Phillips Exeter Academy

Developing · 71/100 · Private · 9–12
+1 (603) 772-4311
Address: 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-246016 Tan Lane, Exeter, NH 03833-2460 (Mailing Address)60 Front Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460 (Admissions)237 Water Street (Exeter Summer)261 Water Street (Harris Family Children’s Center)3 Chadwick Lane (Campus Safety) Phone: +1 (603) 772-4311+1 (603) 777-3437 (Admissions)+1 (603) 777-3395 (Human Resources/Employment)+1 (603) 777-3411 (Dean of Students)+1 (603) 777-3264 (Institutional Advancement)+1 (603) 777-3420 (Lamont Health and Wellness Center)+1 (603) 777-3313 (Library)+1 (603) 777-4466 (Facilities Management)+1 (603) 777-3488 (Exeter Summer)+1 (603) 777-3461 (Lamont Gallery)+1 (603) 777-3150 (Harris Family Children’s Center)+1 (603) 777-4444 (Campus Safety dispatch — 24/7)+1 (603) 777-3454 (Giving) Email: admit@exeter.edu (Admissions)hr@exeter.edu (Human Resources/Employment)dean_students@exeter.edu (Dean of Students)DEI@exeter.edu (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion)alumni@exeter.edu (Institutional Advancement)records@exeter.edu (Alumni Records)iaappsupport@exeter.edu (Alumni Login Help)summer@exeter.edu (Exeter Summer)communications@exeter.edu (Communications/Media)safety@exeter.edu (Campus Safety)giving@exeter.edu (Giving) Website: exeter.edu Hours: School day 8:00am–6:00pm ET Directions →
STEM Readiness · 71/100

Phillips Exeter Academy

Exeter, New Hampshire

Excellent in robotics and biotechnology — thin in AI, cybersecurity and clean energy.

AI & DataCybersecurityRoboticsClean EnergyBiotechnology

Discover in stemschooler

Whether this school actually develops future-critical science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics — and what a year of it costs.

How safe is the school, really?

Campus Safety

Based on the Academy’s Campus Safety page and public reports, Exeter publishes how its safety service is staffed but no incident figures: Campus Safety lists 17 officers and a dispatch centre that operates 24/7, with emergency 911 phones throughout the campus. Outside records show two serious matters: the Academy’s own 2018 community letter on abuse by former faculty and staff, and a former math teacher’s 2023 prison sentence.

SourceWhat it showsDate
Campus Safety page“24/7 safety and security services”; 17 campus safety officers; a dispatch centre that operates 24/7; emergency 911 phones across campus; “strong partnerships with local authorities in the town of Exeter.” The page gives no statisticsRead October 2026
Community letter from the interim principal and the trustees’ presidentTwo outside law firms, Holland & Knight and Nixon Peabody, reported on abuse by former faculty and staff (seven perpetrators in one report, four in the other); the letter says “we accept full responsibility for the harm that has been suffered”August 24, 2018
News reportA former math teacher pleaded guilty to three felonies and one misdemeanor involving a student and was sentenced to at least 12 years in prisonJanuary 13, 2023
News reportPolice were called at about 3:48 p.m. on October 7 about a phoned threat later found to be a swatting hoax, and the shelter-in-place was lifted at about 5:03 p.m.; no credible threat to the school or those on campus was identifiedOctober 2026

We found no incident counts, discipline data or annual security report, so safety cannot be set against other schools on figures; the absence of reports is not proof that nothing occurred. The two older matters concern conduct from earlier years, and the 2018 letter is the Academy’s own account of them. The October 2026 hoax rests on one local news report. A family should ask how a student raises a concern today, and who is told.

What's the true total cost, including fees — and how has it moved over the last few years?

Cost & Value

Phillips Exeter lists 2026–27 tuition of $71,797 for a boarding student and $56,077 for a day student, with books and supplies estimated at $900 for both; the tuition page lists no other fees. Adding the estimate gives $72,697 for boarding and $56,977 for day. We found no earlier-year schedule on the Academy’s site, so we cannot say how tuition has moved.

Item, 2026–27BoardingDay
Tuition$71,797$56,077
Books and supplies (estimate)$900$900
Total, our sum$72,697$56,977

The total is our sum of the two lines the Academy lists; it is not a figure the Academy publishes. Under an initiative that starts with admission in 2027, the Academy says it is free for families with annual incomes below $150,000; the calculator page limits this to families that live and work in the United States, earn income exclusively through W-2 employment and hold assets consistent with their income. Travel and personal spending are not on the page, so a boarding family should ask what else a year costs.

How qualified and stable are the teachers?

