VERSHIRE, Vt.—At the semesterlong Mountain School program, families pay $40,000 for their teens to do chores on a farm in rural Vermont.
Students say they mostly signed up for the independent outdoor experience—but hope it helps them get into college as well. Some students and alums consider the Mountain School a secret path to top universities, part of an increasingly competitive college-admissions atmosphere . Other families are seeking a wider perspective beyond traditional schooling and a rare reprieve from technology. Some students come from privileged backgrounds and weren’t asked to do many chores at home. Director Alex Myers has seen teens try to sweep without touching the broom to the floor; he has to intervene to correct them. One goal: Students learn to appreciate the people doing these tasks in every community. Another key aim is “learning to be an adult. His daughter, Estela Whitney, was tasked with feeding food scraps to the piglets and refilling their water. Once, she was hours late and the pigs were hungry. She lives in Buenos Aires but wants to attend college in the U.S. On the Mountain School’s Instagram account, tucked between photos showing students hiking and tending to lambs, is a post highlighting recent attendees’ acceptances to Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth and UC Berkeley, among other colleges. The school is owned by Milton Academy, an elite Massachusetts boarding and day school. After college, many alums enter corporate jobs. The Mountain School pioneered the high-school semester program in the 1980s. At Island School in the Bahamas, students scuba dive to study marine biology and sustainability. Young people go white-water rafting at the Alzar School, which splits time between Idaho and Chilean Patagonia. In a recent morning meeting, students heard announcements about the departure of a bull named Grover Cleveland (who was lent to the farm), a warning to avoid a raccoon named Timothy—and PSAT registration. Few students arrive with farm experience. This semester, she instructed a group of students picking green beans to be gentle and to do plank exercises to avoid back pain. Another group, led by Myers, harvested corn and threw it to teammates holding bins. Myers then instructed them on climbing apple trees safely, and sent them out to pick apples for cider. “I’m literally hugging a tree. Adam Nguyen, founder of college-admissions consulting firm Ivy Link, only advises students to apply to the Mountain School if it matches their interests and can lead to further results, such as a more mature essay or clearer academic direction. That “will backfire, for sure. She wanted him immersed in that kind of environment for a full semester, despite the big financial commitment for their family. The technology cutoff is most apparent during the four-day, three-night solo trip in the wilderness. By the semester’s end, some students say they don’t want their phones back. Sarah Rosenberg-Scott, mom of Scott, likes the idea of her daughter cleaning toilets and doing chores, and hopes it’ll continue when she returns home. Write to Roshan Fernandez at [email protected]
Across the 418-acre campus, everybody pitches in, including faculty. Myers said around 30% of Mountain School students receive financial aid. Liana Horster, the farm manager and instructor of a course called food systems, has watched students drop 50 seeds into a hole that only needed one.
“It’s fun,” student Max Sherman said of washing dishes. A sign outside the bathroom noted he recently cleaned the compost toilet for a week, and it encouraged peers to thank him if the facilities were nice or “get at them” if they were gross. “I don’t think of it as chores,” said Thomas Whitney, father of a current student and a Mountain School alum himself. “I’m going to be a lot more careful to not make that mistake again,” she said. “I have good enough grades to get into a good college, but I want something that’ll make me stand out,” she said. The program has a “badass track-record,” said Leland Whitehouse, director of admissions and a Mountain School alum. “We are well-represented at Goldman Sachs,” Myers said. The program signals to college-admissions officers that students are willing to take a risk in service of learning, he said. Kids had trouble identifying the roots of a plant, she said. “Ewwww, there are bugs,” said student Cassie Scott, when she spotted earwigs in the husks. “This is the closest I’ve been to nature in a while,” said Scott. Students typically do farm tasks for eight hours a week, plus one “Farm Day” a semester, where they spend all day harvesting (in fall) or planting (in spring). “That’s a side bonus,” said Theo Carman, a student. “Admissions officers don’t reward expensive randomness,” Nguyen said. Melanie Banders, mother of Sherman, said her son is happiest at summer camp without technology. Students’ biggest fear on “solo” used to be encountering bears, but now it’s being alone with their thoughts, said Bruce Brough, a longtime faculty member. Students must confront: “Who am I when I don’t have a screen?” said Myers. They share reflections—such as an “ode to the boiler” that keeps the buildings warm—and discuss “re-entry” into their previous lives. “I hope that she does have more insight into all of the unseen work that goes into our lives,” the mother said.
Others followed suit, and today charge comparable prices.
For years, alums have written about these experiences in college essays. The Mountain School offers a break from usual plugged-in life. Students surrender their phones at the start of the semester, where they remain in phone jail for the duration. Laptop usage is limited largely to classwork, and the Wi-Fi is switched off every night in the main buildings (there is no internet in dorms).
Kavya Krishnamurthy, from the spring 2021 semester, responded to a University of Chicago prompt about her archnemesis by describing a Mountain School chicken at war with her to protect its eggs.
She hopes attending the Mountain School, which draws high-achieving students from around the country, will help distinguish her college applications.
The curriculum includes rigorous academic options, like AP Calculus, in addition to practical and outdoorsy courses, such as “creative handiwork” and environmental science.
