@Lindagaf does your daughter play any sports? what would she say is the balance between school and social life like?
@joy12345
My two sons were/are involved in sports at Midd
Both had no problem with balancing social and academic life
All the schools in the Nescac are set up so that your student can succeed in both aspects of college life
Does vegging with friends count as a sport? 
No, but she did debate last year, which was a big time commitment.
That’s a good question about balance. She is taking what seemed at first to not be a heavy schedule, including a foreign language and Art. But both classes are very intense, in a good way. She has another class with no tests, but it meets for four hours once a week and there is a lot of writing. 30% of the grade is class participation, which I LOVE because she has to talk (she’s a shy person.) Her fourth class is for her major and is the surpise cool class, which she initially thought would be uninteresting. She hasn’t yet had a single class she didn’t like. As far as social life, she has a very good group of friends and a boyfriend, and they go to campus activities. They take advantage of weekend shuttles to various places in Maine, and some of them drive so they go out in Lewiston, which is in fact a cool little town. They go other places too. She is never bored.
@joy12345 Bowdoin is incredibly difficult to get in. What is your home state?
@gearmom new york. i’m aware it’s very hard that’s why i plan on ED1 to one school and if i don’t get in which is likely i’ll ED2 to another
@joy12345 If you are female white and from NE (NY is close), it is particularly hard to get in. I would pick one of the others.
@gearmom do you think bowdoin is that much more selective than middlebury? I know Bates, especially ED, is much less selective than the other two
@gearmom, Bowdoin is really no more selective than Middlebury or Bates. If you’re a white female from the NE, your chances of getting into Midd are less than 10%. All of these schools are selective schools.
@urbanslaughter Really because Bates is in the low 20s for acceptance and Bowdoin is lower teens?
I do realize they are all selective but she needs to pick one.
@joy12345 I don’t think Bowdoin is much more selective than Middlebury but I don’t think your profile is strong enough for Bowdoin after seeing stronger applicants get denied ED1
I think Midd would be a good fit given everything you’ve said. Bates was a top choice for my D, she applied to both Midd and Bates but did not like Bowdoin. I would agree with the comment about “eliticism” feel.
You are a strong applicant. I think you should use ED1 for the school you truly see yourself being happiest at. Then do ED2 if you don’t get in to your top choice. This past cycle, more males than females matriculated at Bates. A lot of ED spots go to athletes at all of these schools. Any ED decision should be used for your unequivocal top choice. They are all very selective, so don’t use acceptance rates as a criteria.
@Lindagaf Her stats are good but I’m not sure about the everything else. Especially the ECs. OP you need to hit it out of the park with the essay.
@rman0070 Why do you think Middlebury is “more prestigious” than Bowdoin, Bates or Haverford? They’re all close enough that any stratification between them is subjective. Bowdoin is statistically harder to get into than Midd and typically does as well or better on most of the rankings as Midd.
Again, they are all close enough that it’s splitting hairs but I would say the conventional stratification is Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and Pomona on top then a bunch of close seconds that include Bowdoin, Middlebury, Haverford, Claremont MdKenna, Wesleylan, etc.
OP also needs to interview for any of those she applies to. They all consider the interview. OP, I suggest you request alumni interviews asap, if you haven’t already done so.
Your strategy of ED to one and then if it doesn’t work out doing ED2 at another is a good one, considering you seem to like all 3 equally. Do your parents have a preference, or can they picture you at one more than another? Maybe ask your gc that question as well.
@gearmom I think her profile has a great chance in ED. She’s correct that it’s more iffy with RD. Over half the final class at Bowdoin ends up coming from the ED pool and similar for Midd. RD admit rate is 12%, and harder than that for girls. But ED is in the 40% range.
The OP shouldn’t torture herself on this choice. She’ll likely have an amazingly great experience at either school and if she doesn’t it will likely be for reasons that would have been true at either of them. They both are truly great places. Midd is more rural but also prettier in my opinion. It’s physically larger and more spread out. It has 25-30% more students than Bowdoin but neither are large.
Having toured Midd twice, attended a couple days of seminars at accepted student day and spoken to numerous parents I know personally, I got the vibe that Midd is the most coddling/nurturing of the NESCAC schools, which I don’t say pejoratively – it can be good or bad depending on the student or parents POV. They focused way more time walking parents through everything from housing matching to the ability to appeal and move to how they deal with any student with marginal grades, etc. and assuring them all the ways they will keep parents involved and watch out for their kids than the others schools. They actually banned energy drinks on campus because they said it promotes “high risk sex” and leads to more alcohol consumption. Wesleyan was the other extreme, relative to the NESCAC’s. Definitely got a vibe that they consider the students adults who have both the freedom to do stupid stuff and the responsibility to figure most things out on their own. But this is splitting hairs – there is plenty of freedom and good resources at all the schools. I did like the sound of Midd’s special “Leadership” program. My son considered Midd, Wes and Bowdoin all very seriously after acceptances and decided at the last minutes on Bowdoin. He was leaning toward Midd until he did the accepted student overnight and got a bad vibe after being paired with a bunch of jocks. We would have been happy with any of them. He feels super confident he made the right choice, but I’m convinced he would have felt that way with any of those choices.
BTW, he was very worried about not ending up at a school that was too “preppy” or elitist or “no chill” when it came to studies and he says he hasn’t experienced any of that at Bowdoin. No one talks to each other about their grades or is academically competitive with each other. Most people seem self conscious if they come from wealth to not demonstrate it – if anything it’s considered social negative to flaunt affluence. The place isn’t full of students with fancy cars (like I used to see in LA around USC students or still see around Princeton). The only sign he’s seen of conspicuous wealth he says are all the Canada Goose jackets in the winter. He’s personally most wearing clothes from Target or T-shirts he got from the various high school activities over the years and gets no stigma about it. He doesn’t see any signs of or get any vibes about “elitism” at all, other than the sarcastic, self-mocking name of their major week-long spring party called “The Ivies” because supposedly so many of them turned down the Ivy League to go there (again, treated very tongue-in-cheek). And the professors are mostly super accessible and he knows many on a first name basis. All I can say is the image of elitism is totally at odds with his experience and he is definitely someone who wanted to eschew it.
@gearmom i asked which you thought would be the best fit not which you thought i’d get into. that’s something that’s very hard to predict. I also have additional EC and awards not listed. I also plan on interviewing, and I have extremely strong rec letters
@Lindagaf do you think it’d help that I could get a rec letter from a middlebury alumnai?
Typically, that kind of thing isn’t particularly helpful these days. If Midd accepts additional letters of rec, and the alum knows you well, there’s no harm. Don’t submit more than they allow though. If you just know the alum casually, it’s worthless, tbh.
@citivas thank you!!! this was very helpful