<p>Thank you JWesley. I think she’s telling us more about herself too. </p>
<p>Back in your day, SWH, midd was still a top LAC, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.</p>
<p><<<Thank you JWesley. I think she’s telling us more about herself too.</p>
<p>Back in your day, SWH, midd was still a top LAC, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.>>></p>
<p>Hardly–the bottom third of my high school class applied to and got in to Middlebury, SMU, Hamilton, NYU, 'SC, and BU. Oh, yes, and Chapman was a school for kids I knew who were fairly learning disabled; I do not mean that unkindly, merely, factually. I remember a skiing family, all of whose children had successively flunked out of UCSB; all of them found a transfer spot at Middlebury.</p>
<p>I may be ancient, but my memory serves me well. I can even recount specific battles at Gettysburg; next posting, I’ll tell you and JWesley about Little Round Top.</p>
<p>I’m not questioning whether that was YOUR perception, just whether it was accurate. You clearly have Middlebury confused with someplace else.</p>
<p>Fact:
</p>
<p>@ urbanslaughter: Veiled references to peoples’ ages do not advance anyone’s case. Take heed.</p>
<p>Uh in case anyone was interested, you know in between having fights on this little post thing, I registered for Dartmouth in a fit of passive aggression. I was fighting with my parents because they really wanted me to go to Dartmouth and I was just so sick of arguing that I went ahead and did it.</p>
<p>I hope I made the right choice, I hope that I’ll be happy. I’ve been thinking about it recently and how rash my actions were and I really hope the next four years don’t suck.</p>
<p>Paying3tuitions I wasn’t referencing her age so much as the error of her perception - in a humorous, if needlessly sarcastic, way.</p>
<p>Bringitback… </p>
<p>I really don’t think you will be unhappy… not in the least. And I get where your parents are coming from. An Ivy is an ivy after all. Plus, I know plenty of kids at Dartmouth (more than I know who attend Middlebury, to be honest) and they are all deliriously happy. This includes URMs, athletes (not one and the same), legacies and a few “plain” folk (aka no tips). Some are into the frat scene, others not. I don’t think you could go wrong between the two. So don’t look back and have a wonderful summer in anticipation of a great freshman year.</p>
<p>As for the discussions about how things “used” to be at any school or whatever the perceptions: I have never known Middlebury to be anything but a truly solid LAC - even before its rise in USNWR rankings. My father went to Cornell and his brother graduated from Middlebury and there was never any feeling that one went to a lesser school than the other. Truth is, Tufts was always known to be a fallback school and one could hardly continue to see it that way today. Perceptions shift, programs promoted, applicants evolve and selectivity increases, plus it is my opinion that none of the schools are the same as they were before the change in law to 21 drinking age.</p>
<p>The truth is both perceptions are accurate.</p>
<p>Before the explosion of FA most elite private schools were for people with money who often bought their way into the most respected institutions.</p>
<p>Anyone remember W’s transcript at Yale? All gentleman’s C’s peppered with the occasional D.</p>
<p>She is saying that Midd was like that, too. I don’t think anyone would actually call Yale a bad school, would you? And yet…</p>
<p>And W went for a masters at Harvard, too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe Senator Kerry would have been a better example.</p>
<p>Kerry “received four D’s in his freshman year out of 10 courses.”</p>
<p>Bush received one D in four years.</p>
<p>No big deal. Just sayin’ ;)</p>
<p>[Yale</a> grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/06/07/yale_grades_portray_kerry_as_a_lackluster_student/]Yale”>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/06/07/yale_grades_portray_kerry_as_a_lackluster_student/)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And I’m just saying if S got one D, let alone four (!) he’d be looking at going to school somewhere completely other than where he is!! OK… maybe I wouldn’t freak completely but I can guarantee you his father would! :)</p>
<p>This post has gone in some fascinating directions. Kind of a Rorschach of CC politics, plus a little upper class/educational snob sniping from various camps.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why putting Midd down so strongly in such an obviously biased way helps Dartmouth, or the OP. Girls at Dartmouth in the 1970s were called “co-hogs” by the boys, if you want a slam back…</p>
<p>Both are great schools, and I congratulate the OP on his success. Both have a tolerant atmosphere. Both have excellent stats at placements etc. The reason to chose one over the other would be size, campus vibe, and more of the intangibles. Both will be populated with very bright, academically committed individuals.</p>
<p>Don’t agonize over your decision, the fact that you were undecided likely means you would be happy at either place!</p>
<p>Modadunn, I didn’t mean getting four D’s isn’t a big deal. I was referring to mythmom’s error as not a big deal :)</p>
<p>Oh I knew that… I guess I was just saying that my kid aint going to be a presidential candidate OR president if that’s the criteria. :)</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to slam Midd. My only point was that all elite schools have always and probably will always take the children of the uber wealthy and elite no matter what their credentials are. </p>
<p>It was actually meant as a defense of Midd and to say it was in good company.</p>
<p>@ CrewDad: mea culpa.</p>
<p>“Middlebury, which in my day was a ski school for rich kids who couldn’t get into the UCs”</p>
<p>Wow, I have to disagree with this (I graduated from Midd about 30 years ago). There were more than a few who fit this description, but they were a decided minority in my experience. Most of my friends were bright, serious students who majored in the sciences (including many who are now MDs), Geography, Russian, English, Political Science (including some future lawyers), etc. Many students didn’t ski, and 'A’s were not handed out willy nilly; a family member who attended an Ivy at that time encountered an easier grading scale than that at Middlebury. And if you wanted to find the rowdiest frat parties with the most liquor (the drinking age was 18), you would to do just as well or better to go to over to Dartmouth for the weekend as to stay at Middlebury.</p>
<p>My Midd friends from the 70s-80s were class valedictorians(3), 1 physician and 2 phDs. Not partiers, one Russian/Russian History, one Biology/Creative Writing and the other Economics. They were not rich either, and did not ski.</p>