- TypePrimary and secondary schools
- LocationPisgah Forest, The United States
- Taught inEnglish
- Visit website ↗
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The Outdoor Academy (OA) is an academic semester boarding school for students in the 10th and 11th grades, located in Pisgah Forest in Western North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is run by the Eagle's Nest Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organisation that also operates a summer camp and wilderness adventures for young people. The school opened in 1994 and welcomed its first students in the fall of 1995; since then more than 1,300 students from the United States and other countries have attended.
Each semester lasts 110 days and combines academic study with an outdoor classroom and wilderness programming. No previous wilderness experience is required, and students can attend whatever schedule their home school follows (semester, block, trimester or homeschool).
Applications for the Spring 2027 semester are open and are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission is need-blind, tuition is flexible, and need-based scholarships go to over half of the students. An application form and parent questionnaire are also available in Spanish.
- Education
- Secondary Education
English
Primary or Secondary School
1-828-877-4349
43 Hart Rd, Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, The United States, 28768
The application has two parts:
- Short-answer responses: three required questions, two chosen prompts and one creative response (for example a video, painting or song)
- Two letters of recommendation, at least one from a current teacher
- Transcript or school reports from the past two years (unofficial copies accepted)
No minimum GPA is required, and admission is need-blind. Applications for the Spring 2027 semester are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. The application and parent questionnaire are available in Spanish.
Admission is need-blind. In 2025 the school capped its tuition and introduced a flexible tuition model: every applicant can apply for an individualised (reduced) tuition, and need-based scholarships are awarded to over half of the students. Requests for reduced tuition are reviewed in order of receipt and only after the student has submitted an application for admission, so both should be completed together.