A Parent’s Complete Guide to the University of Vermont (2026-2027)

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Jump to

• What is the one thing every University of Vermont parent needs to know before move-in?
• Quick Facts for University of Vermont Families
• A Note on Vermont Values and the Catamount
• How do parents get to University of Vermont? Travel guide from Burlington International Airport
• What do parents need to know about University of Vermont move-in day 2026?
• The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live
• How much does University of Vermont cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27
• Burlington: What Parents Need to Know
• When is University of Vermont Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?
• How can parents support their University of Vermont student’s mental health?
• Who do University of Vermont parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families
• UVM’s Academic Strengths
• What is University of Vermont’s graduation rate?
• Academic Calendar
• What to Pack for University of Vermont

What is the one thing every University of Vermont parent needs to know before move-in?

The University of Vermont sits on a hill above Burlington, Vermont, and the view from that hill tells you almost everything you need to know about what your student’s next four years are going to feel like. To the west, Lake Champlain stretches toward the Adirondacks of New York.

To the east, the Green Mountains rise with a clarity that makes the air itself feel like an amenity. Burlington, with a population of roughly 45,000, is the largest city in Vermont, which says something about Vermont and also something about Burlington: this is a city that punches well above its size class. The food scene, the arts community, the walkable downtown, and the sheer quality of daily life here are genuinely difficult to explain to families who have never visited. The honest description is that Burlington is one of the best places in the country to spend four years as a young person, and UVM students know it.

For parents coming from major metropolitan areas, the first logistical fact to absorb is that getting to Burlington requires some planning. Burlington International Airport (BTV) is a regional airport with limited direct connections to major hubs. For most families coming from the West Coast, the South, or the Midwest, the practical route is to fly into Boston Logan (BOS) and drive 3.5 hours north on I-93 and then I-89, or to fly into Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (YUL) and drive 1.5 hours south across the Canadian border. This is not a complaint about Burlington; it is information you need before your first visit. Once you are there, however, the combination of a walkable campus, a genuinely excellent small city, and some of the most beautiful landscape in the Northeast will explain immediately why your student chose this place.

Vermont winters are serious, and that seriousness is part of UVM’s character. Burlington receives significant snowfall from late November through March, and the combination of lake-effect clouds off Lake Champlain and cold temperatures from the Green Mountains creates weather that students from the mid-Atlantic or the South will find bracing in their first semester. The good news is that this weather comes with access to extraordinary skiing. Stowe Mountain Resort, one of the most celebrated ski destinations in the East, is 45 minutes from campus. Sugarbush Resort in the Mad River Valley is about an hour south. Students who arrive knowing how to ski tend to develop a social life organized around those mountains almost immediately. Students who arrive not knowing how to ski are frequently learning by February. The ski culture at UVM is genuine, not ornamental.

The cost structure at UVM is an important planning variable that affects every family differently. UVM is a public research university, which means in-state Vermont residents pay significantly less than out-of-state students. The out-of-state tuition puts UVM in a price range that competes directly with private universities in New England, which makes the scholarship and financial aid conversation particularly important for families who are not Vermont residents. The financial aid programs, merit scholarships, and loan options available to UVM students are worth understanding carefully, and we address them in detail in the costs section of this guide. What is worth knowing upfront is that many families from other states who choose UVM are making a deliberate quality-versus-cost calculation, and by most measures, UVM rewards that bet.

UVM’s academic identity is built around a genuine commitment to environmental science, agricultural research, and public health, all of which are integrated into the daily life of the campus in visible ways. The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources attracts students who want to do serious work on environmental questions. The Larner College of Medicine sits adjacent to the main campus, and the UVM Medical Center, one of the leading academic medical centers in northern New England, creates a pre-med pipeline that benefits from real clinical proximity. Burlington’s culture of local food, environmental stewardship, and community-scale economics is not separate from the university’s academic mission; it is an expression of it. Your student is going to live inside that culture for four years, and most UVM families find, somewhere around sophomore year, that it has changed how their student thinks about the world. That tends to be a good thing.

