The University of Vermont

The University of Vermont (UVM), officially The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is the state's land-grant university. UVM is among the oldest universities in the United States and is the fifth institution of higher education established in the New England region of the U.S. northeast. It is also listed as one of the original eight "Public Ivy" institutions in the United States.

The university's Dudley H. Davis Center was the first student center in the United States to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. The largest hospital complex in Vermont, the University of Vermont Medical Center, has its primary facility on the UVM campus and is affiliated with the Robert Larner College of Medicine.

Academics

The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or schools.

Bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs are offered through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Social Services, the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, the College of Medicine, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the Graduate College, the Grossman School of Business, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest of UVM's schools and colleges and has the largest number of students, faculty, and staff. The college also offers the bulk of the foundational courses to help ensure that students all over campus have the tools to succeed in all academic endeavors. It offers 45 areas of study in the humanities, fine arts, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, and physical sciences.

Grossman School of Business

UVM's Grossman School of Business is accredited by the AACSB International and offers undergraduate and graduate programs. The school was renamed the Grossman School of Business in 2015 in honor of a $20 million gift from alumnus Steven Grossman, the largest single gift in the university's history.

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

CEMS is home to four ABET-accredited engineering programs—Civil, Environmental, Electrical and Mechanical—as well as a new degree in Biomedical engineering in addition to the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. It also features three research centers: the Transportation Research Center, the Complex Systems Center and the Vermont Advanced Computing Center. The college has about 1250 undergraduate students, 200 graduate students, and 85 faculty members.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) offers programs in animal science (early admission to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University is available); biochemistry; biological science; community entrepreneurship; community and international development; dietetics, nutrition and food sciences; ecological agriculture; environmental science; environmental studies; microbiology; molecular genetics; plant biology; public communication; and sustainable landscape horticulture. The college is also home to the Center for Rural Studies.

College of Education and Social Services

UVM's College of Education and Social Services offers teacher education, early childhood development and social work studies. The college comprises the Department of Integrated Professional Services, Department of Education, Department of Social Work, and the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion. Studies leading to a master's degree or doctorate also are offered.

College of Medicine

In 1804, John Pomeroy began teaching students in his house in Burlington, as the first medical department at a State College or University. In 1822, the College of Medicine was established as the seventh medical college in the United States, founded by Pomeroy and the medical educator Nathan Smith.

UVM enrolls approximately 100 medical students in each class; there are approximately 400 medical students total. The University of Vermont Medical Center is the primary clinical site of clinical education.

The College of Medicine currently ranks tied for 29th for overall quality in primary care training among the country's 89 programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report for 2016 and 43rd out of 120 in 2019.

College of Nursing and Health Sciences

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences at UVM comprises four departments: Biomedical and Health Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Nursing, and Rehabilitation and Movement Science, as well as the Institute of Integrative Health, a shared program with the University of Vermont College of Medicine offering a Certificate in Integrative Healthcare. Students in the college major in Athletic Training, Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology), Exercise and Movement Science, medical laboratory science, nuclear medicine technology, nursing, or radiation therapy.

Honors College

The Honors College sponsors opportunities for students to participate in co-curricular programs and extracurricular activities — special symposia, dinners with visiting scholars, and trips to museums and theaters in Montreal and Boston.

Faculty are selected from throughout the university to participate in the Honors College as lecturers in a first-year ethics course and advanced seminars, as participants in reading groups, as speakers at the Plenary Lecture Series, and as mentors to honors students conducting research.

Through a required ethics course, small seminars, informal gatherings, and special research projects, students work alongside scholars from a section of the university's academic disciplines in the humanities, the sciences, engineering, nursing, medicine, education, business and more.

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR) was created in 2003. The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources seeks to cultivate an appreciation and understanding of ecological and social processes and values aimed at maintaining the integrity of natural systems and achieving a sustainable human community in harmony with the natural environment. The Rubenstein School targets three general areas of emphasis for scholarly pursuit: 1. Applied Ecology; 2. Environment & Society; and 3. Development & Use of Innovative Tools (e.g. GIS, spatial analysis, and modeling).

In 2007, the university won a $6.7 million grant to research the pollution problems of Lake Champlain.

Student life

Student clubs and organizations, totaling more than 100, span student interests and receive sponsorship from the Student Government Association. Clubs with longstanding history and the largest memberships include: Volunteers in Action, the UVM Outing Club, Ski & Snowboard Club. Hillel also has a strong presence on the UVM campus; it is estimated that around 2,000 UVM students are Jewish, making up about 20 percent of the undergraduate student body. UVM also is home to the oldest FeelGood chapter in the nation, started in 2006, with the chapter raising over $100,000 since its inception for the end of extreme poverty by 2030 through on-campus grilled cheese delis.

Rankings

1. UVM is ranked 121st in U.S. News & World Report's 2020 national university rankings, and is ranked tied for 55th among public universities.
2. In 2019, Forbes "America's Top Colleges" list ranks UVM 168th overall out of 650 private and public colleges and universities in America, and also ranks it 48th in the "Public Colleges" category and 91st among "Research Universities."

The University of Vermont is ranked 40th on a list published by BusinessWeek.com of the top 50 U.S. colleges and universities whose bachelor's degree graduates earn the highest salaries.