Student Profile
Max
- Class: Sophomore
- Major: Government
- Gender: M
- High School: Clarkstown High School South
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
Best things about UVM - the weather (if you like snow), the scenery (it's on top of a huge mountain looking over Lake Champlain and New York State - truly breathtaking), the kids (most people you meet are chill), downtown (fun nightlife, shopping, food, big grassy quads) Burlington - If you're like me and you come from the New York metro area (which is like plenty of kids at UVM), you'll laugh to find out that B-Town is the biggest city in Vermont. But that's not saying much - you can drive from one side of Burlington to the other in fifteen minutes. With that said, it's an awesome place to go to college. Filled with hippies from the 60's, environmental Vermonters, old people, young people, sketchy townies, Burlington is the perfect size for a college town. There's so much to do here - North Beach gets packed with UVMers when the weather gets nice. Lake Champ is a little too cold for swimming, but everybody comes down with beers, burgers, footballs, etc - it's a super chill time. And of course, Burlington is within driving distance of the best mountains in the Northeast - hiking in the winter, Stowe, Jay Peak, Bolton, Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Smuggs in the winter. Size - It's totally cliche, but absolutely applicable to UVM - with 10,000 students, UVM is big enough to always be meeting new people, but small enough to always bump into people you know. It's easy to walk anywhere on campus (from one end to the other takes about 15 minutes) but there's busses, in case your lazy or late to class or don't want to deal with the coldness (it gets REALLY cold in the winter) Worst things about UVM - The school administration is really looking to improve UVM's image, expand the school, and make it more recognizable throughout the USA - as a result, the police and RA's are pretty hardcore. Downtown house parties that get wild will get busted pretty quickly. Cops take random patrols through the dorms, and they just got a drug-sniffing dog (but nobody has ever seen them us it). Cops and RA's arent allowed to key into your room, but they'll do everything they can to trick you into letting them in. If they hear cans clanking or pong balls bouncing or just lots of voices, they wont hesitate to knock.
Academic Life
Professors - lots of great professors, a few crappy ones. But they're all very interested in your well-being, and are always cool with meeting outside of office hours and making special arrangements.
Student Body
UVM students are generally INCREDIBLY incredibly accepting of diversity. Burlington has a pretty active LGBTQA community, and that is defiantly reflected in the school. UVM is very white. I was not only surprised by how few black people there are here, but indians and asians and hispanics as well. The students here are by no means raciest - they're very accepting of all races, but it is definitely a little weird how many white people there are here. Most UVMers are from the northeast - particularly Vermont plus the New York and Boston metro areas. There's a smattering of students from the Potomac area, and from the midwest. But don't expect many people from the south, southwest, or California (although they do exist). Kids at UVM don't talk about their socioeconomic situation. most students seem to be relatively affluent (everybody has nice, new snowboards/skis and equipment), but there are no super-rich ***s who let everybody know that their parents have money and status, like you'd expect at an ivy-league school.
The Best Things
Atmosphere among students
The Worst Things
Hardcore cops and RA's
