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Vail resorts college program

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travis_halverson
Posts: 1012 - Karma: 359
Has anyone been through this program?  Is it just another way to get a liftie job? 
Aug 25 2009 11:56PM
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DrStrangelove
Posts: 1948 - Karma: 3
i think it was more of a pilot last year, now it's a full on program...looks pretty legit actually, i think you just do some office work and then they let you out to do some mountain ops like scan tickets and shit...plus it's a PAID internship, so that's sick

oh, and if you want a liftie job just go to a job fair and find Shawn...the recruiting tour starts like this week...or apply online. tell them Knox referred you. it's the easiest thing in the world, theyre hiring right now, i was in their office this morning shooting the shit with the supervisors.
Aug 26 2009 11:37AM
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travis_halverson
Posts: 1012 - Karma: 359
What I am looking for is a job that allows me to ski a bunch.  I guess I am looking for a little more info than the website gives.  Any drawbacks?
Aug 26 2009 11:23PM
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DrStrangelove
Posts: 1948 - Karma: 3
youll probably get 3 full days off every week if you do the college program, which is what most mountain ops employees get

general rules:

jobs working for the resort/mountain generally dont give you as much pure ski time, but they look better and give better references in the long run if youre trying to make a career of the ski life

night jobs give you more ski time than day jobs, but you'll be mortally exhausted if you take a night job from having to work all night after you ski, so you might end up taking more ski time off. if you work a day job for the mountain, you'll have loads of energy whenever you get free ski time, plus it wont cut into your party schedule cause you wont have to work at night

jobs working for vail pay less than working for, say, a bar...but vail gives you a free ski pass and discount housing and lots of other discount deals, so it tends to even out in the end

the following jobs suck:

ski instructor - you have to babysit idiots until youre a 5 year veteran and have a client lists...new people dont get consistent hours/pay, youll probably have to take a second job

ticket scanner - unless youre a supervisor, you have no choice but to stand around all day getting chewed out by asshole guests and listening to your co-workers talk, which doesnt sound so bad until you consider the other scanners are usually blazed high schoolers or retired part-time geriatrics

liftie - see above, then add having to load idiots and getting yelled at when they make mistakes that are far beyond your control. you also have to shovel 2 tons of snow a day (not an exaggeration) and youre often posted far from food and have to stand outdoors without any source of warmth during driving snow storms in -5 degree weather for 12 hours at a time.

and finally,

there are no girls, so bang tourists whenever possible

BUT, living in Vail is still super super sweet, and i cant wait for next season to start
Aug 27 2009 12:13AM
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R@ggaMuffin
Posts: 321 - Karma: 34
Im really thinking about doing this...  How many credits can you get / what is this houseing like.  Is it in Dillon?
Aug 27 2009 12:38PM
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DrStrangelove
Posts: 1948 - Karma: 3
the housing is at either timber ridge or river run condos in vail...i dont know about any of the other programs...nobody on here is gonna know anything about how many hours you can get, go look the internship up on skijob1.com and call Vail HR
Aug 27 2009 6:58PM
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waterfordsam
Posts: 172 - Karma: 11
Depends on where you go. I go to CSU and you can get up to twelve credits (full time) for financial aid reasons. Two people from Vail Resorts HR came into my Ski Management class today to talk about it.

Also, the formal internship is during the summer, the college program is not really an internship, its just a sweet ass job, but here at CSU, you can use it as your internship. This is what I will be doing, and I was told I will just have to put the extra work into it if I want serious connections, which I do.

And, like was said before I think, they guinea pigged it with a guy named Fritz (I was told), last season, and when I talked to the lady after class, they are working on a formal winter internship as well.

Probably way too much info, but I will be in contact with them for the next few weeks and can give you more info as i get it, if you want it.
Aug 27 2009 11:04PM
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shrEddie
Posts: 5117 - Karma: 65
i just applied for this for next season and was wondering if anyone had any more info about it
May 13 2010 5:19PM
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travis_halverson
Posts: 1012 - Karma: 359
I was in the program this year. I have a degree in materials science and engineering, so vail resorts really doesn't have anything in my particular field of study. I basically just used the program as another way to get my foot in the door and get a night job. The only dealings with the program I had throughout the season were the few training sessions that I attended. They were on leadership, company organization, etc. They were paid, so it was just nice to get a couple extra hours here and there.

In conclusion, the program wasn't exceptionally relevant to me and my field of study. But I know that other people had different jobs that may have helped them more(i.e. finance, management).
May 13 2010 7:43PM
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LoLo913
Posts: 600 - Karma: 29
basically you work a normal job at the resort and have to attend classes on top of it. I worked at mountain  concierge at keystone last winter. a bunch on my co-workers were in the program they got paid the same as me, they just hast to attend like 12 hours of classes. this program really isn't anything special. but good if you need to get college credit.
May 16 2010 10:04AM
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