Admissions Office Reports 79.5% Yield for 2020-2021 School Year

By Moksha Akil, David Chen and Cindy Su

On March 10, Students from around the world received acceptance to the Academy. Accepted students had until April 10, a full month, to decide whether or not to join the Exeter community. 

This year, Exeter reported a high yield rate of 79.5%, falling in line with the yield trend of the last three years. Though the actual admission rate stayed at around 15.5%, more students decided to “say yes to Exeter” this year. 

Part of the reason for this high yield rate is simply how attractive Exeter is to prospective students, explained Dean of Enrollment William Leahy.  “The yield rate this year… is a wonderful testament regarding how families view Exeter relative to their other school choices and their desire to join this remarkable community,” Leahy said. 

Especially due the coronavirus pandemic, this high enrollment rate will grant Exeter some flexibility to reach ideal numbers for the 2020-2021 school year, Leahy noted. “We always build an enrollment model that allows us to absorb the normal summer attrition that occurs when there are a few new and/or returning students who choose not to enroll in September,” Leahy said. “This year, at both the secondary and collegiate level, admission offices are accounting for the possibility of higher summer attrition due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, so we anticipate being quite close to our actual opening of school total enrollment target come September.”

A total of 2,831 applicants sought to attend the Academy, up from 2,700 applicants in 2019. Across all classes, 348 new students will attend Exeter in the 2020-21 school year. As the numbers stand now, 211 students will comprise the Class of 2024, 75 new students will join the Class of 2023, 30 new students will join the Class of 2022 and 32 new students will join the Class of 2021, including post-graduates.

Incoming students hail from 35 different states and 24 different countries. International students make up 7.5% of the incoming group, a 0.7 percent point drop from last year. Of this percentage, incoming prep Nhan Phan will be one of the first students in two years to be accepted into the Academy from Vietnam. “I kind of feel honored and yet at the same time a bit nervous in a way, to be one of the few representatives coming from a small country in Southeast Asia,” he said. Ph an applied to boarding schools because he was “looking for knowledge that can better suit [him] in the future, rather than generic curriculums taught by Vietnamese schools.”

Out of the 348 new students, 41% of these new students identify as non-white; 46% of the students identify as female; 53% identify as male and 1% as self-identifying. Nearly half of this year’s admitted students—47%—will receive financial aid.

Incoming students learned about the Academy in a variety of ways. Olga Ananina, an incoming prep from Brooklyn, New York, shared her experience with the Prep 9 program, which helps African American and Latinx students apply to boarding schools in New England. Ananina described the program as rigorous but worthwhile. “I have done many all-nighters, been low on sleep and still had to work hard. It is a very difficult program, but I love Prep 9—all the work is worth it,” Ananina said.

Exeter Summer School was a vital draw to the Academy for incoming prep Lauren Kim, a Korean-American student currently residing in Singapore. Exeter Summer provides students the chance to experience Exeter's community and academic resources for five weeks including residential life. “I believe it will provide me with the advantage of early acclimation to campus… It’ll be easier for me to integrate into the Exeter environment and navigate around campus (along with the town),” Kim said.

New lower Elina Yang’s interest in the Academy also stemmed from her experience at Exeter Summer last year. While she is excited to start at Exeter, she noted some daunting aspects of boarding school. “I’m most nervous about adjusting to classes and other academic aspects of boarding life,” Yang said.

Aaron Park, an incoming prep, will be repeating his prep year for the full four year experience of Exeter. “I want to switch schools to broaden my frame of reference. I was shocked by how many different classes Exeter had to offer… I wasn’t offered anything like microbiology or religion courses,” Park said. “I think that, by having a high school experience beforehand, it will be easier for me to adjust to Exeter’s workload and use my time efficiently.” 

Students with pre-existing Exeter connections—such as siblings of current Exonians and children of faculty—also had their share of good news. Current prep Blake Simpson and incoming prep Will Simpson are excited to attend the same school again. “As Blake’s brother, it’s been super cool to think about being at the same school as him, and I’ve met some of his friends, and they’re also really cool,” Will Simpson said. 

Simpson believes his experience on campus serves as a starting point for further exploration of what Exeter has to offer. “I’ve been around this community and campus for as long as I can remember, and I finally get to be really immersed in the community and figure out what it's like to be on the inside of the whole thing,” he said.

Incoming prep Jonathan Chen, brother of senior Lenny Chen, visited campus twice to see his brother during Family Weekend. During these visits, he discovered that the connection between students “felt like family.”

Chen also enjoyed the Harkness pedagogy, which seemed to offer more to him than his current school. “I’m a very outgoing person, and I always want to discuss and talk through questions in class, but I can’t because my school teaches mostly through a standard teaching style,” he said. 

These students will soon begin their experience at the Academy, challenging themselves and learning new teaching styles. As they experience residential and academic life at Exeter, they will make this community their own.