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"I'm so glad that my passion finally led me to Sterling. Here, I feel like I can really connect to the community in different ways, which is unique in the college world." -- Gina Basiliere, ‘17

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Apply Now for Fall 2022 & Spring 2023 | Read More

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Yes!  Let’s Make It Happen

We are delighted that you have decided to apply for admission to Sterling College. Your application will be reviewed with great personal care, and you are encouraged to contact us throughout the process to discuss your application and your interest in ecological thinking and action.

  • Sterling College is a proud member of  The Common Application.
  • We also accept an online application exclusive to Sterling College found below.

The Admission Committee treats both types of applications equally. There is no advantage to using one application over the other.

After you submit your application, an admission counselor will contact you to schedule an interview. We encourage you to connect with us at every stage of the application process. Please feel free to reach out by phone or e-mail if you have questions, want more information, or simply want to share what advancing ecological thinking and action means to you.

  • Information about Safety and Security at Sterling College (Clery Act).

Sterling College Online Application

Apply Now for Fall 2022

Apply Now for Fall 2022 with Common App

Apply Now for Spring 2023


Place-Based-Ecology

Students heading into class in the Cedar Swamp as part of our place-based Ecology curriculum.

$500

Visit Sterling College and we will reimburse you up to $500 for travel expenses if you decide to enroll full time. So save your receipts!

Trustees Emeriti

David Behrend ’60
Susan C. Bryant
Marvin Brown, Alumni Parent ’85
Lewis Cohen
George J. Hill, M.D., D.Litt., Alumni Parent ’85
Jackson Kytle, Ph.D.
Peter Albert McKay, J.D. ’63
Virginia de Ganahl Russell
Mark Schroeder, Ph.D.

Sterling College Admissions Deadlines

Admission Deadlines

We can’t wait to get to know you. Our admission counselors are your personal guides to the college application process. If you miss a deadline, have questions about part of…

Sterling College Admission Policies

Admission Policies

Sterling College is a community in which people of all backgrounds and identities can feel at home, where differences are embraced and where individuals take responsibility for furthering the dignity…

Sterling College Sustainable Food Systems Gallery

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Cultivating Access Choosing to go to college is one of the most important events in a student’s life. Sterling College is committed to make this transformative education accessible. We do…

  • Moxie Mehegan

    Dean of Admission & Financial Aid

  • photo of Financial Aid Officer Barb Stuart, standing and smiling in front of a colorful garden and a spruce tree in summertime

    Barb Stuart

    Director of Financial Aid

  • staff bio photo of Administrative Assistant Amalia Harris, standing and smiling in front of a colorful garden and a spruce tree in summertime

    Amalia Harris

    Director of Admission Services

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Food waste isn't good anywhere, but food waste on farms (i.e., food loss) is a major missed opportunity. Excess food production yields environmental harms and represents missed opportunities for farm viability, community resilience, and nourished bodies. Spend an afternoon with Salvation Farms founder Theresa Snow exploring how to collaboratively and regionally manage farm surplus and build resilience. https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/food-resilience-and-conservation
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Our food systems are designed to commodify, not to nourish. Want to learn and cultivate something better? Check out Food Systems Thinking, a fully remote and asynchronous class from Continuing Education at Sterling College. Learn more: https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/food-systems-thinking
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Often forgotten in the realm of textiles, mushrooms have long been used as natural dyes, yielding some of nature's most vibrant colors. Learn to use fungi to create beautiful, vibrant, and nontoxic dyes perfect for any natural fiber. We will spend Saturday in the forest, learning about and foraging for dye mushrooms. Julie will walk students through the mushroom identification process and teach us how to locate dye mushrooms using environmental indicators. On Sunday she will go through various dye techniques, as students explore the myriad of shades these forest friends offer us. Students will leave with an understanding of how to find, forage for and identify dye mushrooms, wool fiber samples for the rainbow of colors they create, a large hand-dyed kerchief, and an instructional craftbook including mushroom dye recipes. 

This course allows students the opportunity to define mushroom species and types, understand the identification components of different dye mushrooms, demonstrate mushroom dye baths, analyze the properties of the dye bath to reveal the color, design a color chart of mushrooms and shibori designed silk kerchief and compare colors, processes and compounds of the mushroom dye baths. 

