Course Numbers Changed To Reflect Academic Rigor

The faculty approved a series of course number changes in last Monday’s faculty meetings. After speaking with college admission representatives and thoroughly reviewing the Exeter academic curriculum, the faculty realized the need for a more accurate correlation between course numbers and class difficulty levels. The changes will be implemented for the 2016-2017 academic school year.

Several changes will be made to the 100s series in Modern Languages, Classical Languages, Math and Art. All of the history courses and several science courses will increase by 100 in number and the course numbers for English will become more irregular, jumping from 100s prep year to 300s lower year.

“The course numbering system is designed to best represent the level and difficulty of our courses to both our internal constituents and to our external ones."

The Academy decided to revise the course numbers after concluding that the current course numbering system did not accurately reflect the disproportionately higher rigor of the academic program. In addition, the changes will seek to standardize and counteract the inconsistencies across department numbering.

Discussions with college admission representatives illuminated the changes needed for the current system.

Director of College Counseling Elizabeth Dolan stressed the importance of accurately conveying course difficulties in college admissions and expressed the benefit of the decision.

“Providing colleges with any information pertaining to rigor and course content always aids in the college admission process,” Dolan said. “I believe this effort to align course numbers with rigor across disciplines will further inform college admission readers, and ultimately, help our students even more.”

For the 2015-2016 school year, the modern languages department updated their course numbers to adhere to international guidelines. That change thereafter prompted the Academy to further analyze and review the whole course catalogue.

Director of Studies Brooks Moriarty explained the dangers in misleading course numbers both to current and prospective students. “We realized that colleges might not get an accurate snapshot of our curriculum when looking at a transcript,” Moriarty said. “It also means that current and prospective parents and students may have had a hard time understanding the rigor of the full slate of course offerings.”

According to Dean of Faculty Eric Shapiro, colleges sift through the applications of seniors at Exeter and see a range of course numbers from 100s to 400s. On the contrary, students from Deerfield have taken courses that range from 100s to 600s and at Andover, from 100s to even 800s.

In matching other preparatory school systems, the course number changes in the Exeter academic program will level the playing ground for Exonians in college admissions. With the enacted changes, Exonians will be more fairly and accurately represented to colleges and universities.

Shapiro said, “The course numbering system is designed to best represent the level and difficulty of our courses to both our internal constituents [including students and parents] and to our external ones–mostly colleges and universities.”

Among the many notions on course number changes passed at the faculty meeting last Monday, one of the most prominent revisions is the amendment of the notorious 330 United States History sequence. In the new course selection book, this series, often viewed as a rite of passage at Exeter, will be known as 410, 420 and 430 instead of the longstanding 331, 332 and 333.

Although the History 333 course was changed with a positive intent in mind, some students are upset that the traditional and endeared title used for years will be lost. During its many years of usage, the term 333 has become a brand name at Exeter.

Prep Alayna Thomas described how even as a prep, she already considered the 333 an integral Exeter milestone. “I’m sad that I won’t have the opportunity to partake in the Exeter tradition of the 333 paper. The paper has created a name for itself, and to not be a part of that is a little disappointing,” Thomas said. “But hopefully we will come up with another creative name for this same paper.”

Overall, however, many students are glad these improvements are occurring. Senior Peter Luff believed the benefits of the change outweighed the nostalgia of long held traditions. “I think it is a bit silly to try to rename the infamous ‘History 333’ course to something less phonetically pleasing like ‘History 430,’” Luff said. “But I don’t see how it could do any harm to the actual classes themselves, so if it helps Exonians’ college chances, then I do not have a problem with it.”

Contributions from Elizabeth Yang