Peter Woodville ’21
Michael Zhou ’21
Since the move to the new campus in 2008, Upper School enrollment has increased by 10% and whole school enrollment has increased by 12.5%. While the purpose of the move to Newtown Square was to enrich the learning experience, a rise in the amount of students at Episcopal has also occurred. Many changes have been made to combat the effects of increased enrollment in the Upper School, including the expansion of the senior lounge, new lockers, the moving of classes from the Upper School to the Campus Center, and the new meal plan. As Episcopal has always prided itself on smaller, more intimate learning environments, some Upper School students have began to ponder how this increase will affect their Episcopal experience. Haig Megerian ‘19 commented: “It does feel a little cramped in some of my fuller classes. I prefer my classes with only 7-8 students.”
Michael Letts, Head of Upper School, acknowledges the expanded student body: “[Compared to] class sizes from 10 years ago, they’re definitely bigger in recent years.” However, he explains that the increase is only temporary: “I can say with absolute certainty that we are not planning on dramatically increasing student numbers.” Letts also understands the importance of keeping class sizes manageable: “We just have to draw the line somewhere. I think that’s probably the hardest thing: having to say no to certain kids […] that’s tough. But it’s necessary for the long-term health of the institution. To make sure that we’re staying true to our mission, we need to keep our numbers balanced.” Dr. T. J. Locke, Head of School, had similar thoughts, stating: “ It’s so unfortunate that we have to turn away so many of these amazing kids, but it’s really what’s best for us.” He continues, discussing the pros and cons of having larger class sizes. “More students is not always a bad thing. It means more people for the musicals, plays, clubs, and sports teams. However, the problem is space. Having too many students would start to affect our education process, and it would start to feel too cramped on campus.”
Carolyn Totherow, Associate Director of Admissions at EA, explains that EA’s acceptance rate has actually decreased from 56.08% in 2015 to 38.26% in 2018. Letts says this is because of the increasing number of families applying for the Upper School: “Historically, it’s always been harder to find families for the Lower School, because when you look at it as an investment from a family perspective, it makes a lot of sense to wait until Middle or Upper School.” Totherow echoed that statement, saying “EA is expensive; many families are content with sending their kids to public school for elementary, and then sending their kids to EA for Middle or High School.” This issue has created a massive amount of families applying for the Upper School, leading to a significant drop in acceptance rate the past few years. While the exponential growth of applicants for the Upper School the past few years is a prevalent issue, Totherow, Locke and Letts all agree that EA’s current distribution of students is very healthy compared to the past decade.
As for the current senior class, which enrolls 144 students, Letts calls them “a bit of an anomaly. […] We have a percentage called our yield: how many accepted students that we think are actually going to come that year. For whatever reason, it was extremely high that year, much higher than it traditionally is.” The admissions process is also somewhat unpredictable, Letts continues: “There’s a bit of a guessing game involved with admissions. We know how many of the kids we accept, but not whether they’re actually going to come.” One measure EA has taken to prevent future anomalies such as the Class of 2019 is the creation of a waitlist, a practice which has only been in place at EA for a year. Totherow explains, “Hopefully, we can just admit a few kids each year, and then based on how many students leave any given year, admit more kids from the waitlist.” Letts adds, “We love all our seniors, but once this class graduates, we can go back to that 130, 133 range.”
New implementations such as the senior lounge expansion and new meal plan are as much to enrich the Episcopal experience as to combat increased student body size. EA’s educational experience has always relied on the meaningful connections made in a close community of students and faculty and will continue to do so in the future.