Methodology Report: College Counseling Process, Privilege Examined, Continued

The Phillips Exeter College Counseling Office (CCO)  is widely lauded as one of the best of its kind. However, students have questioned its equitability, especially in the wake of Operation Varsity Blues—a recent scandal that prompted national dialogue about the role of privilege in college admissions. On Thursday, April 25, The Exonian published the findings of a two-month long report that sought to examine student perceptions about privilege and the College Counseling Office.  College Counselor Distribution, 2019-2020As the first step of our investigation, The Exonian contacted every member of the Classes of 2019 and 2020 via phone, email or in-person with the following request: “The Exonian is conducting an anonymous survey of college counselor assignments. Would you mind telling me who your college counselor is?” 289 out of 293 current uppers (98.6%) and 290 out of 308 current seniors (94.2%) shared their college counselor assignment with The Exonian. Four uppers and 19 seniors were unreachable or declined to respond.  Our data from the past two years shows that Dean of College Counseling Elizabeth Dolan typically has 25 to 30 counselees, while the six Associate Directors have 36 to 45 from each class. Twenty-five students, or 8.57%, of the Class of 2020 and 28, or 9.09%, of the Class of 2019 were assigned to Dolan. Harvard/Stanford Acceptances, 2016-2018 To determine the verity of the student perception that Dolan counselees are more likely to find success in admissions at elite colleges, The Exonian surveyed Exonians from the Classes of 2016, 2017 and 2018 accepted to Harvard or Stanford University about their college counselor assignment. Of American research universities traditionally considered to be the most prestigious—Ivy League institutions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University—Harvard and Stanford are the only colleges which have had an under-10% acceptance rate for Exonians in the past three alumni classes, with Harvard at a 9.64% average and Stanford at 9.06%. We accessed this information via the Naviance student portal. Of the 26 Exonians ’16-’18 accepted to Harvard, The Exonian reached 17, equivalent to 65.38%. Four out of the 17 had Dolan as a counselor.  Of the 15 Exonians ’16-’18 accepted to Stanford, The Exonian reached 7, 46.67%. Two out of seven had Dolan as a counselor. Financial Aid DistributionThe Exonian asked current upper and senior Dolan counselees to identify their financial aid status at the Academy in a single-question, anonymous poll on SurveyMonkey, distributed as a link via email. Using a SurveyMonkey feature, The Exonian ensured that students could not re-take, or take the poll multiple times. Of the 53 Dolan counselees ‘19-’20, 44 responded to the survey, yielding an 83.02% response rate. Of those 44, 25—56.82%—reportedly received no financial aid, 10—22.73%—reportedly received partial financial aid and 9—20.45%—reportedly received full financial aid.  To compare, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid John Hutchins shared the financial aid distribution of Exeter’s whole student body this year, with 55% of Exonians on no financial aid, 24.6% of Exonians on partial and 20.4% of students on full. All figures include children of employees.  Trustee Relations ‘06-’20On Exeter’s official website, nine out of 21 current PEA trustees are also described as PEA parents. Their 22 children in total belong to Exeter Classes of 2006 to 2020—a 14-year span. The Exonian consulted the PEAN yearbooks, social media and other forms of public record to identify these 22 Exonians with trustee relations. Through an alumnus connection, we gained access to the Alumni Portal and found the contact information for graduated Exonians with trustee parents. We contacted the 22 PEA alumni and students via social media, email, phone calls and voice messages to ask who they had for their college counselor. Two alumni did not respond to The Exonian’s multiple attempts to contact them, while one declined to respond upon consultation with their trustee parent.  Of the 19 students who did respond, 11 reported that they were assigned the Dean of College Counseling, while 8 were each assigned one of four Associate Directors of College Counseling.  It should be noted that some parents assumed the role of trustee after their child’s college counselor assignment. Of the 22 students with trustee relation, 8 had parents who were already trustees at the time of counselor assignment, 5 had parents who became trustees their senior year and 9 had parents who became trustees after their graduation.  The Exonian nonetheless found this data compelling, as a trustee title typically suggests a long history of involvement and contribution to the Academy. A majority of the nine parents received their trustee title before or shortly after their child’s college counselor assignment. Parent Connections: The Heritage Circle The Heritage Circle is a group of  “alumni, family and friends who indicate that they have made provisions for the Academy in their estate or retirement plans.” The Alumni Portal identified four Exeter alumni whose parents are part of the Heritage Circle. The Exonian was able to contact three of the four students using phone numbers and email addresses listed on the portal. Of these three, one student had Bergill, one student had Hernandez and one had Dolan as their college counselor. HYPS Legacy ‘19-’20To obtain this information, The Exonian gained access to the Parent Directory. After manually reviewing every Exeter parent’s profile, we identified current uppers and seniors with at least one parent who attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford University for their undergraduate or graduate education.  The Exonian decided to investigate legacy status at these universities specifically, not because of their ranking, but because of their reputation at the Academy as prestigious institutions where a legacy connection might confer significant advantages in the admissions process.  The college education status for parents of 8 uppers and 40 seniors were not listed in the Parent Directory. The Exonian found that, in the Class of 2020, students with parental legacy to HYPS, including both undergrad and graduate degrees, comprise 6.7% of Cary Einhaus counselees, 6.3% of Marnie Terhune counselees, 9.5% of Mark Hoven counselees, 13.3% of Pamela Appleton counselees, 13.3% of Sherry Hernandez counselees, 16.6% of Nikki Manderlink counselees and 36.0% of Elizabeth Dolan counselees.  In the class of 2019, HYPS legacy students comprise 13% of Einhaus counselees, 14% of Terhune counselees, 10% of Hoven counselees, 25% of Appleton counselees, 9.8% of Hernandez counselees, 9.1% of Manderlink counselees and 17.9% of Dolan counselees. The legacy status of 40 students could not be found. Out of all identified Dolan counselees from the current upper and senior class, 14 out of 53, or 26.42%, have parental legacy to HYPS. RaceThe Exonian asked current Dolan counselees to self-identify their race via social media, emails and phone calls. We did not offer categories for students to choose from.  We obtained the racial makeup for Exeter’s student body from “Phillips Exeter Academy Facts” for the 2018-19 school year, a public document available online. We asked students to list all categories they felt they identified with, which produced a cumulative average above 100%. “Phillips Exeter Academy Facts” employs the same methodology. The Exonian found that, of the 25 students assigned to Dolan graduating in 2020, 76% identified as white, 32% identified as Asian, 4% identified as Latinx, 0% identified as Native American and 0% identified as black or African-American.  Of the seniors in Dolan’s counseling group, 64.3% self-identified as white, 32.1% as Asian, and 7% as Latinx, 0% identified as Native American and 3.6% as black. In The Exonian’s survey, students preferred to self-identify as “Latinx,” not “Hispanic,” a term used by the Academy Factbook. According to the 2018-19 Factbook, 46% of the Exeter student body identifies as a person of color: 29.8% Asian or Asian-American, 11% black or African-American and 9.5% Hispanic. The 2018-19 Factbook does not list Latinx identity percentage in its Student Profile. Student CouncilWe identified Student Council presidents and runner-ups from PEA Classes of 2015 through 2020 via The Exonian’s archives and contacted them at phone numbers available on the Alumni Portal or various forms of social media.  While college counselor assignments are announced three months before the StuCo presidential election every year, many students believe that the finalists can be predicted long before students have announced their candidacy based on previous Executive positions and level of involvement with the council. The Exonian hence decided to include runner-ups in the survey pool. Of Exeter’s Student Council presidents and runner-ups from the past six years, The Exonian found that three out of the twelve students had Dolan—the presidents elected by the Class of 2018 and 2019 and the runner-up from the Class of 2020.