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This is
our school

May 2014. For the first time ever, a comprehensive
and anonymous look at the statistics that define Exonians.

Presented by the 5th Exonian Online Board.

An Exonian Online special presentation

We live in an environment of assumptions. With so many things to attend to each day, Exonians often overlook and ignore. We make guesses as to the state of our campus, throw out statistics often no better than rough predictions, and pretend that those of us in trouble are not and that those of us breaking rules are low or high in number. No longer.

Frustrated with a lack of information and transparency regarding key issues on campus, The Exonian Online disseminated a survey to all 1080 Exeter students. The survey, approximately five minutes in length, asked a variety of questions, about everything from demographics and academics to drugs, mental health and sex. We were pleasantly surprised with the results: within only five days, we received 610 responses. That's 56% of the student body.

The results encompass a diversity of opinion in regards to gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic identity and sexual orientation. In many ways, this survey represents all that Exonians are: varied in backgrounds but ultimately candid in opinion. We asked some hard questions, and our students answered.
 

The development of the survey questions took around two weeks. A careful draft was created, and the review process began. We formed several focus groups containing students with diverse backgrounds and examined each and every question. The Gay-Straight Alliance critiqued questions regarding sexuality, and Active Minds took care to revisit each question about mental health. Finally, a group of faculty members reviewed the questions.

With the questions ready, the design of the survey itself began. Unlike other surveys presented to the student body, our design presented only one question at a time, provided the option to skip questions and added and replaced questions based on previous responses. Our survey was answerable on phones and tablets, with keyboards and with fingers. Most importantly, it was built from the ground up to be completely anonymous.

When results were received, they were continuously tallied into a running total based on each demographic. We focused our breakdown based on grade, gender and occasionally race and socioeconomic identity. Finally, with all results in, we spent several late nights compiling and analyzing the data.
 

What you see below are the fruits of our labor. We are not alone: The Phillipian, Phillips Academy Andover's student newspaper, conducts a "State of the Academy" survey similar to ours. Harvard, Princeton and Yale are among institutions that also survey yearly. But The Exonian Online's "This Is Our School" survey is uniquely Exonian.

The discussion does not end here. We encourage you to provide your own thoughts and feedback. In addition, we assembled a panel of Exonian board members who have offered their commentary on many of the survey results. Although my own commentary is a combination of information and opinion, the commentary expressed by those panelists are their own opinion and do not reflect the opinions of The Exonian as a whole. Enjoy.

Brandon Wang is the head of the Exonian Online. He is an upper from Houston, TX.

Panel opinion

In addition to Brandon's commentary, The Exonian Online invited several writers and editors from The Exonian to comment on survey results. Their opinions are included to the side as "Commentary."

The panelists are as follows:

  • Katie Liptak, Editor-in-chief
  • Jay Lee, Managing editor
  • Amanda Hu, Managing editor
  • Zoha Qamar, Opinions editor

Sections of this survey

Results have been sorted and categorized into several categories, listed in order on this page:

Demographics

Commentary

Brandon: The racial and ethnic makeup of the survey participants strongly reflects the official published statistics of our school. It's a diverse group of people and, although dominated by whites, is ultimately a good mix.

Although some Native Americans did respond to the survey, they are included under "other/mixed" because their numbers fall below the threshold for anonymity.

Amanda: Wow, Exeter is diverse? I couldn't tell from the perfect assimilation of different races on the homepage Exeter's website, featuring students in "What's My Day Like?" (which happens to lack an Asian kid).

Diversity is a great thing to have; being surrounded by a wide variety of interests and backgrounds is what makes this place special and different from what you'd find at home. But there's definitely a stigma surrounding the subject, one that Exeter propagates. Too many times have I heard somebody say, "that photo is so perfectly diverse!" in reference to a photo in our course book or in some picture that the school has posted on its Facebook page.

Commentary

Brandon: Race plays a role in the lives of about half of us and little to no role in those of the other half. There are a few things to note here: first, whites/Caucasians generally felt their race/ethnicity impacted them the least (for both negative and positive). Hispanics felt that it affected them positively the most.

On the other hand, nearly half of blacks/African-Americans felt that their race impacted them negatively. Nearly a third of Asians felt similarly. Clearly, there is some work to do here.

Due to small sample size, Middle Easterners, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders were only included in "all responses." The graph has been sorted by number of respondents in each category.