Quick Facts for University of Vermont Families

A Note on Vermont Values and the Catamount

The Catamount, the eastern mountain lion once thought extinct in Vermont, is one of the most fitting mascots in college athletics. The mountain lion disappeared from Vermont’s forests centuries ago as settlement changed the landscape, but the animal never entirely left the state’s imagination.

For Vermonters, the Catamount represents something untamed and native, something that belongs to this landscape in a way that cannot be replicated or imported. UVM’s adoption of the Catamount as its mascot is not merely a branding decision; it is an expression of the institution’s identity as something rooted in and responsible to this particular place. The motto, “Studiis et Rebus Honestis,” translates as “Studies and Honorable Pursuits,” and the combination of intellectual rigor and ethical responsibility embedded in those words maps closely onto the values that animate UVM’s culture.

Vermont as a state has a distinctive political and cultural character that shapes daily life at UVM. Burlington has been one of the most progressive small cities in America since at least the 1980s, when Bernie Sanders served as its mayor for eight years (a biographical fact that surprises many families: Sanders attended the University of Chicago, not UVM, but the political culture he came to represent is deeply aligned with UVM’s student body and community). Vermont was the first state to legalize same-sex civil unions, one of the first to legalize recreational cannabis, and one of the most consistent in prioritizing environmental protection and local food systems. Students arrive at UVM expecting a liberal arts university and find, embedded in the actual fabric of the city around them, a living argument for how a community can organize itself around values of stewardship, independence, and mutual aid. That is an unusual educational environment, and families should know what they are sending their student into.

The arts and performance traditions at UVM have genuine depth. The Royall Tyler Theatre, UVM’s mainstay performance venue, produces work across the full range of theatrical forms, and the arts and sciences programs in music, theater, and visual art are strong within a research university context. Burlington itself adds to this: the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on Main Street brings touring productions, dance companies, and musical performances to Burlington at a scale that surprises families expecting a small-town cultural scene. The Church Street Marketplace, the pedestrian commercial heart of downtown Burlington, regularly hosts outdoor performances and community events from spring through fall. The cultural life available to your student here, between the campus and the city, is consistently more interesting than it appears on a map.

Catamount athletics are a point of genuine community pride, and one sport in particular deserves special mention. UVM hockey is one of the most celebrated programs in Hockey East, and Gutterson Fieldhouse is one of the genuinely great college hockey venues in the country. The noise in Gutterson on a Saturday night when UVM is playing a Hockey East rival is a particular kind of New England college experience that parents who attend at least once tend to remember for years. The men’s basketball program made a string of NCAA Tournament appearances that generated national attention, and the athletic culture at UVM reflects the same combination of serious competition and community investment that characterizes the university at large.

How do parents get to University of Vermont? Travel guide from Burlington International Airport

Burlington International Airport (BTV), located just three miles from campus, is the most convenient arrival point for families when direct flights are available. BTV offers direct service to New York JFK, Boston Logan, Philadelphia, Washington Dulles, and Chicago O’Hare, but flight frequency on many of those routes is limited, particularly off-peak.

For families coming from major West Coast cities, the South, or international origins, BTV may not be the practical primary option. In those cases, the two main alternatives are Boston Logan (BOS), 3.5 hours south on I-93 and I-89, and Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (YUL), 1.5 hours north across the Canadian border. Boston has far more international connections and lower fares on competitive routes, and the drive north on I-89 through the New Hampshire lakes region and into Vermont is genuinely beautiful in any season. Montreal is an underused option for families who happen to be flying routes that connect well through that airport, or for students from Quebec and Ontario.

