Summer Camps & Programs

Program Description

Phillips Exeter Academy

Summer School
Exeter, New Hampshire

		Program Description Program Overview Visit Web Site Get Free Info

For More Information, Contact
Ethan W. Shapiro, Director
Phillips Exeter Summer School
20 Main Street
Exeter, New Hampshire 03833-2460
603-777-3488
800-828-4325 Ext. 3488 (toll-free)
Fax: 603-777-4385
http://www.exeter.edu/summer

Type of Program: Academic enrichment
Participants: Coeducational, grades 8–12 and postgraduate year
Enrollment: 700
Program Dates: Five-week program; July 6–August 9, 2008
Head of Program: Ethan W. Shapiro, Director

Location

The 400-acre Phillips Exeter Academy campus is located in the town of Exeter, the Colonial capital of New Hampshire, which is in the heart of the state’s seacoast area. Boston, Newburyport, Portsmouth, and the White Mountains are all within easy access for excursions.

Background and Philosophy

Every summer, Phillips Exeter Academy welcomes to the campus some 700 students for five weeks of academic study, athletics, and exploration that carry participants far beyond the classrooms and the playing fields. Typically, students come from more than forty states; Puerto Rico; Washington, D.C.; and several dozen other nations. Most reside in campus dormitories; others travel daily from their homes in the New Hampshire seacoast area. Together they embody a rich diversity of language, culture, religion, and race. They come to Exeter with that particular mix of intellectual curiosity and adventurous spirit that holds the promise of glimpsing new horizons and making new discoveries.

Program Offerings

Exeter’s Upper School offers programs of study for high school students entering grades 10 and beyond. Students create their own academic programs by selecting three courses from the more than 100 offered in a wide range of disciplines. Students may choose to concentrate on a specific academic area, taking science courses such as Introduction to Physics, Marine Biology, and Animal Behavior or arts courses such as Photography, Sculpture, and Architecture. More often, however, they elect to balance the arts and sciences, enrolling in Creative Writing, American Government, and Problem Solving in Algebra or Writing Nature, Video Production, and Introduction to Chemistry. Whatever their academic choices, students find themselves working in small classes with highly experienced, dedicated teachers. During the five-week term, they have full access to the Academy’s exceptional facilities, including the state-of-the-art Phelps Science Center and the Class of 1945 Library, the largest secondary school library in the world.
    Younger students, those entering grades 8 and 9, may apply for the Access Exeter program, which offers accelerated studies in six different academic clusters. Each cluster consists of three courses organized around a central theme: Project Exeter: A Greener Earth, The Land and the Sea, Problem Solving: An Odyssey of the Mind, A Global Community, The Creative Arts, and Exeter: C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation. Each cluster emphasizes hands-on learning, or participatory education, both in and beyond the classroom. Students in The Land and the Sea program, for example, venture out to Appledore Island on the Isles of Shoals and go whale-watching along Jeffreys Ledge off the coast of Massachusetts. At midterm, all Access Exeter students and their teachers depart the campus for a two-night/three-day excursion; students in the Global Community program travel to Montreal, Quebec, where they immerse themselves in the French-speaking Canadian culture.
    Complementing the academic curriculum, the Summer School offers a physical education program that is an essential part of the student’s Exeter experience. For two 12-day sessions, students participate in a variety of physical activities that include tennis, soccer, softball, basketball, track and field, lacrosse, aerobics, weight training, and water polo. Upper School students may also apply for the crew or squash program.

Enrollment

Students come to the Summer School from about thirty countries and more than forty states. Students of all racial, religious, and social backgrounds are welcome.

Daily Schedule

Academic and athletics classes are required appointments. When students do not have required appointments, they are expected to use their time productively. Dormitory check-in is at 9 p.m. (11 p.m. on Saturday), and the dorm is expected to be conducive to study after this time. Students should be mature enough to regulate their behavior; antisocial behavior may result in disciplinary action. Disciplinary procedures are designed to teach the student the value of integrity. The daily schedule for students enrolled in Access Exeter varies slightly from the schedule observed by older students.

Extra Opportunities and Activities

Educational and recreational excursions are a regular feature of Wednesday afternoons and weekends, when there are no required appointments. Such excursions are optional and may consist of a hike in the White Mountains, tours of New England colleges, a Boston museum visit, or a whale watch. Extracurricular activities include theater, music, and various sports. Students are encouraged to enjoy the cultural and ethnic diversity that is at the heart of the Exeter Summer School experience.

Facilities

Exeter is proud of its outstanding academic and athletic facilities. The centerpiece of the campus is Louis Kahn’s architectural landmark, the Phillips Exeter Library, which has a capacity of 250,000 volumes and can seat 400 students. The collection currently consists of 150,000 volumes in addition to an extensive collection of tapes, albums, and compact discs. The library houses one of the Academy’s six computer labs. Equally imposing is the Love Gymnasium, with its five basketball floors, two ice rinks, two pools, fifteen squash courts, a weight-training room, a dance room, and a training room. Outside there are acres of baseball diamonds, soccer fields, tennis courts, an all-weather 400-meter track, and a cross-country course through the nature preserve.
    The Forrestal-Bowld Music Center is a state-of-the-art facility with more than 24,000 square feet of space dedicated to the study of music. In addition to three large rehearsal rooms, there are eleven teacher studios, eight of them equipped with grand pianos, and sixteen practice rooms with upright pianos. New to the campus in fall 2001 was the Phelps Science Center, a $38-million complex that offers students and teachers outstanding facilities for scientific investigation and study. Other highlights of the campus are the two-stage Fisher Theater, the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center and Lamont Gallery, and the Grainger Observatory.

Staff

The majority of the Summer School’s instructors are Phillips Exeter Academy faculty members. Additional qualified instructors are recruited from other schools and universities, and many have made long-term commitments to teaching Summer School.

Medical Care

The infirmary is staffed 24 hours a day. Exeter Hospital, which is just minutes away, offers emergency medical service. Enrollment in the Summer School Group Insurance Plan is included in the tuition.

Religious Life

The Summer School is nondenominational; students may attend religious services at nearby churches and synagogues if they wish.

Costs

Boarding tuition for the 2008 Summer School is $6295 for Upper School students. The Access Exeter boarding tuition is $6445 (including the required excursion fee). A nonrefundable $1500 deposit is due at the time of enrollment, with the balance due on May 15. The 2008 tuition for day students is $1095 per course. It is $4295, including the required excursion fee, for Access Exeter day students.

Financial Aid

Limited financial aid is available. The deadline for financial aid application is March 1.

Application Timetable

Admission to the Phillips Exeter Academy Summer School is competitive and is based on academic achievement and motivation. There is a rolling admission procedure, and only completed applications can be considered. Since many courses fill rapidly, it is in the candidate’s best interest to complete the application as early as possible. Application and teacher reference forms are to be found in the Summer School catalog. A separate application form is required for those students who wish to participate in Access Exeter.