Quick Answer for Busy Parents
The Harkness Method is Phillips Exeter Academy’s signature teaching approach: roughly a dozen students and a teacher sit around an oval table and lead the discussion themselves, in every subject the school teaches. For Phillips Exeter Academy admissions, that means the committee is reading every application for evidence a student can contribute to, not just sit through, that kind of classroom.
What Is the Harkness Method?
In 1930, philanthropist Edward Harkness gave Exeter a substantial gift with an unusual condition: he wanted a way for students to learn by talking through ideas together rather than being lectured at. The result was the Harkness table, a specially designed oval that lets every student in the room see everyone else’s face. There’s no lecture and often no single right answer; the teacher’s job is to prompt and redirect, not to talk the most. Exeter has run every discipline this way for nearly a century, from calculus to Roman history.
How the Harkness Method Shapes Phillips Exeter Academy Admissions
Because the classroom model is unusual, Exeter’s admissions process is built to test for it directly. The required interview isn’t a formality; it’s the closest thing to a live Harkness conversation an applicant will have before enrolling, and admissions officers are watching for how a student listens and responds, not just what they say. The two required essays reward the same thing: an essay about winning an award reads very differently than one about a moment a student changed their mind. Even recommendation letters carry more weight when a teacher can describe how a student engages with other people’s ideas, not just how they perform solo.
What a Harkness-Ready Applicant Looks Like
| Application Component | What Exeter Is Actually Reading For |
| Interview | Genuine back-and-forth conversation, not rehearsed answers |
| Essays | A moment of real intellectual risk or a changed mind, not an achievement list |
| Recommendations | How the student engages with others’ ideas in class discussion |
| Parent statement | Specific, observed examples of curiosity and collaboration |
Families preparing for the interview often find it helpful to practice an unscripted, back-and-forth conversation rather than rehearsed answers. Our interview preparation is built around exactly that. On the essay side, our guide to helping a student find their own writing voice addresses the same instinct that makes a Harkness essay land: writing that sounds like the student thinking, not performing.
Preparing a Harkness-Ready Application
Our consultants coach Exeter applicants specifically for the interview and essay style the Harkness method rewards.
It’s also worth noting what the Harkness method is not: it’s not a debate club, and it doesn’t reward the loudest voice in the room. Exeter’s own faculty describe the goal as building students who can genuinely listen as well as speak, a distinction worth raising directly in an interview if a student has real evidence of it. Families weighing the full scope of what Exeter expects beyond the classroom may also want our boarding school admissions consulting for a broader admissions strategy.
Related Articles:
How to Get Into Phillips Exeter Academy: Admissions Guide for Parents
Phillips Exeter Academy Global & Summer Programs: Beyond the Classroom