Driving to Burlington is straightforward from most Northeast origins. From Boston, budget 3.5 hours under normal conditions on I-93 north to I-89 north through Concord and then into Vermont at White River Junction, continuing north to Burlington. From New York City, the drive is approximately 4.5 hours via I-91 north through Springfield and Brattleboro into Vermont, then connecting west on I-89 to Burlington. From Montreal, the drive south on Route 15 and I-89 is 1.5 hours under normal border crossing conditions, though families should factor in potential border wait times, particularly on long weekends. Vermont is also reachable from western New York via the Lake Champlain ferry, which crosses between Port Kent, New York and Burlington in a 60-minute crossing that students find appealing for road trip variety.

Once your family arrives in Burlington, a car is not required to experience the campus and downtown. Burlington has a city bus system operated by Green Mountain Transit (GMT), and the UVM campus is built at a human scale that rewards walking. The Church Street Marketplace, the waterfront, and most of the neighborhood restaurants your student will come to love are accessible on foot from campus. That said, a car becomes very useful for the activities that define Vermont college life: ski weekends at Stowe or Sugarbush, hiking in the Green Mountains, apple picking in the Champlain Valley orchards in October, and the occasional supply run to the Costco in Colchester or the larger commercial strip along Williston Road east of downtown. Students who have access to a car, or who befriend someone with one, tend to explore Vermont more fully and feel more integrated into what this place genuinely has to offer.

What do parents need to know about University of Vermont move-in day 2026?

UVM’s fall move-in takes place in late August, typically the third or fourth week of the month, with exact dates and assigned arrival windows announced by Residence Life in advance. Late August in Burlington is among the most beautiful weather experiences available on any move-in day in the country.

Temperatures typically run between 70 and 80 degrees, the sky over Lake Champlain is clear more often than not, and the Green Mountains to the east are still fully green but beginning, if you look closely, to hint at the extraordinary display to come in October. Families who have moved students into schools in coastal humidity or urban heat are often caught off guard by how pleasant this day actually is. Come prepared for a genuinely good experience.

The move-in process at UVM is organized by staggered arrival windows, and the university runs this operation efficiently with extensive student volunteer support. Residence Life staff and orientation volunteers will be stationed throughout the residential areas to help with unloading, answer questions, and direct traffic. The university’s Catamount Orientation programming begins the day your student moves in and continues through the first week, with events designed to build connections across the halls and between students who are all adjusting to a new place at the same time. If your student is assigned to the University Heights complex, the community there is large enough to feel like its own small neighborhood from the first night. If they are on Redstone Campus, the shuttle connection to the main campus is reliable and the residential community there has a distinct, slightly more relaxed character.

One thing that distinguishes move-in at UVM is the view. The western side of campus, where several of the main residence halls are located, offers sightlines toward Lake Champlain and, on a clear day, the Adirondacks beyond it. You are going to want to stop what you are doing, set down the milk crate or the floor lamp, and just look at what your student gets to wake up to every morning. Take that moment. It is earned.

A few practical tips for a smooth move-in day:

• Confirm your exact arrival window in advance and arrive within it; early arrival causes bottlenecks for other families
• Label every box and bin with your student’s name, hall, and room number before you leave home
• Bring a small toolkit (screwdriver, zip ties, adhesive hooks) for basic room setup
• Pack a cooler with lunch and snacks for the family; finding parking and returning downtown takes time
• Wear comfortable shoes; multiple trips up stairs with full loads are standard
• Plan to spend the full day on campus and say goodbye in the early evening; your student needs that first overnight

The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live

UVM’s residential system is organized into distinct areas across campus, each with its own character and population. Understanding the geography before move-in helps families know what their student is actually experiencing when they describe where they live.

