The Outdoor Academy is a fully-accredited boarding semester school for 10th and 11th graders nestled in the heart of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Built upon our four cornerstones of intellect, craft, environment, and community, our dynamic and honors-level curriculum integrates wilderness experiences, environmental education, and creative arts.
Engaging academics, outdoor adventures, and creative arts in a small community setting.
Picture a classroom without walls, a math teacher who paddles whitewater, art class at the blacksmithing forge, and a student body filled with the 27 best friends you could imagine. This is The Outdoor Academy, a semester high school in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Brevard and Asheville, North Carolina.
Built upon our four cornerstones of intellect, craft, environment, and community, The Outdoor Academy is a fully-accredited semester boarding school that has offered motivated 10th and 11th grade students a distinctive high school experience since 1995. In everything we do, we emphasize our seven principles of simple living, work ethic, curiosity, integrity, stewardship, self-reliance, and gratitude.
OA is possible for you.
We aim to make our community supportive and inclusive to all interested students, and we encourage applicants from all socioeconomic circumstances to apply. Admissions is always need-blind, and need-based scholarships are awarded to over half of our students through our robust financial aid program. Additionally, no matter if your school has worked with a semester school before or if you are on a semester, block, trimester, homeschool, or other schedule, there is a way for you to attend OA. We are committed to doing all we can to make it possible for any qualified student to attend.
Tuition for a semester at OA covers:
- Full room and board
- Class materials, texts, and craft suppliesGear for outdoor programming trips and access to our Gear Lending Library
- Tuition refund insurance
Initial $750 deposit to secure your space in the semester
TUITION FOR THE FALL 2023 OR SPRING 2024 SEMESTER IS $34,100.
