St. Paul's School vs. Phillips Exeter Academy

As one of the only fully residential independent high schools in the country, St. Paul's School offers an academic community unlike any other - a place every student and teacher calls home.

Together, they pursue excellence in character and scholarship on a 2,000-acre campus where everyone is encouraged and supported to discover their best selves. When you join our community, you will be welcomed by peers from around the country, and world.

You will learn together, and you will grow together. You will experience high school in ways that you cannot imagine. It will change your life.

Phillips Exeter Academy has a tradition of academic excellence, a distinguished faculty, and a long history of educating young people to find their place in the world. The heart of Exeter is its signature Harkness method of instruction.

The Harkness philosophy, developed at Exeter over 80 years ago, is centered on a way of thinking and engaging with others that requires preparation and provides a sense of readiness for learning, for college, for life. Exeter is a school for teenagers who want to be surrounded by peers who share their intellectual curiosity and raw excitement about learning.

The school is alive with learning: spirited conversations spill out of classrooms and make their way to the playing fields, theater stages, laboratories, the dining halls and the dorms.

Students are given the freedom to explore and know their intellect, to challenge themselves in new ways, and enjoy the richness of human interaction.