Teachers

Based on the Academy’s 2026–27 college profile, Exeter lists 253 faculty, 28% with a doctorate and 63% with a master’s, a student–faculty ratio of 6:1 and an average class of 12; about 70% of faculty live on campus. Stability is not measured: we found no turnover or tenure figure.

YearFacultyDoctorate and master’s
2024–2524327% doctorate, 66% master’s
2025–2624327% doctorate, 64% master’s
2026–2725328% doctorate, 63% master’s

The faculty count is the Academy’s own, and the profile does not say how many of the 253 teach classes. Niche gives the teachers an A+ from reader reviews, which are opinion and not measurement. Headcounts do not show who stayed; a family should ask for average tenure and the number of teachers who left last year.

Are scholarships or financial aid available, and what share of students receive them?

Financial Aid

Yes. Phillips Exeter says 49% of students receive financial aid, that it provides more than $30 million a year in outright grants, that there are no loans, and that it meets 100% of every admitted student’s demonstrated need. Families making less than $150,000 pay no tuition under an initiative that starts with admission in 2027.

YearStudents receiving aidAverage grant, boarding / day
2025–2648%$57,832 / $40,711
2026–2749%$60,036 / $39,715

The share receiving aid rose from 48% to 49% between these two profiles, and the boarding average rose from $57,832 to $60,036. These are averages across recipients, so an individual family’s grant depends on its own finances. The $150,000 initiative is for families that live and work in the United States, earn income exclusively through W-2 employment and hold assets consistent with their income.

How strong is this school in AI, data science and computer science compared with other schools?

AI & Computer Science

Based on our review, computer science grades at Level 4 of 5 (4.0/5, Excellent) and AI & data science at Level 2 (2.0/5, Weak). Computer science rests on seven courses, from Computing and Society to Data Structures and Algorithms, a repeatable term-long project course and a one-term diploma requirement; for AI we found no course, only individual student work.

FieldGradeWhat we found
Computer science4.0/5Computing and Society, Building the Dynamic Web, Algorithms and Software Creation, Interactive, Data-Driven Computing, Data Structures and Algorithms, Mobile App Development and Selected Topics, a term-long software or research project that can be repeated; three full-time instructors teach more than 30 sections a year
AI & data science2.0/5No AI or machine-learning course on the Academy’s pages; a data-driven computing course; individual work, such as a 2024 student’s $250,000 top Regeneron Science Talent Search award for work on the automatic discovery of visual circuits

The instructor figure is from the Academy’s February 2023 Bulletin, so it may have changed. A competition award is one student’s result, not a course every student can take, which is why it does not lift the AI grade above Level 2. We have not set Exeter beside another named school here; the grades can be set beside any other school’s on this platform.

Do students get access to advanced coursework, specialist electives and serious competitions?

Advanced Courses & Competitions

Based on the Academy’s college profile, course pages and FIRST and CERN records, yes, though not through Advanced Placement: the Academy says it does not offer AP classes because its courses often go well beyond the AP curriculum, and 60% of its 478 classes are first-year college level or above. Students can take Quantum Mechanics, FIRST Tech Challenge Team 15534 was in the winning alliance of its division at the 2023 FIRST Championship, and a student team was chosen for CERN’s Beamline for Schools in 2023.

StrandWhat is publishedSource
Advanced courseworkNo AP classes; 60% of 478 classes first-year college level or above; of Class of 2026 students who sat AP exams, 82% scored 5 or 4Academy college profile, 2026–27
Specialist electivesQuantum Mechanics: the Schrödinger equation, with a final project of numerical solutionsAcademy course page
FIRST Tech ChallengeVERTEX was part of the three-team alliance that won the Jemison division at the 2023 FIRST Championship in Houston, and won the Innovate Award, sponsored by RTX, in the Goodall division in 2026FIRST, Team 15534
Research competition“Myriad Magnets” was one of the teams selected for the 10th Beamline for Schools at CERN, with a permanent magnet of Halbach geometryCERN, June 28, 2023

The AP result covers the exams students chose to sit, and the Academy does not say how many that was. We found no enrolment figure for the advanced electives, and the FIRST record lists awards, not team size. A family should ask how many students reach the highest course in each subject.

Are students producing serious projects, research, inventions or portfolios—or mainly completing classroom exercises?

