Would appreciate the thoughts of anyone who is familiar with both of these schools
What are your areas of academic interest? Is the cost to your approximately the same?
Both are great schools. Congrats!
I’d give an edge to Middlebury on reputation and its gorgeous campus. Food is known to be great at both.
Waitlisted at Bates?
I’m the parent of a Bates senior. My father was a Middlebury alum (as was my sister); my mother went to Bates. These schools were famous in my family culture. My son applied to both and was waitlisted at Midd; Bates offered him a good tuition package and he has been very happy there. I went into the college search phase with him thinking Midd would be preferable, mostly because of its reputation and because I thought he would like the campus. However, when visiting in 2012, I was surprised to feel put off by what I perceived as a country club atmosphere–so many huge, fancy buildings. It felt slick to me. My son was disappointed to be waitlisted there, but in fact when we made the (pre-application) college visits he seemed to prefer the relatively cozy atmosphere at Bates–a main campus of just over 100 acres, with additional environmental preserve acreage on the coast. And yes, the food is great.
My understanding is that over the years Midd has put a lot of money into growing its campus–and it has its own golf course and a ski area. Bates, on the other hand, tends to hold its endowment a little closer. There are local ski areas and golf courses, but they are not owned by the College. If you are interested in languages, I think Middlebury is where you want to be (although Bates has some really good study abroad programs–Japan in particular), and I believe environmental science is a strength.
Bates has super debate team and a very strong Econ department. In the arts, its strong point is said to be dance. Historically, it has made educating rural kids a priority (e.g. my mother) and turning out “teachers and preachers” (also my mother). However, more recently, I believe just as many graduates head for Wall Street and law school, and like Middlebury, it now mines the private schools of NYC and the west coast as well as the public high schools of New England. My senior, who double majored in Math and Philosphy, is heading to a tech job after graduation (the career center did a great job in assisting with this).
So there’s my two cents. You may find your experience of these schools to vary. Middlebury has a higher ranking, to be sure. I think the education is comparable, depending on what you want to focus on.
Middlebury and Bates are two of my favorite schools out there.
D15 is at Middlebury and couldn’t be happier. She also looked at Bates and seriously considered it as well. She loved Bates but in the end she liked the size and location of Middlebury (wanted to be in the mountains not just near them). Also, she knew env studies would be a strong program at Midd and sure enough that is her declared major.
D18 has just wrapped up her college tours and Bates is one of her favorite/top three schools. She loves the atmosphere at Bates- non judgmental, very open and friendly students, close knit community. No Greek life. She is interested in psych and also in teaching- loves the opportunity for involvement in the greater Lewiston/Auburn area. Bates is the only east coast school she is considering, her others are more out west.
Have you also posted in the Midd forum? You will get more Bates-bias here:-)
I am a Bates parent. My D never considered Midd at all. It sounded too remote, too hoity-toity, too preppy. I know a girl who is very happy at Midd, but she is a language major. One thing about Bates kids for sure is that they are not pretentious.
As for “teaching and preaching” that’s quite funny! I am going to share that with my freshman who will probably be appalled. Bates’ chapel is non-denominational and the stained glass windows feature great thinkers from history. Certainly no religious vibe at the college, but the chapel is used for many different things. If I had to sum up the Bates ethos in one word, I would say “inclusive.” Both D and I think there is a great mix of all kinds of kids. No greek life is quite important to many of the students.
Another important factor: Bates isn’t isolated. Portland is a really great small city and only 45 minutes away. Freeport is a fun town with excellent shopping and restaurants. The college provides free shuttles to both almost every weekend. Kids eat out in Lewiston, and there is a shopping center near campus. Plus, you can ski free at the local ski hill. Maine season ski passes are only $200.
Middlebury is higher ranked, not sure why,but there is another thread discussing that somewhere. I will link it if I can find it, but in part, it’s because Bates has a smaller endowment. The endowment is smaller because it has a long history of admitting women and African- Americans, traditionally groups that do not earn as much as some others. Both have excellent proffessors. You won’t go wrong with either, so choose the one that you feel is yout fit. Good luck!
@Lindagaf this quote from you made me laugh.
“Middlebury is higher ranked, not sure why,but there is another thread discussing that somewhere. I will link it if I can find it, but in part, it’s because Bates has a smaller endowment. The endowment is smaller because it has a long history of admitting women and African- Americans, traditionally groups that do not earn as much as some others.”
Middlebury has been co-ed since 1883. The first female graduated from Middlebury in 1886. Bates graduated their first female in 1869, so yes, Bates has been admitting women for about 15 more years than Middlebury. Middlebury is the first school in the country to grant a degree to an African American - Alexander Twilight, who graduated in 1823. That over 30 years before Bates was even founded. There’s a building on campus today named after him. Bates first African American graduate was in 1868 - 45 years after Middlebury’s. So, I’m not sure that accepting women and blacks is the reason for the difference in endowment. Either way, it’s not like Bates is poor.
