<p>well.... I'm really high strung, love the city and am not very laid back, so "groovy UV" doesn't really fit the bill for me. Most of my friends there love it. Burlington has a great music scene and people say that it's a great college town, which I'm sure it is, I just don't feel at home in any place that isn't... Boston, New York City, or the Georgetown and Capitol Hill areas of DC. UVM has beautiful surroundings (Lake Champlaign and the Adirondaks on one side, rolling Vermont hills and more mountains on the other), and the main part of campus of gorgeous. Cost of living isn't high, at least compared to everywhere I'm thinking of going. One problem I'm having with it is that the political/social awareness climate is pretty apathetic, but that only matters to me because I know that I want to spend my life as a campaign manager. Political/social awareness student groups bat about twenty members, tops, whereas the Ski and Snowboard Club and the Outing Club have literally hundreds. I loved all my classes this semester with the glaring exception of a Critical Approaches to Lit class that I took solely because it was the only upper level English class still open, which I found out once I was in it, was for good reason. My professor was a raging feminist who thinks the origins of literally everything, down to the Iraq war, are embedded in a patriarchy. You will find A LOT of those kinds of thinkers at UVM. College Socialists are the largest political group on campus, and everyone else kind of hates them because they are really pushy, shove fliers in your face and enforce the fact that they believe "the government has a cure for cancer hidden in the South American jungle" upon you, and patronize you as uninformed and politically nieve if they disagree with you. I'm president of College Democrats (yes, as a freshman, which should say something to you about the state of that institution) and our booth got placed next to theirs at the Activities Fair, and their president and I started talking about politics, and how I became involved by pouring my, life, health, happiness, soul, etc into Kerry/Edwards. I thought he was just intersted in listening to a different perspective, until he leaned in really closely to me, grinned an extremely creepy grin, and said, "I organized Ralph Nader's campaign in Vermont," chuckled, and added condescendingly, "Kerry and Bush are the same." It's that kind of creepy, delusional, out-of-touch and uninformed conviction that frustrates me enormously, and I've run into a great deal on UVMs campus. There is also almost zero diversity. In some of my lecture classes, I'd say abotu half the people are text messaging or asleep.<br>
It's sort of hard for me to assess how you would like it because it's just so clearly the wrong place for me. My roommate is a nutrition major, and says that all the science programs are great, and the hospital is right across from my dorm, and is def. the nicest facility on campus. The class levels I took were freshman-junior, and the junior level class was by far the best, I met most of the people I hang out with in that class, the discussion was on a more challenging level, and the Professor was one of the most passionate, caring, knowledgable professors I've ever had. It was a history of US foreign relations seminar, and convinced me to add a history minor to my political science major.
OK, I realize this has really just been abotu my experience, btu I hope it can help you some in your assessment of what schools to apply to. Hmmm... quick things... decent food, if you like skiing or snowboarding, DEFINETLY come here, Burlington has good resteraunts,you can make it to Boston in 2 hours and 40 minutes. you should def. come visit the school before you decide to come- I did not and... I'm posting on a transfer board.</p>