Location
  • United States of America
Length
12 - 26 weeks

Program Details

Activities
Camping Canoeing Farming
Timeframe
Fall
Housing
Apartment Guesthouse
Primary Language
English
Age Min.
18
Age Max
29

Pricing

Starting Price
10500
Price Details
Thoreau College is strongly committed to making our programs accessible for all admitted students, and need-based financial aid is available through an individualized financial pledge process. Average pledges are typically about $8500

Financial pledges cover all program tuition, housing in Thoreau College facilities, all books, tools, camping gear, and arts supplies, and all weekday lunches. Students also have access to fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat produced on the Thoreau College farm, orchard, vineyard, and gardens.

Students are responsible for additional meals, for transportation to and from Wisconsin, and for health insurance that will cover them here.

What's Included
Accommodation Activities Airport Transfers Equipment Some Meals Wifi
What's Not Included
Airfare Domestic Airfare Some Meals SIM cards Tour Guide Travel Insurance Visa
Jan 12, 2024
Dec 14, 2023
3 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Rooted in a vibrant rural community in a beautiful region of western Wisconsin, the Metamorphosis Gap Semester at Thoreau College is a full time fall program incorporating intellectual exploration, fine arts and traditional crafts, homesteading skills, participatory self-governance, wilderness expeditions, and engaged community life. Each fall we explore a unique set of ideas and texts while engaging in activities set by the rhythms of nature and the agriculural year. This program integrates a wide variety of experiences to create a space for students to become deeply grounded in themselves, the world, and the work they are called to do. In the context of a supportive community of up to 14 fellow seekers, students have a chance to enter deeply — head, heart, and hands — into what it means to be a human being today.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Homesteading, foraging, and sustainable agriculture
  • Discussions of philosophy, spirituality, and the history of consciousness
  • Community self-governance and communication skills
  • Visual arts, community singing, and traditional folk arts and crafts
  • Wilderness expeditions and solos

Program Dates

Application Deadline
Program Dates
-

Related Programs

Program Reviews

4.86 Rating
based on 7 reviews
  • 5 rating 85.71%
  • 4 rating 14.29%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Housing 5
  • Support 4.85
  • Fun 4.85
  • Value 5
  • Safety 4.85
Showing 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Default avatar
Julian
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Thoreau College Review

I found my time at Thoreau College very valuable because it taught me a lot of life skills I did not learn at a 4-year college, and it taught me a different way of being than I had experienced growing up in the very scientific and materialist culture of Silicon Valley. Prior to Thoreau College I thought that AI taking over the world and replacing humanity might be an okay thing, since we seem to be doing a fairly poor job at creating healthy societies and sustaining the earth. I left Thoreau College with the feeling that humanity has something unique and valuable to offer the world, and that human society has something unique and powerful to offer to the universe that we could unlock through cultural change and collective action.

As for the specifics of the program, it was full of philosophy, labor, and community activities, as well as art and good food (Viroqua has some seriously good food, trust me). Overall, I would recommend this program to anyone looking to learn more about agriculture, alternative philosophies to scientific materialism, or holistic education. Going beyond the classroom, Thoreau College teaches you how to live with other people, manage conflicts, and become an active part in shaping the curriculum and your own learning. Combining all of that with the numerous transformative and quieting trips into nature, I found Thoreau College to be a profoundly valuable experience.

9 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Maurielle
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing!

I absolutely loved my time at Thoreau! This program is thoughtfully run and centers the student experience. You learn so much about land systems, community building, literature, philosophy, agriculture, food prep, you name it. 2 years after completing the program, I am still regularly (and gladly) in touch with the wonderful people I met during my time at here. I was initially hesitant about taking a gap year / trying something so far outside my realm of experience but I am incredibly grateful that I found my way to Thoreau. I cannot recommend it enough.

18 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Annie
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Excellent Holistic Education in a Beautiful Local Community

Thoreau College stands out as a program which is deeply connected to a thriving rural small-town community. Because of this, it's a great place to learn practical community-building skills as well as sustainable faring/gardening and folk crafts. During my time at Thoreau, some of my most valuable lessons came from meeting and speaking with eccentric farmers, artist, and teachers from the local community. This is a great program for artistic dreamers, outdoorsy oddballs, and everyone interested in the local and small-scaled.

