I’m writing as a parent of a current UVM student. My experience with UVM is that everyone talks with nice voices and is not actually helpful. Parents be forewarned: the housing situation is really awful. Transfer parents: Your child will have scant support for 1) housing for 2) community.
Once you’re enrolled, you’re on your own and there are very few resources.
It’s almost impossible to find an actual human being to answer questions at UVM. They purposefully make it that way by, for example, using a general number for returning phone calls that leads you back into their phone answering service (press 1 for this, press 2 for that) which leads to dead ends.
Call the Dean’s office and you get a recording telling you to call X number of a special person who will talk to “people experiencing an urgent issue” and in fact that number leads nowhere, just like everything else at UVM.
The Student Finance offices, impossible to get someone to answer a question. The entire point of their system, it seems, is to keep you actually not served unless you use their cryptic methodology like ■■■■■■ under a bridge speaking in code. They will answer an email but maybe that takes three days and you have something you need to accomplish within hours–becase UVM set the deadline. Don’t meet the deadline, and your child can’t access class materials.
Housing–don’t get me started. Once you’re out of the dorms, which is like end of sophomore year, you’re stuck in the horror story of housing that is Burlington. It’s as tight as the housing market of NYC. We literally looked from the lake to the border of New Hampshire for housing. The cost is huge per room. (Currently we are paying $1200 per month for a room in a shared apartment, shared with three other people)
So if your kid goes through from freshman year, they get wind of this issue and they can team up with friends and compete for an off campus student house. If they are coming in. late or as a transfer, NO HELP is available from the school itself.
If you call and call and call around and around you might happen upon someone who picks up the phone. They will give you soft mm-hmms of sympathy and then say, “Have you tried Facebook?” But literally there is no other help and no other housing available. They know this. They don’t really care at all.
UVM works with outside vendors for housing that are hard-nosed. The outside vendors won’t necessarily take your child even if they are students of UVM. There are several other requirements that the vendors want you to fulfill and if your child is say a transfer student and doesn’t have a precise class standing, then their computer will spit out your application and won’t even consider it. UVM administrators will not intervene and help
I have worked in higher ed my whole life. I have sent other children to college. Never have I seen such poor and frustrating services for students as at UVM. Again everyone that you finally reach through huge persistence will speak in hushed sweet tones while not actually helping.
But–they absolutely want your money. That UVM is very very good at.
We’ve been there three years now and it has not improved.
I do not recommend UVM for anyone at all. If you want skiing, fresh air, and a granola campus go to Colorado or U of Maine Orono.