Phillips Exeter Academy

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Phillips Exeter Academy
Non Sibi
(Not for Oneself)
Finis Origine Pendet
(The End Depends Upon the Beginning)
χαριτι Θεου
(By the Grace of God)
Established 1781
School type Private, boarding
Religious affiliation none
Principal Tyler C. Tingley
Location Exeter, NH, USA
Campus Township, 619 acres
127 buildings
Enrollment 1068 total
858 boarding
210 day
Faculty 203
Average class size 12 students
Student:teacher
ratio		 5:1
Average SAT
scores (2006)		 688 verbal
703 math
682 writing
Athletics 21 Interscholastic Sports
62 Interscholastic Teams
Mascot Lion Rampant
Homepage www.exeter.edu

Phillips Exeter Academy (also called Exeter, Phillips Exeter, or PEA) is a co-educational independent boarding school for grades 9-12, located on 619 acres[1] in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, fifty miles north of Boston.

The Academy Building
The Academy Building

Exeter's endowment as of 7 December 2006 was $902 million.[2] This is the second-highest endowment of any American secondary school, behind the $6.8 billion endowment of Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii,[3] and ahead of the $670 million endowment of its traditional rival, Phillips Academy. Exeter's large endowment enables the Academy to provide financial aid on a level greater than most preparatory schools in the country.

A traditional, though informal, association existed between Exeter and Harvard University. However, this traditional association has declined in recent years, and students now matriculate to a wide range of colleges and universities. Eighty percent of the students board, living in on-campus dormitories or houses. The remaining twenty percent of the student body is composed of day students from the surrounding communities. Phillips Exeter has been co-educational since 1970; in 1996 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 to augment the original Huc Venite, Pueri, ut Viri Sitis ("Come hither boys so that ye may become men") to reflect the school's coeducational status.

Contents

[edit] Origins and philosophy

Dr. John Phillips, the school's founder
Dr. John Phillips, the school's founder

The Academy was established in 1781 by merchant Dr. John Phillips and his wife Elizabeth. John Phillips was the uncle of Samuel Phillips, Jr., who had founded Phillips Academy in 1778. As a result of this relationship, the schools share a rivalry; the football teams have met nearly every year since 1878. Exeter's seal was designed by Paul Revere and features the symbols of bees, a beehive, and a sun. The school's Latin mottoes are Finis Origine Pendet (meaning "the end depends upon the beginning,") and Non Sibi (meaning "Not for oneself"). Exeter has an additional motto: "χάριτι Θεοῦ" -- "by the grace of God" in Greek. Exeter's Deed of Gift, written by John Phillips at the founding of the school, warns that "Goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous. Yet the two combine to form the most noble of character." In an adaptation of a requirement in the Deed that the document be read at every meeting of the trustees, the principal of the Academy speaks on this theme every year at the school's opening assembly.

Since a 1930 gift by the oil magnate and philanthropist Edward Harkness, the Academy's principal mode of instruction has been by discussion, "seminar style," around an oval table known as the "Harkness table." The completion of the Phelps Science Center in 2001 meant that all science classes, previously the only ones taught in a more conventional layout, could also be conducted around the same oval tables. Classes are small to encourage all students to participate. These "Harkness" classes feature heavily in both the school's identity and its day-to-day life. Harkness is a symbol of the Academy and considered one of the many highlights of an Exeter education.

[edit] The student body: youth from every quarter

The Academy is devoted to a tradition of diversity. One of its unofficial mottos - "Youth from Every Quarter" - is held of the maxim of this dedication. In keeping with the motto, in addition to the traditional year-long programs offered in China, Spain, Italy, and France through the School Year Abroad program, the Academy sponsors trimester-long programs in Stratford, England; Grenoble, France; St. Petersburg, Russia; Göttingen, Germany; and Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Currently, 45 states, 26 different countries, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are represented in the student body of the Academy. Students of non-European descent represent 38% of the Academy. (Asian 24%, Black 8%, Hispanic/ Latino 6%, Native American .4%) Male and females both represent 50% of student body. Legacy students represent 13% of the student body.

Of new students entering in 2006 (a total of 345), 54% attended public school and 46% attended private, parochial, military, home or foreign schools.