Projects & Research

Based on public records, yes: students assembled a mosquito genome that was written up in the Journal of Genomics in October 2025, a senior built a laptop from scratch as a fall-term senior project, a student team designed a magnet for CERN’s Beamline for Schools in 2023, and a 2024 student took the $250,000 top award in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

StrandWhat is publishedSource
ResearchA 216.3 Mbp draft genome assembly of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae, strain G3, with 53X coverage and almost 82 thousand scaffolds, reported by twelve authors with a Phillips Exeter Academy Science Department affiliationJournal of Genomics, October 27, 2025
InventionA laptop built in six months as a fall-term senior project: 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED screen, Rockchip RK3588 processor, CNC-machined aluminium and 3D-printed partsTom’s Hardware, January 24, 2025
Team project“Myriad Magnets,” a permanent magnet of Halbach geometry for a dipole or quadrupole, selected for CERN’s 10th Beamline for SchoolsCERN, June 28, 2023
Individual researchTop Regeneron Science Talent Search award, $250,000, for work on the automatic discovery of visual circuitsSociety for Science, March 2024

The paper is a short report in a journal indexed in PubMed, and we could not read its review process; its authors are the Academy’s own. The Academy’s claim that it is the first genome of this species published by a high school is its own; we could not verify it. We found no count of student projects and no portfolio requirement, so these are examples, not a measure of how many students do this work.

Which future-critical STEM fields is this school genuinely strong in—and which ones are major gaps?

Strengths & Gaps

Based on our review, none of the ten fields reaches Level 5. Robotics, computer science and biotechnology are the strengths at Excellent (4.0/5); Earth systems and aerospace sit at Developing (3.0/5); AI & data science, cybersecurity, clean energy and advanced manufacturing are Weak (2.0/5), and battery storage is the major gap, where we found nothing (0.0/5).

FieldScoreStanding
Robotics & Autonomous Systems4.0/5Excellent
Computer Science & Computational Thinking4.0/5Excellent
Biotechnology & Synthetic Biology4.0/5Excellent
Earth Systems & Geospatial3.0/5Developing
Aerospace & Space Technology3.0/5Developing
AI & Data Science2.0/5Weak
Cybersecurity & Digital Safety2.0/5Weak
Clean Energy & Climate Technology2.0/5Weak
Advanced Manufacturing2.0/5Weak
Batteries & Energy Storage0.0/5Weak
Independent STEM Assessment

Will your child be ready for jobs that don’t exist yet?

Here’s what the evidence actually shows for Phillips Exeter Academy — not what the brochure claims.

71Developing
Strongest
Robotics4.0/5
Also strong
Biotechnology4.0/5
Weakest
Batteries0.0/5
DataThe score
71/100
Developing
Future-Ready52
Depth of Teaching87
Practical Experience90
Advanced Pathways87
Career Alignment80
Evidence Strength90
NarrativeThe verdict

71/100 — Developing overall. Robotics, biotechnology and computer science are Exeter’s furthest developed fields: students take Robotics and Electronics in the physics department beside FIRST Tech Challenge Team 15534 VERTEX, which was in the winning alliance of its division at the 2023 FIRST Championship and competed there each year through 2026, study Advanced Biology, Molecular Genetics and research courses run with laboratories at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, and follow seven computer science courses from Computing and Society to a repeatable term-long software or research project.

But: battery storage is absent, and AI and cybersecurity are thin.

Best positioned forRobotics, Biotechnology, Computer Science

Underdeveloped inBatteries, AI & Data, Cybersecurity

Future-critical exposure5/15 domains

DataOpportunity by domain

Very strong

  • None

Strong

  • Robotics
  • Computer Science
  • Biotechnology

Limited

  • Earth & Geospatial
  • Aerospace

Little / no pathway

  • AI & Data
  • Cybersecurity
  • Clean Energy
  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Batteries
NarrativeWho it's for

Best fit for

Hands-on robotics and electronics builders
Future life-science and biomedical researchers
Future software developers

Less ideal for

Students seeking advanced Earth science or geospatial work
Students seeking aerospace engineering beyond astronomy
Students seeking a battery or energy-storage pathway
Students seeking advanced AI or machine learning
Students set on cybersecurity or digital forensics
Students drawn to climate and energy engineering
Students seeking advanced manufacturing or fabrication
DataOpportunity Paths
AI & DataWeak
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
◐
Foundation
Grade 10
 
Application
Grade 11
 
Advanced
Grade 12
 
Career Bridge
Post-school
Interactive, Data-Driven Computing, a three-term statistics sequence and Linear Algebra are the nearest provision, and Achyuta Rajaram ’24 won the $250,000 first award at the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search for work on machine-learning vision models; no AI or machine-learning course, club or team was found.
CybersecurityWeak
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
◐
Foundation
Grade 10
 
