Saint Michael's College

What Others Are Saying...

Listed below are some of Saint Michael’s many recognitions of the past five years by unbiased, outside sources, through rankings, grants or awards. 



Saint Michael's appears in the 2010 edition of The Princeton Review's Best 371 Colleges guidebook.

Saint Michael’s, after a three-year review, joined the elite group of 270 colleges nationwide with Phi Beta Kappa chapters, making Saint Michael’s one of 20 national Catholic colleges with a chapter and one of four in New England (Saint Michael’s, Holy Cross, Boston College and Fairfield).

U.S. News & World Report, August 2009, “America’s Best Colleges:  2010 Annual Guide,” lists Saint Michael’s in the "Best National Liberal Arts Colleges" category, with a ranking of #105, sharing that position with six other institutions including Hampshire College, Goucher and Ohio Wesleyan University.

Saint Michael’s was selected to appear in the Colleges of Distinction admissions guidebook, published in 2008, which profiles 150 colleges throughout the United States that “excel in engaging students, offering great teaching, providing a vibrant campus community and resulting in successful outcomes for their students.”

“Saint Michael’s College makes reaching out to the community and being a good citizen an essential part of its educational enterprise,” said the winning entry in the 2009 United Way Hometown Hero competition. At a gathering of hundreds of United Way volunteers, Saint Michael’s was named the top winner, business category, from amongst some 72 outstanding United Way volunteers in all categories. The presentation was made at the Live United Celebration Breakfast September 3rd 2009.

Saint Michael's College was one of ten, four-year colleges nationwide with student populations under 2,999 to be deemed a Great College to Work For in 2009 based on a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Five Saint Michael's College student editors attended the 26th Annual National College Journalism Workshops in the summer of 2009 held at the University of Minnesota, where they learned their newspaper, the Saint Michael's College Defender was cited for Best of Show recognition, winning 3rd place in the Four-year College Non-daily Newspaper category.

The partnership between Saint Michael's College and Champlain Elementary School involving Professor Patricia Delaney’s anthropology course teaming up for several semesters with Somali-Bantu refugee children and families, earned the two organizations the Engaged Community Partner Award given at the 2009 Vermont Campus Compact Conference.

Author of three scholarly books on AIDS policy in the U.S. and abroad, Saint Michael's Political Science Professor Patricia Siplon was named winner of the top award, the Engaged Scholar Award for involving her students in her scholarship, at the Vermont Campus Compact 2009 “Through a Civic Lens” Conference, held April 1.

Dr. John O’Meara, Saint Michael's assistant professor of physics, and five colleagues from around the country received a $474,617 grant from NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in September 2009, to carry out a study of galaxies and their halos. Professor O’Meara’s portion of the grant is $46,983.

Erik Wells ’09 was named one of four finalists in the 2008 national Reporter of the Year Competition of the Associated Collegiate Press organization. His selection was based on three extensive news articles he wrote for The Defender, the weekly Saint Michael’s student newspaper.

Saint Michael’s senior political science major and global studies minor, Jamila Headley of Barbados, was named one of 32 scholars nationwide to earn a coveted 2006 Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford. She is pursuing two master’s programs there now, in 2008, in Global Health Policy and International Development, and has been accepted into their doctoral program, which is not automatic.

Michele Kayser '08 of Essex Junction, Vt., was named one of only 19 Pickering Undergraduate Fellows nationwide for 2006. She received the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation propelling her to a career in the U.S. diplomatic service. She is studying for an advanced degree in 2008 at Princeton University as part of the fellowship.

The National Science Foundation awarded the college a grant of $578,500 in May 2008 to provide 20 scholarships in math and computer science, based on the college’s track record of success in teaching those subjects. Directed by Professors Greta Pangborn, Joanna Ellis-Monahan, and Michael Battig, the project is titled, “Enhancing Mathematics and Computer Science Opportunities in a Supportive Liberal Arts Environment.”

Poet/Professor Greg Delanty received a Guggenheim Fellowship in March of 2007, shortly after the publication of his seventh book of poetry, The Ship of Birth (Louisiana State University Press, 2007). He published his Collected Poems 1986-2006.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Acquisition awarded the Saint Michael's College Applied Linguistics Department a $713,000 grant to be used over five years to train public school teachers of children throughout Vermont needing English language education. 

Dr. Malcom Lippert, associate professor of biology was awarded a $197,456 grant from the National Institutes of Health in July 2008 to advance his project, “Transcription-associated mutations,” working with two students. Professor Lippert’s success in helping his students become serious scientists was a key factor in his selection for the grant. Recently he has had students go to graduate school at Dartmouth, UMass, Worcester, the University of Washington, and dental school at the University of Buffalo.

The American College Theatre Festival Region I invited the cast and crew of the student-written theatrical production The Summoning of the Flamingo to perform that show at the January 2008 festival.

Summer 2008 research for three students was funded through Professor Ari Kirshenbaum’s $70,000 Vermont Genetics Network (VGN) grant, titled “Psychomotor-Stimulant Induced Behavioral Sensitization.”

Alain Brizard, associate professor of physics received a $50,000 research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, under the program Theoretical Research in Magnetic Fusion Energy Science, to support his research activities during his sabbatical in 2008-2009.

Dr. David Mindich, professor of journalism and mass communications, was named the 2006 Vermont Professor of the Year by the Washington, DC, based Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Higher Education. This marks the fourth Saint Michael’s professor in seven years to be so honored: Frank Nicosia (history) in 2000; Adrie Kusserow (anthropology) in 2002; Patricia Siplon (political science) in 2003.

In October 2006, Saint Michael’s Web site earned an “A” rating from the National Research Center for College University Admissions (NRCCUA). Of over 3,000 surveyed, only 157 college and university Web sites earned an “A” grade, Saint Michael’s among them. That puts Saint Michael's in the top 5% of all college Web sites.

The Pew Charitable Trust and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in November 2000, named Saint Michael’s College one of 34 exemplary institutions in the NSSE, National Survey of Student Engagement: The College Student Report.