[edit] Campus buildings and facilities

Academy Building - The third of its kind, erected in 1914 after the devastating fire that ruined the second, the Academy Building houses the History, Math, Religion and Classical Languages departments. The building houses the Assembly Hall, a grand room upholstered with red carpeting and furnished with red seating, which seats entire student body during Assembly.

Class of 1945 Library - The campus is well known for its modern library, designed by Louis Kahn. It is a library of much repute: it was awarded the 25 Year Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1997. This award recognizes architectural design of enduring significance, and is conferred on a project that has stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years. It is an award that is to given to buildings that have contributed meaningfully to American life and architecture. Other buildings that have received the prestigious award include Rockefeller Center in New York, Philip Johnson's Glass House, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Vanna Venturi House, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the John Hancock Center in Chicago. On May 19, 2005, the library was honored on a USPS stamp that inaugurated it as one of twelve Masterworks of Modern American Architecture along with many of the previously mentioned buildings and the Chrysler Building, Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall and the TWA terminal in New York's JFK Airport. As of 2006, the Class of 1945 Library houses 158,000 volumes and has a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes. It is the largest secondary-school library in the world.

Fisher Theater - Home to the Drama Department, Shakespeare Society, and DRAMAT. Includes a blackbox theater (Seats:90) and a mainstage (Seat:300).

Forrestal Bowld Music Center - Home to the Music Department, the Music Library, and a capella groups.

Mayer Art Center - Home to the Art department and the Lamont Art Gallery.

Phelps Science Center - Designed by Centerbrook Architects, the state-of-the-art center facilitates Harkness instruction and provides ample laboratory and classroom space. Recipient in 2004 of American Institute of Architects New Hampshire's Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture.

Phelps Academy Center - Opened in the Spring of 2006, the Phelps Academy gives a center to the entire community. It is home to the new Grill, the new Post Office, the Forum - a 300 person auditorium, most student clubs including the Pean - the student yearbook, the Exonian - Exeter's student newspaper, the oldest continuously running secondary school newspaper in the country, PEALife Magazine (PEAL), the Student Council (StuCo), and Student Activities.

Phillips Church - Renovated and reopened in the winter of 2003, the church is a place of worship for students to all faiths. The church includes a Hindu shrine, a Muslim prayer room and ablutions fountain, a kosher kitchen, and a meditation room. Services that are individual to Phillips Church include Evening Prayer on Tuesday nights, Thursday Meditation, and Indaba - a religious open forum.

Phillips Hall - Home to English and Modern Languages Department. Includes the Elting Room -- home to faculty meetings.

Cilley Hall - Dormitory with approximately 60 students, in which parts of the film "A Separate Peace" were filmed.

[edit] Tuition

Tuition to Exeter for the 2006 - 2007 school year is $36,200 for boarding students and $27,500 for day students, not including optional and mandatory fees. Exeter offers need-based financial aid. Beginning with the freshman (prep) class of 2010, Exeter will offer admission aid on a need-blind basis.

[edit] Summer school

Each Summer, Phillips Exeter plays host to 650 students embarking on an intensive five-week program of Academic Study. The Summer program accommodates a diverse student body typically derived from over 40 different states and dozens of foreign countries.

The summer school is divided into two programs of study: Upper School, which offers a wide variety of classes to students currently enrolled in High School entering grades ten through twelve as well as serving post grads; and Access Exeter, a program for students entering grades eight and nine, offers accelerated study in the arts, sciences and writing as well as serving as an introduction to the school itself. Access Exeter curriculum consists of five academic clusters; each cluster consists of three courses organized around a focused central theme.

In addition to intense academic study, the Summer School offers unique introductions to several defining characteristics of the school, including the residential prep school life, school facilities, and sports including squash and crew.

[edit] Athletics

Exeter is known not only for its strong academic curriculum, but also for its competitive athletic teams. The school offers 65 interscholastic teams at the Varsity and Junior Varsity level as well as 27 intramural sports squads. Other various fitness classes are also offered. The Boys' Water Polo team has won twenty-two New England prep school championships. Boys' Swimming has won fifteen of the last seventeen New England championships (with rival school Andover winning for the first time in 2007), placing runner-up both losing years, and the Cycling team is the defending champion. Wrestling has won the New England tournament thirteen times as well.

