<p>I dont know much about Middlebury but I definately would not be took quick to accepted Middlebury offer. If none of this is under a agreement plan you can accept your enrollment at Middlebury and if things change cancel out.</p>
<p>Think about some of the best journalists out there…they did not major in journalism at all. For example, Thomas Friedman…</p>
<p>Study what you like, work on the paper and the magazine, get good internships, do some free lance writing…and enjoy your rare opportunity!</p>
<p>College is almost inevitably a broadening and amazing experience, especially at a school such as Middlebury. There are about 2400 students, all looking to interact, learn and enjoy themselves. Your peers will be smart and challenging and you will find that many of them were incredibly talented people, who want to bring their talents to campus. Since the town and surrounding area are sparsely populated, the campus will be the center of your life, both culturally and academically and you will find yourself doing things that you might not have considered before–cheering friends at a fencing match, listening to a dorky, yet fun, acapella group, having coffee with professors. </p>
<p>I understand that Vermont is as different from NYC as can be, but I believe that you can definitely find a home at Middlebury, especially because you will have your posse with you and the support of the organization. As for journalism, I agree with many others who have pointed out that working on the school paper and majoring in another subject is excellent preparation for such a career. In connection with music, there will be many many talented musicians at Middlebury to play with and learn from. Here’s a link to some of them [The</a> Hookup](<a href=“http://community.middlebury.edu/~mmg/The_Hookup.html]The”>http://community.middlebury.edu/~mmg/The_Hookup.html)</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>And your peers (the majority of them) will be rich! and (and I don’t mean that facetiously) that will be a good learning experience, or at least it was for me.</p>
<p>I attended a journalism school and a number of profs recommended that students major in something else as well. History, political science, business, art, science – consider something that gives you depth and a base from which to write.</p>
<p>What attracted you to Middlebury initially? Has your perspective changed since going through Posse? Are you also a QuestBridge applicant at other schools (if that’s even allowed)? </p>
<p>Time to be an investigative journalist and make lists of questions of things you want to ask and information you want to obtain.</p>
<p>cobra, I would definitely think long and hard about whether you think you will be able to cope: can you handle an environment where pretty much everyone is smarter than you? Think about how hard it might be to stand out from the crowd when competing for jobs.</p>
<p>Time to turn up the cynicism a bit:
Make no mistake about it, these scholarships are not intended to help you so much as they are meant to make the school look good. I went to a high school from which quite a few minorities were recruited to top schools, and the story didn’t end happily for many of them. Some dropped out, others barely passed with a GPA that precluded them from most jobs. I actually do not have one happy story to tell about someone I knew from a poor background that flourished at a top university.</p>
<p>I’m not saying you can’t succeed – I don’t know you personally – but be brutally honest with yourself about whether you really can handle it.</p>
<p>I’d like to address a couple of posters</p>
<p>Arcadia:</p>
<p>You’re right on the enthusiasm. When I researched and visited schools like Boston, New Paltz, etc etc, I felt excited about them. I’m not feeling the energy for MIDD though. Maybe that will change when I visit but for now, I don’t just “feel it.” I don’t hate it, either though. I’ve grown open and like the idea of going to Midd under the program. </p>
<p>Countingdown:</p>
<p>I was not familiar with any of the Posse schools at the time I went through round one. But after researching the two that I really liked were Trinity and Middlebury. I actually spend the weekend and observed classes in Trinity and really enjoyed it. Middlebury was my second choice.</p>
<p>I was drawn to it because of it’s strong program and opportunities in writing. As well as the prestige, the idea of maybe trying to get into sports such as skiing or golf and a couple of other things. If it weren’t for Posse I probably would not apply, but posse itself is a great foundation and I love the idea of having posse members with my at college. I am not a questbridge applicant. Not too familiar with it.</p>
<p>Gthopeful:</p>
<p>Well, I’m a laid back person and really couldn’t care less if someone had better grades than me. “Smart” is subjective, though. I don’t have a 2350 SAT and a flawless 4.0, but just because you have those things does not make you smart or any better than anyone else. I think I can do well in any school, whether it’s community college or Middlebury. I understand concepts and I think I’m an intelligent guy in general.
…Well, at least I hope I am >___></p>
<p>BUT the problem comes in with doing your work and staying atop of your studies. I could see myself needing a little push with that in college. Honestly, who wouldn’t want that? Posse members being there for me may really help me succeed, I think.</p>
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[quotecobra, I would definitely think long and hard about whether you think you will be able to cope: can you handle an environment where pretty much everyone is smarter than you?
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<p>So sad this whole college app actually leads people to believe that SAT scores are somehow a measure of IQ. Nonsense. I’ve taught plenty of very high-scoring grinders in my day…let me assure you it has little to do with being more intelligent than the next person over. </p>
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<p>You do not know anything at all about the posse program do you? The OP would be much better served if you bothered to read the entire thread, and the program to which the OP would belong before you bother with your ‘advice’.</p>
<p>“I went to a high school from which quite a few minorities were recruited to top schools, and the story didn’t end happily for many of them. Some dropped out, others barely passed with a GPA that precluded them from most jobs.”</p>
<p>Doesn’t sound true. Graduation rates for minorities at top schools are higher than are graduation rates for minorities at less competitive schools. In some cases, URMs at top schools have higher graduation rates than do white students.</p>
<p>Also, I doubt that the poster was familiar with the college gpas of high school classmates. Most people don’t share such info, and most people don’t keep in such close touch with h.s. classmates. When it comes to getting jobs after graduation, in most cases employers don’t look at gpas anyway.</p>
<p>Below is a link to graduation stats for black students at top colleges. I notice that the graduation rate for black students at Middlebury is 79%. I suspect that’s due to black students’ transferring to other colleges due to Middlebury’s isolation and low percentage of black students. I doubt that they flunk out. Saying this as a black woman who went to Harvard and knows lots of black people who went to and graduated from top colleges. As long as one’s grades are good, it’s not that hard for URMs to transfer from one highly competitive college to another highly competitive college. </p>
<p>"Nationwide, the black student graduation rate remains at a dismally low 42 percent. But the rate has improved by three percentage points over the past two years. More encouraging is the fact that over the past seven years the black student graduation rate has improved at almost all of the nation’s highest-ranked universities…</p>
<p>For many years Harvard University, traditionally one of the nation’s strongest supporters of affirmative action, has produced the highest black student graduation rate of any college or university in the nation. But for some unexplained and possibly immaterial reason, Harvard slipped to second place in 2004. But now Harvard’s black student graduation rate has increased to 95 percent, once again the highest among U.S. colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Amherst College, a small liberal arts college in western Massachusetts, now has a black student graduation rate of 94 percent, the second highest in the nation. Last year Amherst had bested Harvard by two percentage points. Princeton University ranks third in the nation with a black student graduation rate of 93 percent. Six other highly ranked colleges and universities in the United States posted a black student graduation rate of 90 percent or above. They are Wellesley College, Brown University, Northwestern University, Washington University, Wesleyan University, and Williams College.</p>
<p>Eleven other high-ranking institutions have a black student graduation above 85 percent. They are Stanford University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Davidson College, Columbia University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Smith College, Swarthmore College, the University of Virginia, and Wake Forest University…"</p>
<p>The chart shows that several top colleges including Pomona, Macalester, and Smith have black graduation rates that exceed the graduation rates of white students.</p>
<p>[Black</a> Student College Graduation Rates Remain Low, But Modest Progress Begins to Show](<a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/features/50_blackstudent_gradrates.html]Black”>Black Student College Graduation Rates Remain Low, But Modest Progress Begins to Show)</p>
<p>Go. This sort of opportunity is life changing, from the sound of it. And major in anything but Journalism, go to grad school in journalism if you really must. Write freelance and pursue journalism independently- an undergrad degree in Journalism is basically meaningless.</p>
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<p>Did I mention the SAT? As a national merit scholar myself, I know how worthless it is to base intelligence or place merit on high SAT scores.</p>
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<p>Talk is cheap. The only “hard facts” I saw in the entire thread was that Vanderbilt reported that students in the program had a “90% college graduation rate”. What’s noticeably absent is where those 90% graduated from.</p>
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<p>It’s true, but I’m not going to elaborate since I know some of them read CC still. These were some of my closest friends, which is why I know so much about their situation (and why I’m so cynical about this kind of stuff). I also know where they gained employment after college. I was so compelled by some of their stories, I did not even apply to schools I had formerly dreamed of going to for graduate work. Of course, I should qualify that I speak of students who majored in science and technology fields, so perhaps journalism is less cutthroat.</p>
<p>As for black student graduation rate, that’s great to hear, (and I speak about all students when I say this) but with the pressure to help students graduate these days, there’s no telling how many of these people just graduated to “get out”, as they call it here at GT.</p>
<p>I went to the Posse website to learn more. Btw, it’s not that the info isn’t there, but they could sure could be better about communicating the core elements of the program as it is too many mouse clicks to get at it. </p>
