Is Exeter/Andover even worth it?
Current student at target. I have friends that went to Exeter, and from a repost I ended up on their college decisions page for this year. I know it is before most RD decisions come out, but I was still blown away by how mediocre it was.
I mean, I'm scrolling and seeing Navy, tufts, washu, texas, northeastern, nebraska, and colgate before I see any ivies. The only school that seems to be overrepresented here is UChicago.
That is to say, I feel like if you go to Exeter and you can't get into a school at least on the calibre of a Northwestern or Stern, what is the point of paying 70k a year? If you tell people you went to Exeter and some shit like babson, its almost worse than if you never went to exeter becuase people automatically ask, wow what went wrong?
Anyways thoughts?
Based on the most helpful WSO content, Exeter and Andover are often seen as elite prep schools with strong track records of sending students to top-tier universities like HYPSM (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT) and other Ivies. However, the value of attending these schools depends on several factors:
College Admissions Advantage: Exeter and Andover consistently send a significant number of students to top universities. For example, it's noted that Exeter and Andover each send around 30 students annually to HYPSM, and even more if you include other Ivies and top liberal arts colleges like Amherst and Williams. This creates a strong "feeder" reputation.
Opportunities Beyond Admissions: These schools offer rigorous academics, exceptional extracurricular opportunities, and access to a high-achieving peer group. Even if a student doesn't end up at a top-tier university, the skills, connections, and experiences gained can still be valuable.
Outcome Variability: While these schools provide a strong platform, individual outcomes depend on the student's performance, extracurriculars, and personal goals. As mentioned in WSO threads, some students with mediocre extracurriculars or scores may not secure spots at top schools, while others with strong profiles might still face rejection due to the competitive nature of admissions.
Perception vs. Reality: The perception that attending Exeter or Andover guarantees admission to elite universities is misleading. College admissions are highly competitive, and even students from these schools face challenges. However, attending such schools can still provide a "benefit of the doubt" in admissions, especially for students with solid but not stellar profiles.
Ultimately, the decision to attend Exeter or Andover should weigh the cost against the potential academic, social, and career benefits. If the primary goal is college admissions, it's important to recognize that these schools provide opportunities but not guarantees.
Sources: How do I get my kids into top 5 schools?, How do I get my kids into top 5 schools?, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/systemic-oppression-of-non-target-students?customgpt=1, Top Target Status Losing Value, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/school/the-rise-of-the-semi-target?customgpt=1
those kids would go to way worse colleges if they didn't go to Exeter/ Andover
Went to a similar school—the money didn't really matter to my parents. Ended up at college in a good semi-target. What really helped me was my high school's alumni + parent network; my college's network still played a bigger role in my recruiting process due to size, but I had lots of HS alumni give me referrals/guidance/interview prep, including at firms where my college had literally never placed before
Could these people be going to schools they "want to go to" because they're fine with their life network and are confident, they'll end up where they want to regardless?
My school was mostly comprised of sweaty (US-born) Asians, so the "extreme nepo" factor wasn't as close to the majority as some of the lower-tier schools
then why spend 70k for Exeter/Andover? if you're confident in your network and don't plan on getting in a top college, you may as well go to a more affordable HS?
You’re assuming all of the people going there are overextending themselves financially which is a claim that really lacks merit.
Is it really worth it to buy designer clothes when you could just shop at the Gap? Why do anything when there’s a cheaper alternative?
Sometimes it’s not about a constant race to frugality and cheapest possible alternative - as you can probably imagine many other examples. School / Education is the same thing; I’m sure those kids were already exposed to more than most college graduates have even done
Went to a similar school a half step down (St. Pauls/Choate/Groton). Definitely agree with above on the cost being incidental to many of the families. Tuition could be 500k and they wouldn't care. There's also significant aid for lower income families, so the number of people paying 80k and sweating it is pretty low.
For people who 80k is consequential to, I think there's still a good return from a purely transactional perspective. The median school in my year was a Georgetown / Vandy type, but the real advantage is that admission to top tier schools is relatively predictable. You know if you hit a certain GPA and test score you have a great shot at an ivy, and that's just not the case at many public schools where it's a lottery. The floor is also pretty high, if you have a half a brain you shouldn't be going anywhere worse than a U Richmond / Wake Forest type.
Network is overrated. Banking recruitment runs by undergrad obviously so there's limited utility of boarding school alumni bases. Going to an elite high school can help give cultural cache but it also screams wealthy upbringing which doesn't sit well with everyone so it's almost a wash in my opinion.
That's just the transactional side of things, though. The small classes, close ties with excellent teachers, and living with friends at that age were great experiences that are hard to value monetarily. I would point to those things as making it worthwhile, not the prestige or placement I extracted from it.
I did a PG year for lax many years ago and expanding on your last sentence.
Making friends with the sons/daughters of Russian oligarchs, hedge funders, oil tycoons was the biggest plus for me. Most of these kids dropped out or didn't even go to college and moved to NYC to model or something so they became super dialed into the social and nightlife.
Hanging out with them post college is night and day compared to my college buddies, going to aman or flyfish on a weekend vs standing outside and waiting in line for the Spaniard.
Long story short without my PG year in the NEPSAC my social life would be completely different !
This rocks. I’m ethnically a WASP, but grew up working class and went to a JuCo and then state school, clawed my way into finance. Love my friends from all stages of life, but what you described is one of those social dynamics where you’re either raised in it or you’ll never truly be part of it.
