The Academic Program
Academic Program
Understand the systems that shape our world. Engage in critical thinking. Do the labor that creates food and fuel. Discuss with your peers and sharpen your intellect. That’s what you’ll get in a semester at the Mountain School, and it’ll prepare you to find true, meaningful solutions in the real world. You’ll be a problem solver, ready for the future.
The Mountain School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and we’ve worked with over 300 sending schools in 40 years.
Core Curriculum
Our curricular freedom as an independent semester school is an opportunity to offer a unique and dynamic program that responds to current issues and is rooted in this physical place.
The Core Curriculum consists of essential programming in which students are required to participate: the Academic Program, the Outdoor Program, and the Shared Work Program.
What are academics like at the Mountain School?
The work is challenging - and meaningful.
What does it mean to know a place? What does it mean to take care of it? What does it mean to reach beyond the self and serve the common good?
Students work towards answering these questions through different lenses in all of their classes at the Mountain School.
Required Courses
All students take Honors English, Honors Environmental Studies, and TMS Seminar. These required courses are designed with our mission, program goals, and learning principles in mind.
Coursework is complemented by Shared Work on the farm, in the forest, and in the kitchen as well as opportunities to complete field studies through Science Hike and field trips.
Electives
In addition to the three required courses, students enroll in up to three elective academic courses. TMS offers electives in humanities, history and social sciences, math, science, modern languages, and the arts.
See our Courses for more information.
How do the academic credits match up with my school?
All Mountain School classes will count for credit (mostly Honors and AP credit) at your school. Math, science, history, and language courses here are designed to keep you up to date (or even ahead) of your classes at home. You will need to plan ahead to make sure you have the right course sequence and we are happy to help with this.
How hard are classes at the Mountain School?
Courses are designed to be interesting and relevant to your life. There is a considerable amount of reading and writing. The teachers strive to make the workload manageable and to help the students succeed. The best way to know how the workload will compare to your current school is to ask any other students who attended.
Courses
Almost all of our classes are Honors or AP level, and Mountain School students often take AP exams in the following subjects: English Language or English Literature, US History, Spanish, French and Calculus AB or BC. Some students choose to do extra prep and take the AP Environmental Science exam, as well.
Read course descriptions for our required courses below.
Required Courses
Honors English
Honors English explores questions that arise in the course of our shared time at the Mountain School: How do our individual experiences of the world create both the limits and the possibilities of cultivating a sense of community and belonging with one another? How do our relationships to identity, place, and nature change over time and in different environments? How does the language with which we express ourselves shape and become shaped by history, culture, and personal experience? What role do our imaginative limits play in creating the change we desire, and how are these limits sustained or surpassed?
By paying attention to the power of language and the structures of stories, students learn how to read critically and listen to others carefully, while developing their own writing and speaking voices. Through close reading, class discussion, and frequent writing and speaking assignments, students learn how to observe the world and themselves and articulate their visions.
Honors Environmental Studies
What is the relationship between humans and the Earth? Are we part of nature, or apart from it? How do the stories we tell about the human-Earth relationship reflect and influence our worldviews? In Honors Environmental Studies, students will respond to these questions by critically examining the stories we receive and create about the natural world while getting to know the environment here, in both the indoor and outdoor classroom. By studying some of the non-human or natural processes that created the landscape (including plate tectonics, geology, climate and weather, glaciers, and forest succession) as well as the human processes that shape both the Earth itself and our relationship to it (including the development of agriculture, privatization of land, colonialism, and contemporary food systems), students will gain a deeper understanding of both scientific and social approaches to environmental studies.
The semester will culminate with independent and collaborative research on a chosen section of the school’s forested campus where students will investigate land-use change and ecological patterns of personal interest, while demonstrating the frameworks they have gained for getting to know a place by understanding humans’ relationship with the land, as well as their own connections to the planet.
TMS Seminar (Food Systems; Race, Class, and Gender; Health and Wellness)
TMS Seminar connects the dots between farm and food justice; health and well-being; and race, class, and gender. These seminar-style classes meet four times a week and are graded and for credit. They introduce students to conceptual frameworks and terminology that will help students understand the labor practices and land uses of farming, the food economy, racial and cultural identity construction, and the physiological connections between sleep and anxiety, among many other topics.
Electives
Certain elective courses are not available every semester.
