Visiting Students

Welcome to our Community

Sterling College welcomes Visiting Students

Students who are enrolled at another college or university are welcome to attend Sterling College for one or more semesters of credit-bearing coursework. In most cases, these visiting students are able to transfer credits from Sterling back to their home institution.

We ask Visiting Students to complete a simplified application and interview with an admission counselor. We highly recommend that visiting students coordinate their plan to enroll at Sterling College with their home institution, and confirm that credits earned as a Visiting Student will transfer back into their degree program before enrolling at Sterling College.

Most Visiting Students choose to study at Sterling as juniors, but visiting students are welcome to join the Sterling College community after successfully completing at least one semester elsewhere.

Visiting Students applying to attend Sterling College will have the exciting opportunity to study on-campus, in person, with field-based trips focused in New England.

Apply Now for Spring 2022

Apply Now for Fall 2022

Visiting Students may be eligible to participate in field study classes and wilderness field semesters. Eligibility for these programs is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Financial aid is available for Visiting Students. Please contact our financial aid office for an individual consultation.

Explore Our Community:

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Click here for more information about campus life during COVID

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We recently partnered with the Kentucky Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation to plant 24 American Chestnut trees at the Brown Farm of the Wendell Berry Farming Program. These tall trees reigned forest canopies along the eastern coast for millions of years until the first half of the 20th century when heavy logging combined with the introduction of a fungal blight decimated their population.

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Creepy Crawlies | Sterling Chronicles Michael Tessler '09 started catching creepy crawlies at a very young age. This passion was evident during his time as a student at Sterling. This love was further fostered in graduate school, first working on moss ecology at Fordham University and then on leech evolution at the American Museum of Natural History. He continued postdoctoral work on broader questions of plant and animal evolution across the tree of life. His research has led to over 30 journal articles, a textbook on phylogenomics, media coverage by the New York Times, and fieldwork across the globe.Doing this research, he has mentored over 20 students (high school through doctoral), many of whom have helped co-authored publications. Currently, Michael is an Assistant Professor of Biology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where he continues his passion for teaching the next generation of scientists and grow my research in ecology and evolution.This video was made possible by a generous donation from David Behrend ’60.

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Some of the most beautiful aspects of Henry County, Kentucky, could go easily unnoticed, unless you stop to look. We're grateful for autumn weather and its fungal blooms, how about you?

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Cob oven skill swap full of clay shaping, hay snipping, watermelon harvesting, and dancing on cattails at the Wendell Berry Farming Program. The work IS the reward, students are excited for upcoming pizza nights at Hope Hill Farm!

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Student, Ruth Gardinet, talks about why she chose Outdoor Education and how community can serve as a support system.

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Celebrating Sterling College President, Matthew Derr. As nature has demonstrated, the only constant is change and disturbances are important for health and evolution. When a tree falls in the forest - a disturbance - there is a loss but also an abundance of opportunity and potential for new growth. Speaking in ecological terms, Sterling is in a moment of secondary succession. As Matthew Derr’s last day as president approaches, October 31, we acknowledge the vision and passion that he has brought to his nearly ten years. Through his good work, he has inspired many to consider what is possible in higher education and how it can be a force that strengthens the human relationship with the natural world. The role of mission-aligned philanthropy has been a transformative component of our collective success and is critical to fulfill Sterling’s aspirations for the future. In this moment, we invite you to show your support of this special institution, its collective vision, and all that we have accomplished during Matthew’s tenure with a tax-deductible gift. A gift today will help ensure a smooth transition for our community and ensure the Sterling experience for what it is known for: accessible, experiential, supportive, and interdisciplinary. The future is brighter with Sterling in it.

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Students on the banks of Six Mile Creek during ecology class at the Wendell Berry Farming Program.

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New student, Oliver D'Orazio, speaks on the value of a small community.

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Student Anna Webber-Loomis provides gear repair services and education to the local community as part of an Experiential Work Learning Grant received from the Work College Consortium. The grant supports Sterling's new Community Gear Design and Repair Program which included the purchase of this industrial sewing machine. Students like Anna will provide gear repairs to students and employees as well as the greater Craftsbury community.This new program at Sterling is a direct result of a course the College piloted in Spring 2021 by the same name, Gear Design and Repair.

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EMERGENCY TO EMERGENCE PODCAST // Laura Beebe joins Emergency to Emergence hosts, Nakasi and Dakota, for a rich conversation on the importance of the backcountry to human development -- her own and her students. Resisting a guide’s tendency to define backcountry in geographical terms or locate it far from the places that bear obvious marks of human development, Laura conceives of backcountry as a "state of being" reached through immersion in natural places, relationships with other species and with ecologies, and a sense of belonging among the same. But in this ranging and rich conversation, Laura also resists the all-too-common tendency to obscure the modern cultural forces that force separation, replicate problematic hierarchies and tend to make adventure and discovery exclusive. Reflecting on several decades of often being the only women in male-dominated spaces, Laura also delves into the inclusive aspirations of Sterling College’s Wilderness Field Program and illustrates how extended backcountry education, paired with the study of natural history and cultural ecology, allow students to see into deep time, celebrate continuance, and figure out more about how they want to be in the world. TAKE A LISTEN. LINK ON BIO.

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Last week we hosted a group of 10 new Sterling College students at The Farm Between. They spent an afternoon harvesting apples, as the surrounding hillsides were just beginning to show color. We grow around 40 varieties of apples at The Farm Between, which we sell wholesale: early, mid and late season apples, cider apples and dessert apples, red apples, speckled apples, russeted apples. For those interested in growing your own, we still have trees available for sale in the nursery. Please email thefarmbetween@sterlingcollege.edu or call (802) 335-2000 to schedule an appointment.

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Ashland’s Story | Wendell Berry Farming Program. Ashland Tann found the Wendell Berry Farming Program challenging. “It’s definitely the kind of place where you have to take an active part in your own education. You have to determine for yourself what you are going to get out of it.” It fueled his interest in farming and helped him shape his long-term goal of running an educational farm with a restaurant that would demonstrate the viability of locally sourced food. In the end, he says, he “couldn’t imagine how it could have all turned out any better.”This video was made possible by a generous donation from David Behrend ’60.

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Alumni Spotlight: Scott Grieve ’71

Name: Scott Grieve Graduation Year: 1971, high school graduate of The Sterling School Current Hometown: Excelsior, Minnesota Employment & volunteer work: Chairman of the Board: Wildlife Forever; Board of Advisors,…

Juneteenth at Sterling

Originating in 1865, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. For the second year, Sterling will join in solidarity by observing…

August Food Craft Classes at Sterling College

Food craft classes in fermentation and breadmaking will be offered this summer in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom through the School of the New American Farmstead, Sterling College’s continuing education program. Vermont…

Visiting Students

Visiting Students

Welcome to our Community

Sterling College welcomes Visiting Students

Explore Our Community:

Want to know more?

Moxie Mehegan

Jimmy Clark

Barb Stuart

Amalia Harris

Alumni Spotlight: Scott Grieve ’71

Juneteenth at Sterling

August Food Craft Classes at Sterling College

Visiting Students

Visiting Students

Welcome to our Community

Sterling College welcomes Visiting Students

Explore Our Community:

Share It!

Want to know more?

Moxie Mehegan

Jimmy Clark

Barb Stuart

Amalia Harris

Alumni Spotlight: Scott Grieve ’71

Juneteenth at Sterling

August Food Craft Classes at Sterling College