University Heights (UHeights) is the primary freshman residential complex at UVM, a cluster of halls on the south end of campus that includes Hamilton Hall, Converse Hall, Patterson Hall, and Marsh Hall, connected by covered walkways and shared common spaces. UHeights is where the majority of first-year students are placed, and the density of that shared experience is both its challenge and its gift. Freshmen in UHeights eat together at the Harris-Millis Dining Complex, one of UVM’s main dining facilities, and the combination of proximity, shared meals, and residence life programming creates the kind of floor-level friendships that tend to last. If your student is assigned to UHeights, tell them to keep their door open the first two weeks. It works.

Harris-Millis Complex sits adjacent to the main freshman dining hall and houses additional freshman halls, including Harris and Millis. The location is convenient to central campus and to the Davis Center, UVM’s student union, and students placed here are well-positioned to find the dining hall, the library, and their first classes without much navigation difficulty.

Central Campus includes Redstone Hall, Coolidge Hall, and Slade Hall, located in the heart of campus near the Davis Center and the academic buildings. Central campus housing tends to feel slightly more established than the freshman clusters, and students placed there are often upper-division students who have chosen to stay in university housing for its convenience.

Redstone Campus is a distinct residential area north of the main academic campus with its own character and a strong sense of community. Redstone Dining serves the area, and the Redstone Shuttle connects residents to the main campus reliably throughout the day and evening. Students on Redstone sometimes describe feeling slightly separate from the main campus social scene at first, but many end up deeply attached to the area’s quieter pace and the trees that give it its name.

Living-Learning Centers (LLCs) are embedded throughout UVM’s residential system and are worth exploring during the application process. UVM has extensive LLC programming across themes including environmental sustainability, social justice, wellness, and global engagement. These communities place students with shared interests on the same halls, with programming and sometimes coursework integrated into the residential experience. Students with strong environmental or social mission orientations in particular tend to find LLCs at UVM to be an excellent fit.

Simpson Hall sits on the medical side of campus, closer to the Larner College of Medicine and the UVM Medical Center, and is a traditional residential hall that attracts students interested in health sciences and pre-med programs. The proximity to the medical campus is practically meaningful for students who spend time in that part of the university.

After freshman year, the residential options expand. Burlington’s off-campus rental market is concentrated in the neighborhoods surrounding campus, particularly South Prospect, Colchester Avenue, and the Hill Section to the east of the main quad. Vermont rental prices, while not inexpensive, are moderate by comparison with similarly situated urban universities. Many UVM students choose to remain in university housing through junior year, which speaks to the quality of the residential experience and the difficulty of the Burlington rental market at the premium end.

How much does University of Vermont cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27

UVM’s financial aid programs are important for both in-state and out-of-state families, but the stakes are different depending on residency.

UVM’s financial aid programs are important for both in-state and out-of-state families, but the stakes are different depending on residency. Vermont residents benefit from dramatically lower base tuition, and for those families with demonstrated financial need, the Vermont Advance Program provides additional grant support designed to keep UVM accessible to families across the income spectrum. Out-of-state families are looking at a total cost that places UVM in direct competition with private colleges throughout New England, which means that the merit scholarship and financial aid packages UVM offers become central to the college choice decision. Families from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Rhode Island pursuing a major not offered at their home state’s public colleges may also qualify for the New England Regional Student Program (Tuition Break), which reduces UVM’s out-of-state tuition for approved majors upon application.

Merit scholarships at UVM include the UVM Presidential Scholarship, the university’s most competitive merit award, along with the Dean’s Scholarship and the Trustees Award, which recognize high-achieving students across a range of academic profiles. These awards are typically considered automatically through the admissions process, so families should not need to file a separate scholarship application. What families should do, for both need-based and merit considerations, is submit the FAFSA as early as possible, ideally on or around October 1 of the senior year of high school. UVM has priority financial aid deadlines that reward early submission, and late filers may find that grant money has already been allocated.

