Every summer, Phillips Exeter Academy welcomes to campus nearly 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 to us from more than 40 states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and several dozen foreign nations. They are public school students and private school students. 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.

If you choose to join us, you will have opportunities to discover those things which thousands of Exonians have discovered before you, to challenge yourself to experience all that Exeter offers. You will have the chance to immerse yourself in a rich variety of classes, to play musical instruments or sing in choral groups or bring dramatic productions to life. You will have the chance to play sports on the athletic fields, to go on whale watches or visit New England college campuses. And you can experience all this in what we hope will be five of the most wonderful weeks of your life.

The Summer School seeks students who are motivated to learn and prepared to contribute fully to classroom work and the community. The UPPER SCHOOL offers more than 100 courses of study for high school students entering grades ten and beyond. As an UPPER SCHOOL student, you have the freedom to design your own program of study: simply select any three courses you find appealing. In designing your academic program, you might immerse yourself in several disciplines. You might, for instance, take Observational Astronomy, Introductory Latin, and Great Books/Great Reading, or you might try Digital Photography, Marine Biology, and Great Issues in American History. Your choices are many.

ACCESS EXETER, our program for students entering grades eight and nine, offers accelerated study in the arts and sciences. The ACCESS EXETER curriculum consists of six academic clusters which include Project Exeter: A Greener Earth, The Land and the Sea, Problem-Solving: An Odyssey of the Mind, A Global Community, The Creative Arts: Let Your Spirit Soar, and Exeter C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation. Each cluster consists of three courses organized around a central theme.

Summer Session grants students great freedom in defining their own programs of study. You will work with highly experienced, dedicated teachers and have full access to the Academy campus, including Phelps Science Center, the Fisher Theater, the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center, Love Gymnasium (a complex of hockey rinks, swimming pools, fitness centers, and basketball and squash courts) and The Class of 1945 Library (the largest secondary school library in the world).

If you are interested in five weeks of challenging study, five weeks of music and theater and art and athletics, five weeks of fun and friendships, then consider Exeter’s Summer Session.