Affordable For All

Beyond Tuition Assistance

AFFORDABLE FOR ALL

Transparent Financial Aid

Farm & Wilderness is committed to make the F&W camp experience truly affordable for all families, starting with transparency in the range of rates our camper families actually pay to attend our camps.

The way we provide financial assistance is intended to be transparent, timely, and predictable.

Once we say farewell to our family campers at the end of the summer sessions, our admissions team is already working on details for the next summer! We open registration in the fall, and families need details to solidify their plans. In addition to the dates and rates for each session, many of our families also look at our Affordable for All charts to get a better idea of what their estimated family contribution towards their child/ren’s tuition will be, based on their level of financial resources, which for most families is their earned employment income and can include other sources of financial funding & support.

Year to year, the amount of financial aid funding we have available shifts due to the actual amount which is donated in the previous calendar. We won’t know the final amount we have available until the calendar year concludes, and families rely on having an idea of what their cost will be before making a commitment for the following summer. Farm & Wilderness can only continue to provide transformative summer experiences for young people if we are able to predictably balance our budget each year.

A helpful metaphor is to think of Farm & Wilderness as baking a cake to share. We’ll start taking down information for folks’ needs in the fall, and we’ve been collecting the ingredients the entire year, but we need to try and commit to the needs of folks in October as we anticipate finishing baking the cake as December turns into January, and then we slice and serve that cake starting in mid-January right up until balances are due June 1. We open registration by November, tally our donations in December, and begin to make campership determinations in January, and continue to do so bi-monthly until June 1. Just as our Affordable for All and tuition rates change from year to year, we also will need to adjust the Affordable for All rates after that first round of determinations (and perhaps again after future determination rounds) to account for the total donations from the year before and do our best to ensure we’ve got enough to share with others.

When adjustments to our Affordable for All charts are determined to be necessary, it is our intention to minimize the impact of any increase to estimated family contributions to all levels of financial resources, and to communicate these changes directly to all currently registered families as well as to those yet to register by way of updating our website.

We also want to give an idea of what the campership (our term for Financial Aid!) process entails before you even register. Keep scrolling to find out more and see our most up to date family contribution estimation charts.

Overnight Camp Rates

Day Camp Rates

Our Goal

How much will camp cost?

Financial Aid Estimator

For a Three Week Session of Overnight Camp
at Farm & Wilderness, priced at $7,200
Family Financial Resources	Estimated Family Contribution	Additional Sibling Percentage
$25,000 or less	$1,100	50%
$25,000 - $50,000	$1,650	50%
$50,000 - $75,000	$2,150	50%
$75,000 - $100,000	$2,200-$3,700	67%
$100,000 - $125,000	$3,700-$4,600	67%
$125,000 - $150,000	$4,600-$5,300	75%
$150,000 - $175,000	$5,300-$6,150	75%
$175,000 - $200,000	$6,150-$7,200	80%
$200,000 - $225,000	$7,200	80%
$225,000 and above	$7,200	100%

Families with children registered for The Clearing should estimate their contribution towards that program's tuition to be ~2/3 of the amounts above. Please note that the additional sibling amount is for families who qualify for campership and have registered that number of their own dependent children at a Farm & Wilderness overnight camp program in the same summer, though they may attend different programs and/or sessions.

For a two-week, full day session at Barn Day Camp at Farm & Wilderness, priced at $1,400
Family Financial Resources	Estimated Family Contribution
$25,000 or less	$300
$25,000 - $50,000	$340
$50,000 - $75,000	$440
$75,000 - $100,000	$460 - $770
$100,000 - $125,000	$770 - $1,000
$125,000 - $150,000	$1,000 - $1,400

For Butterfly Half-Day Sessions, the estimated family contributions are in proportion to the cost. For example, if your estimated family contribution is $500 for the full-day, two-week program, it would be $355 for the half-day, two-week program. Session 1, the one-week program, is half the cost of the two-week program.

Let's Get Going!

Step by Step

1. First things first- register your camper for this summer using the register button at the top of our website! A deposit is expected to accompany registration and we can adjust deposits to reflect the amount the monthly payment for your family contribution would be.

2. Next, complete your camper's health profile in CampDoc. The final section of the profile is the Campership section. A camper's entire health profile must be completed satisfactorily before a campership determination is made.

3. The campership committee's first meeting is in early January, and then every other week after that, as needed.

4. When families accept their campership determination, they also enter into a payment plan for the remaining contribution.

Our Goal

Transparency Matters

Our camps and others like it are financially out of reach for many families--we know that. While we are always looking for ways to keep our expenses down, the fact is operating camps like ours is an expensive proposition.

Still, we are deeply committed to having our campers and staff reflect socio-economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. That’s been true for Farm & Wilderness since shortly after its founding in 1939 through our campership program.

Alumni, staff, and other friends of F&W have generously supported our campership program, which had previously operated much like financial aid at a college or independent school—where families request a campership when they register for camp and find out weeks or even months later if they will receive a campership.

Now families can not only see what they could expect to pay before registration, we're also able to provide their confirmed determinations at regular, timely intervals.

Campership: Financial Aid for Campers

We believe that how and when we talk about financial support to families is critical for F&W to be the welcoming and inclusive community we strive to be. So, we share as much information as possible about what a family can expect to pay for their children to attend camp—right up front and based on their annual financial resources.

At Farm & Wilderness diversity has been a matter of fact since our founding. Ken and Susan Webb, who opened Timberlake camp in 1939, sought to have our camps be inclusive and representative of the racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity in our country.