Me and all the other Jay Gatsby types are perma-mogged by the Tom Buchanan types in this respect.
I graduated from Exeter recently, this has been happening for a while. It seems to be that the prestigious colleges want to be more diverse so they take less kids from the elite prep schools so they can show how equitable they are. Knew quite a few people in my class that absolutely deserve to be at the colleges they want to as they have worked their ass off for years but could barely get into what really should be a safety school. Was Exeter worth it? I’d say yes, the quality of education is incredible and you learn how to work hard. Also, I would argue that if you survive a school like Exeter you are setup to do well regardless of what school you go to.
I think the diversity part has to do with colleges recognizing that if you only allow a certain demographic to be admitted and as a result, upwardly mobile then it demotivates the rest of the population. We then end up with a society like in other parts of the world where it's a bit more stagnant. The concept of mobility is what gave the U.S. edge.
Wrong, the reason they are top colleges in the first place was their extreme elitism throughout history. Change that and new pockets of elitism will form instead, reputation is just a lagging indicator
If you can afford Exeter, you can attend Babson and still place via connections
Tbh 70k a year is affordable to a family making like 500k a year... which is like KPMG tax partner. not really huge connections there
True but the kid can still benefit from the Exeter network, plus the parents of these schools usually network with one another too
Not really. $500k is really $300k post-tax, and $140k for two kids at a time is nearly half their post-tax income. You need to be well into the 7 figures pre-tax for this cost to be immaterial.
Daddy's money can buy you a seat in the Exeter classroom but it can't raise your hand for you
The difference is that Exeter takes the kid who would've gone to Penn State and gets them into Colgate instead. Congratulations, your parents spent $280k over four years to move you up maybe 20 spots in the US News rankings
It's funny how OP mentioned Babson. I used to informally mentor a family friend's kid who went to Babson after four years at Exeter. I remember how they were so proud of him and (humble)bragging about him in the spring of the year when he was accepted. His first and second year at Exeter seemed okay (they said he was still getting "adjusted"), but I knew something was off when the updates stopped altogether in his 3rd year. The kid struggled and ended up in the bottom-half of his class academically.
This is why "fit" is so important when choosing a secondary school.
I know some parents who play the opposite game. A family I know deliberately relocated from the Northeast to New Mexico after their kid (an only child) finished 8th grade so their bright (but not quite superstar) kid could become the valedictorian of their public high school. The kid succeeded (not hard to become valedictorian when you go to a high school where over 60% of the kids are functionally illiterate) and that kid is now at Harvard.
We had this as well, family friends' kid was extremely smart, but not from money at all, but was not like gifted so would of finished middle of the pack at a prep school. They kept her in a large class, so that when she graduated from school number 2 of 1200 something kids, she had offers from Brown, Harvard, Penn, and Cornell. Ended up at Brown
I Take a look at the matriculation list:
https://exeter.edu/academics/college-counseling/college-matriculation/
Harvard, Yale, and all the usual heavy hitters are there. Unless you’re looking at that Exonian article that lists individual students and their colleges.
I am a millennial, so things may have changed, but here’s a quick example of the difference PEA makes, in my opinion:
a friend of mine got recruited from a rural New England town to play hockey at Exeter. By senior year he had two choices: a D1 hockey scholarship at a mid tier program (e.g. D1 but not NHL factory) or a football offer from Amherst/Williams. He took Amherst/Williams and is now a PM at a top tier fund. I doubt that second path would have existed if he stayed at his hometown high school.
Not worth it since diversity mandates and anti-legacy sentiment became a thing.
Interestingly the prestige of kids that go to Andover/exeter is what made the Ivies great reputation-wise, but now the ivies are riding that reputation while the student body is a bunch of LGBTQ+ first gen kids from rural Nebraska who wrote a sob story to get accepted. And 30% genuine foreign nationals accepted over our own countrymen. It’s a circus and it won’t last
The shift from private school students happened before you were born, and they literally done it to maintain prestige and actually stay relevant.
Before the 1960s, the Ivy League schools were not as academically rigorous as they are today.
To maintain prestige in a changing world, these schools transitioned from recruiting only elite boarding school graduates to accepting high-achieving students from all backgrounds.
The prestige is now maintained by extreme selectivity (extremely low acceptance rates), which creates a "forbidden fruit" effect, increasing the perceived quality of the school.
Dude that page you looked at is not the real Phillips Exeter. Fact check yourself bud.
https://www.instagram.com/phillipsexeter26decisions/
Look for yourself... I think this is it. The brown thats there now wsnt there when i postd
Well look at it this way, the price of Andover/Exeter is not significantly above the price of a St. Andrews, Kent, or another mid-tier boarding school. It's actually right around the same price. So if you're evaluating it on cost terms, you're absolutely "getting your money's worth" by going to Andover. There's not a better option in terms of any metric that makes going to these schools valuable.
Anyway, going to a boarding school is absolutely worth it. You get every opportunity you can think of. You can study abroad while you're in high school. If you have a project that is well-researched and legitimate, you can get the school to fund it. You're talking about a high school that has college-level resources, not to even mention the insane alumni network. If someone goes to a WashU after attending Andover, that same kid at a random high school would have ended up at Rutgers.
"You can get every opportunity possible"
Yes, apart from the really insignificant matter of not being raised by your Mother and Father during crucial developmental years.
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