Liberal Studies at The Taft School

Each student enrols in three academic classes and one elective chosen after arrival. Where a first course choice is full, the next available choice is honoured and the student is told before registration. Taft does not award academic credit for summer courses, but will forward a syllabus of the work covered and final reports to a student’s own school on request; some institutions choose to recognise that work or to set their own examinations.

The fee is all-inclusive: tuition, room and board, textbooks and lab fees, and all school-wide trips and activities including weekend excursions. A non-refundable application fee and an enrolment deposit are payable separately, and the deposit is credited against tuition. International students are additionally required to deposit an amount set by the school for mandatory health insurance. Limited need-based financial assistance is available to full-time students from the United States.

Students live in one of the two residential halls used during the summer. Dormitory faculty and interns live in the buildings and act as mentors as well as chaperones; corridors are relaxed but evening study halls are structured. About nine in ten students on the summer programme live on campus, and because the buildings stand close together students live where they learn.

Full board on campus. The dining facilities serve a daily variety of fresh menu options, with breakfast before the first class, lunch in the middle of the day and dinner after afternoon sports.

Afternoon athletics are entirely recreational and students may choose a different activity each week; typical offerings include soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, squash, running, weight training, aerobics and ultimate frisbee. Private athletic lessons may be available at extra cost on request. The arts programme covers theatre, photography, pottery, studio art and video, with music rooms available in free time and an end-of-term art show. Weekends bring on-campus events and day trips, including amusement parks, Boston, New York City and New England university visits.

The campus covers 226 acres. Facilities used by the summer programme include two residential halls, a science and mathematics centre, a 53,000-volume library, a language lab, a black-box theatre, photography dark rooms and an art studio, a 24-hour health centre, dining facilities and a student union with pool and table-tennis tables, an athletic fieldhouse with indoor tennis and basketball courts and an indoor track, a cardio and weight-training room, an all-weather track, twelve all-weather tennis courts with four pickleball courts, eight squash courts and multiple playing fields.

Small classes, faculty present through the day and in the dormitories in the evening, and an advisor for every student. Assembly gathers the community twice a week to hear teachers speak. At the end of the session parents receive a description of the work covered in each course, a report on progress and an overall record from the student’s advisor.