Upper School
Vail Mountain School is Proud to be Named to the 2024 AP School Honor Roll, Platinum Status
Upper School Philosophy
Our Upper School program ensures that students will not only be admitted to colleges that best suit them, but also that they have the skills and confidence to thrive once they get there. The path to this destination varies for everyone; therefore, we offer myriad opportunities to delve deeply into subjects supported by a broad-based foundation in the liberal arts. Surrounded by a caring community of faculty and peers, students feel safe—socially, emotionally, and physically—and consequently, take the measured risks necessary to support high academic achievement, develop passion, and build character.
The Upper School curriculum is designed to be an engaging experience that intentionally integrates many of the same demands and opportunities that students will find in college. Upper School students take core academic and athletic requirements, but also have several opportunities to direct their own education through courses of their choosing, including Advanced Placement (AP) courses and focused learning during Intraterm and Senior Projects. After freshman year in college, many of our alumni report that the classes and skills taught, as well as the workload at VMS, prepared them well, allowing them to excel academically and inspiring them to take advantage of the co-curricular opportunities that abound in college.
The heart of our Upper School is an inspired faculty representing an extraordinary breadth of experience and interests that they share willingly with students. Teachers create an environment in which students are excited to show up early, happy to stay late, and eager to participate in class. Rapport drives classroom discussions in which teachers and students push each other to take learning further. The common thread among our entire faculty is a profound commitment to each child and relentless optimism in their potential.
The result: a quiet confidence that serves our graduates well in college and beyond. This confidence allows them to assert themselves in their first college level essays, to raise their hand in a class of hundreds, to live on their own for the first time, to meet with and question their professors, and to lead among their peers—traits that will also serve them well in life.
My student has been supported and embraced by the teachers, students, and administrative staff. Upper School Parent
Maggie Pavlik
Director of Upper School
The stage is set and the canvas is ready for student creativity and innovation!
Athletes will grow emotionally, intellectually, and physically.
Our building, programs, and traditions are all designed to develop organic relationships between students of all ages.
We work with students, parents and coaches to ensure that athletes and artists can perform without compromising academics.
A daily meeting between students and an advising teacher.
An intensive exploration of subjects beyond the regular curriculum.
Where our youngest students venture a few miles from campus and return in time for carpool, Upper School students travel thousands of miles from home on multi-day excursions designed to complement curriculum and expose them to cultures other than their own.
Senior Project during the second semester of senior year, is a special milestone in one’s academic experience. It is an extended period of time where students direct their own learning. Serving as a true capstone experience, students take learning into their own hands, both inside and outside the walls of Vail Mountain School. They explore topics, research questions, understand processes, and often experience the non-linear nature of product development over time. Students collaborate with experts in the field and local community members to gain perspective and clarity and experience real world challenges.
By Upper School, students are equally at ease expressing themselves with digital tools as they are with language and writing. Our task is to engage them as collaborators and help them develop nuanced, sophisticated creations that express their vision.