<p>I got accepted into both early action, however I am having a lot of trouble deciding which to go to. I'm going to be majoring in Environmental Studies. I got accepted into the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources in UVM, however the small classes in NCF will be very beneficial. I want there to be a prominent LGBT community at my school and prominent social life. I snowboard, which is one of the main reasons why I applied to Vermont, but I don't know if the academics at UVM are worth it. I'm evenly split between the two, and I want to know your opinions on the schools.</p>
<p>“Prominent social life” is not one of NCF’s strengths. You can be social there, of course. What kind of social scene are you looking for, besides the LGBT concern?</p>
<p>Burlington, Vermont, is a very LGBT-friendly town and UVM is known for its environmental science programs. (I am from this area so may be biased, but my son, and environmental sciences major, would go to UVM over all his other accepts if he wasn’t from Vermont, since it’s too close.)</p>
<p>If you can visit each when students are around it might be an easy choice for you.
New College has quirky, intellectual students who may have felt like misfits in HS.
UVT has quite a few out-of-state students on the monied side who were not strong candidates at the academic elites.
My guess is that being gay wouldn’t be a problem at either one.</p>
<p>The social scene I’m looking for is extremely liberal, accepting, and intellectual. Basically and hippy scene without the desire to get wasted 24/7. However in moderation, why not ;)</p>
<p>Your tiebreaker may have to be the weather. Vermont is not for everyone in the late fall through late winter. While it is next to a great town (Burlington) and ski areas, if you can’t make it through the cloudy winter, it may not be the right location to go to college for 4 years. You have to love wearing sweaters and jeans a good part of the year (or whatever the modern equivalent of that is for hippy types). There are certainly hippy types at UVM and in Vermont. UVM is a large school, so you will find everyone from intellectuals to partiers with not much intellect, so it is up to you to seek out the right types for you.</p>
<p>Weather doesn’t really concern me, I can adjust anywhere. How about the environmental programs in each school? Which is better, which offers more (internships, field study, contact with professors)? And job placement is pretty important to me too. Which school will have better connections. If my GPA is going to be fairly high I think I want to go to law school for environmental law. Which school would prepare me for that more?</p>
<p>New College of Florida is ranked #91 nationally and UVM is #82, both in the top 100. New College of Florida is much cheaper, and is small (801 total students).
UVM is much more expensive, and is larger (>5000), but is known for being strong in environmental sciences. </p>
<p>If your family is not rich and you are from Florida and plan to go to grad school, I would go to the cheaper option which is New College of Florida. If you are from Vermont, I would choose UVM. If you are rich and money is not an issue, I would choose UVM, as it has a strong reputation for environmental science and environmental studies.</p>
<p>New College produces narrative evaluations, not GPAs. They claim to have pretty good law school placement in spite of that. You need to be sure that you want an environment as alternative as NCF’s. Have you been able to visit?</p>
<p>I understand that the LSATs carry much weight in law admissions, and New College students are smart and test well. But New College is certainly the kind of place where folks march to the beat of their own drums, and that may not lead to four year graduations.
It was pretty druggy back in the day, and remarkably, such qualities in a school can persist for decades. I guess booze will never go out of favor at Ole Miss.
I had a friend drop out of New College who never found his bearings there. But he had flunked out of UF also.
It’s a different kind of place- really an island in the state of Florida.</p>