Writer’s Lab at The Taft School

A two-week residential course for high school students who want a deep immersion in writing. Good writing is treated as essential for college and any professional career, and the course concentrates on sharpening and polishing the ability to articulate clearly and effectively. Participants engage in four blocks of classroom activity each day, and sections are limited to twelve students.

The fee is all-inclusive: tuition, books, room and board, and school-wide trips and activities. A non-refundable application fee and an enrolment deposit are payable separately. A minimum deposit is also required to open a personal spending account, which can be used at the school store. Financial aid is not available for the two-week programmes.

A residential course: participants live in the residential halls used during the summer, with dormitory faculty and interns in the buildings and structured evening study halls. Because the campus 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.

Participants take part in a daily athletic programme alongside their classes, as well as cultural and recreational activities and off-campus trips. Afternoon athletics are recreational; typical offerings include soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, squash, running, weight training, aerobics and ultimate frisbee. The arts programme covers theatre, photography, pottery, studio art and video.

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, an all-weather track, twelve all-weather tennis courts, eight squash courts and multiple playing fields.

Classroom sections are limited to twelve students, and faculty are present through the day and in the dormitories in the evening. Four blocks of classroom activity each day are balanced by athletics, the arts and trips off campus.