The broader context for UVM families weighing the out-of-state cost is that the return on investment is meaningful. UVM graduates go into New England healthcare, environmental organizations, agricultural and food systems industries, business, and government at high rates, and the connection between the university’s mission and the job market your student will enter is not abstract. The alumni network in northern New England healthcare, in particular, is active and organized in ways that benefit graduates who pursue medicine, nursing, public health, and biomedical research. For families who are doing the cost-benefit analysis carefully, the academic outcomes and network access justify a serious look at what the net cost actually is after aid, rather than the sticker price.

FAFSA guide for UVM families

Full college cost planning guide

Burlington: What Parents Need to Know

Burlington is consistently ranked among the best small cities in America for quality of life, and visiting parents quickly understand why.

The city is built at a human scale: walkable from the university to downtown in about 15 minutes, compact enough to learn quickly, and rich enough in food, culture, and natural amenity to reward repeated visits. The downtown anchored by the Church Street Marketplace is one of the best pedestrian commercial districts in New England. Church Street itself is a four-block outdoor pedestrian mall lined with restaurants, coffee shops, independent retailers, and the occasional street performer, and it functions as the living room of Burlington’s civic life. On a Friday evening in October, with the maple trees in full color and the mountains visible at the end of the street, it is hard to argue that any college town in the country is doing it better.

The Burlington waterfront along Lake Champlain is a ten-minute walk from the Church Street area and deserves its own visit on every family trip. The waterfront park includes a dedicated bike path, public docks, and views of the Adirondacks across the water that become genuinely spectacular at sunset. A ferry service crosses Lake Champlain from Burlington to Port Kent, New York, and the ride itself is a worthwhile 60-minute excursion for families with an afternoon to spare. The ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center on the waterfront offers hands-on science programming and is free with a UVM student ID, worth noting for families visiting with younger siblings. The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on Main Street brings high-caliber touring theater, dance, and music to Burlington throughout the academic year, and the programming is consistently worth checking for any family weekend.

Parent visits should include at least one meal at Hen of the Wood, Burlington’s most acclaimed restaurant, a New American kitchen in a beautifully converted space that represents the pinnacle of Vermont’s farm-to-table food culture. For a more casual evening, Farmhouse Tap and Grill on Bank Street delivers outstanding locally sourced burgers and one of the best Vermont craft beer selections in the city. Leunig’s Bistro on Church Street is a Burlington institution with a French bistro aesthetic and a warm room that works well for family dinners. For breakfast, Penny Cluse Cafe on Cherry Street is beloved by students and residents alike, with lines on weekend mornings that tell you something about the quality. The wait is worth it. And before you leave Burlington, regardless of the season, stop at the Ben and Jerry’s Scoop Shop on Cherry Street for a taste of what is arguably the most famous export from Vermont’s food culture. For the full experience, the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury is 45 minutes south on I-89, with free tours and a flavor graveyard that is worth exactly the amount of time it sounds like it is worth.

Grocery needs are well served in Burlington. City Market on South Winooski Avenue is Burlington’s wonderful natural foods cooperative, a working member-owned grocery that exemplifies the Vermont local-food ethos and carries an extraordinary selection of Vermont-made products. For more conventional grocery shopping at larger scale, Shaw’s serves Burlington’s east side. The UVM Medical Center campus adjacent to the university is one of the leading academic medical centers in northern New England, which is worth knowing not just for emergencies but because it shapes the professional and research environment your student is studying within. Burlington is also the service center for much of Vermont, which means that the concentration of professional, medical, cultural, and commercial life here is disproportionate to its population.

When is University of Vermont Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?

Planning the trip? Our UVM Weekend travel hub has hotels near campus, the sports and events schedule, closest airports, rental cars, and things to do around town.

UVM Family Weekend is held in October, typically in the middle of the month, and the timing is deliberate and magnificent. October in Burlington is among the most beautiful months in one of the most beautiful autumn landscapes in the world.

