New England / Vermont

The University of Vermont's hilltop campus looks out across one of America's most vibrant small cities to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains beyond. Here, students' educational experience and activities are enriched by our location -- from the energy and innovation of Burlington to the forests, farms, and independent spirit of Vermont. UVM is a research university of a perfect size, large enough to offer a breadth of ideas, resources, and opportunities, yet small enough to enable close faculty-student mentorship.

Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is one of the oldest and most respected institutions of higher learning in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Dartmouth has a long history of dedication to the highest educational ideals. With its world-class faculty and facilities, and nationally and internationally renowned graduate programs in engineering, business, medicine, and the arts & sciences, the school has resources that very few universities can match. In addition, by maintaining a highly flexible quarter-system calendar, and allowing only faculty to teach its undergraduate courses, Dartmouth assures that students have complete and timely access to all that the institution has to offer.

A liberal arts education at Bowdoin is not about being small and safe; it is about having the support to take surprising risks. That means caring more about the questions than giving the right answers, discovering you are good at something you did not think was your strength and making connections where none appear to exist. Bowdoin's curriculum, combined with a 215-year tradition of serving the common good, offers a bold blueprint for liberal education designed to inspire students to become world citizens with acute sensitivity to the social and natural world. Its interdisciplinary focus encourages students to make connections among subjects, discover disciplines that excite their imaginations, and develop keen skills for addressing the challenges of a changing world.

Founded in 1813, Colby is one of America's most selective liberal arts colleges. Serving only undergraduates, Colby offers an academic program rooted in the deep exploration of ideas and enriched by connections with Colby's world-class faculty. Students and professors work in tandem, pushing intellectual boundaries, testing hypotheses, and creating multidisciplinary approaches and solutions to complex scenarios.

Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts. Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. With ardor and devotion -- Amore ac Studio -- the College engages the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times.

Bennington College is a liberal arts college in southwestern Vermont that distinguished itself early as a vanguard institution within American higher education. Bennington graduates are notably confident in their capacity to engage and succeed in the world because, at Bennington, learning and making -- on campus and in the field -- are inseparable.