College of Arts and Sciences

CAS E-newsletter, Fall 2019

Welcome from the Dean

There was a time when a high school diploma was all anyone needed to establish a fulfilling career. That was a pretty long time ago. Today we live in a world where the bachelor’s degree is the “coin of the realm” in terms of achieving maximum opportunity and fulfillment in the work place.

Increasingly, “A master’s or professional degree is required for people who want more specialized-career-focused training, or who want to position themselves for future leadership positions.

Graduate school usually involves a two-year commitment, and that may be a bridge too far for some college graduates and their families. One way the College of Arts and Sciences is working hard to bridge that gap is by offering accelerated master’s degree programs (AMP’s) which provide students with the option of earning a bachelors and a master’s degree in a total of five years.

CAS AMPs include biology, chemistry, English, Greek & Latin, historic preservation, history, physics and psychology. These programs provide for early admission with up to six concurrent credits counted toward the bachelor's and master's degrees (effectively a six-credit scholarship for the graduate program). Most programs also allow students to take an additional three credits of graduate coursework while still an undergrad. Other benefits include earlier entry into the working world, less student debt, and avoiding the cost of graduate admission tests and application fees.

Working closely with their advisors, undergraduates like Kiara Day ’18 are successfully transitioning into an AMP program.

Kiara is looking forward to working in academia or in the museum world. “The AMP gave me a big leap forward in my education,” she said. “I am happy with my decision to continue at UVM with the AMP because it has allowed me to keep down the cost of a graduate education and it offers an excellent opportunity to continue my connections with our outstanding history faculty.”

If you know a student who is considering attending UVM, or first or second year student thinking ahead to earning a master’s degree, let them know about our AMP programs. For more information, visit https://www.uvm.edu/graduate/accelerated-masters-degree-programs

Bill Falls signature

Bill Falls
Dean of Arts and Sciences

Top News

Jacques Bailly Honored

In 1980, 14-year-old Jacques Bailly received an impressive trophy for winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Last month Bailly, associate professor of classics at UVM, collected a second trophy in recognition of his service as chief “pronouncer” of the national spelling bee.

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UVM Poet Wins National Award

Four years removed from UVM, Alexandria Hall '15 has been named a winner of the prestigious 2019 National Poetry Series Open Competition for her collection titled "Field Music."

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NSF Grant Funds State-of-the-Art Microscope

UVM's new Tip-Enhanced nano-Raman Spectroscopy unit (TERS) is a microscope so refined it can measure things 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

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News and Events:

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An Evening with Preet Bharara

Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, delivers the George D. Aiken Lecture Thursday, November 14 at 5 p.m. in UVM's Ira Allen Chapel. The presentation features anecdotes from Bharara’s time as a federal prosecutor, his thoughts on the justice system and constitutional governance today, and more. Bharara now has a vast online and social media presence where people look tohim for his critical analysis and keen insights on pressing issues like the Mueller investigation and other important topics of the day. Fresh off the release of his first book, Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law, Bharara comes to UVM for a candid conversation on his career and America’s justice system.

Bharara is a Harvard and Columbia Law School graduate who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. In 2016 he was named, “the man who terrifies Wall Street,” by The New Yorker for his tough stance on financial crimes. Bharara oversaw the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases and supervised an office of more than 200 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who handled cases involving terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, financial and healthcare fraud, cybercrime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime, and civil rights violations. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The University of Vermont’s George D. Aiken Lectures are a permanent tribute to the former Dean of the United States Senate and Governor of Vermont for his many years of service to the people of the state and nation.