Admission Policies

Final acceptance to your course is contingent upon the receipt and review of the required materials, which you can find online on your course Dashboard.

The health and well-being of our students and staff and the effective education of our students are important to us. The wilderness environments NOLS courses live in and travel through are remote, dynamic, and physically and emotionally challenging. These environments, along with the educational activities conducted and the living and traveling conditions encountered, require all students to be fully committed to and capable of working hard, taking responsibility for themselves, and working effectively in the group to achieve the goals of the course.

Our student health review process helps us support students’ health and safety and determine whether a current condition is appropriate at NOLS. It’s important that students provide accurate and honest health information so we can learn of conditions that our instructors need to know about. Our admissions staff may need to further discuss health issues with the student, their parent, or their health care provider. NOLS reserves the right to deny admission to anyone that NOLS, in its sole discretion, believes is unable to meet the physical, psychological, cognitive, social, or safety demands of our courses.

You can learn more about our admission criteria by contacting the Admission Office.