The University of Vermont through the eyes of international students

16 Jan 2018

What’s life like at the University of Vermont (UVM)? We spoke with three international graduate students — from Uganda, India and Bangladesh — about their academic experience, as well as life outside the lab.

Each student commented on the friendly and approachable atmosphere felt on-campus and in the city. This is particularly true for the UVM faculty, they said, who make themselves readily-available to students at all times.

Robert Mugabi, who just completed his PhD in animal sciences, notes that one-to-one meetings with his adviser throughout the program ensured he was on track with his research and his degree. “We would meet every week, at least, to discuss what was going on in the lab, what we needed to change, and to discuss what classes I needed to take the following semester.”

But here, connections occur outside of students’ academic home department, as well. It’s the university’s collaborative environment that sets it apart, says Mufhaza Akhtar, who’s pursuing her PhD in neuroscience and researching new pathways for treating chronic pain. “You can collaborate with any faculty in any department,” Akhtar says. “If I want to learn a technique that is not available in my department, I can go to another department and ask for help and learn those techniques and incorporate that in my research.”

“The faculty here is awesome,” says Nisha Chaube, MS Computer Science student. “Currently, I’m working on a project in machine learning, and they have great expertise in this area. That is the reason I chose UVM.”

“Even besides studies, this is a great place to be,” Chaube says. “It’s a pretty, little town,” she says, “with a lot of activities that you can do here, a lot of different food joints. You feel like you’re at a holiday destination.”

Watch this video to see the University of Vermont (UVM) campus and hear more about it from international students’ perspectives.