Overview of Champlain College

Students and instructors are decent and engaging.

I LOVE CHAMPLAIN

I would love to give Champlain a full five star; Burlington is a great town (even if seemingly infested by hipsters) and Champlain has a beautiful, laid back campus. However, it is hard to ignore Champlain's apparent lack of diversity. This may be benefit for prospective minority students, but among the faculty it creates a singular perspective. As a multi-ethnic prospective student, I felt uncomfortable at times as the faculty read their original work. Thankfully I was under the instruction of the more open-minded and brilliant, but several pieces revolved around VERY occident-centric, xenophobic views. I get the impression that many of the Champlain faculty have not ventured into the world outside Vermont and this is heightened by low diversity amongst the faculty.

Burlington is a town. The people are nice, and the city is beautiful. There was a good number of things to do in the city, but often Burlington would show its size: small. The nearest grocery store or wal-mart is a bit of a haul to get to, and not at all convenient. The culture of the town is still pretty cool though, with lots of local shops and restaurants. If your not into bigger cities, but don't want to live in a small town, then Burlington might be a perfect medium for you. The dorms are restored Victorian mansions which also come along with their own pros and cons. The buildings are just neat looking, and full of little charms. In my dorm we discovered an attic hidden above the ceiling tiles, and the older doors in the building had the coolest hinges. The small size of the dorms fosters a camaraderie among your dorm mates. Its difficult not to become friends with the people you live in the dorm with. A word of warning, because the school has many video game majors, there are a lot of guys that attend the school, and a good portion of them are on the nerdier side. For some this might be a good thing, for me, not so much. My interests lay in other things than video games.

I've had a good time at Champlain, and in Burlington. The location is great because in summer time you have the lake you could go to, and during winter there are prime locations to go skiing/snowboarding within an hour ride.