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THE NORTH COUNTRY. THE 1980 OLYMPIC HILL.

St. Lawrence University

St. Lawrence is a private liberal arts university of about 1,800 undergraduates in Canton, New York, roughly 20 miles from the Canadian border. The Saints race the EISA carnival circuit as an NCAA Division III program, training on closed FIS-homologated trails at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, a two-hour drive from campus. There is no athletic scholarship money, but the school runs a sliding-scale affordability program and hosted the NCAA Skiing Championships in 1983, 2015 and 2023.

Canton, NY

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St. LawrenceSaints · Ski team

Photo: Ross P. Robinson, CC BY-SA 3.0

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NCAA divisionEISA · NCAA skiing
D3
UndergraduatesFall 2025
1,778
Acceptance rateFall 2025 (5,229 applicants)
55.8%
Sticker cost2026-27
$87,965
Drive to WhitefaceOutdoor Program listing
2 hrs
Student-faculty ratioFall 2025
11:1
Roster athletes2025-26
24
NCAA power rankscore 49.40
#16

Why St. Lawrence?

Why racerslook at St. Lawrence

Four things that define the place: the home hill, the scale of the school, the aid model and the setting.

  • View from the gondola station at Whiteface Mountain Ski Area, the St. Lawrence alpine team's home course

    Whiteface is the home hill

    The team trains on closed FIS-homologated giant slalom and slalom trails at Whiteface, the 1980 Olympic venue, with access to the NYSEF training building. On-snow work begins in early November and often runs into April.(saintsathletics.com)

  • Summer view of Lake Placid from the summit of Whiteface Mountain

    A small liberal arts school

    About 1,800 undergraduates, an 11:1 student-faculty ratio and a median class size of 16. Business in the Liberal Arts, psychology and economics are the largest majors at graduation.(stlawu.edu)

  • Herring-Cole Hall, a stone building on the St. Lawrence University campus

    Aid is need- and merit-based

    Starting fall 2026, the Affordability Compass sets tuition to $0 for U.S. families earning $75,000 or less and caps total cost at $30,000 to $45,000 for families earning up to $250,000. Every applicant is considered for merit scholarships; Division III means no athletic aid.(stlawu.edu)

  • Main Street storefronts in the Village Park Historic District, Canton, New York

    The North Country

    Canton is a village of about 11,000 on a 1,000-acre campus 20 miles from the Canadian border and the Adirondack Park. Ottawa is about 1.5 hours away and Syracuse about 2.5.(stlawu.edu)

About the school

The honest version.

What the school is, what it is known for, and what a family should weigh before committing.

St. Lawrence is a private liberal arts university of about 1,800 undergraduates in Canton, New York, a small town in the North Country about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Founded in 1856, it runs an 11:1 student-faculty ratio, and its biggest majors are business in the liberal arts, psychology and economics; roughly three quarters of students combine more than one field. Campus life is residential and outdoorsy (the outing club is the second oldest in the country), Canton itself is quiet, and Ottawa and Montreal are closer than any large American city. For a ski racer the key fact is that the alpine team's home course is Whiteface in Lake Placid, the 1980 Olympic hill, a two-hour drive away, with FIS-homologated GS and slalom terrain available up to six days a week from early November. The Saints race the EISA carnival circuit and have hosted the NCAA Skiing Championships three times, most recently in 2023. Athletics are NCAA Division III (Liberty League), so there is no athletic scholarship money, though merit aid is common.

Know before you commit

  • Remote: the closest ski resort is 56 miles away and the team's home hill at Whiteface is a two-hour drive, so training days mean a lot of van time.(stlawu.edu)
  • Expensive at sticker ($87,965 for 2026-27) and, as a Division III school, no athletic scholarships; aid is need- and merit-based only.(stlawu.edu)
  • The university disclosed an $11.5 million structural deficit in December 2023 tied to enrollment falling from about 2,400 to 2,089, cut retirement contributions and set a three-year plan to balance the budget by fiscal 2026.(wwnytv.com)
  • The school says it cannot guarantee meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need, and only 42 percent of current students receive need-based aid; families above $250,000 are outside the Affordability Compass caps.(stlawu.edu)

Feel the campus

From first tracks to final exams.

Credited archive photographs of the campus, the town and the hill; not current team photography.

5 of 5 photos shown

Ski team experience

Saints alpine:EISA carnivals from Whiteface

St. Lawrence alpine competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association and at NCAA Skiing, with slalom and giant slalom at the six-carnival EISA circuit, NCAA Eastern Regionals and, for qualifiers, the NCAA Championships. Home training and the Saints' own carnival are at Whiteface in Lake Placid, where the school has hosted the NCAA Championships three times. The 2026 roster listed 23 athletes under head coach Willi Steinrotter and assistant coach Helen Hume.

View official roster
Team athletes
24
Men / women
12 / 12
International athletes
6
Conference
EISA
Alpine disciplines
SL + GS
Athletes on 2026 roster (12 women, 11 men)
23
Not a selection or admission prediction.

Academics

What you can study.

