As you can see my reply got cut off in mid sentence, but im not trying to talk shit so let me explain myself.  Just the stuff you said isn't true at all.   UVM has a reputation for having a lot hippies, but that is no longer true.  Yes there are hippies, but they make up a tiny portion of the student body.  And I admit UVM is expensive, but I mean not everyone here is rich.  There is tons of people who have taken out loans and gotten all sorts of scholarships.  It sucks if you wanted to come here and couldn't afford it, I realize a lot of people have faced that problem, but others have been lucky enough to overcome that.  Finally whatever you said about not UVM not giving you a real college experience just isn't true.  Notice, I never said anything negative about Umass, or NJ.  That was other people in this thread.  I just want to set the facts straight for people interested in UVM, much like you are.
As for east coast ski colleges, if you want to be really close to the mountain, go to Green Mountain College because its located on the access road to killy.