Frequently Asked Questions

General

Outer Coast prepares students for all kinds of pathways. 

To date, our alumni have matriculated to a wide range of postsecondary institutions, including Alaska Pacific University, Brown, Claremont McKenna, Cornell, Deep Springs, Evergreen State, Fort Lewis, Harvard, MIT, Penn, Pomona, Reed, Smith, Tufts, UA Fairbanks, UC – Santa Cruz, Western Washington, and Yale. Other students are working, learning trades, or living with their families and engaging in issues in their home communities. Read more about our alumni here.

Outer Coast serves a student body that is national and international in breadth and diverse in many ways, including racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender identities, and socioeconomic status. Outer Coast emphasizes reaching students from across Alaska, particularly Alaska Natives and rural Alaskans, as well as other high-potential students from backgrounds underrepresented and underserved in American higher education.

The Student Body for both the Summer Seminar and Outer Coast Year programs is usually between 15-20 students. A handful of Outer Coast Year students are also invited to come to Sitka early to attend the Summer Seminar and welcome their peers to campus in the fall. We expect to admit 20 students to enter Outer Coast as members of the inaugural two-year undergraduate cohort.

Yes and no. More accurately, Outer Coast is a bridge year: for many, a year between high school and college or another next step; for others, a year away from college. For all students, the Year offers the opportunity to develop the skills and mindsets to succeed in college and effect virtuous change in the world.

We aspire to open the college proper in the fall of 2024, and are seeking branch campus accreditation in order to do so. Read more about our history and where we’re headed here.

No, not yet. Outer Coast is authorized as a postsecondary institution by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) and confers credit through our partnership with Alaska Pacific University.

Self-Governance

Students come together for weekly Student Body (SB) meetings to make decisions that will shape their experience in the program. Students determine their own agenda for these meetings and choose how they will structure discussion and voting systems. Self-governance provides real-stakes practice for organizing a community.

Self-governance does not mean making decisions in isolation: students build their community with close support from staffulty and are guided by past students on effective ways to take advantage of their agency. 

During SB meetings, students will answer questions like:

What are our community values?

Who should we invite for this week’s Community Hour? 

How should we allocate our student governance budget?

How should we carry forward service partnerships from previous programs?

There have been some students who aren’t showing up for class prepared — how do we want to address this as a community?

Read more about self-governance at Outer Coast here.

Service & Labor

In the Summer Seminar program, students primarily work on group service projects in the Sitka community. Past projects have included working with the US Forest Service and a local trail crew to lay boulders, rocks, and gravel along Káasda Héen (the Indian River Trail); working at the Sitka Sound Science Center to collect marine debris and collaborate with their education team; and hosting a barbeque and talent show for the elderly residents of Sitka’s Pioneer Home. 

In the Outer Coast Year program, students build long-term individual relationships with partner nonprofit, government, and tribal institutions, collaborating on projects that meet the needs of the Sitka community.

Service projects will always be meaningful collaborations with local organizations that add substantial volunteer power to the community of Sitka. Many service projects involve physical labor but can be made accessible for all abilities. 

Read more about service at Outer Coast here.

Academics

While we do ask for academic transcripts, there are no prerequisites for Outer Coast. Academic curiosity and persistence are key to student success at Outer Coast; sustained academic excellence in prior coursework is not.

Summer Seminar and Outer Coast Year students take coursework for credit through our course crediting partner, Alaska Pacific University. Students can earn 2 general education credits from the Summer Seminar, and typical full semester Outer Coast courses carry three general education credits and are transferable to most other institutions of higher education. However, transfer of credit from one institution to another is made at the discretion of the receiving school and depends on the comparability of curricula and accreditation. For this reason, no school, nor specific program, can guarantee that credits are transferable to another institution.

Course offerings at Outer Coast change with each program. All Outer Coast courses have a small, discussion-based format; exceptional pedagogy; and material that is relevant to the big questions that students have about themselves and the world. All students also take an Indigenous Studies course, led by faculty member Dionne Brady-Howard. Read more about academics at Outer Coast, including course descriptions for upcoming and past programs, here.

Student Life

Sitka is known for its year-round wet weather. The summers are cool and mostly cloudy with consistent rain and typical temperatures ranging from 50˚F-60˚F. The winters are dark with temperatures that hover around freezing, but typically don’t dip below 25˚F. Over the course of the year the temperature typically varies from 33°F to 62°F. Southeast Alaskans like to joke that the temperatures never get more than 20˚ outside of 45˚F.

Incoming students will receive a comprehensive packing list in order to prepare for their arrival in Sitka.

Read more about health and wellbeing at Outer Coast here.

Students live in shared dormitory-style rooms in Sweetland Hall on the Sitka Fine Arts campus and have access to a variety of shared common spaces. All weekday meals and snacks are provided, and students prepare their own meals in the student kitchen on weekends. For gym access, students may purchase passes to the nearby Hames Center, and subsidized passes are provided for students who require financial assistance. Read more about campus here.

Admissions

We look for applicants who want more from their education and are genuinely, insatiably curious to learn about themselves and others. We seek students who can rise to the occasion to create a meaningful academic and social community, and who are empathetic, resilient, and inclusive forces amongst their peers. 

Outer Coast does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, nationality, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.

Outer Coast programs have no fixed cost of attendance and admissions at Outer Coast are need-blind. After a student is admitted to an Outer Coast program, we work with the individual students and their families to establish a cost of attendance based on their household’s financial means. Read more about cost and affordability here.

Rising high school juniors and seniors are eligible to apply for the Summer Seminar, as well as graduating seniors from Alaska.

High school graduates and/or GED holders are eligible to apply for the Outer Coast Year and may also opt to be considered for the Summer Seminar.

We are currently not able to sponsor visas or enroll international students at Outer Coast, but we are working towards being able to do so soon. If you’re interested in learning more about our progress, please be in touch at info@outercoast.org.

Yeey aaní káx̱ g̱unéi x̱too.aat (May we walk on your land). Outer Coast is situated on Lingít Aaní, the ancestral home of the Tlingit peoples. We strive to build a community of safe, inclusive, and integrative learning for all. Learn more.