Application
Grade 11
 
Advanced
Grade 12
 
Career Bridge
Post-school
The Academy’s Cybersecurity Club organised the peaCTF capture-the-flag contest in 2019 (446 teams on its scoreboard) and 2020; no cybersecurity course was found, and no club activity after 2020.
RoboticsExcellent
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
✓
Foundation
Grade 10
✓
Application
Grade 11
✓
Advanced
Grade 12
◐
Career Bridge
Post-school
Robotics and Electronics courses in the physics department, the Design Lab, and FIRST Tech Challenge Team 15534 VERTEX, rookie year 2018, which has competed at the FIRST Championship each year from 2023 to 2026, including a division win in 2023 and an Innovate Award in 2026.
Clean EnergyWeak
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
◐
Foundation
Grade 10
 
Application
Grade 11
 
Advanced
Grade 12
 
Career Bridge
Post-school
Applied Physics, Chemistry of the Environment and Earth and the Climate Crisis sit beside a campus climate action plan with emissions targets and an annual Climate Action Day; no energy-systems course or student energy project was found.
BiotechnologyExcellent
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
✓
Foundation
Grade 10
✓
Application
Grade 11
✓
Advanced
Grade 12
◐
Career Bridge
Post-school
Advanced Biology, Molecular Genetics with a recombinant DNA laboratory, a Bioethics course with a CRISPR laboratory, and research courses run with laboratories at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania; no industry internship host was found.
Computer ScienceExcellent
✓
Exposure
Grade 9
✓
Foundation
Grade 10
✓
Application
Grade 11
✓
Advanced
Grade 12
◐
Career Bridge
Post-school
Seven courses run from Computing and Society to Data Structures and Algorithms, Mobile App Development and a repeatable term-long software or research project, taught by three full-time instructors; one computer science term is required for the diploma.
NarrativeWhere the marketing exceeds the evidence — and where it doesn't

Where the marketing exceeds the evidence

School says“Take courses, work with NASA data or simply visit the observatories on Friday night to gaze.”, on the Academy’s Science department page.
Evidence showsThe Grainger Observatory page describes a 0.70-metre telescope, a fibre-fed spectrograph and photometers, and says students complete projects “using data gathered from photometers, and a spectrograph”. The three astronomy courses (Introductory Astronomy, Selected Topics in Astronomy and Advanced Astronomy Methods) describe students making their own observations, independent projects and precise measurements. The one Exeter course page we read that names an outside data source, Earth and the Climate Crisis, names NOAA and USGS data. The Friday-night visit in the same sentence is confirmed on the observatory page.
No NASA data use identified on any observatory or astronomy course page.
Programme maturity: 3.0/5 — Structured, not yet Advanced (Aerospace)

Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests

School says“You’ll learn science by doing it; by exploring and measuring, and then analyzing and interpreting at the Harkness table.”
Evidence showsThe course catalogue goes beyond measurement at a table. Students in Malaria: Bioinformatics & Sequencing, run with laboratories at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, generated a genome sequence for a laboratory strain of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae, now recorded as assembly GCA_031843445.1 with the Academy as submitter and described in a Journal of Genomics paper of October 2025, and Bioethics includes a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing laboratory. Students won CERN’s 2023 Beamline for Schools with a permanent-magnet design tested at CERN, and Yunseo Choi ’21 and Achyuta Rajaram ’24 each took the $250,000 first award at the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
No enrolment figure found for the research courses.
Programme maturity: 4.0/5 — Advanced, not yet Pipeline (Biotechnology). The school understates it.
DataNarrativeSpecialisations — both at once

Curriculum

  • CSC308 Interactive, Data-Driven Computing, a project-based course on building interactive software; a three-term statistics sequence covering probability and student-designed projects; Linear Algebra and Multivariable Calculus
  • Seven computer science courses in all, none of them titled for AI or machine learning

Research

  • Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024: Achyuta Rajaram ’24 won the $250,000 first award for work on automatically discovering circuits in machine-learning vision models; Riya Tyagi took a $25,000 award for work on bias in medical-image AI (Society for Science; The Exonian)

What’s missing

  • No course, club or competition team for artificial intelligence or machine learning found; the computer science department page and the Bulletin’s February 2023 feature on computer science describe web, mobile and software courses and name no AI curriculum
  • The prizes are individual research results whose mentoring and facilities were not documented, so they are counted under Research and not as school provision
  • Graded Level 2, elective-level data and statistics provision without an AI course
Evidence confidence: 50/100

Activity

  • The Academy’s Cybersecurity Club organised peaCTF, a free online capture-the-flag contest for middle and high school students: 446 teams on the peaCTF 2019 scoreboard, and peaCTF 2020 Advanced offered $1,000 in cash prizes (CTFtime)

