University of Vermont
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Sociology with a concentration in Crime and Criminal Justice. I’m in the Honors College.
Minor: Writing
Student Self Identifies as: White Straight Female
Summary
I volunteer at the women’s prison in South Burlington once a week. We go in and play volleyball with them. I am part of the school feminist club, College Undergraduates Not Tolerating Sexism. I also work part-time at the tutoring center.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: I went to an independent school in a small town in Vermont with a graduating class of around 200 students.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Sociology with a concentration in Crime and Criminal Justice. I’m in the Honors College.
Minor: Writing
Extracurricular Activities: I volunteer at the women’s prison in South Burlington once a week. We go in and play volleyball with them. I am part of the school feminist club, College Undergraduates Not Tolerating Sexism. I also work part-time at the tutoring center.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
Volunteering at the women’s prison has had a fairly big impact just in terms of what I want to do with my career. I’m really interested in reformative justice, so that is a really interesting opportunity that we have. I also really like working at the tutoring center. It’s a great place to work and everyone’s always super friendly.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
It’s a ton of reading and essays. This past semester I took a couple of Sociology classes and a couple of Writing classes and I ended up having like 60 pages of essays during finals week. I would not recommend Sociology as a major unless you’re more on the interpretive side of things.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
My criticism would be that UVM is a bigger institution, so my Intro to Sociology class was really big. You don’t get to know the professors until you go out of your way to get to know the professors and you start needing recommendation letters and things like that. It’s all based on how motivated you are to build those relationships and they don’t go out of their way to build them with you. With that being said, once you do build those relationships all the professors in the departments are super helpful and welcoming. They’re willing to write recommendation letters and help you find internships. I was also a T.A. for the Intro to Sociology class so I got to see how they develop exams and curve them to make them fair for everyone, and I think they have a really good system for that.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
It’s much more collaborative than competitive. I’ve never felt competition or like my classmates were trying to outsmart me in any way. Especially when you get into the higher-level classes, it’s very much discussion-based and everyone tries to talk at least once during the class and bounce off each other’s ideas.
What is your favorite class you’ve taken for your major?
Deviants and Social Control, it counted towards my concentration. That was actually kind of a bigger class, but I love the professor. I’ve had her for three of my classes already and it was really interesting. I personally think all the classes related to Crime and Criminal Justice are the most interesting Sociology classes.
What is your least favorite class you’ve taken for your major?
Quantitative Methods, so it was statistical analysis of mass data for general social surveys. The professor was good, but the material itself [was not that interesting]. It’s a requirement for the major.
Do you think people are open to multiple schools of thought in the classroom?
That’s one of the downsides of UVM. It’s a highly concentrated liberal population. I think everyone disguises themselves as liberal in that they are open to everything, but they’re not open to many conservative viewpoints. I think that it can become a hostile environment pretty quickly if someone brings up strong conservative views in the classroom. I believe in everyone standing up for their opinion, so I think it’s justified if people want to fight back on that.
How accessible are your professors?
They’ve all been very accessible in terms of having office hours and responding to emails. But, it is really up to you to reach out to them. They don’t offer a lot upfront for extra credit. Once you do make the effort, everyone I’ve had has been really great.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I’m super happy with my major choice. It was kind of a funny thing because I didn’t really know what Sociology was. I really wanted to do Criminology as a major, but UVM doesn’t have it. I found the Crime and Criminal Justice concentration under the sociology major so I tried Sociology and I loved it. Psychology never caught my attention as a major, but Sociology is the perfect crossover because it has the human psyche aspect but on a large scale as opposed to focusing on the individual.
Reasons to Attend
1) Professors are very engaged with students and they’re always very friendly and willing to give you advice.
2) We have tons of clubs and everyone is always trying to recruit new members.
3) The food’s good. There’s real Vermont maple syrup in the dining halls.
4) If you love outdoor activities there are so many opportunities around Burlington.
5) Burlington is awesome. There’s great food and there are concerts and poetry slams and all sorts of cool stuff to do around town. Plus, Lake Champlain is right there.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) There is fairly heavy marijuana use.
2) There are going to be in larger classes. If you don’t like being an anonymous face in a class, then it’s not for you. That being said, the big classes have T.A.’s that are super accessible.
3) If you are more comfortable with someone giving you explicit direction with everything you should do and classes you should take then it’s probably not for you.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
I’m in the Honors College, so we have separate housing and it’s really nice.
Freshman & Sophomore: I lived in University Heights North in a private double with one other roommate. We had our own bathroom and our own little room for our desks and dressers and everything. That was a really nice setup.
Junior and Senior year people live off-campus, so I’ll live off-campus.