Pros
  • Meeting interesting people in a beautiful place
  • Learning about Biodynamic agriculture and the history of the driftless region of WI
  • Having great converations with caring and knowledgable staff members
22 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Ania
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Incredibly Explorative

Really fun activities where I learn to live with nature and not apart from it. I worried that I wouldn’t fit in or would be overwhelmed from the amount of people during the summer fieldschool program, but all the people were kind, and my roommates were so fun to be around that it sucks we don’t live close to each other. The readings gave me a new perspective on nature and growth, and all the activities we did showed how much can be done with community.

If you did this all over again, what's one thing you would change?
I would bring more fun clothes, something brighter and with more colors. I’d also bring my yarn stash so I can crochet/knit away.
Pros
  • Learn how to forage mushrooms
  • Weave baskets
  • Cook delicious food
Cons
  • So many things to do so little time
  • The weather does not always work out
  • There were many readings and little time
20 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Sarah
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

So Thankful!

What I value most about this program is the attention to growth of the whole human spirit, head heart and hands. Unlike other educational experiences, this program facilitated and valued inner development and community building while we studied literature and a broad range of physical and artistic skills. This program is intensive but incorporates lots of time for reflection on what we're learning, about the natural world and ourselves. Every month we embarked on a 24 hour solo expedition in the beautiful woods of the driftless region, often with prompts for reflection. Those experiences were difficult at times, being alone with your thoughts can bring up issues or experiences you haven't worked through in your life that you may not have known you were avoiding, I would describe the solos as emotional, grounding, and empowering. This program was balanced between intensive educational experiences and time to integrate them.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
Dive deep into your experiences with an open mind and heart, this program is for you to ground yourself, to learn and grow in a wonderful thoughtful community. I am so thankful I participated in this program after graduating high school, what I learned about communication, my self, and this amazing planet, has been priceless for me. What a wonderful to start my life!
44 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Lydia
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Living contented in all aspects of your being

As one of many people who wish to live simply, I took this course to learn to live in a way that nurtures all aspects of myself. I learned to live in community, to communicate, be seen and heard. I learned all sorts of practical skills such as roofing, gardening, bread making, fermenting (kimchi, kombucha, immune boosting fire cider, etc) and I had so much fun! I went on a 24 hour solo every month bringing only bare necessities in the quiet solitude of beautiful driftless seasons and landscapes. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.

What was your funniest moment?
On my first 24 hour solo in the woods I had built a fire in hopes the smoke would keep the bugs away. And with having a fire you need to be collecting a lot of fire wood, I found a good dry heavy log that I thought would be perfect and burn for a long time. Turns out the log was a home to a large ant colony that as soon as the log was placed in my fire had ants swarming out towards my shelter. I pulled the log off the fire and then spent the next hour digging a trench around my camp and attempting to detour the ants with a stick and guide them away from me. It was scary but also hilarious.
43 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Emmet
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A Microcosm of Life

How do you review something that affected you so deeply you’re still catching up, and think you will be for years? How do you review something that is a picture of life? That moves with the seasons and takes you from one task to another in a rhythm that feels natural as breathing?
The last five months of my life have seen me engaging deeply and mindfully with my Humanity in ways I thought I had been in the past, but now don't believe I truly was. Thoreau College allowed me to open myself to possibilities I had written off, and to think about things in ways I never would have dreamed of. The program kept me guessing and filled me with wonder every day as my mind bent over new readings and rejoiced at the things sprouting in our garden. It held me in awe at feeling so small yet mighty on my solos in the woods, and so vast and connected when I looked up the star-bright sky of this small town I've grown to love. Thoreau College made me work deeply and vulnerably with people in ways I rarely have before; to form a strong and abiding community and love for them and with them that I believe will last a lifetime. Thoreau College taught me how to make a home, and how to live in it on every level as the most whole me I know how to be.

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?
During our wild foods session, we caught and stir-fried grasshoppers. They were a little daunting in their unusuality but actually pretty tasty after I got over my initial squeamishness.
41 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers