Here are the best colleges and universities in Vermont. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
Vermont is home to five public universities and colleges. Among these is the state’s largest school, the University of Vermont in Burlington. This college serves almost 13,000 students and boasts alumni like Ben Affleck and John Dewey. The majority of the higher education institutes in Vermont are private schools. Tuition at these schools ranges greatly, from $17,000 to $57,000. Though it is the most expensive private school in the state, Landmark College in Putney is especially unique as its student population is made up entirely of students diagnosed with learning disabilities, attention disorders, and autism. Students here can earn degrees in fields like psychology, studio art, and life science while participating in a more intimate, student-centered learning environment.
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Almost all of Vermont’s schools could be considered small schools, serving student populations of 5,000 or less. Included on this list are three religiously affiliated schools, like Saint Michael’s College in Colchester. While tuition in Vermont tends to be costly, the state offers several loan forgiveness programs to qualifying dentists, physicians, nurses, and lawyers who work for nonprofits.
While many travelers come to Vermont for its famous maple syrup and stunning fall foliage, they’ll stay for the state’s bounteous farmers markets, wineries, and artisan foods. The magnificent green mountains, pristine skiing resorts, and rugged hiking trails are also major draws for visitors and residents alike. Students aiming to earn their degree while enjoying the outdoors and eating locally-sourced meals can attend one of Vermont’s 22 higher learning institutes.
Learn more about Vermont’s higher education opportunities by checking out the state’s array of picturesque colleges and universities.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
We’ve identified 12 colleges and universities in Vermont that meet our criteria. This list of the top colleges in Vermont below focuses on schools that offer bachelor’s degrees. The ranking features fully accredited public and private colleges and universities in Vermont.
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
76%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/28
University of Vermont’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
22%
Graduation
94%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/33
Middlebury College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
71%
Student body
<1K
Bennington College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
38%
Student body
<1K
Goddard College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
57%
Student body
4K
Norwich University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
75%
Student body
2K
Saint Michael's College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
66%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1215/26
Champlain College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
64%
Student body
1K
Vermont Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
44%
Student body
2K
Johnson State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1019/20
Castleton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
34%
Student body
<1K
Landmark College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
16%
Student body
<1K
Sterling College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.