We accept applications on a rolling basis, and we typically fill our class many months before a given semester begins. Because we limit our class size to 30-40 students, we strongly encourage you to apply as early as possible.
Applications are reviewed with consideration of your commitment to personal development, leadership potential, quality of communication and expression, previous community engagement, academic achievement, experience, aptitude for living in and contributing to a community learning environment, contribution to a diverse student population, and medical and mental health readiness to meet program requirements.
The application packet requires you to submit short-answer questions, two essays, examples of personal or academic work, a resume, educational transcripts, two references, a medical form, and a $60 application fee. We only consider complete applications. If you wish to apply for a scholarship, we ask you to submit your scholarship application along with your program application. You may download our program application and scholarship application in Adobe pdf format.
Because of the commitment and time required to complete the program application, we strongly encourage you to call or e-mail us before you begin your application to introduce yourself and clarify any questions you have.
If after review of your completed application, we feel that you may be a good fit for the program, we will contact you to schedule an interview. We prefer to conduct interviews in person but can arrange a phone interview if travel prohibits you from meeting with us at Kripalu. The interview takes approximately 1.5 hours and is an opportunity to get to know you better as well as to answer your questions about the program.
After the interview, admissions consideration typically takes from one to two months. We will contact you in writing to notify you of our decision. If you are accepted into the Semester Intensive, you are required to pay a $300 nonrefundable tuition deposit to hold your space in the upcoming class. Slots are not guaranteed without this deposit; we therefore encourage you to submit your deposit promptly.
Additionally, due to the emotional and physically rigorous nature of the program, all acceptances are conditional and contingent upon medical and mental health history forms completed by your health-care providers and reviewed and approved by internal Semester Intensive medical evaluators. (If for any reason your conditional acceptance into the program is later denied due to the review of your health forms, any aforementioned nonrefundable deposit paid will be refunded to you in full.)
