Course Rigor
By KEVIN THANT ‘27 and AARYAN PATEL ‘27
As the term ends, all Exonians can focus on are their grades. At such a competitive prep school with Phillips Exeter Academy, students often find themselves dwelling on how they can portray themselves in the best way to colleges. Often seen as more important than sports or clubs are a student’s GPA and courses. Many students attempt to console their friends or even themselves when they get unexpected grades, putting forth the idea that the student’s high course rigor would make up for the sub-par grades. In reality, though, does course rigor matter? For Exonians, probably not.
Exeter’s 11-point GPA scale often receives immense scrutiny from students due to its awkwardness compared to the common 4-point scale. Furthermore, Exeter’s avoidance of the traditional course labeling with introductory, advanced, and AP classes steers the Academy away from weighted GPAs. At most public schools nationwide, high-achieving students have no problem signing up for AP and accelerated courses because they are reassured that their GPAs will reflect their hard work. For instance, a 4.0 in a regular class may be translated to a grade as high as 5.0, thus supporting students’ academic ambitions.
However, the same cannot be said about Exeter students. Obviously, the Academy is home to some of the most brilliant young minds in the country, if not the world. With that comes the desire for more knowledge and a gradually decreasing GPA.
The unspoken gamble in this scenario is that college admissions officers will look past the one number and notice the high course rigor. However, with Exeter’s intricate course numbering system, courses with very similar numbers may be opposites in difficulty due to the subject or teacher. Furthermore, when compared to other students from outside of Exeter, whose transcripts reflect the advanced nature of their courses in the course labeling as well as their weighted GPA.
Multiple students often ask the question of whether to take the accelerated course or the normal one. Take the accelerated chemistry 400 sequence, for example, multiple qualified students choose to take the far easier 300 chemistry sequence in fear of their GPA decreasing. No matter the reason, Exonians who strive to challenge themselves the most often face disadvantages in the college admissions process.
Course rigor is a common term utilized at Exeter. Multiple students feel cheated almost by looking at their GPAs. After all, an 11.0 GPA, where somebody doesn’t take a course higher than the 400, and a 10.0 GPA, where courses are numbered in the 900s, are not the same.
Exeter finds itself in a contradictory position; it claims to push students to their utmost limits. However, when students do not find any rewards by pushing to challenge themselves, it takes away from the incentive. What, then, should the average Exonian do? On the one hand, you would want to maintain good grades, but could you say you took full advantage of Exeter without subjecting yourself to its full rigor? It’s a question that we, as Exonians, should not be forced to answer.
This school boasts having some of the most challenging and enriching courses but puts students in a position where taking them would hurt their chances at a good college. If Exeter wishes to truly maintain its core value of knowledge with goodness and its reputation of rigor, we need to implement a weighted GPA at the school so that people are rewarded for the more challenging courses they take.