Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day students between the 9th and 12th grade. It is located in Exeter, New Hampshire, capital of the state during the American Revolution, and is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States. It is particularly noted for its innovation and application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking questions and creating discussions.
Phillips Exeter Academy students and alumni are called "Exonians," and students, faculty and staff often refer to the school as "Exeter" or "PEA". The school has the largest endowment of any New England boarding school, which as of June 30, 2014, was valued at $1.2 billion. The school has educated generations of the upper-class New England establishment and the American political elite, and it has introduced many programs to diversify the student population, including the introduction of a free education for families whose income is $75,000 or less. In 2015-2016, over 45% of students received financial aid from grants totalling over $19M. Phillips Exeter Academy had an acceptance rate of 11% for the 2014-2015 school year.
The Academy became coeducational in 1970 when 39 girls began attending.Today the student body is roughly half boys and half girls.
In 1996, to reflect the Academy's coeducational status, a new gender-inclusive Latin inscription Hic Quaerite Pueri Puellaeque Virtutem et Scientiam ("Here, boys and girls, seek goodness and knowledge") was added over the main entrance to the Academy Building. This new inscription augments the original one – Huc Venite, Pueri, ut Viri Sitis ("Come hither boys so that ye may become men").
Classes at Exeter are held Monday through Friday, though Wednesday is a half day. Until the 2012–2013 school year, Exeter also held half day classes on Saturday. Now, there are about six Saturday classes in Fall term, and only one or two in each of Winter and Spring terms. Exeter uses an 11-point grading system, in which an A is worth 11 points and an E is worth 0 points. Exeter has a student-to-teacher ratio of about 5:1.A majority of the faculty have advanced degrees in their fields.
Phillips Exeter Academy students and alumni are called "Exonians," and students, faculty and staff often refer to the school as "Exeter" or "PEA". The school has the largest endowment of any New England boarding school, which as of June 30, 2014, was valued at $1.2 billion. The school has educated generations of the upper-class New England establishment and the American political elite, and it has introduced many programs to diversify the student population, including the introduction of a free education for families whose income is $75,000 or less. In 2015-2016, over 45% of students received financial aid from grants totalling over $19M. Phillips Exeter Academy had an acceptance rate of 11% for the 2014-2015 school year.
The Academy became coeducational in 1970 when 39 girls began attending.Today the student body is roughly half boys and half girls.
In 1996, to reflect the Academy's coeducational status, a new gender-inclusive Latin inscription Hic Quaerite Pueri Puellaeque Virtutem et Scientiam ("Here, boys and girls, seek goodness and knowledge") was added over the main entrance to the Academy Building. This new inscription augments the original one – Huc Venite, Pueri, ut Viri Sitis ("Come hither boys so that ye may become men").
Classes at Exeter are held Monday through Friday, though Wednesday is a half day. Until the 2012–2013 school year, Exeter also held half day classes on Saturday. Now, there are about six Saturday classes in Fall term, and only one or two in each of Winter and Spring terms. Exeter uses an 11-point grading system, in which an A is worth 11 points and an E is worth 0 points. Exeter has a student-to-teacher ratio of about 5:1.A majority of the faculty have advanced degrees in their fields.
Students who attend Exeter for four years are required to take courses in the arts, classical or modern languages, computer science, English, health & human development, history, mathematics, religion, and science. Most students receive an English diploma, but students who take the full series of Latin and Ancient Greek classes receive a Classical diploma.
Exeter's tenth Principal, Richard Ward Day, believed in the value of students studying outside Exeter, and broadening their experience and education in this way. During Day's tenure, the Washington Intern Program and the Foreign Studies Program began.
The academy currently sponsors trimester-long foreign study programs in Stratford, Grenoble, St. Petersburg, Eleuthera, Göttingen, Ballytobin, Taichung, and San Fernando;as well as school-year abroad programs in Beijing, Rennes, Viterbo, and Zaragoza.The academy also offers foreign language summer programs in France, Japan, Spain, and Taiwan.
Exeter offers the Washington Intern Program, where students intern in the office of a senator or congressional representative. Exeter also participates in the Milton Academy Mountain School program, which allows students to study in a small rural setting in Vershire, Vermont.
The Academy claims a tradition of diversity.During the Civil War, four white students from Kentucky confronted the then-principal Gideon Lane Soule over the presence of a black student at Exeter. When they demanded that the black student be expelled on account of his skin color, Soule replied, "The boy is to stay; you may do as you please."
One of Exeter's unofficial mottoes – "Youth from Every Quarter" – is taken from the Deed of Gift, and is widely quoted and emphasized in the introductory course for freshmen in the fall.This phrase has also guided the Academy's admissions policies. Exeter's longtime Director of Scholarships H. Hamilton "Hammy" Bissell (1929) worked for decades to enable qualified students from all over the U.S. to attend Exeter.
Currently, the Exeter student body includes students from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and 35 countries. Students of non-European descent comprise 37% of the student body (Asian 20%, Black 9%, Hispanic/Latino 7%, Native American 0.6%). Legacy students account for 13% of the students. Of new students entering in 2012 (a total of 340), 54% attended public school and 46% attended private, parochial, military, home, or foreign schools.
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