Farm & Wilderness has a long history of making our camps accessible and affordable to all families, regardless of their socio-economic status, through our Campership Program. This long-lived program is funded by our multi-generational community of alumni, camp families, and current and former staff who share our commitment to increasing access to our camps.

While there is no guarantee that F&W will be able to meet each family’s request for financial assistance, especially if their request is far outside the ranges in the Transparency in Tuition tables, we are incredibly grateful for the financial support from our generous community of donors. Our determinations are made based on each family’s financial situation.

In addition to offering tuition remission directly to camp families, we also partner with intermediary organizations such as the 1199 SEIU Anne Shore Sleep-Away Camp Program (NYC), Vermont Migrant Education Program, and more! We actively seek new partnerships, and if you would like to recommend an organization to us, please contact admissions@farmandwilderness.org.

The Campership Process

How and when do I apply?
After you register your child for this summer, you'll have a registration health profile to complete for your child, which includes everything we need to know about before we welcome them to camp and while we have them in our care, ending with a section on Campership. This section begins with asking if you would like to apply for campership. Select "Yes" and the form will appear for you to complete. If you need assistance with completing any part of your child's profile, please do not hesitate to call or email admissions! Your child's entire Health Profile must be completed and reviewed by our staff to ensure your child is likely to meet the essential functions of camp before the campership application is passed along to the campership committee. The Campership application includes both questions about income as well as open ended narrative questions to best get a complete picture of a family's financial situation. The form does end with a section to upload income documentation, for most families this is a copy of their most recent tax return or a governmental assistance benefits letter and we can discuss alternative documentation paths as needed.

I have applied, now what?
Our Admissions team will submit your application to the Campership Review Committee for consideration. First and foremost, the committee considers the family's financial situation in determining the amount of campership awarded, but the process includes both consideration of the numbers as well as the narrative portions families complete, so that we may consider the whole picture when determining campership amounts. See this page for further clarity in what is and is not considered during the campership determination process.

What happens after the committee makes determinations?
The first campership committee meeting will be in mid January, and will occur every other week as needed from that point onward. If you do not hear from us within one month of completing your campership application and registration health forms, please reach out to us to check in. Families are notified of their campership amount and resulting family contribution via email. They then have 2 weeks to either decline the amount cancel their registration or that they accept the amount and confirm their payment plan for their family contribution. If the amount is not able to meet the needs of your family, you may decide to cancel your registration. If you must cancel, please call Admissions within that two week response period in order to receive a full refund of your deposit and any other payments you may have made towards the balance.

Things you should know about campership:

Campership amounts will be determined on a rolling basis, and the committee is scheduled to meet to review complete profiles every other week, beginning in January. Please don't hesitate to apply, and make sure you complete your registration forms!
The campership application form appears during the registration process once you indicate you’d like to apply for financial aid. The application asks questions about the financial circumstances of all adults financially responsible for the camper and includes an upload of income verification. For most families, this is a copy of their most recent tax return. Please let us know if you need to submit alternative means of income verification and we will work with you towards a solution.
Campers on a waiting list or with incomplete registration forms in their camper's CampDoc Health profile will not be considered by the campership committee until registration is complete. All required sections and questions in the registration process along with a deposit are required to consider a camper fully registered for camp.
Families with more than one camper will need to complete a separate Campership form for each camper. You may copy and paste answers from one of your camper's Campership form to another of your children's campership form, but please do not enter anything asking to reference your other child/ren's documentation.

Estimated family contribution charts are updated throughout the enrollment cycle as we adjust for the previous year’s donations and the outcome of the first round of campership determinations and compare them to our registrants and expected future registrants and other data. When adjustments to our Affordable for All charts be determined necessary, it is our practice to minimize the impact of any increase to estimated family contributions to all levels of financial resources, and to communicate these changes immediately to all currently registered families as well as to those yet to register by way of updating our website.
Families who have financial resources at or below ~200% of the federal poverty guidelines for their family size and thus also receive or are eligible to receive governmental assistance such as SNAP (food stamps) or LI-HEAP (heating/energy assistance) understandably find themselves with more rigid expenses. To provide a more fixed expectation for these families, those with financial resources of $75,000 and below each have a fixed rate listed for their family contribution. $1,100 is the least amount a family can expect to contribute financially towards their overnight session at Farm & Wilderness. We acknowledge that every family who decides to include Farm & Wilderness as a part of their child/ren’s summer makes many decisions, financial and otherwise, in order to make that happen. This is another situation in which starting regular monthly payments can be helpful to spread out the amount into smaller increments, registering in November and splitting the $1,100 evenly makes each monthly payment $138.
Families with resources of $225,000 or less who have more than one dependent child enrolled in Farm & Wilderness overnight programs will receive a percentage reduction to their expected family contribution for each additional dependent child’s sessions. That is, a family with three children enrolled in Farm & Wilderness overnight programs would expect to pay the estimated family contribution for their first child, and then the corresponding percentage of that amount for each subsequent child. While the family contribution amounts on our charts are subject to change, these percentages will not.

Admissions Contact Information
For information on retrieving your online account information, to ask about our camp programs, or if you have questions about our registration process, please email or use the live chat on our website at any time, or give us a call at 802-422-3761. We are able to answer or return messages Monday - Friday, 8-4 Vermont time.

Enrollment Director – Sam Green
Admissions Coordinator - Jenny Rist
Email: admissions@farmandwilderness.org

Transparency in Tuition