University of Vermont Top Questions

The drugs thing, yes, most of the students here like using a wide array of substances. But I have also met students that will not even drink and have never smoked a cigarette. I personally find UVM challenging, I have a double major in Political Science and History and have met some people that think it is a breeze. These people are obviously not getting great grades.

Yea kids at UVM smoke pot but you're gonna find that at any school no matter how large or small. As for the hippies, in the past two years here I've noticed a definite decline in the people your average person would call hippies but seemingly all the good things from hippie culture remain such as the music (minus the drum circles) and the friendliness. The people here are by far the friendliest I have encountered.

Those stereotypes are true for some of the student body here but not all. There is weed at any school you attend, it is just more abundant and more accepted at this school. Not everyone smokes, as there are the athletes, healthy lifestyle-living, and those who just do not smoke. People of all types attend UVM which makes it very diverse.

In some ways the stereotypes are correct--we do still have a lot of political activism on campus, and many students consider themselves very liberal. However, the sincereity of our open-mindedness has changed. Too many people are close-minded to conservatives, which makes our entire liberal steroetype kind of inaccurate. The student body is changing too, since UVM has become sort of a "hot school", people just apply here now for the prestige, and not for the "groovy", political atmosphere UVM is known for.

I would certainly say that the stereotype of UVM being a party school is true. However, in the past few years as the administration has implemented and strongly advocated for the dry-residence hall policy, these ideas are slowly diminishing as the both applicant and student pools are becoming more prestegious. Of course there are members of the community who choose to stay away from the "work hard, party hard" which too is strongly accepted, but I would say the majority of students enjoy their Thirsty Thursdays a bit more than most. As far as the stereotype that UVM is simply the back-up "Groovy-UV", I have been pleasantly surprised to see more and more in-state and out-of state students enroll with the highest opinion of the University. There has been a great push with the current administration to attract more valedictorians and student leaders, which I think is helping to take a step back and reevaluate the UVM stereotype of "Groovy-UV", so I would say this is not as true, or at least in comparison to the past.

somewhat. the "trustafarians" arent overwhelming. there's more just normal kids than anything--not too preppy, not too hippy. however the school is just as white as its reputation indicates.

We have our share of those types of people but there are also plenty of religious people at UVM. Yes the student body does tend to be liberal, however there are plenty of people who are not hippies.

all stereotypes have some factual basis, but they are never always true.

Somewhat

There are certainly students who advocate many liberal causes very vocally, but I think there's a more ho-hum majority that would generally like to recycle and what-not, but they don't really care that much. As for the pot; it's around, but it certainly isn't everywhere.

Of course there are students here that would be classified as pot heads or hippies, but by no means does that stereotype accurately reflect the entire student body at UVM.

These stereotypes are sometimes accurate but they also often apply to everyone when only a small percentage of the population falls under this blanket statement.

This is somewhat true, although UVM has undergone significant changes in an attempt to fight this stereotype over the past four years, some for the better, some for the worst. What initially attracted me to UVM was the liberal, strong activist based feel I got from the student body while visiting UVM, which has diminished greatly since my freshman year.

Not entirely. For example, I've found that there are a vast array of people who smoke pot, from hipsters to jocks and everyone in between.

yes

Only partially, for the most part UVM has a pretty diverse selection of students from all different social groups.

I can see where the stereotype comes from, but there are a lot of people who dont fit into the stereotype.

Kinda. Plenty of kids at UVM fit the stereotype that I had heard so much about. But what surprised me as a freshman was that there are plenty of kids here who do not fit that image at all. Sure, there's the pot-smoking hippie-types, but there's lots of gym rat athletes, totally alternative artsy-types, typical business students, you name it. The consensus around campus is that these "other" types are the future of UVM - rapidly washing away the old hippie "Groovy-UV" image that the school became known for. As far as academics go - UVM provides the opportunity for you to challenge you on any academic level. but it's definitely not a "brainy" school - there's plenty of smart people, but they're not nerdy-smart.

These stereotypes are not true. Granted, we do have our fair share of hippies and pot smokers, but there are 9500 undergraduates and many are globally-minded, but wouldn't fall under the category of "hippie".

-No, not everyone at UVM is a hippie! -Yes, the Residential Life department has some questionable policies when it comes to actually helping/serving students. -Yes, it is really cold -Depending on the department (hard sciences, philosophy) the teacher