The Green Mountains to the east are in full color, the Lake Champlain basin is crisp and clear, and the maple trees that line the campus and the Church Street Marketplace are doing exactly what Vermont maples do in October. Families who arrive expecting a pleasant campus visit and leave having been genuinely moved by the landscape are not unusual. Book your hotel early; Burlington fills quickly during foliage season, and Family Weekend coincides with one of the peak foliage weekends across the state.

UVM hockey is the event most worth planning around during a Family Weekend or winter visit. Gutterson Fieldhouse is an older arena with a personality that cannot be manufactured: the crowd noise, the student sections, the Vermont cold, and the quality of Hockey East competition combine into an experience that parents who attend once tend to return for. UVM’s hockey program has produced NHL talent and competes at the top of one of college hockey’s most competitive conferences. If your family’s visit coincides with a home hockey game, prioritize it. The Catamount Athletic Center also hosts basketball and other sports, and the general culture of Catamount athletics is one of community investment and genuine pride in what the teams represent.

Campus traditions at UVM reflect the institution’s land-grant heritage and Vermont agricultural identity in unexpected ways. UVM’s agricultural college makes maple products on campus, and the connection between the university and Vermont’s farm and food culture is not ceremonial. The farm-to-table food philosophy that Burlington expresses in its restaurants is embedded in how the dining halls source their ingredients and how the agricultural programs approach their research. For January and February visits, Stowe Mountain Resort 45 minutes away is the obvious destination for families with ski interests, and many parents use a winter visit as an occasion to combine a campus check-in with a ski weekend. This is one of the few college settings in the country where that combination is genuinely practical and not aspirational.

Hotel strategy for Burlington visits rewards planning. The Hotel Vermont on Battery Street, one block from Church Street, is Burlington’s premier boutique hotel: beautifully designed, locally sourced restaurant, and the kind of Vermont-character property that families from outside New England remember. The Hilton Burlington on the waterfront offers excellent views of Lake Champlain and solid chain reliability. For more affordable options, the Courtyard and Hampton Inn in the Burlington area provide standard comfort at lower price points. Regardless of which property you book, make your reservation well in advance for any October weekend and confirm directly with the hotel about Family Weekend availability.

How can parents support their University of Vermont student’s mental health?

Burlington winters are real, and every UVM family should understand what that means emotionally. From late November through March, Burlington receives significant cloud cover from lake-effect weather systems off Lake Champlain, and extended periods of grey sky combined with cold temperatures and limited daylight affect some students meaningfully.

Seasonal mood shifts are genuinely common in northern Vermont, more so than at schools in more southerly or sunnier climates. This is not a reason to avoid UVM; it is information that helps parents have better conversations with their students about what they are experiencing. A student who knows in September that February is going to be hard is better positioned to build the coping strategies and social connections that carry them through it.

UVM’s Center for Health and Wellbeing provides counseling and psychological services (CAPS) to enrolled students, with individual therapy, group programming, and crisis support. The Let’s Talk program offers drop-in consultations with counseling staff that do not require a formal appointment, which is an important low-barrier option for students who are not sure whether what they are experiencing rises to the level of needing help. The honest answer is that it usually does, and the Vermont cultural value of self-reliance sometimes makes students reluctant to ask. Encourage your student to use available resources without stigma. Asking for support is not weakness; it is exactly what the resources are there for. The UVM Medical Center’s psychiatric services provide additional capacity for students needing clinical-level mental health care, and telehealth bridges such as TimelyCare offer supplemental access between counseling center appointments. The outdoors themselves function as a mental health resource for students who engage with them: trail access, ski culture, and the physical activity that Vermont’s landscape invites are powerful mood regulators across the winter months.

• Center for Health and Wellbeing / CAPS: contact via uvm.edu/health
• UVM Medical Center: contact via uvmhealth.org
• Crisis Line: call or text 988
• UVM Police (non-emergency): contact via uvm.edu/police

Who do University of Vermont parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families

Verify all phone numbers and URLs at uvm.edu before using, as contact information is subject to change.

