returning to camp

In your first year of camp, it may seem as though you don't get paid all that much for so long on camp (remembering of course the value of food and board for 8 weeks). A major reason for this is the substantial fees which Camp America (or Bunac, etc) charge Camp to cover outlays such as your flight and initially setting you up with a particular camp.

There are a few ways in which you can increase your wages, primarily by reducing these 'agency fees'.

Bunac (http://www.bunac.org/.), CCUSA (http://www.ccusa.com/), and Camp America (http://www.campamerica.com/) offer options called 'Own Arranger' for returning camp staff, where you arrange your own flights. You need to check on the fees that will be charged for this coming year, but normally Bunac charges the camp no fee at all if returning staff take the Own Arranger option. As such, I find Bunac a better agency to use if you are returning to camp. ( you still have to pay insurance and membership fees, but if you add it all up, Bunac is a better for you financially - do check yourself though).

With no fee charged to camp, they are able to pass this saving onto you in the form of higher wages, plus naturally increased wages for being a returning counsellor.

The drawback: you have to arrange your own flight, and you have to fix a date to fly home in advance - it is almost impossible to change the date afterwards.

Whether you leave camp with more money by taking the 'Own Arranger' option depends heavily on the price of flight you manage to buy yourself. We find it is generally best to fly into Detroit or Chicago but then opt to fly home from New York, which makes the ticket cheaper since you are flying from an airport which is less distance from the UK (New York is amazing and it is not difficult to make any travelling you do end up in NYC). Alternatively, flying out of the airport you flew into is not that much more