What’s missing

  • No cybersecurity course found; the seven computer science courses are about algorithms, web, mobile and data
  • No club activity, contest edition or CyberPatriot entry after 2020 found; the contest’s own site refused automated access, so it was not read
  • Graded Level 2, a student club record that ends in 2020
Evidence confidence: 40/100

Curriculum

  • Robotics, a physics course in which students program a microcomputer and build an autonomous robot, and Electronics, from the physics department’s sequence
  • The Design Lab, in the physics wing of the Phelps Science Center, has 3D printers, a laser cutter and hand tools and was open about 12 hours a week when the Bulletin profiled it in 2018–19

Competitions

  • FIRST lists Team 15534 VERTEX of Exeter, New Hampshire, rookie year 2018
  • 2022–23: Championship Finalist Alliance and Division Winning Alliance at the FIRST Championship in Houston, Promote Award 2nd place, Inspire Award 3rd place and a Dean’s List Winner; one of 192 teams worldwide to qualify (FIRST; exeter.edu)
  • 2023–24 and 2024–25: an Inspire Award at the New Hampshire Championship in both seasons, as finalist-alliance captain and then winning-alliance captain, and a place at the FIRST Championship each year
  • 2025–26: Inspire Award 2nd place at the New Hampshire Championship and Innovate Award sponsored by RTX at the FIRST Championship

What’s missing

  • Results vary by event: FIRST lists no awards for the team at the 2024 and 2025 FIRST Championships
  • No robotics course beyond the physics department’s two, and no robotics employer or university partnership found
  • Graded Level 4, a course sequence with a team that qualified for the FIRST Championship four years running, with a division-winning alliance in 2023, and held below Level 5 for the missing partnership
Evidence confidence: 80/100

Activity

  • Applied Physics lists biological, medical and energy technologies among its topics; Chemistry of the Environment; Earth and the Climate Crisis, which uses NOAA and USGS data
  • The Academy’s April 2023 sustainability and climate action plan: a 75% cut in scope 1 and 2 emissions from a 2005 baseline by 2031, zero by 2050, and the aim that every student graduates with a basic understanding of sustainability and climate change; Climate Action Day, in its twelfth year in April 2026, includes a survey of the solar array in the ninth-grade programme (exeter.edu)

What’s missing

  • No solar, wind, energy-systems or storage course, and no student energy project or competition, found
  • The plan’s targets describe the Academy’s operations, and its aim for student understanding names no course
  • Graded Level 2, electives and campus activity without a structured energy curriculum
Evidence confidence: 45/100

Curriculum

  • Advanced Biology, described as the equivalent of an introductory college course, with Advanced Chemistry and Organic Chemistry beside it; Molecular Genetics with a recombinant DNA laboratory; Introductory Genetics
  • Bioethics, team-taught by a science and a religion instructor, includes a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing laboratory and is open to juniors and seniors with a year of introductory biology

Research

  • Malaria: Bioinformatics & Sequencing works with the Kim Lab at Stanford and the Povelones Lab at the University of Pennsylvania: students carry out the wet-lab steps from isolating DNA to submitting the sample for sequencing, and their genome for Anopheles gambiae (PEA_Agam_2022, assembly GCA_031843445.1, assembly date 22 September 2023) is recorded with Phillips Exeter Academy as submitter (UCSC genome hub; exeter.edu), and a 216.3 Mbp draft assembly of strain G3, the same size, was published in the Journal of Genomics on 27 October 2025 by twelve authors with a Phillips Exeter Academy Science Department affiliation
  • Biology Research works with the Stanford laboratory on fly strains, and Collaborative Research is team research by application
  • Aden Lee ’24 won first place at the 61st National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in April 2023, taking the top national ranking in the Biomedical Sciences category with a report on polystyrene microplastics and neuroinflammation; the Academy’s article also says he qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair (exeter.edu)

What’s missing

  • No biotechnology internship host or industry credential found, and no enrolment figure for the research courses
  • Graded Level 4, advanced coursework with university laboratory partners, and held below Level 5 because no biotechnology industry pathway was found
Evidence confidence: 70/100

Curriculum

  • CSC205 Computing and Society, CSC208 Building the Dynamic Web, CSC405 Algorithms and Software Creation (object-oriented programming), CSC308 Interactive, Data-Driven Computing, CSC505 Data Structures and Algorithms, CSC506 Mobile App Development and CSC590 Selected Topics in Computer Science, which is repeatable and has each student complete a term-long software development or research project
  • One computer science term is required for the diploma, and three full-time instructors teach more than 30 sections a year (Exeter Bulletin, February 2023)

Student work

  • Davido Zhang and Clark Wu built the game Catguessr with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL as their CSC590 project (Exeter Bulletin, February 2023)

What’s missing

  • No computer science competition or programming team found, and no computer science exam results published
  • Graded Level 4, a seven-course sequence into data structures and independent projects, and held below Level 5 because no software employer or university partnership was found
Evidence confidence: 75/100
DataSTEAM — integrated learning

Creativity cannot be graded the way a course can. It can only be evidenced through what students made.