Exeter is a fixture in New England championship tournaments in nearly all sports, narrowly missing the championship in both Boys' and Girls' Soccer in 2005, and winning the New England Class A Championship in Football in 2003. In 2007, the Boys' Squash team finished second at the New England Division A Interscholastic Championship and fourth at the National High School Team Tournament. The wrestling team has won more Class A and New England Prep School Wrestling Association titles than any other team, most recently winning the Class A tourney in 2003 and the New England tourney in 2001. It has also crowned a National Prep Wrestling champion, Rei Tanaka, in 1990. Both the Girls' and Boys' Ice Hockey teams have won New England Championships recently as well.

Exeter is also known for a consistently strong and richly traditioned rowing program. In recent years the Boys' Crew took first and fourth place at the U.S. Rowing Junior National Championships in 1996 and 2002 respectively. The girls' recently took sixth place at the 2006 championships. The Boys' Crew was the first organized sport at Exeter and over its more than 100 years of competition has produced several Olympians, National Team members and numerous Division I rowers. The school's traditional athletic rival is Phillips Academy, and the annual Exeter-Andover Football game is always played with great passion. Other opponents on the sports fields include Deerfield Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, Choate Rosemary Hall, Loomis Chaffee, Avon Old Farms,Worcester Academy, and Cushing Academy.

Fall Interscholastic Sports

Winter Interscholastic Sports

Spring Interscholastic Sports

The athletics program utilizes many facilities including:

  • The George H. Love Gymnasium (Houses squash facilities with 12 international sized courts, two swimming pools, four basketball courts, a weight training room, sports science lab, gym offices, two hockey rinks, a training room, locker rooms, a dance studio, an indoor cage, wrestling room, gymnastics space, Cycling training room and visiting team locker rooms.)
  • 23 outdoor tennis courts
  • Ralph Lovshin Track (an outdoor, all-weather track)
  • Plimpton Playing Fields (room for all the Academy's Varsity and JV sports)
  • Phelps Stadium (Used for Football, Lacrosse and Field Hockey. Has been recently converted into turf surface)
  • William G. Saltonstall Boathouse (Center of Crew on campus on the Squamscott River)
  • Amos Alonzo Stagg Baseball Diamond
  • Hilliard Lacrosse Field
  • Roger Nekton Championship Pool
  • Several miles of Cross Country and running trails

[edit] Exeter in Literature

Several pieces of fiction mention Exeter. Some of the more significant works have been by alumni, who often change the name of the school in their works.

  • A Separate Peace - This novel by John Knowles is set at "Devon," a thinly veiled fictionalization of Exeter, in the summer of 1942.
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany - In this novel by John Irving, the protagonist/narrator, John Wheelwright, and his best friend, Owen Meany, are both day students at Gravesend Academy, modeled after Exeter. Owen writes a popular column in The Grave (modeled after The Exonian) called "The Voice," which is critical of the school administration and the Vietnam war, among other topics. Part of this book was later adapted for the movie Simon Birch, though none of the Exeter parts made it into the film.
  • The World According to Garp - In this novel by John Irving, the protagonist/narrator, T.S. Garp, is the illegitimate, only child of Jenny Fields, the school nurse at "Steering School," Irving's fictionalized name for Exeter. Young Garp grows up in Steering's infirmary, eventually attending the school and joining its wrestling team. The book was adapted into a screenplay for the film of the same name, starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close, and featuring a cameo by the author as a wrestling referee.
  • A Widow for One Year - In this novel by John Irving, Eddie O'Hare, one of the main characters of the story, is a student at Exeter. Also, Eddie's father, "Minty" O'Hare, is a teacher there, and Eddie is raised on the campus.
  • Tea and Sympathy - This play by Robert Anderson (later a movie as well) treats the inner struggles of an Exeter student.


[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Communications Office, "Facts 2006-2007: Phillips Exeter Academy," Exeter, 2006.
  2. ^ Communications Office, "Facts 2006-2007: Phillips Exeter Academy," Exeter, 2006.
  3. ^ http://www.ksbe.edu/allpdfs/annualreport04/6_strengthening_endowment.pdf
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[edit] External links


The Ten Schools Admissions Organization

Choate Rosemary Hall - Deerfield Academy - The Hill School - The Hotchkiss School - The Lawrenceville School
Loomis Chaffee - Phillips Academy Andover - Phillips Exeter Academy - St. Paul's School - The Taft School
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