer work (stop is on the edge of campus).</p>
<p>Late afternoon/Sat evening - Hang out in dorms as a group, or stay on campus and see free movie, go to big dance, or ice skate, or go to theatrical/concert/presentation; walk to town and get ice cream/snacks or cook brownies in dorm. Stay up late watching TV/Netflix with friends. Have slumber party. Exeter also has free evening bus to nearby mall for more food options/movies and shopping. My D usually hangs out with her group of friends and they all choose together what to do. Sometimes the dorm advisor takes them to Portsmouth for dinner.</p>
<p>Sunday sleep until noon, go to D hall brunch for custom made omelet, maybe work out at gym, about 2 or 3 in afternoon start work.</p>
<p>Does lack of APs adversely affect students? No</p>
<p>APs in public school settings demonstrate that students are taking a rigorous curriculum, and helps to compare students from widely disparate schools. Many educators criticize the AP curriculum as “a mile wide and an inch deep”, which has led to significant recent changes to most AP exams, and increasingly no credit is being granted for AP coursework by selective colleges.</p>
<p>At Exeter it is honestly not possible to take an un-rigorous curriculum, and colleges are familiar with Exeter. In addition, most students score very well on many standardized tests (28 national merit semifinalists, 71 commended scholars, the majority of students score over 750 on SAT I math, and average SAT II scores are over 700.)</p>
<p>Exeter students take APs for specific purposes, like colleges in England, or for college placement (in May 2012, 196 students took 369 APs in 29 subjects. 63% received 5 and 22% received 4). There are only a few APs that Exeter suggests additional self-study for (APUSH comes to mind). </p>
<p>1/3 of Exeter’s 314 graduates attend IVY/StanfordMIT: the 3 year totals for 2010-12 are Harvard 34, Princeton 29, Yale 32, Columbia 34, MIT 28, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell and Williams all over 20, U Penn 16. Top universities like U Chicago, Duke, Wash U, Univ. Michigan, Berkeley and Hopkins are well represented too. These data are from the college counseling tab on the Exeter website, 2013 profile for colleges.</p>
<p>2prepmom, I just went to the Exeter website, look at 2013 profile for colleges. SAT subject Math I average is 677. Where did you see 750? In fact 677 is surprisingly low, maybe it is misprinted?
thanks;</p>
<p>SAT I is the “regular” 3 hour test that includes math, critical reading and writing. The distributions show that more than half the class scores over 750 on the math section, and the average is 709. Exeter usually has the highest SAT math scores in the country, although Thomas Jefferson gives it competition.</p>
<p>SAT II Math Level 1C subject test is the result you are citing, which is listed over on the right. This is an entirely different test, which many fewer students take.</p>
<p>sorry,I thought you were talking about SAT subject math I.We are going to revisit it next week. Very excited. Any things we should pay extra attentions to?</p>
<p>I have heard that the SAT level I and II math subject tests are quirky, and review of the study materials provided by the SAT as well as a review book or two can be worthwhile. For example, in the level II practice test my D took, there were “e” exponent problems, which she had not spent much time working with, but were very simple once you understand what they are.</p>
<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>I will be helping out at the Experience Exeter Parent Luncheon on April 1st. It will be a chance for prospective parents to speak with current parents. If there is anyone going to Experience Exeter that day and would like to chat let me know and we can exchange information via PM.</p>
<p>NHMomof3 , where will that be held? We will revisit the school on 4/4</p>
<p>The lunch will be held in the Elm Street Dining Hall. </p>
<p>There will be other parent of current students there on the 4th, so if you have any questions or want to chat about life at Exeter be sure to seek them out.</p>
<p>NHMomof3-I would love to have the opportunity to speak with you and ask questions face to face! Exeter has been my son’s dream school for the past year and a half. Reading these boards all this time, I became convinced his chances were slim to none. We all cried in joyous disbelief when the acceptance video came! Of course he is already decided in his heart- but we are still going to 2 other re-visits ( which he doesn’t even want to go to because he really wants Exeter.) But this thread and many comments made about Exeter have me nervous. Please PM me and let me know how I can find you that day- I would love to chat!</p>
<p>@gypsyrose</p>
<p>I PM’d you.</p>