Language Courses to be Renumbered

While public and private high schools around the country offer AP courses in all subjects ranging from U.S. and European histories to English Literature and Psychology, Exonians must be prepared to independently translate their Harkness skillset to meet the criteria of the college application process, including standardized testing.To help Exonians better communicate their Exeter curriculum, various departments at the Academy have recently decided on changes in course numbering to better reflect the level of courses. These changes were encouraged by the College Counseling Office (CCO) to ensure that colleges are aware of the difficulty of courses at Exeter.At Exeter, 400 level classes are considered AP, while 500 or 600 level classes are considered AP at most other schools, which may result in some colleges viewing courses as easier than they actually are. Additionally, some colleges may be unaware of the difficulty of introductory Greek and Latin courses and differences in difficulty level between regular and advanced sequences.Director of CCO Betsy Dolan said that course numbers provide integral information for a college admissions officer reading a student’s transcript. “Course numbering, course titles and course descriptions all provide markers for a college reader reviewing a transcript,” Dolan said. “College readers want to know the context of a student’s transcript; that is, how rigorous is the course work, based on what they had the opportunity to take given their background, point of entry into the Academy and subject placement?”The Modern Languages department has voted and decided to change the numbering of its courses to reflect the AP-level difficulty of advanced courses.Department chair Richard Schieber commented on the process that the department took to come to their decision. “The language requirement is going to be 400 level. We looked at national standards, and AP courses are 500 level. So working up and down from that side, we needed to adjust all the numbering,” he said. “We can also support this with our SAT and AP scores which are excellent throughout the board. We are exclusively using college books.”Schieber said that this change is necessary due to the cursory process colleges use to look at student transcripts. “Colleges look at other schools and see 500 and 600 level, and we stop at 449. They don’t know—they don’t really read the course description, they just look at the numbers,” he said. “And they see Exeter only has 400 level, and who knows who has 6 or 700 level.”The Classics department, having had similar problems as the Modern Languages department, renumbered their Latin courses last year. Exeter’s Classics department is known for its rigorous academic standards building up to the Classics Diploma. Exeter’s first year Greek course is equivalent to introductory courses at many colleges. Nevertheless, the first year Greek courses are numbered 111/121/131. The intensive Latin courses are numbered 303, 411, 421 and 431, while the normal track is numbered 310, 320, 330 and so forth. Despite their varying difficulty levels, the two sequences look almost identical to college admissions.The fact that colleges were not accurately viewing the courses came as a surprise to Langford. “I didn't have any knowledge that it was negatively affecting the students,” Langford said. “I guess that I shouldn't talk for others, but I didn't get an awful lot of negative reactions. It seemed odd to certain people. I personally wasn't too enthusiastic about it, but based on what the CCO office told us, it made sense. "Dolan hopes that all departments will continue their discussion on making changes to course numbers. “It is our hope that the faculty will continue the course coding discussion, with the goal of greater consistency, clarity and distinction for both internal and external constituents,” she said.