Amanda: Race distinction is undeniably present in many ways at Exeter, as it is in life outside of the "bubble." One way I've seen this demonstrated is in club demographics. Take The Exonian, for example. On the Editorial Board, the number of Asians outweigh all other races. Various dance groups, such as Outkast, Precision, and Imani, are comprised of primarily black/African-American students. And American Culture Club? I think you get it. Whether this is affects Exeter as a whole positively or negatively is hard to determine, however. As shown in the graphs, the red and the green are almost equivalent.

Commentary

Brandon: Half of us identify as Democratic and Republican, and the other half are more nuanced or just don't care. Of the polarized bunch, there are about twice as many Democrats as there are Republicans.

This is an interesting discovery. In our focus groups many of us assumed Republicans would stand as a much smaller minority in what is commonly perceived as a "liberal" campus. Democrats dominate, but not overwhelmingly so.

Katie: The Democrat to Republican ratio isn't too surprising given the concentration of Exonians from the northeast US, but the number of students who identify as "I don't care/undecided/other" is rather large. Students at Exeter are encouraged on a daily basis to form and voice their opinions, yet many are indifferent or undecided in terms of their core political views. It could be that those students are just unwilling to identify with one of the political parties listed, but if they all simply don't care about their political position, it may be slightly troubling when Exonians hit the voting booths next election.

Commentary

Brandon: This question is neat because it invites respondents to consider their socioeconomic identity in a qualitative way; we asked, in other words, about how they perceived themselves.

The results are in, then: Exonians are overwhelmingly middle to upper class.

Zoha: This graph supports the statistic that approximately 45% of Exonians receive some form of financial aid. As a general rule, this would mean that students who consider themselves lower, lower middle and even middle class receive aid, a stark reminder that tuition to the Academy is typically beyond reach for most to all middle class families.

Commentary

Brandon: Just like we did with race, we asked respondents about if their socioeconomic identity played a role in their lives. By and large, most Exonians answered that it did not.

With the breakdown by self-identified class, however, we see that the middle class feels the least impact. Indeed, moving in either the lower or upper class directions gives us stronger roles, for both positive and negative.

Jay: What is interesting to note here is that more students who classify as lower and lower middle class believe that they are affected negatively than those in any other socioeconomic class, even though a vast majority of them claim that their financial aid package is enough.

This highlights the importance of money (outside of tuition) on our daily lives at Exeter. For example, students who classify as lower or lower middle class can feel negatively affected because they have a limited amount of Lion Card money, cannot order in a lot or pay for dorm grill, etc.

Commentary

Brandon: To keep the survey as short as possible, this question was only displayed to those who answered lower or lower-middle class. The responses generally indicate that Exeter financial aid provides enough. 16% of students in these categories answered No.

School life

Commentary

Brandon: This was really a question about free time. Nearly half of respondents answered "too busy," but about just as many answered "comfortable."

What is interesting is the class distribution: as we might expect, each successive class has more "too busy" responses, until senior year, when it's likely that senioritis brings those numbers down.

Commentary

Brandon: It's a serious academic climate here. We asked this question to those who answered "too busy" in the previous questions. The responses indicate that an overwhelming majority -- some 70% -- of the busy bees focuses on academics, with extracurriculars at 21% and a far second.

Commentary

Brandon: These are fuzzed percentages, not a number of people, and the results are both telling and humorous.

Katie: Taking into account the amount that Exonians complain about how little free time they have, it speaks to the pressure to constantly be "doing" that those with precious leisure hours feel overwhelmingly that they should give them up.

Commentary

Brandon: About 80% of Exonians are comfortable at the Harkness table and nearly one fifth are not. It's a significant and useful statistic, but there's one thing to note: contrary to survey predictions, these results did not vary based on gender, grade or race. Disparities by demographic are negligible for this question.

Jay: I think this data is fairly accurate, based on what we see every day in our classes. In most of our classes, there are always the one or two people that struggle to speak; hence, the numbers match up.

Commentary

Brandon: Teachers ought to take note: if the survey results hold true, most of us aren't uncomfortable because we're unprepared -- it's because we struggle to speak.

Zoha: Fellow students ought to also take note. Those who talk avidly are easily able to recognize the students who speak less, yet are far less easily able to integrate them into the conversation. What's deterring us from fully rallying others into the discussion? Is it the dismissal of their ideas, general laziness or Harkness grades?

Harkness grades encourage those who talk articulately and avidly to continue doing so, which consequently shapes those students into the leaders of the table. A disparity between students then begins to emerge. In order for some students at the table to shine, must others dull and shy away?

