BURLINGTON, Vt. -
If you're not a Vermonter, you'll need to study harder, and get more involved, because the University of Vermont is making the school harder to get into for out-of-state applicants.
UVM will be accepting about the same number of in and out-of-state applicants next year, but with the new president's big push to get more applications -in general- from non-Vermonters, the chances of becoming a Catamount will be slimmer.
"I hope to not have a mountain of debt," UVM Senior, Sean Higgins said.
But Higgins, the Nevada native is paying out-of-state tuition, all four years.
"The price difference is about 21-thousand dollars between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition," Vice President for Enrollment Management Chris Lucier said.
"It's a lot of money," Higgins added.
Higgins is a senior at UVM. Rewind to when he was a senior in high school... he always thought his education might come from out-of-state because he's a skier and his dad is from the Green Mountain State.
"I wouldn't trade the last four years for anything," Higgins said.
But while the school makes a push to get more out of state and even out of country applications, it's going to get a lot tougher to become a Catamount.
This year UVM accepted 76.6 percent of its applicants; the president's goal is to bring that figure down to 65 percent.
"If we increase our out-of-state selectivity, we'll bring in better qualified out of state students - our current students are outstanding, but even better," Lucier said.
The admissions selectivity for Vermonters will stay at about 70 percent. But for out-of-staters, like Sean Higgins, extracurricular activities, grade point average, and letters of recommendation will weigh more heavily than ever before.
Each year, about five hundred Vermonters are accepted to UVM, and about 1,800 people are accepted from other states or countries. Vermonters pay $13,344 a year... others pay $33,672.
