The University of Vermont

If you're not living on campus, you better be ready to do a LOT of walking. Parking is pretty atrocious, and commuters are forced to walk up a mile to get to some of their classes. Part of that blame lies in the fact that Burlington is a fairly dense city, but recent University developments such as restrictions on previously open parking spaces make life harder for no apparent reason. There is a bus system which in and of itself I have no complaints about, but it is not always reliable to catch, and often times you'll realize making the trek on foot from the University heights to the main campus is much faster, especially when you live on a tight schedule like I do.

I can't help but feel disenfranchised within the school. Although I have access to all of the resources of the school, there is little direction in your school life. There is no reasonable expectation that you'll be able to continue towards a degree program as an active full-time non-matriculated student, and signing up for courses that require pre-requisites can be a huge hassle and be unnecessarily stressful. No class I've taken seems particularly crowded, but the obstacles are still there. The best way I can describe it is standing in the line at the DMV, except you're standing in line and signing pointless papers to sign up for courses instead of renewing your license.

Recent directions that UVM's administration has taken also concerns me, with a shift in attendance towards out of state students and a general refocusing on making UVM primarily a research university. I've lived in Vermont my entire life and these feel like new trends, and not particularly beneficial to Vermonters who want access to affordable and reliable education.I do not want to sound preachy, as the school has a lot of great qualities. The education you'll receive is second to none, the faculty are friendly and welcoming and Burlington is beautiful. But if you're planning on entering the school as a commuter and/or continuing education, prepare to put absolutely everything into your work because you don't have much flexibility if you want a chance of getting into UVM as a degree student, and a reasonable expectation of graduating on time.

My experience was miserable. My first year of college was spent at a university where from the outside, everything's perfect. Well manicured and marketed, UVM looks like paradise from the outside. But everything not shown on the shiny pamphlets they send home after you apply is downright ugly. Not only is the campus not shown to the public sparse and hardly well maintained, the freshman dorms (Chittenden/Buckham/Wills) are in horrible condition and look like you are living in some kind of urban housing project. I'm pretty sure none of the freshman dorms have been changed in anyway since like 1960-70.

My major, Medical Laboratory Science, was actually excellent. The staff there were incredibly helpful, friendly and passionate about helping students succeed. Freshman advisor Erica Caloiero will personally schedule time management sessions with individual students, and it is really helpful. The course load is incredibly difficult, or at least it was for me, but there seemed to be big rewards- internships at a nearby hospital, whathaveyou. But that's where my praise for UVM stops.

This school completely under-funds it's art program. They stopped letting incoming students declare art minors because the classes were filling so fast that art majors couldn't even take a SINGLE art class. The art teachers here are also completely apathetic, snotty and self serving. One of my drawing teachers would routinely show up 10 minutes late to class. The other, a sculpture teacher, would let certain students (her favorites) bend the rules as to what materials they could use to build their structures, while the rest of us had to take buses downtown to Recycle North to scrounge around for used materials.. all in the name of being GREEN. We were supposed to glue on USED NAILS, because we couldn't use new ones.. after all, that's a waste! Well, the joke was on her, because after trying to meet the 10 different criteria for our sculptures, a lot of people glued on dog hair, egg shells, hay and what have you. And at the end? They all threw their sculptures away. That, Miss Warren, is a WASTE.

As for the food here, it absolutely sucks. I loved being an independent college student, finding my own way at school, blah blah blah, but every single weekend I was calling home, begging them to send me real food. The dining hall near central campus smells like butt outside, and the food has a similar taste. all of the good places to eat (marketplace, ben & jerry's, new world tortilla) close ridiculously early and aren't even worth trekking through the snow in the dead of winter. stock up on canned soup. *honestly*, i left home a little overweight for my liking, lost 9 lbs, and came back in the spring severely anemic (so that's why I was getting so dizzy!) I am convinced that there is not a single non-mushy tomato, non-wilting piece of lettuce (or one that doesn't have dirt caked on to it) or non-mealy apple at this school. good luck with the red meat, too. Even the things you'd never expect the school to screw up really were terrible. Couscous salad? Sounds delicious! Tastes like chemicals. I tried fettucine primavera at the marketplace once.. i was taking a risk. I took one bite and threw it out. I hate, hate, hate wasting food, but when the salad has been sitting in a bag for 3 weeks, the pasta sauces have the consistency of elmer's glue and the pizza has so much grease that you should really be eating it over a bowl, what else are you to do?The people at UVM also kinda suck. I appreciate their individuality.. or should I say, collective individuality. Everyone here has the same hipster attitude, wearing their grungy flannels and their boat shoes. The only thing is, these aren't real hippies. These are the kids from Mass/CT who are mooching off their parents trust funds and smoking up on the weekends. They are self-entitled, egocentric, and snobby to the extreme. Burlington is freezing, and so is the student body.