Summer Scholars at Northfield Mount Hermon

A four-week academic programme for students entering grades 7–12. Separate course lists are published for grades 7–8 and for grades 9–12. Offerings combine classroom rigour with hands-on experience: rocket science, astronomy, space exploration, exercise physiology, algebra, precalculus and field science, alongside a writing fellowship and a Model UN foreign policy fellowship. Students may find themselves in a lab conducting experiments, on stage in rehearsals, or outdoors investigating the ecology of the Connecticut River valley.

The programme is sold as one four-week block. Northfield Mount Hermon offers the same programme in a boarding format and in a day format for students who live locally and commute to campus each day. Required fees for health insurance, a health and safety fee and a student activities fee are charged in addition to tuition, and optional SAT preparation courses and airport shuttles are available.

Boarding students live on the Northfield Mount Hermon campus between the small towns of Gill and Northfield in western Massachusetts, adjacent to the Connecticut River, about two hours west of Boston. A day format is available for students who commute from home.

Meals are served in Alumni Hall, the school dining room, where NMH Dining staff hot food at all meals. The menu includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, extensive salad, cereal and deli bars and soft-serve ice cream, with plenty of local produce including produce from the school’s own campus farm. A community norm in Alumni Hall is no-tech mealtime. Dining hours vary through the week, and a campus store and snack bar provide additional options.

Beyond the classroom, students hike in the surrounding mountains to panoramic views of three states, raft and kayak on nearby rivers, visit local farms for pick-your-own produce and go to the craft shows held nearly every weekend through the valley. There is a campus pool, and excursions may include swimming.

A campus in western Massachusetts with world-class facilities, including laboratories, performance spaces, a dining room in Alumni Hall, a campus store and snack bar, a pool and the school’s own campus farm. The school is a neighbour to Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with Dartmouth College and Williams College an easy drive away.

Students learn alongside motivated peers from a global community. Summer daytime temperatures in the Connecticut River valley typically keep to the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit (24 to 28 degrees Celsius). The campus is close to Interstate 91 and near Bradley International in Hartford, Logan Airport in Boston and New York’s LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.