<p>I just want to know if anyone knows of any schools with awesome outdoors programs, I go to a high school with a pretty large and involved outdoors program and I'd like to continue being involved in a group like that (at least to begin with) so I'll at have someone to tell about different places to climb, paddle, ect.</p>
<p>Dartmouth. The Dartmouth Outing Club awesome and many people are into it. Alot of first years even bond over freshman outing trips!</p>
<p>Williams and Colby also come to mind, but I think there are a lot of other schools with similar outdoor programs--you might want to check the Web sites of schools you are interested in and see if active outdoor clubs are included among links in the student life section.</p>
<p>Colorado College has great outdoors programs, and because of the block schedule (1 class at a time), there is opportunity to take advantage of the outdoors programs.</p>
<p>My son was very interested in these as well. Both Lewis & Clark in Portland and Allegheny College in NW Pennsylvania have excellent programs. Both schools have hired people to coordinate programming. L & C also teaches a lot of classes around outdoor experiences through the PE program. In addition, they offer some outdoor certifications during winter and spring break such as Wilderness First Responder.</p>
<p>Outside magazine has a college ranking!
<a href="http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200309/200309_college_towns_1.html%5B/url%5D">http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200309/200309_college_towns_1.html</a></p>
<p>Earlham college in Indiana has an awesome wilderness education program with a professional staff. It's even possible to get a minor in wilderness education there. They have a ropes course on campus and an indoor climbing wall. In fact, incoming freshman are invited to go on a MONTH long wilderness trip to Canada(canoeing) or Utah (backpacking, climbing) before school starts. <a href="http://www.earlham.edu/%7Eoutdoor/about/%5B/url%5D">http://www.earlham.edu/~outdoor/about/</a></p>
<p>The University of Virginia has a wonderful outdoors program, they're practically right on the appalachian trail</p>
<p><a href="http://www.outdoorsatuva.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.outdoorsatuva.org/</a></p>
<p>Emeraldkity4 - thanx for that site - that is fantastic - will be passing it on to my DD as she is an Outdoor Rec Mngt major - and loving it!!!</p>
<p>She did a pre-freshman trip and was offered a job because of it at her schools Adventure Program. She is off to Colorado/Utah on a River/Canyon trip in early May - boy!!!! I envy her for all the experiences she is having and all the new found loves. She spent the summer at the Outer Banks in NC - and the list goes on and on and on.</p>
<p>Thanx again</p>
<p>OOO FYI also - for those of you interested in Outdoor stuff and want college credit while doing all that great stuff - or a semester away for credit - check out <a href="http://www.nols.edu%5B/url%5D">www.nols.edu</a> - they have some fantastic programs.</p>