With regard to endowments - sure alumni giving is an important component, but for many of the LACs with very latge endowments, there was often a huge single gift made, or a fortuitous turn of events with donated stock. Tiny Grinnell, which has a huge endowment for a school of its size $1.5 billion, benefitted greatly by having a stake in Intel stock before it went public and also having Warren Buffet as a long time trustee who gave money and formulated extremely successful investment advice for the endowment. Richmond is another school with a huge endowment and they benefitted greatly by a $50m gift in the 1960’s by the Robins pharmaceutical family. By today’s dollars, that gift is still among the largest ever recorded by a school.
@urbanslaughter . I makes no claims to know much about Middlebury, which is at least 50 years older than Bates. I said that Bates has a long association with the African American community, which it does. Bates was definitely the first college in New England to admit women. Bates also has its origins rooted in the fact that it was founded to provide higher education to more working class people than nearby Bowdoin. So, yes, traditionally these are all groups of people who earned less. As I said earlier, it’s about inclusion at Bates.
As for the endowment and alumni giving, I can tell the OP that the current president has raised $120 million for the endowment in the last four years. And this article is from 2015, so I don’t know how accurate it still is.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/03/college-most-alumni-donate_n_6409268.html
It’s not a debate about one being better than the other. Middlebury is a great school. The OP wanted some opinions, so I gave mine. Please feel free to give yours.
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Both are great LACs. I’m not convinced that there are easily discernible differences in the personal or academic qualities of the student bodies. There are very obvious differences in size, location, and areas of academic emphasis and excellence. Students choosing between the two select Middlebury more often than Bates:
@Lindagaf I think you misunderstood me when you said, “It’s not a debate about one being better than the other. Middlebury is a great school. The OP wanted some opinions, so I gave mine. Please feel free to give yours.” I made no claims about one being better than the other. I simply disagreed with the reasoning you provided for why one’s endowment was larger than the other, and I provided some facts to support my reason for disagreeing. I think Bates is a fine school and while its endowment is not as high as many of its fellow NESCACs, it’s not like the school is struggling to survive.
Hey there! Congrats on your admissions! You must be an exceptional student to have been accepted at both of these amazing institutions. I have done extensive research on both of these colleges through personal visits, reading their websites in depth and by reading any and all opinions I could find online. My disclaimer for this comment is that Middlebury was my first choice, applied ED1 and was denied. Bates was my second, applied ED2 and was accepted. With that being said, I’ll be attending Bates in the fall and looking back over my experiences with both, I’m glad for it.
Academics and sports at both of these institutions rock. You didn’t need me to tell you that, but my point is that no matter which one you choose, you have little chance of choosing wrong in that department. Of course each has their own specialties (Bates has been known in the past for its tendency to graduate"teachers and preachers," and it’s recent addition of a computer and data based department and Middlebury places a special emphasis on its language and environmental programs) but mostly I feel like they’ll easily be comparable. I have a sense that the workload at Middlebury is a touch heavier however that’s just from what others have written.
Bates was much more comfortable to me that Middlebury. I felt like Middlebury had a more competitive air to it. It just struck me as preppy and exclusive both times I visited, where as the people at Bates set me more at ease. I went up to a random table full of people at Bates and they happily answered my questions for about 10 minutes. Not to say anyone was unfriendly at Middlebury, but that’s just how I felt.
The food was much better at Bates in my opinion (and with one mostly centrally located dining hall, it felt a bit more homey).
Middlebury had a more appealing campus for me however. I just really loved the wide open space, the stone buildings and the gorgeous Vermont landscape. Bates is also really pretty, though I think anything compared to Middlebury’s campus will have a hard time matching up. It was also really big which I think would be troublesome in the winter time.
Middlebury had nicer library and science facilities. Town is a short walk away. At Bates, lewiston is honestly up to your own opinion, but I think I’m going to appreciate it’s diversity and wealth of opportunities that I know I couldn’t have found in a place as rural as Middlebury. Bates also has a bigger emphasis on purposeful work and community engagement. Middlebury seems to have done more with sustainability, but everything I have read about Bate’s sustainability programs have made me absolutely giddy for next year.
Overall, I think where I am at athletically and academically (18/377 students, public school) Bates is much more my style. If I had been accepted to Middlebury, I know I would have felt like I was constantly trying to be “good enough.” Of course as an accepted student, I’m sure you fit in better there than I would have 
I just think you need to take a moment, put the stats and rankings aside, and ask yourself where you think you’ll thrive, both as a person and as a student. That was hard for me to do. If I had done that better and evaluated myself better, I would have figured out that Bates was for me much sooner. I wish you the best of luck!
I read somewhere that part of the reason for its smaller endowment is:
-Smaller class size (1,800 Batesies vs. 2,500 Midd Kids)
-Bate’s reputation of graduating “preachers and teachers.” Though the preacher comment is likely outdated, a significant portion of their graduates have dipped into the education field. More generally, the comment is meant to imply that Bates turns out more students who go into fields that pay less, but are emotionally rewarding. These kind of people do not have thousands or millions to donate.