Coe-brown Northwood Academy vs. Phillips Exeter Academy

Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, founded in 1867, is a comprehensive secondary institution offering the highest quality curriculum of studies to the residents of Northwood, Strafford, and surrounding towns.

Our educational programs and opportunities are accessible to both traditional and non-traditional learners, responsive to the diverse needs of an ever-changing community, and consistent with state and federal laws supporting the education of our youth.

The founder of Phillips Exeter Academy defined its mission more than two centuries ago.

"Above all," John Phillips stated, "it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind." It seeks students who combine proven academic ability, intellectual curiosity, and tenacity with decency and good character.

At the Academy, exacting inquiry and thoughtful discourse foster the life of the mind, instruction and activity promote fitness and health, and the daily interactions of a residential school nurture integrity, empathy, and kindness.

Because learning and growth at Exeter arise from each individual's engagement with others, the richness of education here requires diversity in all its dimensions; students and faculty value the differences they bring to the community they share.