English / Humanities
- Honors Creative Writing
- Honors Environmental Humanities
Math
- Honors Algebra II
- Honors Precalculus
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Calculus BC
Modern Languages
- Honors French
- Honors Spanish
- AP French
- AP Spanish
- Honors Mandarin
History / Social Sciences
- AP US History
- Honors Economics and the Environment
Science
- Honors Chemistry
- Honors Physics
Arts
- Culinary Studies
- Art & The Environment
- Music
Schedule
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1
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Minutes | Time | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
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2
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20 | 8:00 - 8:20 | Breakfast | Breakfast | (All Fac Mtg 8 - 845) | Breakfast | Breakfast | ||
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3
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20 | 8:20 - 8:40 | Morning Meeting | Morning Meeting | Morning Meeting | Morning Meeting | |||
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4
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70 | 8:45 - 9:55 | A Aster dish crew |
E Elderflower dish crew |
Breakfast (845am) | F Fireweed dish crew |
D Dandelion dish crew |
Breakfast (845am) | |
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5
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School meeting (905 - 955) |
Morning meeting (905am) | |||||||
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6
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Activity Block (930 - 12) |
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7
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70 | 10:00 - 11:10 | B | F | C Clover dish crew |
A | E | ||
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8
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9
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10
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45 | 11:15 - 12:00 | Core Seminar | Core Seminar | Staffed Study Hall | Core Seminar | Core Seminar | Brunch (1130am) | |
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11
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12
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60 | 12:00 - 1:00 | Lunch / Free Time (Dorm Fac Mtg 1230 - 1) (Activity Ldr Mtg 1230 - 1) |
Lunch / Free Time | Lunch / Free Time | Lunch / Free Time | Lunch / Free Time (Fac Dept Mtgs 1230 - 1) |
Lunch / Free Time | Bergamot dish crew |
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13
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14
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15
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120 | 1:00 - 3:00 | Activity Block | Activity Block | Commons Work / Dish Crew (1 - 2) |
Activity Block | Activity Block | Commons Work / Dish Crew (1 - 2) |
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16
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17
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Advisory (2 - 3) |
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18
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19
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15 | 3:00 - 3:15 | Snack / Break | Snack / Break | Snack / Break | Snack / Break | Snack / Break | ||
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20
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70 | 3:15 - 4:25 | C | A | D | B | F | ||
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21
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22
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23
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70 | 4:30 - 5:40 | D | B | E | C | Free Time (except Culinary Arts) |
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25
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26
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15 | 5:45 - 6:00 | Dandelion dish crew | Bergamot dish crew | Elderflower dish crew | Clover dish crew | Aster dish crew | Fireweed dish crew | |
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27
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45 | 6:00 - 6:45 | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner |
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28
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29
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60 | 6:45 - 7:45 | Affinity Group / Club Mtgs |
Affinity Group / Club Mtgs |
Affinity Group / Club Mtgs |
Affinity Group / Club Mtgs |
Pause | ||
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30
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Saturday Night Activity (730 - 930) |
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31
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75 | 7:45 - 9:00 | Study Hours | Study Hours | Study Hours | Study Hours | |||
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32
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33
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34
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30 | 9:00 - 9:30 | Check-In | Check-In | Check-In | Check-In | Check-In | ||
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35
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10 | 9:30 | Check-In (10 min) | ||||||
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36
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10 | 10:00 | Check-In (10 min) | ||||||
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37
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38
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Dish Crews | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
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39
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Breakfast | Aster | Elderflower | Clover | Fireweed | Dandelion | (rotating) | ||
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40
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lunch | (activity) | (activity) | (commons) | (activity) | (activity) | (commons) | Bergamot | |
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41
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Dinner | Dandelion | Bergamot | Elderflower | Clover | (faculty) | Aster | Fireweed |
Each student registers for up to six courses (usually five), and will have four academic blocks per day as well as TMS Seminar or Study Hall. Additionally, students will have about two hours each afternoon where they will rotate through Shared Work, the Outdoor Program, Advisory, or other programmatic activities.
Weekdays begin with breakfast and a morning meeting where we come together as a whole school community. Most of the morning will be given over to academic work before an hour break for lunch. Shared Work or activities follow lunch, and classes wrap up just before six. After dinner, and dish crew, students have free time for affinity group meetings, clubs, and quiet study hours before check-in at 9:00pm. The day ends, and the internet shuts off, at 10:00pm.
Weekends begin with a later breakfast on Saturdays and with brunch on Sundays. Saturday morning includes additional time for Shared Work or activities before lunch, and a community deep-clean of campus in the early afternoon. Saturday afternoons are free for students to use in numerous ways, and may include planned field trips, hikes, or other off-campus activities. Students work with faculty to plan community events each Saturday night before check-in at 9:30pm. Sundays are free days and regularly include field trips and off-campus excursions before dinner at 6:00pm.
College Counseling
Farm. Food. Forest. FUTURE.
The College Counseling process at TMS is grounded in our Mission and core values and emphasizes curiosity, critical thinking, and self-reflection.
Students come to the Mountain School from all backgrounds and lived experiences and our college counseling program is designed to meet students where they are. Maybe you already have a college counselor at your sending school? Stay in touch with them! Maybe you will be the first person in your family to attend college? Consider joining our FLI affinity group! Regardless of where you are in your post-high school planning process, TMS has a number of resources available to you.
Workshops & Meetings
Every semester, our Assistant Director and faculty host a range of workshops and presentations on the college application process, including: the fundamentals of college research, building a college list, standardized testing, financial aid, assembling a holistic application, choosing letters of recommendation, and crafting personal essays.
Tours & Connections
We offer students the opportunity to tour college campuses with us during the semester. Recent visits have included Dartmouth College, the University of Vermont, and Middlebury College. We can also connect students with TMS alumni at a range of colleges and universities, for the insider scoop on what the school is really like and advice on how to manage the process.
Reflection & Writing
The Mountain School’s English Journals and End of Semester Reflections are a wealth of inspiration for personal essays. We help students clarify their values, their identity, and their ideals so they’re more prepared to write about them. Questions of community engagement, identity and belonging, resilience, and the pursuit of passions outside the classroom are all common college questions - and you’ll have answers for all of them by the time your semester is done!
The Mountain School Difference
The Mountain School is recognized in college and university admissions circles as a place that cultivates learners who are engaged, curious, community-minded, and reflective.
Attending TMS can help your application stand out and demonstrate your commitment to community, academic rigor, and the pursuit of your passions. Many Mountain School alums ask TMS teachers to write a college recommendation for them.
Since 2019, our 300+ alumni have enrolled at over 100 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and the UK, ranging from R1 research institutions to the most selective liberal arts colleges and from Ivy League schools to members of the Russell Group of Universities.