St. Lawrence runs a fall and spring semester with a residential First-Year Program in the fall and a First-Year Seminar in the spring. The alpine calendar starts on snow in early November, so the carnival season in January and February and NCAA regionals and championships in late February and March overlap the first half of the spring semester. About 49 majors and 41 minors are offered and many students combine more than one field.

  • 1,778
    Undergraduates
  • 11:1
    Student-faculty ratio
  • 78.6%
    Six-year graduation rate

7 featured fields · full catalog

  • Business in the Liberal ArtsBusiness
    The largest major at graduation, built to be paired with one or more of the university's other majors.
  • EconomicsSocial science
    Second-largest major at graduation (14%), pitched as applicable to food, public health, sports and the arts.
  • PsychologySocial science
    Covers community psychology through biopsychology with an experimental foundation; 14% of graduates.
  • Environmental StudiesEnvironment
    Offered as a stand-alone, combined or multi-field major with internships and field research.
  • BiologyScience
    One of the most popular programs, with lab, greenhouse, vivarium and bog fieldwork.
  • Computer ScienceQuantitative
    Housed in Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics; covers networking, software engineering, web programming and AI.
  • Political ScienceSocial science
    Comparative politics and power structures; 11% of graduates major in it.
Explore majors

Source: stlawu.edu

Admissions

Your path here.

Testing
test-optional(stlawu.edu)
Application deadline
March 1 (regular decision); Early Decision I November 2, Early Action December 1, Early Decision II February 1(stlawu.edu)
  1. Apply through the Common Application or the St. Lawrence application (no fee) by the deadline for your round.
  2. Send an official high school transcript.
  3. Provide one school counselor recommendation and one academic teacher recommendation.
  4. Optionally self-report SAT or ACT scores (all sittings, no superscoring); official scores are required on enrollment. A resume is optional.
Admissions details

Acceptance rate

How selective it is.

55.8%Fall 2025 entering class, 5,229 applicants
  • Admitted
  • Not admitted

St. Lawrence admitted 55.8 percent of applicants for fall 2025 and reviews applications holistically without an application fee. Being a recruited athlete does not change the academic file; test scores are optional but, if self-reported, must match official reports.

Source: stlawu.edu

Cost & financial aid

What a year costs.

2026-27 published figures.

Published costs
Tuition$69,460
Room and board (standard room)$18,030
Student activities fee$465
Class dues$10
Total published cost$87,965

Published figures exclude books, travel and personal expenses; single rooms cost more than the standard rate. St. Lawrence says it cannot guarantee meeting 100 percent of need but reports 99.4 percent of undergraduates receive aid, 63.6 percent receive merit aid and the average 2025-26 package is $57,719. From fall 2026 the Affordability Compass sets tuition to $0 for U.S. families earning $75,000 or less and caps total cost at $30,000, $35,000 or $45,000 for income brackets up to $250,000. As a Division III school it offers no athletic scholarships.(stlawu.edu)

Financial aid information

Location

Campus, hill, airport.

St. Lawrence University, Canton

A 1,000-acre campus with 94 buildings and 12 residence halls in a village of about 11,000, 20 miles from the Canadian border.

Open in Maps · source

Main Street storefronts in the Village Park Historic District, Canton, New York
Main Street in the Village Park Historic District, Canton, New York (March 2012)

Student life

Beyond the hill.

  • Peak Weekend and Rail Jam

    Each fall the Outing Club aims to put at least one student on each of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks in a single weekend, and in winter it builds a rail on the Brush Memorial Quad for on-campus skiing and snowboarding.(stlawu.edu)

  • Residential campus

    98 percent of students live on campus across 12 residence halls, 17 theme houses (including outdoor-adventure and substance-free options), Greek houses and the Steiner Senior Townhouses.(stlawu.edu)

  • First-Year Program

    Since 1987 first-year students have lived and studied together in the First-Year Experience course in the fall, then the First-Year Seminar in the spring, in one of the country's oldest living-learning communities.(stlawu.edu)

Athlete voices

Real stories.

  • “With a 13th-place finish in the NCAA GS, Alec had one of the stronger finishes we've had in the last 17 years.”
    Willi Steinrotter, head alpine coach · source
  • “Our first years had some solid results and showed that they deserve to be racing at this level.”
    Willi Steinrotter, head alpine coach · source

Alumni & outcomes

What came next.

Six-year graduation rate (fall 2019 cohort)(stlawu.edu)
78.6%
2026 Olympian: Emma Gatcliffe, giant slalom, Trinidad and Tobago flag bearer(saintsathletics.com)
1
NCAA Skiing Championships hosted at Whiteface (1983, 2015, 2023)(saintsathletics.com)
3
First-year retention (fall 2024)(stlawu.edu)
90.3%

Related programs

You might also look at.

Sources, rights and updates

Where this comes from.

Every figure carries its reporting period and a link. Rosters and points come from official rosters and FIS or USCSA results. Photographs are Wikimedia Commons archive images under open licences, credited on each image.

40 source pages across 5 sites

Your future in skiing starts here

Ready to learn more about St. Lawrence?

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