Commentary

Brandon: This is a good bell-curve distribution: most of us are average, and an equal number of students identify as Harkness warrior or "I need to participate more." A lot of students in "there when needed" probably also qualify in either of the other two categories.

Amanda: Although it seems like this is a good distribution--an equal amount of Harkness warriors to those who need to participate more-- it only takes one warrior to destroy a discussion! But I don't know how I'd draw an ideal graph; if there weren't any warriors who would save the class at 8:00 am on a Wednesday? It would also be interesting to have an "I don't talk and I don't care" option for those kids in my class who hide their phones behind their books and think it's sneaky.

Commentary

Brandon: It's the same question as above, but I've broken down the answers by gender and grade.

There are slightly more male Harkness warriors and slightly more quiet females, but the differences aren't statistically substantial. Differences by grade were also negligible.

Commentary

Brandon: First, 96% of us thought there was a culture of competition. Second, the respondents that indicated a damaging culture versus a motivating culture were almost equal, at around 40% each.

What do we do about this? It's hard to make conclusions about our culture's benefit when Exonians think it's both motivating and damaging.

Zoha: The even divide between Exonians who consider our competition motivating versus damaging is surprising. It's indeed difficult to explicitly conclude much, although I think the question fails to address whether surveyors should assess short-term vs. long-term effects, which would leave the question to the individual perception of each student.

On the one hand, Exonians feel the daily damage and despair of consecutive late nights full of meetings, tests and papers, yet on the other, we can also recognize the long-term motivation prompted by success in leadership roles, large term papers and difficult exams.

Commentary

Brandon: Yes, more males cheated than females. Yes, more upperclassmen cheated than underclassmen. But ultimately, I'm not sure if it's appropriate to draw extensive conclusions from such a small margin.

We should look at this result's impact, then: a third of our students have committed academic dishonesty of some form.

Katie: The high percentage of students who admit to cheating on an assignment begs another question: what do these students define cheating as? Although no academic dishonesty is acceptable there are varying degrees. How many of the responders were referring to a math hand-in they covertly worked on with a classmate and how many plagiarized a full paper? Either way, the high number of students who have engaged in academic dishonesty may point back to the culture of competition so many believe Exeter has.

Commentary

Brandon: At least a quarter of us are responsible -- these results confirm what is often implicitly assumed. Late nights, all-nighters and a lack of sleep define us.

Katie: Honestly, not surprising. But probably not ideal.

Commentary

Katie: This is a disheartening statistic. Over a fourth of Exonians are pouring time into activities merely to stuff their resumes. Still, no Exonian is likely to deny the constant presence of college pressure on campus, so it is understandable.

Jay: According to the graph, about three quarters of us do extracurriculars mostly for ourselves, because we think that the activities are valuable and fun. It's great to see that most Exonians are actually passionate and committed to what they are doing outside of classes. I am especially relieved to see this, after hearing so many people say that Exonians are "robots" who only care about college.

Gender and sexual identity

Commentary

Brandon: At first glance, it appears that our student body generally finds no disadvantage for women. But when I broke the data down by gender, I found a remarkable disparity. See for yourself: while males tended to find no disadvantage, 73% of females found a disadvantage. Compare that to only 12% of males. Something's not right, and we males need to take a close look at why.

Katie: This statistic seems to reinforce itself. If so many more women see the presence of gender discrimination, or other disadvantages, than men, it can't be helping the issue.

Amanda: I actually disagree with Brandon on this one, in that at first glance, the number of those who find themselves disadvantaged in respect to the entire student body is very substantial. Regardless of age, a little over 25% of students feel this way. And it's a big problem. How are women to thrive in such an interactive environment while facing such a disadvantaged? Do you think that maybe this only exacerbates the "culture of competition" that 96% of us felt? Maybe us girls are too sensitive, and that explains the 73% who noticed the disadvantages.

Zoha: This graph shatters any lingering claims that Exeter is a post-sexist, post-gender institution.

Commentary

Brandon: The previous question found a sharp divide in consensus by gender, but no such gender disparity existed when we asked respondents if they saw themselves as leaders on campus.

In fact, if anything, the percentage of female leaders was slightly larger than, or about the same, as that of male leaders.

Zoha: Once again, this is a question phrased qualitatively and in regards to self-perception. As a general trend over the last few years, the number of females in leadership roles of more "professional" or "legit" clubs (e.g. StuCo, Exonian, MUN) has paled in comparison to that of males.

