Admissions Office Finalizes Class Sizes
Each year, the Academy sorts through an application pool from among the world’s finest high schoolers. From a Nigerian prince to low-income families in impoverished American cities, this year’s applicants portrayed a hugely diverse group. Though the 2,325 applicants spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, represented a large variety of unique talents and came from different countries and ethnicities of the world, 318 of them now share one thing in common: they will attend Exeter this coming fall as new students.
In light of the over-enrollment of recent years, the Academy made an effort to reduce acceptances for the upcoming year. This brought relief to many as a clear sign that no more major housing changes would have to be made, such as the conversion of Browning to a boys’ dorm this prior year.
“We made offers of admissions—437—to the fewest number of applicants in a very long time to control for over-enrollment, and I am happy with where we landed with our enrollment number,” Director of Admissions Michael Gary said.
Gary described the Academy’s strategy for prevention of over-enrollment for this year and future years. “Enrollment does fluctuate because there is little control over yield. Going out with
fewer offers was our strategy this year. It doesn't look like we will need to flip any dorms for next fall,” he said.
Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove echoed Gary’s comments. “Next year, we are going to have about the same housing situation and dorms as last year. Will Browning permanently remain a boys dorm? At least for the foreseeable future it will,” Cosgrove said.
The anxiety of housing crises spawned from last year’s sharp imbalance in gender, with a steep over-enrollment of males. The ratio forced the Academy to convert Browning House into a boys’ dorm for this year. Next year, however, the gender distribution will be more balanced.
“We were full everywhere. It took a lot of cooperation on the part of a lot of people,” Cosgrove said, explaining the Academy’s position with the over-enrollment. “The ninth grade class is substantially smaller than it was last year, or I should say last year was substantially bigger than usual.”
The class of 2018 brings remarkable diversity and volume regardless of the grade. This year the Academy experienced a 73 percent acceptance yield, a school record. The newest members of the Academy are split nearly perfectly by gender, a surprising and refreshing improvement from last year. “With the 318 new students, 162 are males and 156 are female, which interestingly is the same gender makeup of the current senior class,” Gary said.
In addition, the Academy upheld its reputation as one of the most generous boarding schools in the country in terms of its financial assistance budget, with 48 percent receiving financial aid from an average grant of just over forty thousand dollars. Gary was pleased with the generosity.
“We continue to be true to making our community accessible to youth from every quarter,” he said.
As usual, the lower and prep classes had the highest yield of students. In a successful effort to avoid over-enrollment, the prep class size has returned to the past-designated number of 175. By compensation, the senior class will be the smallest in years, with very few one-year seniors accepted.
Math instructor Joseph Wolfson, who helped to read through ninth-grade applications, encountered some extraordinary applicants displaying a wide variety of talents. He said, “I read a couple of Caroline D. Bradley scholarship winners, and that's cool, including this one guy who has done work on artificial limbs. Also, I read about a handful of cool siblings. There are always scads of fascinating preps each year, and this coming year should be no different.”
The Academy’s tour guides get the first chance to observe the incoming class. Like Wolfson, lower Rebecca Ju has had the opportunity to encounter some of the unique talents represented in this year’s incoming prep class. “I toured quite a few sports recruits, including a fencer, equestrian and a gymnast,” Ju said, when asked about the array of talents portrayed in the new students.
“They all were qualified and intelligent and also so obviously dedicated to learning. They were genuine in their questions about the academic life here. I could see that they valued their education greatly, something that's fairly rare in a middle school student,” she added.
Likewise, upper Wyatt Himmer has had the opportunity to tour a wide variety of applicants. “I've toured a bunch of different types of applicants, from basketball PG's to prospective freshman mathematicians,” Himmer said.
Head tour guide Noah Wright was also impressed by the variety of talents from the kids. “This one time, I met a boy who had only gone to school online before. I also met an actor, as well as many athletes. Overall, I was very impressed with the prospective students, and am disappointed I won’t get a chance to further associate with them at Exeter.”