Criterion23242526
Art + technology
Design
Architecture
Engineering design
Media / digital production
Maker learning
Interdisciplinary projects
One artefactSeveralNone2026 in progress

Two strands run for three years or more; the others run for fewer years. 2023, 2024 and 2025 are the densest, at 5 of 7 criteria.

The record — 6 artefacts

2023–now
The FIRST Tech Challenge robots of Team 15534 VERTEX

Students on the Exeter robotics team design and build a competition robot each season: FIRST’s records show a Division Winning Alliance and Championship Finalist Alliance at the 2023 FIRST Championship in Houston, Inspire Awards at the New Hampshire Championship in 2024 and 2025, and in 2026 the Innovate Award sponsored by RTX at the FIRST Championship and the Inspire Award 2nd place at the New Hampshire Championship.

Engineering designMaker learning

FIRST Tech Challenge event and award records for Team 15534, 2023–2026

2023–now
The Exonian, the student newspaper

The Exonian is run by students, with Editorial, Web and Business boards, and publishes news, features, opinion and sports on theexonian.net; its articles report events from January 2023 to October 2026, among them the Regeneron Science Talent Search awards of March 2024 and the unveiling of the LEGO library model in October 2024. The paper’s first issue appeared in 1878.

Media / digital production

The Exonian, theexonian.net, January 2023–October 2026

2024–2025
anyon_e, an open-source laptop

Byran Huang ’25 designed and built a laptop as a fall-term senior project in 2024, with a 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED screen, a Rockchip RK3588 processor module and a CNC-machined aluminium chassis with 3D-printed parts; Tom’s Hardware reported it in January 2025 as built in six months, and the Academy reports that his build video drew nearly one million views.

Engineering designDesignMaker learning

Tom’s Hardware, January 24, 2025 · exeter.edu, April 2025

2023–2024
A LEGO model of the Class of 1945 Library

Nathan Frankel ’25 designed a model of Louis Kahn’s Class of 1945 Library in the Studio building application, and more than 60 students, faculty and staff built it from about 86,000 pieces in spring 2024 on a $6,500 budget; it was unveiled in the library on October 4, 2024 and shown at Family Weekend.

ArchitectureDesignMaker learning

The Exonian, fall 2024 · Exeter Bulletin, winter 2025

2025
The MakerFest Showcase

The Lamont Gallery showed Design Lab work from April 1 to May 3, 2025, including Tubulum, in PVC pipe and wood, by six students and the lab coordinator; the 3D-printed Deriving the Sum of Squares Formula by Evan Chen ’28 and Arisa Yoshino ’28; and a competition rocket by Jackson Lyle ’25 and the Exeter Rocketry Team.

Art + technologyDesignMaker learning

Lamont Gallery exhibition listing, exeter.edu, 2025

… and 1 more artefact, counted in the chart above.

Nothing found for

No student work was found evidencing this one. For a school this well documented, an unrecorded programme is unlikely to be a large one.