How was your experience staying in-state for college?
I was actually really worried about it. I didn’t really want to go to UVM. I’m about three hours from home, so I don’t feel like I’m running into people I know and most of the people I was friends with my first year were from out of state. It was a good combination of being far enough away that I thought I was somewhere else, but also having that support system and being able to go home on a weekend or something.
Can you describe the level of safety you have experienced on and around campus?
I’ve always felt really safe. I’ve never felt unsafe, even on Church Street walking around downtown late at night.
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
Penny Cluse Café. It’s a brunch spot that everyone likes to go to. It can be crazy, if you go on a Saturday morning there will be a really long wait. You have to know what you’re doing and get there early.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
Lake Champlain. UVM is situated between a mountain range and a big lake. Lake Champlain’s beautiful. The sun sets over the water so there are beautiful sunsets. It’s a great place to go and sit on a bench and watch the sunset.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I go out pretty much every weekend. We don’t have a huge Greek life scene. We only have a few organizations and their parties get shut down a lot. UVM is mostly house parties, a lot of bands will play in the basement. You have to know the right people to get in. Sometimes the parties are ticketed and then you have to know the right people to get a ticket. Compared to the other colleges I’ve visited, they aren’t huge raging parties that everyone can go to. It’s much more about having those social connections and going with a group of people you know. [There are 17 fraternities, 6 sororities, and 1 gender-inclusive organization. About 10% of the undergraduate student population is involved in Greek life.]
Can you describe a typical night going out freshman year?
My freshman year was very much like me and five or six people on my floor would go to a house party. We’d leave at 2AM and maybe go to Church Street, which is the street where the bars are, and get late-night pizza or something like that.
What have been your favorite times at UVM?
UVM is a very socially active school. We had some really cool protests this past semester. There is a lot of cool social justice stuff around campus I like going to. There are nights that the Black Student Union puts on about different cultures and it has food and dancing and those are all really cool. Some of my other favorite times are hanging out with my friends late at night in each other’s dorm.
How happy are you with the nightlife? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I like to go out for the social aspect, I’m not a huge partier. I found it sometimes frustrating that we didn’t have more open parties where everyone shows up. The way it works is there is a person at a party who you know that can get you a ticket, and if you don’t get it you’re out of luck. That was the most frustrating thing at times.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
My closest friend was actually my roommate freshman year. We became good friends pretty instantly. My other friends were her boyfriend and the guys in his four-person suite. Some people I’ve met through my major.
How would you describe the social scene at UVM?
Everyone’s really friendly. I don’t want to say it’s cliquey, but it’s like you have your group of friends and that’s your group of friends. People branch out and meet people through classes and the groups you join, but it seems to me that everyone has their close five to six friends they regularly do thigs with. I don’t think anyone feels isolated on campus because there’s a lot of opportunities to get involved in.
To what extent do you feel people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Vermont has a very large White population and I think UVM reflects that because it attracts a lot of people from Vermont. We have the ALANA Coalition and the Mosaic Center. They’re both housed in a building that has program housing, and I have noticed that a lot of people of color tend to choose that housing, so it is somewhat segregated in that sense. A lot of the Asian exchange students get placed in a building called MAT (Marsh, Austin, and Tupper). So, it is somewhat separated by what people choose as their housing preference. [77.1% of students are White].
Do you think people are happy with their choice of UVM by senior year?
I think so, I really do. I know a lot of people who just graduated and they are all feeling really nostalgic about it. Burlington is a really cool city and it’s very easy to make a home there. I’m not ready to leave in two years.
There is a stereotype of UVM is that marijuana is very popular at UVM. What has been your experience with this?
I’m not going to deny that [laughs]. Our nickname is “Groovy UV.” You don’t have to smoke weed to go to UVM. It’s not the end all be all of the student experience. We have a reputation as a party school, but I think that’s misrepresented because we don’t have big ragers and big Greek life. A lot of people use marijuana, and it just became legal, so I think people will be more open about it. It’s not something that you have to do, but if you smoke pot at UVM you will definitely find other people that do too.
Careers
Have you used the career office or the alumni network to find internships or jobs?
I went to the career office briefly to get help with my resume. They were really helpful. I haven’t done any alumni networking yet but plan to.
How helpful was the study abroad office?
The study abroad office was kind of a funny experience because to me they felt very hands-off and I had to figure it out myself. I didn’t even meet with a study abroad adviser until a good way into my process. Once I started meeting with them they were helpful. But, when you decide what country you want to go to you are pretty much doing it all yourself. UVM has that culture of students needing to be self-advocates, nobody’s going to hold your hand.