Admissions Hosts Virtual Experience Exeter
By: Ella Brady, Maame Dufie Awuah, Hannah Dirsa
Students all around the world received news of their acceptance into the Academy on March 10. The Academy offered multiple remote opportunities for admitted students to learn about Exeter in replacement of Experience Exeter—a cluster of campus revisits which were cancelled this year due to COVID-19—before they make the decision to enroll at the Academy by April 10.
In previous years, the Academy has hosted Experience Exeter, a series of one-day revisit programs in the spring for newly admitted students and their families to learn about living and learning at Exeter. Students participating in the program attended classes and events with a current student at the Academy to experience a day in their life. Parents also visited classes and had conversations with students, deans and faculty.
Although the usual Experience Exeter program could not operate this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Academy hosted a series of student panels via Zoom, where current Exonians shared their thoughts and experiences on topics such as dorm life, athletics, clubs and classes.
Senior Bea Burack recounted her experience speaking at a panel about dorm life. “My fellow panelists and I talked about what it's like to live in a dorm and we gave some specific details and anecdotes about our respective dorms,” Burack said. “The attendees had a lot of great questions for us, like what the advantages of a small versus a large dorm are and what sorts of items new students should bring with them on move-in day.”
“I think the webinar helped paint a clearer picture of life at Exeter for prospective students, something like that would have been so helpful to have when I was applying,” Burack added.
Upper and panelist Carson Bloom expressed appreciation for the opportunity to tell his experiences directly to newly admitted students. “Your experience at Exeter is very personal—it’s different for everyone, and it depends on what clubs you’re involved with and how you spend your time, but I think the best way to connect with people is often through stories,” Bloom said. “We can tell [new students] all the facts and figures and we can tell them all the courses and classes we have, but the times I felt most connected were when I could see the participants nodding and smiling and showing that they understood and appreciated what I or someone else said.”
In addition to synchronous panels, the Office of Admissions hosted numerous student takeovers on their official Instagram account, @pea_admissions.
Lower Jackie Wood, who did a ‘day in the life’ on the account around Decision Day, explained the goals she had for her takeover. “The main thing that I want new students to take away from this is seeing how normal our lives are. They hear a lot about Exeter, especially on the Internet and from friends and things like that, where it's all work, no play and lots of studying,” Wood said. “One thing I tried to focus on was showing how people can find time to hang out with friends and do sports and relax, but at the same time, find a really great education.”
Another system that the Office of Admissions implemented was PeerPal, a private messaging platform that allows admitted students and their families to connect with current students and parents via chat. These students and parents serve as PeerPal Ambassadors, who help prospective families feel more comfortable with the school community and replicate the one-on-one student host experience that is characteristic of revisits during a non-pandemic year.
Senior and PeerPal Ambassador Yulian Ye described the role as enjoyable and fulfilling. “A lot of kids are a little overwhelmed by the prospect of having a new schedule and Harkness and everything, so I’ve been answering questions about all that,” Ye said. “I’m definitely really excited to do this. I’m thinking about how I felt when I was first coming to Exeter: excited, but also scared. This is a way to pay forward and help facilitate their transition.”
Upper, Tour Guide and PeerPal Ambassador Riley Valashinas shared similar thoughts. “Doing work in the admissions department is one of my favorite things to do at Exeter. I love being able to meet new people and share some cool facts and some of my favorite stories with them! It’s been so great to be able to adapt this to a virtual format. I missed doing this so much last spring!” Valashinas said.
The Office of Admissions also provided virtual tours for admitted students to see and hear about campus from current Exonians. “We stopped in front of the usual tour stops, and the camera would rotate 360 degrees to show them around,” Bloom said. “For example, in the science building, we’d talk about how we integrated Harkness into science class because people had questions about how Harkness works with science... people who were watching the tour could really see the places we went to class or the Assembly Hall, and we would describe which events occurred there.”
Members of many interscholastic sports teams also sent personalized messages to prospective teammates. Incoming prep Chloe Richards reflected upon her experience having a member of Girls’ Soccer reach out to her. “It was really wonderful because I was nervous I wouldn’t make many friends, and even though the students were asked to reach out to the new preps, she did a really wonderful job making me feel excited and like she was reaching out as a friend, not a classmate,” Richards said.
While incoming students do not have the ability to see Exeter’s campus, students and classrooms in-person, Exeter’s adaptations to the pandemic has led some students to consider remote panels becoming a regularity.
“For me, what was so important about Experience Exeter was being on campus and seeing its vibe, seeing the students smiling and having fun, seeing that it was so different from what I had heard about Exeter—all work, no play—so it was really important for me to see how kids behave in class, on the paths and in the dorms. That’s something that you can’t get virtually,” Bloom said. “In-person Experience Exeter is definitely the best, but as for other online sessions, I think it would be good, especially for the first visit. I personally didn’t visit Exeter before applying, so for someone in a situation like mine who lived far away from boarding school, an online option could make more sense economically and provide more access to boarding schools, especially for people that didn’t really grow up with boarding schools or don’t live on the East Coast.”
“I think that, as soon as it’s safe, we should go back to offering in-person tours and admissions events, because the virtual world can never be a perfect substitute for in-person connection, and it’s much harder to make the huge commitment that is saying yes to Exeter when you’ve never stepped foot on campus and seen what the vibe is like,” Valashinas said. “However, I think virtual admissions events are so valuable in their own ways — most importantly that they are infinitely more accessible than the in-person events.”
“I relied a lot on YouTube and conversations with friends of friends who had gone to boarding school, but it would've been so nice to be able to get important information on Exeter life directly from current students,” Burack said. “I hope admissions keeps doing events like this one even when we're back to in-person Experience Exeter.”