Learn more: https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/mycology-color
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Meet Victoria (she/her), a current student majoring in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems and our Senior Work Program Admission Ambassador. One thing she loves about Sterling is the ability to shape your experience to best suit your own needs: what classes you take, what you focus in during those classes, where you live, and how you spend time on campus! Check out Sterling for yourself : https://www.sterlingcollege.edu/visit-sterling/
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Commercial bread uses synthetic chemicals to speed up the manufacturing and improve flavor and shelf life. Collaborate with beneficial microbes to bake your own instead.  Check out Artisan Breadmaking & Heritage Grains part of Continuing Education at Sterling College. Only 6 spots left!  Learn more: https://www.ce.sterlingcollege.edu/artisan-breadmaking-heritage-grains
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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Richard Miscovich works with essential, elemental forces to produce nourishment -- with water, air, fire, and grains from the earth, he makes the kind of bread that tells us a lot about what it means to be human. Baking, in the style Miscovich teaches at Sterling -- involves harnessing primal forces, respecting their inherent variability, and responding with a grounding in science but from a place of intuition.  Making bread is so tangible, so substantial -- and yet the metaphorical power of making bread this way must also be respected.  Listen to School of the New American Farmstead instructor Richard Miscovich share insights from several decades of foodcraft and then sign up to study with him in our upcoming Artisan Breadmaking & Heritage grains short course. Listen: Link on Bio.
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It's the little things that make Sterling a special place.  Compost-pickup by draft animals; weekly community meetings with faculty, staff, and student body; and circulated memos like this reminding us of the the circadian rhythms and activity of animals.  #ecologicalthinkingandaction
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Our Food & Environmental Writing course, part of our Continuing Education offerings, just wrapped up. This 8-week course was led by Joe Fassler, deputy editor of The Counter.  Outcomes from the course were aimed at: crafting compelling stories about vast, interconnected systems; balancing human-level narratives with complex science and policy issues; interrogating popular narratives that mislead and obscure; and handling culturally fraught topics with sensitivity and nuance. And we are thrilled to report back that student, Paige Curtis, successfully checked all boxes and has already had her work published on The Grist.  Take a read: Link on bio.
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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Like many young boys, Josh Bossin, Sterling College Faculty in Outdoor Education, found a sense of belonging in the outdoors as a child.  Unlike others, Josh resisted the many forces that draw adults indoors and keep us there for 90% of our lives, on average. Instead, Josh kept his love for the outdoors alive, well, and thriving.  Inspired by conservationist Kris Tomkins' notion that people only protect what they love and only love what they identify with, Josh set up to cultivate a love of the natural world in others. He does that by sticking to fundamentals, reducing barriers to getting outside, eschewing the culture of excess and consumption that often make outdoor adventure seem exclusive, and helping folks safely traverse unfamiliar spaces. This episode is best downloaded and listened to while walking beneath a canopy of new Spring leaves. Move outdoors with Josh Bossin. Take a listen: Link on bio.
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We all have responsibilities on a farm. Our Boer goat herd pitched in and did some invasive plant management in the forest!
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The present climate and ecological emergencies can no longer be ignored, yet the social and political response to them does not match the scale and urgency of action required. A vague sense among Global Northerners that things are bad and that they will get much worse manifests as emotional paralysis, despair, and both active and passive denial.  None of this helps the individual or mitigates the crises. Conversely, because of their current realities, many Global Southerners are acutely aware of climate consequences in the present and want to inform their actions and adaptations with a firm grip of the science and socio-political dynamics. 

This course aims to illuminate the dark cloud in our minds called climate breakdown, by equipping learners with the scientific knowledge, emotional clarity, and practical know-how to contribute to timely transformative systemic change in all aspects of society.

Register: Link on Bio
Open
Field School students and the garden interns transplant tomatoes in the hoop house. These will be a part of our CSA offerings, which will start on June 22nd, as well as for the Sterling kitchen.
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Sterling College
PO Box 72
Craftsbury Common, VT 05827
(802) 586-7711

Sterling College uses education as a force to address critical ecological problems caused by unlimited growth and consumption that is destroying the planet as we have known it. Our mission is to advance ecological thinking and action through affordable experiential learning that prepares people to be knowledgeable, skilled, and responsible leaders in the communities in which they live.

Sterling acknowledges that the land on which we gather—places now known as Vermont and Kentucky—are the traditional and unceded territories of several indigenous peoples: the Abenaki in the North and the Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Osage people to the South. We also learn in-and-from a range of landscapes that belong to other indigenous peoples.

As we seek deep reciprocal relationships with nature, we respect and honor the place-based and cultural wisdom of indigenous ancestors and contemporaries. Words of acknowledgement and intention are just a first step. We must match them with acts of respect and repair.

Copyright 2022 Sterling College

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