So given this trend and the graphs, females and males must be holding themselves to a differing set of qualifications when considering themselves as "leaders."

Commentary

Brandon: It's often difficult to make solid conclusions from small sets of data. This question, only offered to those who identified as neither male nor female, received a tiny number of responses.

Yet the results should be noted, few as they are: nonacceptance prevails over acceptance. This says something about our community.

Commentary

Brandon: For the most part, Exonians are heterosexual. Yet the real discovery is in the opposite: 19% of respondents indicated that they were not heterosexual. The necessity to have as few multiple-choice answers as possible hurt us here. "Not listed" was not nearly precise enough, unfortunately.

Otherwise the data indicates an even distribution across grade levels and slightly more homosexual or not-listed respondents who also identified as male.

Health and drugs

Commentary

Brandon: 67% of us don't get enough sleep. About a quarter get enough, and about a tenth get plenty of sleep regularly (I'm jealous). No further comment.

Commentary

Brandon: We asked this question to those who said their sleep was either "mostly lacking" or "sometimes not enough." About three-quarters seem to admit that procrastination plays a big part.

Katie: The thought process behind the "False" answers intrigues me. Do these people not procrastinate? Procrastinate but still finish work on time? Or give up work time for procrastination to go to bed at a decent hour?

Amanda: I'm curious as to what those who answered false would do with their additional free time. What's better than naps?

Commentary

Brandon: This is a serious issue.

Nearly half of Exonians responded "yes" to this question -- that's 269 respondents, not including those who did not participate in our survey. The next question sheds more light on this issue.

One thing to note: more females reported "yes" than males, with females topping the 50% mark and males at the 35% mark.

Katie: These answers surprised me. Nearly half of all students have dealt with a serious mental health issue while at Exeter, and I believe that many of us are unaware of this fact. If depression, self harm and eating disorders are so prevalent on campus, we must know about the state of our student body to work toward a safer Exeter.

Commentary

Brandon: More than half of the people who have dealt with a depression, self harm or an eating disorder did not seek help from Exeter, be it health services or a faculty member. And of those who did, nearly two thirds walked away dissatisfied. This is a stark statistic and a harsh reality.

Jay: The data here overwhelmingly suggests that Exeter fails to help students with depression, self-harm or eating disorders, either because they didn't seek service or Health Services did not help. This brings me back to an op-ed written by Tez Clark '13 that exploded on Facebook a few months ago. The data here bolsters Tez's point and clearly suggests that the way Health Services deals with mental health issues must be improved.

Amanda: What's interesting is how much help the health center does offer, whether it be a meeting with one of the psychiatrists, nutritionists or doctors. The graph is telling of a problem with the system, yet fails to pinpoint the root of it. Is it an issue in publicity--are people unaware of the services available? Could we better use our time as preps and new lowers in health class, and instead of watching videos of childbirth, which hopefully none of us has to experience at Exeter, dedicate more time to learning about how to maintain healthy lifestyles at this school specifically? Or does this tell of an issue with the health center itself and of an inadequacy?

Commentary

Brandon: This question was asked to those who had dealt with depression, self harm or an eating disorder and was answered in the context of that issue.

This was the last question about the issue -- we felt it was important not to linger or to attempt to dig too deep.

Jay: This graph suggests that our community is doing a bit better than Health Services to help people with depression, self-harm or eating disorders. Although this is somewhat alleviating, we must not ignore the 45% of Exonians who did not feel supported by the community.

Perhaps it is difficult for us to change how Health Services works, but it is definitely possible for us to change our own community. At the least, if we hear about someone who is struggling, we should rush over to that person to ask how they are doing and offer some words of comfort.

Commentary

Brandon: About a fourth of our campus has used marijuana at some time or in some way. And of those people, about a third used it on campus.

Amanda: According to a Dec. 2013 New York Times article, 36% of high school seniors had smoked marijuana in the past year. There is a significant gap in our numbers and national numbers, which I think is telling of the social culture at Exeter. What would be interesting is to find out is how many of those who said "no" would use marijuana if they were given the chance, and not at the school.

Commentary

Brandon: On the survey, this question was worded as "Have you ever used study drugs for which you did not have a prescription?"

And I want to make two things clear -- first, these are percentages, not actual numbers, to protect identities. Second, a vast majority, 88%, has never so much as dabbled.

Commentary

Brandon: About a sixth of Exonians have consumed alcohol on campus. The vast majority, however, has not consumed alcohol or has done so in a non-Exonian setting -- at home, with parents, hopefully.