<p>No elite college wants to be embarrassed by selecting ANY students that doesn’t make it there. To a degree (no pun intended), that means the college was wrong about them and administrations don’t like to be wrong. Elite colleges have always been about getting in not staying in once you get there. So, Posse promoting that 90 percent of their candidates graduate is twice the national average (for the same subset of kids) is fine but ignores that other schools are more ‘sink or swim.’ </p>
<p>That said, I made a donation to Posse. I like the idea that they are selecting students that display leadership, not just academic talent. I also buy into the idea of kids that already know the others kids going to a school have a built-in support system that helps. To me, most any kid struggles with things like time management when they go off to school. But a kid that has parents that went to school can talk to him about the real reality of it … who is a first generation kid going to talk to? His friends that are back in the city or his friends that came with him to the same school from the same city sharing much of the same experience? </p>
<p>This video hit home with me …</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Lots Of “Posse”-bilities (CBS News)](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV82M3wiJLc&feature=fvw]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV82M3wiJLc&feature=fvw)</p>
<p>“As for black student graduation rate, that’s great to hear, (and I speak about all students when I say this) but with the pressure to help students graduate these days, there’s no telling how many of these people just graduated to “get out”, as they call it here at GT.”</p>
<p>? Not sure what you’re suggesting. Do you think that professors and top universities collaborate to pass failing black students just to keep the schools’ graduation rates high? I’m guessing that since you went to UF and now are in grad school at Georgia Tech, you lack first hand information about how the top LACs and national universities operate.</p>
<p>"So, Posse promoting that 90 percent of their candidates graduate is twice the national average (for the same subset of kids) is fine but ignores that other schools are more ‘sink or swim.’ "</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s the same subset of students since Posse students are handpicked for their leadership and willingness to go to college in an unfamiliar environment where they’d be in the minority, and they also probably have demonstrated strong ability to withstand negative peer pressure. Those are key characteristics that would differentiate them from other first gen, low income students.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about the journalism thing. Colgate, for example, doesn’t have journalism either, and plenty of journalists have come from there.
I think one of the hard things is knowing your fate is sealed, even if its for the best, because you don’t want to miss out on other things. That’s why I didn’t apply ED anywhere</p>
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<p>“Failing”? Of course not. That’s why schools have been failing people of all races less to get around this issue. I just don’t think you can cite high increases in graduation rates as evidence of much.</p>
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<p>Northstarmom, I couldn’t even tell you how my own schools operate. My experiences anywhere would be a sample size of one, so I can only form my opinions based on what happens to others I know.</p>
<p>I don’t want to derail this thread, so this will be my last post. Please choose wisely, cobra. This doesn’t mean I am advising you to not go, because you have provided us with precious little to judge you on, but don’t end up getting blinded by the reputation of the school.</p>
<p>I agree with Ctyankee. I’m not familiar with Posse, but I do know several other similar programs. The key is that they don’t just provide money, but there is also mentoring. It is not just the school that wants you to succeed, but the program as well.</p>
<p>Personally, I think you’d have a better shot at succeeding in the Posse program at Middlebury than on your own at another institution.</p>
<p>The Posse program has an overall graduation rate of 90%. Has nothing to do with Vanderbilt or any particular school. Their track record is A+. </p>
<p>I think the OP would be wise to seek out the advice of professors, universities and people that actually know something about the Posse program and similar such programs, and not young people on CC quoting their worldly insight based on extremely narrow and irrelevant experience from their highschool. </p>
<p>From the Posse website: [Our</a> History + Mission — The Posse Foundation](<a href=“http://www.possefoundation.org/about-posse/our-history-mission/]Our”>http://www.possefoundation.org/about-posse/our-history-mission/)</p>
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<p>Anxiously awaiting Cobra’s thoughts after his visit today.</p>
<p>I hope he gets to talk to some other scholarship/city kids there. Could help him make up his mind…</p>
<p>So I have returned! </p>
<p>Middlebury was pretty awesome. I’ve never been treated with so much kindness <_<. All the students I talked to were really outgoing and friendly, willingly dropping whatever they were doing to help me out and talk to me, and were genuine about it.</p>
<p>The campus was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. As was the surrounding town and area. </p>
<p>I talked to a few students, including a few New York City kids who gave me some reassurance that I will be pretty busy on the campus. </p>
<p>And I did feel that way, there does seem like there is a fair bit of things to do. Still not perfect, but got me feeling better. </p>
<p>I didn’t see any cons except some probably silly things. Such as the women being taller than me (I’m a small guy xD), or possibly a lack of practice space for music. </p>
<p>I felt right at home, though. So, it looks like I’ll accept the Posse offer and try my best to be one of the 10 of 25 accepted to go to Middlebury. There are a lot worse options. Middlebury definitely impressed me.</p>