Interdisciplinary projects
NarrativeWatchpoints

What a family should ask about directly

  • Batteries have no record at all, AI has no course of its own, the cybersecurity club record ends in 2020, and clean energy rests on electives and campus activity rather than a course. Ask which of these gaps the Academy is closing.
  • The Science department page invites students to “work with NASA data”, and none of the astronomy or observatory pages we read names it. Ask which course or project uses NASA data and who has done so.
  • The Academy’s own figures differ between its pages: the 2026–27 college profile gives 253 faculty and 478 classes, the 2025–26 PDF gives 243 and 481, and its pages say both “more than $30 million” and “more than $25 million” in aid. Ask for the current figures.
  • The Academy offers no AP classes, and 82% of the Class of 2026 students who sat AP exams scored 5 or 4. Ask how a student prepares for an AP exam in a subject without an AP class, and whether the exams are taken at the Academy.
  • Safety history belongs in a family’s questions. The Academy published two investigative reports in August 2018 on sexual misconduct by former staff, apologised and accepted responsibility for institutional failures, and a former mathematics teacher was sentenced in January 2023 to at least 12 years for conduct between 2014 and 2016. Ask how reports are made and handled today and who a student can go to.
  • Reviewers on Niche praise the Harkness method and small classes and also describe an intense workload, stress and burnout. Ask how a heavy STEM schedule is balanced with the Academy’s counselling and health services.
  • Several sources could not be read: the peaCTF site refused automated access, the course catalogue PDF could be read only in part so the science, mathematics and integrated-studies courses were read from their individual course pages, and the Academy’s academic calendar page refused automated access. Confidence on cybersecurity, AI and clean energy is lower for that reason.
DataEvidence ledger
DomainEvidence classKey sources
AI & DataSchool-reported · Officially recordedCourse pages for Interactive, Data-Driven Computing and the statistics sequence; Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024 results (Society for Science; The Exonian); no AI course, club or team record found
Computer ScienceSchool-reportedComputer science department and course pages; Exeter Bulletin, February 2023; no competition or exam record found
RoboticsOfficially recorded · School-reportedFIRST event and award records for Team 15534, 2022–23 to 2025–26; Robotics and Electronics course pages; Design Lab profile (Exeter Bulletin); no partnership record found
BiotechnologyOfficially recorded · School-reportedGenome assembly GCA_031843445.1 submitted by the Academy (UCSC genome hub) and a Journal of Genomics paper of October 2025 with a Science Department affiliation; biology, chemistry, Bioethics and research course pages naming Stanford and University of Pennsylvania laboratories; National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium result (exeter.edu); no industry host or credential record found
Clean EnergySchool-reportedApplied Physics, Chemistry of the Environment and Earth and the Climate Crisis course pages; Academy climate action plan and Climate Action Day pages; no energy course or project record found
AerospaceSchool-reportedGrainger Observatory page and the three astronomy course pages; no competition or aerospace-engineering record found
Earth & GeospatialSchool-reportedEarth and the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Marine Biology course pages; no geospatial or remote-sensing record found
Advanced ManufacturingSchool-reportedDesign Lab profile (Exeter Bulletin), 3-D Design course and the MakerFest Showcase page (Lamont Gallery); no fabrication sequence or credential record found
CybersecurityOfficially recordedCTFtime listings for peaCTF 2019 and peaCTF 2020 Advanced, organised by the Academy’s Cybersecurity Club; no course or later record found; the contest’s own site could not be read
Batteries & Energy StorageUnsubstantiatedNo coursework, laboratory, club or competition record found
By the school · 1 of 5 pages

Academics

Harkness principles meet state-of-the-art technology.

We offer more than 450 courses across 18 departments, and we teach around the Harkness table. We do not offer AP classes, as our courses often go well beyond the AP curriculum. Here is how our curriculum reads in a few subjects, and some of our advanced courses.

Grades 9–12

Phillips Exeter Academy

Our diploma requires nine term credits of mathematics (or passing a course numbered 330 or above), six term credits of science and one of computer science.

  • Mathematics: we use problem sets, not textbooks
  • Science: you’ll learn science by doing it; by exploring and measuring, and then analyzing and interpreting at the Harkness table
  • Computer science: we offer advanced courses in scientific modeling, mobile computing and more
  • Exeter Innovates: experiment and create
  • Three domed observatories help you understand the heavens above

Advanced courses

Advanced Physics
Modern Physics
Electronics
Robotics
Quantum Mechanics
Advanced Astronomy Methods
Molecular Genetics
Malaria: Bioinformatics & Sequencing
Biology Research
Bioethics
Intro to Statistical Thermodynamics
Earth and the Climate Crisis
Linear Algebra
Algorithms and Software Creation
Data Structures and Algorithms
Mobile App Development
Ask about academics
By the school · 2 of 5 pages

Calendar

What is coming up, soonest first.

These are the dates we have published: our Family Weekend, our admissions events, our application dates and our Lamont Gallery exhibitions. Ask below if you need a date confirmed before you plan around it.

October

Oct 10Exeter in Seoul
Oct 15Financial Aid Info Session · virtual
Oct 17Chat with Exeter in Miami
Oct 22Seattle Boarding School Fair
Oct 23–24Family Weekend · campus programming from Friday morning through noon Saturday, with athletic events Saturday afternoon; no programming Sunday, and no classes Monday, Oct 26
Oct 27Clarity Financial Aid Webinar · virtual
Oct 28Clarity Financial Aid Webinar · virtual

