Prospective Exonians “Experience Exeter”

Long dining hall lines and a first taste of Harkness learning—these are not instances from just any week at the Academy. Rather, they mark the annual Experience Exeter program offered to 435 prospective Exonians and their guardians and/or parents.All week long, prospective Exonians have traveled to campus for a look into a typical day at Exeter. Visitors are paired up with current students, and the event also includes class visits and a session with an Exeter student panel that answers common questions on topics ranging from student life to student transitions.Typically, around 60 percent of the admitted students attend the Experience Exeter program, and around 70 percent of those who attend the program end up enrolling, according to Director of Admissions Michael Gary.“The program helps families make an informed decision,” Gary said. “It is one thing to read about Harkness and another to experience it; also, kids like to get a feel for the current students who attend the Academy,” he added.Prospective students who participated in the program said they benefited from the opportunity to learn more about life on campus.“I think the Experience Exeter program is absolutely beneficial for all students,” incoming upper Stephen Cerrone said.“Coming into the day, I was a little anxious and definitely overwhelmed, but today was honestly so helpful, because for me personally, I got a feel for the campus and its layout, [and] I also got to see what student life is like,” he said.Cerrone noted that Experience Exeter provided insight into dorm life that tours or pamphlets could not match. “The dorm life was awesome,” he said. “I got to meet a bunch of cool guys living in Ewald. I had a lot of things I was curious and confused about cleared up, from general things such as what I should expect of dorm life to what students do as a dorm on weekends.”Other students also enjoyed the day of shadowing and were happy to take advantage of the opportunities Exeter made available.“It was very informative and I got to learn a lot of different things from the panel of students during the program,” Victoria Glidden, an incoming prep, said.“They answered many different questions that were very helpful.”Incoming prep Noah Asch said that visiting classes helped him to understand the methodology. “[It] helped me see how classes are run, how people think and how people work. It is a lot different than my old school, and the fact that everyone is active, engaged and learning from each other but not the teacher is really captivating.”Asch added that the classroom experienced helped cement his decision to attend Exeter.“I [decided] I am going to attend Exeter over public school since it brings a lot more aspects to education that public school cannot offer,” he said.Although many prospective students enjoyed Experience Exeter, others noted potential areas of improvement.Some students felt that some hosts and prospective students were not matched appropriately.“Exeter should also try and find something that the host and the student have in common, so the experience can be more enjoyable all around. I have seen some matches that do not work, and that really does not help Exeter in attracting these students to attend the school,” Asch said.Other potential Exonians raised the idea that more effort should be made to ensure greater options of classes to attend.“In the future, it would be nice if Exeter could give the prospective students some more choices in what they would like to do,” Michael Chen, an incoming lower said.“I have heard from other visiting kids that they got stuck in classes that were not the most fascinating for them, and that the experience would be better if we could sit in on classes that we want to take,” Chen added.“If someone has athletics in the afternoon, they should give them to another shadow so that the prospective Exonian can attend more classes,” Asch said.Some current students also observed that this year Exeter made various improvements for Experience Exeter, an occurrence that takes place every year. The dining hall featured new, China plates on Monday and also offered popular menu items, such as salad and fish taco bars that are not normally available.“If Exonians have not noticed, there are some very fancy plates,” lower Chad Lynn said.“I see them and I imagine prospective parents coming in here, and saying ‘Do you see this ridges? Honey, come here, our son/daughter has to go to this school, they have ridges on their plates!’ And of course the taco salad bar is a wonderful addition.”Lynn, however, did not see this as a large issue. “This is misleading, but it is mostly a white lie,” Lynn said.“By dressing up the dining hall, it hurts no one, and one should not be picking a [school] based on [its] food anyway. It is nice to roll out the red carpet for visitors.”Most students seemed to agree that Experience Exeter provided a genuine look into Exeter life.“Along with a lot of the teachers who are trying to be representatives of the school for prospective students, [current] students—whom I’ve seen—attempt to portray an honest image [of] life in Exeter,” upper Jad Seligman said.“The only thing that seemed unusual about the day was the quality of the food, but other than that, I think prospective students participating in Experience Exeter, get a relatively accurate representation of what the school feels like.”Lynn felt that although the Academy works toward setting forth an Exeter day that is as realistic as possible, it is impossible to create a fully authentic experience.“If you have a documentary film crew, people are not going to act exactly the same around you [as] they normally would, and it is same for Experience Exeter,” Lynn said.“We try to be as candid and as much like ourselves as possible, but there is an outside observer, so we would like to impress them to some degree even if we pretend like we [would] not.”