Outward Bound vs NOLS for wilderness expedition

I am looking to do a wilderness expedition course next summer, something physically challenging with elements of personal and outdoor skill development. I am quite familiar with Outward Bound, and have done two courses with them, one 3-week canoe expedition when I was in high school, and a 2-week backpacking course a few years ago when I was on my mid-30s. They were both fantastic experiences.

I would be happy to go with OB again, but see that over time they have fewer and fewer expedition courses for adults, and seem to be focusing mostly on youth, particularly kids with discipline problems. Most of their adult courses are about a week in length, and for me, 2 weeks is really the minimum length for a course to have any real physical or attitudinal impact. So I checked out NOLS and see that they seem to tend toward much longer courses, but in the 2-week range they do have a number of offerings for adults.

Before I proceed any further, I wanted to see if anyone could tell me more about how the two different organisations compare, in terms of philosophy, teaching, physical intensity, etc.

I only really know of these two, but would also be open to suggestions of other programs offering something similar.

NOLS was created for teaching outdoor leadership skills, so that people who take their course could then go on to lead trips for other organizations. There’s a lot less touchy feely stuff, and from what I’ve heard from friends who’ve done both, NOLS courses can be much harder physically.

What skills are you looking to improve?

Now that I think about it, I guess it is not so much about the skills as about the personal development. But by ‘skills’ I think I mean that it should be challenging and not just a guided trip.

NOLS is really about education, so they may not be delivering what you are looking for. Lots of organizations run trips besides OB and NOLS, if you want an adventure.