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Phillips Exeter Academy (also called Exeter, Phillips Exeter, or PEA) is a co-educational independent boarding school for grades 9-12, located on 471.0 acres (1.9 km²) in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, fifty miles north of Boston.

Exeter currently has an endowment of about $810 million, or $750,000 per student (as of March 31, 2006). This is the second-highest endowment of any American secondary school, behind the $6.8 billion endowment of Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, and ahead of the $623 million endowment of its traditional rival, Phillips Academy.

A traditional, though informal, association existed between Exeter and Harvard University. However, similar to the relationship between Phillips Academy and Yale University, 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, with the remaining twenty percent being 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 here boys so that you may become men") to reflect the school's coeducational status.

Origins and philosophy

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 Andover in 1778. As a result of this relationship, the schools share a rivalry; the football teams have met nearly every year since 1878, making Exeter/Andover one of the oldest high school rivalries in the country. Like Andover's, Exeter's seal was designed by Paul Revere and features the symbols of bees, a beehive, and a sun. Also similar to Andover, the school's Latin mottoes are Finis Origine Pendet (meaning "the end depends upon the beginning,") and Non Sibi (meaning "Not for one's self"). Exeter has an additional motto: "χαριτι Θεου" -- "by the grace of God" in Greek. Exeter's Deed of Gift, written by John Phillips at the founding of the school, warns that "Though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous." (this motto is also in the constitution of Phillips Academy Andover) The principal of the Academy usually 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.

Currently, 31 different countries and five continents are represented in the student body of the Academy. 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.

The campus is known for its modern library, designed by Louis Kahn. As of 2005, the Class of 1945 Library houses 145,000 volumes and has a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes. It is the largest secondary-school library in the world.

Tuition

Tuition to Exeter for the 2006 - 2007 school year is $34,500 for boarding students and $26,600 for day students, not including optional and mandatory fees. Exeter offers need-based financial aid.

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.

Notable alumni

Books or movies with portrayals of Exeter alumni, students, or staff

Many fictional characters are indicated to have graduated from Exeter. This is usually because of the connotations associated with the prestige and affluence associated with the school and its alumni. Also, in many cases, the author or writer is himself an Alumnus.

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. The boy's Cross Country team has won the past two championships as well. Boys' Swimming has won fifteen of the last New England championships, 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. 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. 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, 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. To be 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
  • Several miles of Cross Country and running trails

External links

Boarding schools | Educational institutions established in the 1780s | 1781 establishments | High schools in New Hampshire | Phillips Exeter Academy alumni | Private schools

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