Phillips Exeter Academy - Review #1

Exeter had one of the most diverse and intellectually stimulating atmospheres that one could be exposed to. The myriad of students at PEA really impacted both the academic and social realms.

Exeter really shaped me into the person that I am today. The environment pushed me to work harder than I had ever worked in my life in all areas. I left my school with better time management skills, with better social skills, with more patience, mature, and in better physical and mental shape.

When I first arrived at Exeter, I was in shock from the variety of people and spent the Fall semester simply meeting everyone in my class. My grades that semester were terrible and dragged down my cumulative GPA, but I think that it was worth it. Although many people complain about the lack of activities on campus or in NH, the people on campus made such a difference in my life.

PEA should never lower the standards of accepted students.

Sometimes it seemed that students could only have 3 out of the 4 following things in life: a social life, good grades, good health, and sleep. Sleep was what I missed out on most of my time at Exeter, because I was so adamant about finishing every assignment. PEA would have been a greater place if there had been a little more emphasis on all the things to do on campus and a little less on the academics.

Dorm life at Exeter was my favorite aspect of the whole school. Living with my best friends for 4 years really impacted my life. With family and old friends so far away, the girls in my dorm really were like my family. Amen was the best dorm ever!

The Harkness discussions in each class made our school unique. With the incredible diversity of the student body, the students could learn more from one another than from the actual teacher. Every day classes utilized the Harkness method to the fullest and gave everyone a better world perspective.

Academics at Exeter were extremely rigorous and encompassed most of the week. Classes usually ended by 6PM and only left so much time for a student to participate in extracurriculars and complete their assignments.

Our competition with our rival school, Phillips Academy (Andover), was something that brought out the school spirit in every Exonian. Each year we had days devoted to games against Andover and it was always made the school community feel united.

As academics were stressed so much, being on a competitive sports team was incredibly difficult. Time management skills were absolutely necessary in order to excel on the fields and in the classrooms.

Music was a large part of my life at Exeter, the music program could be as challenging as you wanted it to be. There were plenty of activities to choose from and I was once promised by the Head of Music that if I wanted to play an instrument that wasn't being taught...he would find me a teacher.

There really wasn't the possibility for students to go off-campus to participate in other musical groups. All-state and Philharmonic Youth Groups were not really accessible to most students.

There was a great variety of activities in which students could participate. If they weren't to your liking, it was not all too difficult to start your own club.

Doing homework at 2AM with my best friends would inevitably lead to the best and most in-depth conversations that I ever had while at Exeter. Living with the same girls for 4 years created a strong bond that will last forever.

The antiquated rules about visitations from the opposite sex and simply most of the strict rules needed to be amended.

There was a great variety in choice: the stir fry station, the salad bar, and the hot entree. The bread and desserts were always fresh and really good.

A week before long breaks, the food served would always be the same monotonous leftovers.

When new students arrive at Exeter, the majority of the students there are the dorm proctors who help you out and are really the friendliest upperclassmen to the new students. As soon as I had first arrived at my dorm, my proctor Bev helped us carry all my stuff up to my new room. Everyone was really helpful and eager to get to know one another.

The diversity at PEA was great, there were many international students and students from almost every state in America. The caliber of students at our school was great.

Saturday nights were our night out! Check-in was at 11PM and my friends and I usually went out to a dance around 9pm and came back to watch a movie. Sundays were usually spent outside on the library lawn or dorm 'beaches' to do homework and hang out with friends.

The town of Exeter is cute and quaint, but definitely not conducive to great shopping. Usually on the weekends students were able to go into town to watch movies at the old school theater (the Ioka) and get things from Walgreens.The closest mall was accessible through the weekly buses and was really pretty awful. However, we also had access to the train and buses to Boston on the weekend that were much better.