Study Where You
Want To Live
Live In A Community. Grow As An Individual.
Keep Earning Your Degree.
Apply By May 21 To
Receive Priority Review
Live In A Community. Grow As An Individual.
Keep Earning Your Degree.
Apply By May 21 To
Receive Priority Review
We create exceptional communities for students to co-live and co-work in some of the most beautiful places on Earth. We select a wonderful cohort, facilitate community, make outdoor recreation simple, and live for place-based learning.
You’re someone who wants to take full advantage of where and how you live while taking online college courses. At APB, you’ll learn and grow in a beautiful setting while learning what it means to co-create a strong, resilient community.
Hear from our students about why they joined A Place Beyond
Simplicity and comfort. Find out what happens when you remove the clutter — spoiler alert: you’re much more focused and productive, and it’s a lot more fun.
Building a strong network requires more than just connecting with someone on LinkedIn. It requires collaboration, communication, and emotional intelligence. These are learned skills.
At APB, you’ll be learning and applying these skills in real time, all while building strong connections with friends and future collaborators. The community you make here will be with you for a lifetime.
We’re reimagining the college experience. Live the way you want, where you want, all without sacrificing academics. Same dollars in, greater lifelong satisfaction out.
*The above fees were calculated by combining room, board, some non-tuition fees, and expected costs. To learn more, click the link in the comparison chart.
**Generally, student fees are charged by colleges to pay for services such as the gym, health center, orientation, etc. Schools which have had all-online options for several years — such as Oregon State University — usually only charge a small technology fee in addition to tuition. This year, many schools are making student fees optional for distance learning.
How do people pay for APB?
Many different ways! Some folks use a college savings plan, and some use room+board reimbursements from their college. Many students have also received discounts on their tuitions by asking their college for discounted rates for online-only learning. We've also had a couple participants use merit scholarships that cover the cost of room and board while enrolled in college.
Some of our participants receive a sponsorship to help cover the cost of A Place Beyond. Applicants can indicate their need in the sponsorship questionnaire in our application.
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We take advantage of on-campus or nearby trails for day trips or quick overnights. Our campuses' proximity to Tahquitz Peak, Joshua Tree, Great Sand Dunes, and the Ten Mile Range make them a perfect jumping off point for our weekend trips.
See the best of the US without taking a year off.
It’s okay to want it all: academic rigor, professional mentorship, and a connected community invested in changing the world.
Our program of optional trips, workshops, and drop-in activities are specifically designed to adapt to our communities. Our program managers and students have co-created workshops or series like:
What if I’m not in an online degree program? Who are your partner institutions?
All good! We've recently partnered with two world-class organizations to so that any student can join us this fall.
Outlier is a new, online college from the co-founder of Masterclass, which has great courses for freshman, sophomore, or gap year students. Outlier costs about $100 per credit hour and issues widely accepted credits through the University of Pittsburg, a tier 1 research institution.
For students deeper into their respective majors, the University of Central Florida will offer more advanced courses. We’ll have a short list of UCF online courses that have guaranteed spots for APB students in the coming weeks. UCF costs about $700 per credit hour for non-residents of Florida and is a tier 1 research institution.Some of our participants are working remotely, doing research, or pairing just one or two classes with our programming.
We can provide syllabi to determine how each course from Outlier or UCF transfers to your home institution. Once accepted into the program, we'll send along partner enrollment information.
Who can apply?
You must be 18-30 years old at the start of your APB experience.
Most of our applicants are enrolled in an associate, bachelor, or graduate degree program. We also work with applicants who are taking gap years, working remotely, or doing research.
Let us know in your application if your education or work for the fall is a little different, and we'll talk about what that would be like here.
You must have health insurance at the beginning of the semester. If you are uninsured, we can help. Please contact us for more details.
How does the application process work?
We want to make sure A Place Beyond is a good fit for you and for us. Because of our interests and values, we get an wonderful pool of applicants with diverse interests and projects who value community, nature, balance, and growth.
Once you submit your application, we'll schedule a welcome call to talk about next steps.
Application Deadlines
Pre June 1 - Priority deadline
June 1 - First Round deadline
July 1 - Second Round deadline
Do you distance and wear masks on campus?
Through two semesters, we've had 0 cases of covid on campus. Living in a small, intentional community allows us to keep people healthy and live a relatively normal life despite the risk of Covid-19.
For fall of 2021, we'll keep an eye on vaccination and tramission rates throughout the summer to inform how we take care of one another on and off campus.
This past year, we ran multiple testing rounds for everyone upon arrival and then treated our cohort as a stable bubble once all tests returned negative. We then tested weekly so that limited off-campus travel was worry-free.
We used a same-day testing, contact tracing, and use a simple low-, medium-, and high risk off-campus activity system to guide our collective conversation.
Read more about our Covid-19 precautions here.
Will there be good internet?
We check each campus to make sure the bandwidth can withstand 60 people on Zoom all the time. That means expansive wifi and lots of space to spread out.
Sounds cool, but how does this work?
We know typical semester course load takes up a lot of time. That means you'll be living and working on your own schedule, opting in and out of weekly workshops, trips, and community events based on your workload.
We check in with each other to help set academic, professional, and personal goals; learn how we can better support one another; and ask for feedback about what's working and what's not. We want to make sure you find balance and feel in control of your how you study and how you live.
We'll also make time each week for small group discussions to reflect as a community.
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