November

Nov 7Atlanta, GA – Diversity Round Table (DRT) Reception
Nov 8Chicago, IL – Ten Schools Admission Organization (TSAO) Reception
Nov 8Birmingham, AL – Diversity Round Table (DRT) Reception
Nov 8Exeter Evening for Day Students · Grainger Auditorium, Exeter, NH
Nov 10Nashville, TN – Diversity Round Table (DRT) Reception
Nov 14London, England – Ten Schools Admission Organization (TSAO) Reception
Nov 17Frankfurt, Germany – Ten Schools Admission Organization (TSAO) Reception
Nov 19Zurich, Switzerland – Ten Schools Admission Organization (TSAO) Reception
Nov 21Exeter in Princeton 2026
Nov 21Exeter in Newark, NJ
Nov 22Exeter in Washington D.C.
Nov 22Exeter in Seattle
Nov 22Exeter in Los Angeles, CA
Nov 22Exeter in Atlanta, GA
Nov 23Financial Aid Info Session · virtual

December

Dec 6Exeter in New York City · 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. ET
Dec 6Exeter in Chicago, IL
Dec 8Clarity Financial Aid Webinar · virtual
Dec 12Financial Aid Info Session · virtual

January

Jan 5–Mar 6Lamont Gallery: McLaughlin exhibition · reception Jan 14, 5–7 p.m.
Jan 15Application deadline

March

Mar 10Admission decisions
Mar 30–Apr 16Lamont Gallery: MakerFest Showcase

April

Apr 30–Jun 6Lamont Gallery: Annual Student Art Show
Ask about the calendar
By the school · 3 of 5 pages

Our Story

Non Sibi — not for oneself.

Our mission is to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. Each word of it derives from our Deed of Gift, drafted in 1781.

Knowledge and Goodness

Our Deed of Gift holds that “knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character.”

Academic Excellence

In every discipline and at every level within our curriculum we inspire students to develop critical thinking skills.

Youth From Every Quarter

Our Deed of Gift states that “The Academy shall ever be equally open to youth of requisite qualifications from every quarter.”

Non Sibi

We seek to graduate young people “whose ambitions and actions are inspired by their interest in others.”

Milestones

1781

John and Elizabeth Phillips found the Academy; our Deed of Gift is dated May 17.

1783

We open our doors to 56 students on March 20.

1878

The first edition of The Exonian, our student newspaper, appears on April 6.

1930

The Harkness gift of $5.8 million is received. Our Harkness table, seven feet by eleven, seats twelve students and one instructor.

1970

Female students join us, from the fall.

2020

Principal Bill Rawson introduces our mission statement at the Opening of School assembly.

2026

Jennifer Karlen Elliott becomes the Academy’s 17th principal.

We are accredited by NEASC.

Ask about our story
By the school · 4 of 5 pages

Give

Make an impact.

The impact of gifts to the Academy is reflected in the vibrant faces and stories of our faculty and students.

$30M+
We provide in outright grants each year
49%
Of our students receive financial aid
23,239
Our alumni

The Exeter Fund

The Exeter Fund provides vital resources that enable us to sustain the hallmarks of an Exeter education. Learn more.

Capital & Endowment Giving

Endowment gifts have a direct impact on our ability to support our students, faculty and staff. Learn more.

Family Engagement & Giving

We invite families to help us close the gap between tuition and the true cost. Learn more.

Planned Giving

Planned gifts, including gift annuities and charitable trusts, can help you meet your financial and charitable goals. Learn more.

Talk to us

Call 603-777-3454 or write to giving@exeter.edu.

Give now →
Ask about giving
By the school · 5 of 5 pages

News

What is happening on our campus.

Recent stories from our own pages, newest first.

Life, leadership and non sibi

Three recipients of the Exeter Alumni Association’s 2026 President’s Award, Lou DeLuca ’53, Cletus P. Lyman ’63 and Dr. Martha Nance ’76, reflect on how Harkness, our alumni community and mentorship shaped their lives and on what they hope to pass on to the Class of 2027.

Alum asks Exeter, ‘Are we doomed?’

Economist Geng Ngarmboonanant ’11 told our assembly that the nation’s economic future depends on collective choices and the courage to make them.

A conversation with the principal

Our Student Council took the stage for its annual assembly and, as is tradition, interviewed the principal. Jenny Elliott spoke about her own school days, her role models and her views on AI in education.

Opening Assembly 2026

Principal Jennifer Karlen Elliott addressed our community at Opening Assembly on belonging, our founding mission, student wellbeing and the future of Harkness learning in an age of AI.

All class: Exeter aces orientation

Class Day kicks off our new year. Students from all four grades came together for team-building activities and icebreakers led by outside groups.

Exonian grabs gold in Economics Olympiad

Eli Orbach ’27 finished fourth among 262 entrants at the International Economics Olympiad in Shenzhen, China.

Ask about the news

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