Saint Michael’s College
Ask anyone to name the best college town in the U.S. and you’re likely to hear Burlington, Vermont as a top contender. With a population of around 42,000 it’s home to three colleges: Champlain College, Saint Michael’s College, and University of Vermont. I’ll visit Champlain and UVM in future posts; today is all about St. Mike’s.
Located about five minutes from downtown Burlington (and offering free bus transportation to downtown to ensure students can enjoy the city), Saint Michael’s is a small liberal arts college (1600 students) that is known for its friendliness and community. While it is considered a Catholic college, only about half the students identify as religious. Its campus comprises 440 acres looking out over Vermont’s Green Mountains and the state’s tallest peak, Mount Mansfield, as well as the Winooski River (a tributary of Lake Champlain). The campus is built around a central quad and features mostly red brick architecture, which many complain is a bit dated. Students are required to live on campus in the residence halls for all four years, ensuring a community focus for everyone who attends.
Professors generally get high marks for their enthusiasm and engagement, and a low professor-to-student ratio keeps class sizes small (over 55% of classes have fewer than 20 students, facilitating discussion-based classrooms). The core curriculum requires students to complete four courses (First-Year Seminar, Fundamental Philosophical Questions, Study of Christian Traditions and Thought, and Junior Seminar) as well as general requirements in liberal arts and experiential learning.
Saint Michael’s offers a diverse array of majors and minors. Among their strongest and most popular are business and marketing; biology; psychology; media studies, journalism, and digital arts; and environmental studies. Students are impressed by the academic support services, highlighting the Writing Center and Peer Tutoring offered through the Academic Enrichment Commons. In addition, there are opportunities to cross-register for classes at Champlain or study engineering at UVM (in a unique 3-2 program where students earn a BA from Saint Michael’s and a BS from UVM). There is also an Honors Program where strong applicants are invited to participate beginning in their first year. Enrollment in the honors program includes specialized housing and coursework, and requires a senior thesis. (About 15% of students are in the honors program. Students are also invited upon completion of their first year if they achieve outstanding academic success.)
Saint Michael’s believes in preparing its students for a changing and challenging world, and as part of this encourages students to participate in study abroad. As a result, these offerings are fairly popular with over one third of the student body heading out to one of more than 100 programs. Some of the most popular take students to Argentina, Tanzania, Thailand, New Zealand, and Denmark.
Saint Michael’s is DII for athletics, and most of its teams compete in the Northeast-10 Conference. The most competitive teams are alpine skiing (men’s and women’s), men’s ice hockey, men’s basketball, and lacrosse (men’s and women’s). Athletes in other sports do complain about outdated training facilities and athletic fields. Students who choose not to participate in team sports are still active, keeping busy with intramurals and various outdoor pursuits (the Adventure Sports Center organizes outings throughout the year including white-water rafting and rock and ice climbing).
Saint Michael’s is a small liberal arts college in a beautiful location with an exciting city only minutes away. It attracts students interested in doing good in the world and has a loyal-- and very generous-- alumni network. If you’re interested in learning more or wondering if it might be the right fit, give us a call (617.447.0186) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat.
Dartmouth College
On a recent rainy Tuesday I set out on my first college visits since the Covid Pandemic began. Over the next few weeks, I’ll post spotlights of each of the ten schools on my tour.
Driving into Hanover, New Hampshire it’s impossible not to notice how interwoven Dartmouth College is with the town. Cute cafes and shops line the main street leading to Dartmouth’s Green. Considered “the heart of campus,” the Dartmouth Green is bounded by the college-owned Hanover Inn on one side and Baker Library on the other. (The Baker Bell Tower plays the Alma Mater at 6pm each day, and students regularly put in song requests to be played throughout the day. Tradition is a HUGE part of the Dartmouth experience from the bells to homecoming (and its 75-foot bonfire) to Winter Carnival.)
At just under 4400 undergraduate students, Dartmouth College is the smallest of the Ivies (and often considered the most conservative, though Princeton might beg to differ). It is also the Ivy most focused on the experience of its undergraduate students (its 2100 graduate students are in engineering, business, medicine, and advanced studies). Students rave about the faculty, routinely describing them as engaging, dynamic, and accessible. Faculty who choose Dartmouth do so because they love teaching, knowing that the choice means living in rural NH rather than in one of the dynamic cities and towns that are home to other Ivies and elite schools. Students are able to participate in paid research internships with faculty, and more than two thirds of classes have fewer than 20 students.
Dartmouth has a unique schedule, affectionately known as “D-plan.” Instead of the usual two semesters or occasional trimesters, the year is broken into 4 10-week terms, including one over the summer. Students are required to spend three terms on campus during freshman and sophomore years, and must be there the summer after sophomore year. Many students (over 60%) choose to go abroad, most often in one of Dartmouth’s faculty-led programs. Popular majors are in the social sciences, engineering, biological sciences, foreign languages, and economics.
Dartmouth has a reputation as a bit of a party school, in large part because of the popularity of Greek life on campus, though the school has done much to reduce this in recent years. College-sponsored programming is offered every Friday and Saturday night and includes fun events such as comedy shows and roller skating. The college owns a small ski mountain, about twenty minutes away, and the Dartmouth Outing Club is the oldest in the US. In addition to participation in winter sports and a general love of outdoor activities, Division I and club sports are popular.
Dartmouth is exceptionally competitive for admission, accepting only around 9% of its applicants. It does fill around 45% of its freshman class through Early Decision… if you have your heart set on Dartmouth, your chances of admission do go up by applying early. The school offers free tuition and no loans to students from families with incomes less than $100,000 a year but does not award any merit or athletic scholarships.
Dartmouth offers an excellent education and experience for the right student. If you’d like to explore if it’s a best fit for you or are interested in putting together your strongest application, call us 617.447.0186) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat.