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Key Takeaways Vermont’s Mountain School charges students about $40,000 for a semester of academics, farm work and communal living.
Students clean, cook, tend animals, harvest crops and maintain shared spaces across the school’s 418-acre campus.
Some students view the school as a differentiator in the increasingly competitive college admissions process, alongside rigorous classes such as AP Calculus.
At Vermont’s Mountain School, students pay $40,000 to trade conventional classrooms for farm work and communal chores for a semester. According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, students are eager to explore a life with less technology — and get into a top college.
High school students wash dishes, clean classrooms, prepare vegetables and maintain irrigation systems across the school’s 418-acre campus. They also harvest corn, herd sheep, care for cows and chop wood. Around 30% of Mountain School students receive financial aid.
Student Max Sherman told the Journal that he enjoys dish duty. A notice outside the bathroom credited him with a week of cleaning the composting toilet, asking classmates to thank him if it was clean, or tell him if it was not.
For some families, the program offers a break from screens and a broader education. Others see it as a possible edge in the increasingly competitive college admissions process.
Many participants come from affluent households where chores were not routine. Alex Myers, the school’s director, said some students arrive without basic cleaning skills. He has watched teens attempt to sweep without letting the broom touch the floor, and has had to help them.
Myers told the Journal that the Mountain School program tells college admissions officers that students are willing to take a risk to learn more about themselves.
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