The University of Vermont is ranked #4 on Princeton Review’s just released “Top 50 Green Colleges” list. The top 50 schools were drawn from the 375 colleges listed in the publication’s Green College Guide which, in turn, were selected from a list of 2,000 schools Princeton Review considered.
“We strongly recommend these schools to environmentally-minded students who seek to study and live at green colleges,” said Robert Franek, the Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief.
“UVM’s commitment to the environment, in academics and research and in our sustainable practices, is a core part of the university’s identity and a key element of our appeal for current and prospective students,” said UVM president Tom Sullivan. “We’re pleased and proud that the Princeton Review has recognized this commitment by ranking us among an elite list of the greenest schools in the country.”
The Princeton Review selected the schools on the top 50 list based on their “Green Rating” score, tallied from institutional data the publication obtained from school administrators and from surveys emailed to students at colleges across the country on issues such as how sustainability issues influenced their education and life on campus; administration and student support for environmental awareness and conservation efforts; the visibility and impact of student environmental groups; whether students have a quality of life on campus that is both healthy and sustainable; how well a school is preparing students for employment in an increasingly green economy; and how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are.
UVM’s Green Rating score was 98 of a possible 99 points.
For many high school students, a college’s commitment to the environment can be a deciding factor in the college they eventually choose. According to the more than 10,000 prospective students and parents who participated in the Princeton Review’s 2017 College Hopes & Worries Survey, 64 percent said that having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the college.
Earlier this year, the University of Vermont received a STARS gold rating for its sustainability efforts from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The university’s score of 70.87 placed it among the top 12 percent of all rated institutions.
Source: UVM News