High Yield for 15’-16’ Year to Crowd Dorms

With 340 of 446 accepted students choosing to become Exonians in 2015-16, PEA’s admissions yield this year is unusually large—76 percent. Director of Admissions Michael Gary praised the hard work of the admissions team over the year as well as the student and faculty help during Experience Exeter.

“There are too many factors to be clear as to exactly the reasons for such a terrific yield. Suffice it to say the Exeter community rallied around Experience Exeter and my staff had fun seeing all of their good planning come to fruition,” Gary said.

“There are too many factors to be clear as to exactly the reasons for such a terrific yield. Suffice it to say the Exeter community rallied around Experience Exeter and my staff had fun seeing all of their good planning come to fruition.”

The group of incoming students will be composed of 201 preps, 84 new lowers, 17 new uppers and 38 new seniors and post-graduates. Last year, 316 of the 434 accepted decided upon Exeter. This is not the first year Academy has experienced an unexpectedly high yield. For the 2013-14 school year, the ninth grade yield was extremely high. Having experienced this once before firsthand, current students see both positives and negatives—from a larger friend pool to overpopulated dorms—to the situation.

Many are thrilled to welcome a large body of new students, as some said, “the more the merrier.” Many believe that the Exeter experience is based on the quality of students at the school, and with the greater yield, students will have the opportunity to meet a wider variety of people, thereby further diversifying their experiences while at the Academy.

“I think that one of the best things about each new year is the new people you get to meet. Each person can teach you something, and you never know when you’ll meet that one person who you’ll end up creating a long-lasting connection with,” lower Caroline Davis said. “The Exeter experience revolves around the people who surround you. I’m going to look at the positives of this high yield and take advantage of all the new people I will get to meet and learn from.” 

Other students took the news in a different positive light, viewing the high yields as a proud statement of the increasing allure of the Academy. As Gary described it, the yield is an “affirmation of how desirable [Exeter] as a community [is] to amazing students who have other equally wonderful options.” While many of these students were accepted into multiple prestigious schools, they chose the Academy.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised that people chose Exeter. I’m proud to say I come to the Academy, as is everybody else on this campus,” lower Cameron Gruss said. “We don’t just have great academics; we also have fantastic sports, arts and music programs, not to mention a community that is stronger and more passionate than any other.”

Dorm head of Merrill Hall and modern languages instructor Elena Gosalvez-Blanco also views the high yield as a positive for the Academy.

“I think it’s good that people want to come, so there’s a silver lining in over-enrollment,” she said. “We should be proud they want to come to our school. Over-enrollment is not necessarily a bad thing.”

Although the Exeter community is excited to welcome this high yield of students for next year, some adjustments will have to be made to accommodate living spaces for this large number.

According to Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove, each dorm will have to house more students than anticipated. However, as aforementioned, this is not the first year the Academy has dealt with over admission. This time, at least, the Academy will have recent prior experience to aid them in their solution seeking.

“I believe this [the lower] class currently has almost 300 students,” Cosgrove said. “This created a situation where the Deans Office and dorm heads worked collaboratively to make sure we had quality beds for everyone.”

In that school year, dorm heads became a huge asset of the deans, as they inspected rooms and recorded which could be used as emergency doubles or even triples. Cosgrove explained that next year will not be much different.

“I have asked dorm heads to evaluate all student rooms in the hope that we can find some large singles that can be used as emergency doubles,” he said. “In addition, we may need to create some triples in large double rooms, use duty rooms and possibly investigate the use of other spaces that can accommodate students.”

Despite potential safeguards in the form of emergency housing, some students and faculty view the living problem as a major worry, pointing to prior experience.

Prep Bridgette Han currently lives in an “emergency double,” a single room that was transformed into a double to accommodate last years’ high yield. Han reflected on the negatives of this forced living situation.

“The room is cramped. It’d be great as a single, but really does not do a great job as a double. It can be distracting and unhealthy to live in this kind of space year-round. Especially at a place like Exeter where everything is so stressful and so public, it is difficult because you barely have your own space in your own room,” Han said. “I think it is unfair to incoming students who end up in these small living spaces. As one who has experienced this situation, I would not want others to be put into this situation and ask that the school search for other alternative solutions.”

Gosalvez-Blanco, on the other hand, is not concerned about the influx of new students because the Academy has dealt with it before and is equipped to deal with it now. She also believes that emergency doubles and triples are not an issue until students make them into one.

“It will mostly be new students that have these rooms so current students shouldn’t be upset,” she said. “I think it causes problems when students say ‘Oh you got the emergency double… that’s tough.’ I don’t think students would dislike it that much if no one pointed it out.”

Regardless of accommodations needed to make space for the incoming students, most of campus can agree that the students are what makes Exeter great, and that they are looking forward to meeting the new students when they arrive on campus this fall.

“What has been done has been done. We can’t change the number accepted. We can only embrace it. So, let’s give the new students our warmest Exeter welcome. I know I am excited to meet them, and many others are as well. Congratulations and welcome!” Davis said.