Research on the impact of outdoor education mostly consists of assessments of self-esteem and social skills in adventure programs outside of academia. The present exploratory study assessed personal and academic development in undergraduate participants of an interdisciplinary, semester-long, study away learning community in higher education. We assessed development using a multi-method approach employing qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Concerning quantitative data, outdoor participants' life satisfaction significantly increased from the beginning to the end of the semester, whereas a matched control sample taking traditional courses did not experience this benefit. The outdoor program buffered participants from the decreases in attributional complexity and existential well-being experienced by the control group. Qualitatively, outdoor education students reported learning across a wide variety of intelligences and believed that these achievements could not be experienced in the traditional classroom. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.