Exeter

Phillips Exeter Academy is a boarding school in Exeter, New Hampshire of approximately 1,000 students. Regarded as the most prestigious high school in the country, most notably for academics, Phillips Exeter Academy is renowned worldwide for its unique teaching method, “The Harkness Table.” The principal is based off the idea that the students are of such a high intellect that they are able to teach each other, and thus the teacher of the class simply acts as a moderator for the brilliant discussion which occurs. In simpler terms, the students are so smart they teach themselves and don’t need a teacher to tell them what to do. Students of PEA, known as Exonians, have an infamous rivalry with the students of Phillips Academy Andover, another East coast boarding school. Founded a few years earlier and with a slightly larger student body, Andover is normally considered the age old back up, or “safety school” to Exeter. There are many examples of the clashing between the two. Exeter Red/Andover Blue Exeter wins football, basketball, track…/Andover wins hockey Exeter accepts the most brilliant minds of the world/Andover accepts George W. Bush In essence, Exeter is the school for the distinctive minds of the United States and beyond. Unfortunately, Andover, and many of the East coast boarding schools, remain places for the children of the pompous rich to attend and survive on the graces of their parents. Exeter alumni continue to make innumerable contributions the world, be it donating a stadium to a lesser school such as Andover, or something as simple as the environmental contributions of alumnus Gifford Pinchot.