• Parent and Family Programs: contact via uvm.edu/parents
• Dean of Students: contact via uvm.edu/deanofstudents
• Residence Life: contact via uvm.edu/reslife
• Financial Aid: contact via uvm.edu/financialaid
• Center for Health and Wellbeing (CAPS): contact via uvm.edu/health
• University Police (non-emergency): contact via uvm.edu/police
• Registrar: contact via uvm.edu/registrar
• Emergency: 911

UVM’s Academic Strengths

UVM’s academic identity is inseparable from its land-grant heritage and its location within one of the most environmentally distinctive states in the country.

The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources is one of the finest environmental science programs in the Northeast, training students who go directly into environmental agencies, NGOs, policy organizations, and graduate programs with a seriousness of preparation that reflects the school’s integration with Vermont’s real environmental questions. The state itself is a living laboratory for environmental stewardship, sustainable agriculture, and community-scale ecological management, and the Rubenstein School uses it accordingly. Graduates from the Rubenstein School are found throughout federal and state environmental agencies, in environmental law, in conservation nonprofits, and in the growing field of corporate sustainability.

The Larner College of Medicine and the adjacent UVM Medical Center give UVM’s pre-health programs an advantage that extends beyond the classroom. Students pursuing pre-med, nursing, public health, or biomedical research are studying at an institution where genuine clinical and research infrastructure exists on the same campus. The College of Nursing and Health Sciences prepares students for clinical roles in one of the most underserved healthcare landscapes in the country; rural Vermont, with its combination of aging population and limited clinical capacity, creates both urgency and opportunity for health professionals trained here. The alumni network in northern New England healthcare is active, well-organized, and genuinely useful to graduates entering the field.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences maintains the land-grant tradition in animal science, plant and soil science, and sustainable agriculture with programs that are both theoretically grounded and practically oriented. UVM students in agriculture are often working with Vermont farms and food systems organizations as part of their coursework, giving their education a applied quality that translates directly into career readiness. The Grossman School of Business offers strong programs in business analytics and entrepreneurship that are positioned for the Vermont economy’s emphasis on small business, local enterprise, and the growing tech sector concentrated around Burlington. The College of Arts and Sciences houses strong programs in environmental studies, biology, political science, and psychology that reflect both the university’s research priorities and its student body’s interests. The College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences produces graduates who enter both the regional tech economy and national engineering programs with competitive preparation.

The UVM alumni community is geographically concentrated in northern New England but professionally distributed across healthcare, environmental science, education, government, and technology in ways that create genuine network value. Burlington’s size means that UVM alumni often know each other, hire each other, and invest in each other’s work in ways that are visible and accessible to students who take the time to build those relationships while they are still enrolled.

You Are a Catamount Family Now

Somewhere in the first year, usually around the time of the first October visit when the foliage is at its peak and the lake is silver in the afternoon light and your student meets you at the top of Church Street looking more at home than you have ever seen them look anywhere, you will understand what UVM actually is. It is not just a university. It is a particular relationship with a particular place, and that place is one of the most beautiful and most seriously committed to being itself of any setting in American higher education. The mountains are real. The lake is real. The winters are real. The food is real. The values are real. And the young person who spends four years inside all of that comes out shaped by something that is harder to name but easier to recognize: a genuine attachment to the world they live in and a clearer sense of what they want to do inside it.

Vermont will give your student access to outdoor experience, to a community that takes environmental and social questions seriously, and to a college town that is, by almost any measure, one of the best places to be young and curious in the country. Stowe in February. The lake in September. Foliage in October. Penny Cluse on a slow Saturday morning. These are not amenities; they are an education in how to inhabit a place. By graduation, your student will not just have a degree from UVM. They will have four years of Vermont. That is worth more than the tuition line suggests.

Go Cats.

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Last updated: May 2026. Tuition, dates, and policies subject to change. Verify all time-sensitive information at uvm.edu and uvm.edu/parents.