Relationships

Commentary

Brandon: About one-third is and about two-thirds isn't. Slightly more females than males are in a relationship, and upperclassmen are more likely to be in a relationship than underclassmen.

In our survey, I also asked respondents to identify what type of relationship they were in, if they wished. The results seem to show slightly more committed relationships than hook-ups.

Zoha: The fact that more females consider themselves to be in a relationship is noteworthy. While it can certainly be the case that more female-female relationships exist on campus than do male-male, and while it can also be that more females are in relationships with significant others off-campus/back home, this graph can offer the possibility that girls consider both their hook-ups and relationships to be more serious than guys do.

Commentary

Brandon: Let's dispel the rumors. Almost half of Exonians have illegal V's and of those who do, half of them are regulars.

Katie: Given the blasé attitude many students have towards illegal V's (sorry Dean Cosgrove), I thought more would have answered yes. This question likely points back to the number of students in a relationship or "hooking up" at Exeter.

Amanda: These numbers reflect the previous question in that roughly 40% of students are in some sort of relationship, and around 40% of students engage in illegal V's for intimacy. But I don't think this is a surprise to anybody. Faculty members have even acknowledged that they know this rule is broken both often and repeatedly. So if they know this is a prevalent issue, why don't they do anything to fix it? Is it better for them to close their eyes and pretend it doesn't happen?

Commentary

Brandon: A fourth of Exonians lost their virginity at Exeter. But otherwise, two thirds of our campus abstains from sex.

Amanda: The fact that sex is virtually prohibited by the visitations policy does not seem to hinder Exonians. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 47.4% of U.S. high school students have had sex. We're not too far off.

Zoha: Exonians generally agree that Andover seems to "have more fun" and that the Phillipian hook up culture is heavier than ours is. Yet according to Andover's "State of the Academy 2013," 28.13% of students had previously had sex, while our graphs show a figure topping 34%.

It also appears that Exonians who enter the Academy as upperclassmen were more likely to have pre-Exeter sex that younger new Exonians, which might help shed some more light on how Exeter fares in comparison to national and public school averages.

Commentary

Brandon: The data speaks for itself: more females than males lost their virginity at Exeter. More upperclassmen than underclassmen have had sex. But the large majority of Exonians has abstained.

Commentary

Brandon: Nearly 80% of us think that Exeter has a hook-up culture.

Katie: What is a hook-up culture? And is this different from other schools, boarding or day? I'm interested in whether these answers would be different at a school that isn't Exeter, or if they are consistent with those of most teenagers nowadays.

Commentary

Brandon: Only those who agreed that there was a hook-up culture received this question. While most are indifferent, the graph speaks for itself. One fourth of respondents indicated they were pressured or uncomfortable.

Zoha: While over a third of Exonians answered indifferently, the amount of students who labeled themselves as pressured or uncomfortable was roughly equal to that of those who were happy to participate. How does the indifferent group influence the divide? Does acting ambivalently indirectly foster and exaggerate the perception of students happy to participate?

A nostalgic look back

Commentary

Brandon: It's worth it! An overwhelming majority of seniors responded to this question positively. Further analysis on the basis of gender and race did not create any appreciable difference.

Katie: Interesting when looked at in tandem with the following question. Was it worth it because one was happy here? For college? For education? For the title? Many follow-ups may yield less uplifting results.

Jay: My answer to this question is an emphatic yes, and 95% of current seniors agree. Whether it's the people in our lives at Exeter or the academics and extracurriculars that motivate us, it seems like most Exonians have had a generally positive time at Exeter.

Commentary

Brandon: Almost 90% of us want to be here. The other 10%, in a subsequent question, explained the best reason they don't want to be here: "bad environment" (43%), "not fun" (36%), "too challenging" (6%), or "other" (15%).

Jay: This shows that no matter how much we may complain about Exeter at times, we generally love being at Exeter. It's great to see that such a majority is willing to be at Exeter.

Commentary

Brandon: The results are in: at the end of the day, our friends here are the ones we feel impacted us the most.

Zoha: Most of us are on the same page: we owe it to our friends.

Commentary

Brandon: ...and 94% of respondents indicated that yes -- it is the people of Exeter that matter.

Zoha: Despite its prestigious name, renowned reputation and abundant resources, Exeter is still just a place. It's our fellow Exonians who infuse life, perspective, memories and relevance into our years at and beyond the Academy.

© 2014 The Exonian Online. All rights reserved.
 
You need to view this on a computer. The graphs look best that way.