Welcome to the University of Vermont. I hope you'll enjoy exploring the University
through the many windows that this Web site opens on our programs. As you
move around the Web site, you’ll find all the resources of a major research
university combined with the human scale, flexibility, and responsiveness
of a liberal arts college.
Vermont is distinguished by innovative research and scholarship across all the major fields of study, led by programs of great distinction in the life sciences and in environmental sciences and studies. Vermont offers 92 master's and doctoral degrees as well as the degree of Doctor of Medicine. There are more than 90 undergraduate majors. In the tradition of one of the towering figures in American intellectual history, John Dewey (University of Vermont class of 1879), undergraduates here profit from the opportunities for learning by doing that only a research university can offer, with chances to turn classroom abstractions into concrete experiences at the lab benches of world-class scientists as well as in service-learning programs and internships.
The University of Vermont provides an outstanding environment for undergraduates in every dimension of student life and learning. Our students enjoy small classes -- more than half of them with fewer than twenty students, allowing very high-quality interaction among students and between students and faculty. Vermont undergraduates participate in a wide array of extra-curricular activities and clubs, from scuba diving, sailing, mountaineering, and skiing, through student media (newspaper, radio, and television), recreational and club sports, and numerous musical groups, to anthropology, economics, and psychology clubs, and an award-winning debate society. A Vermont education is rich in opportunities for intellectual and personal development strongly grounded in the University’s profound commitment to the liberal arts.
Founded by heroes of the American Revolution, the University of Vermont is the fifth oldest university in New England (after Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown); Vermont is often known by the initials “UVM,” derived from its Latin name, Universitas viridis montis, the University of the Green Mountains. The University has a living commitment to the ethical foundations of democracy and to values long associated with the State of Vermont: fairness, social justice, environmental stewardship, openness, independence, lack of pretense, and the achievement of practical results.
The power of these values is expressed in the way the University’s graduates live their lives and contribute to society. Of the many UVM alumni who have put their mark on the world, no recent ones arouse deeper pride on campus than Jody Williams, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for the international campaign to ban landmines, and John McGill, who was president of the United States section of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) when that organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
Once you’ve seen what we have to offer through the UVM Web site, drop in on us in Burlington. You’ll marvel at the natural beauty around you. From campus, you’ll have views to the east of the Green Mountains and, to the west, across the sparkling waters of Lake Champlain, the high peaks of the Adirondacks. You’ll enjoy Burlington -- "the smallest big city in America“, ranked number one by A&E Television on a list of the top ten cities to “have it all.” Most of all you’ll enjoy the people of the University of Vermont, our helpful staff, our engaged and engaging faculty, and especially our diverse, friendly, accomplished, yet unpretentious students. Come see for yourself: we hope to see you here soon.
— Daniel Mark Fogel
