Honesty Pro/Con of Middlebury

<p>There aren't too many posts on here, so I'm calling all current/former students or whoever, to give, in their opinion, the strengths and weaknesses of Middlebury.
Thanks</p>

<p>Middlebury College is like most of the other top north eastern liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Williams, Wellesley, Swarthmore, to name a few) in that it offers an excellent academic program with many strong majors, has a small, tight knit student body (thus creating an amazing sense of community), and has good grad school placement. What separates Midd from these others top NE LACs is that it has strong programs in foreign languages, international affairs, and environmental studies. Middlebury is known for having a good international affairs program, lots of study abroad options, and intensive language schools. Midd is also, according to PrincetonReview, known to have very happy students and features an administration that "runs the school like better."</p>

<p>Midd also has cool places to go skiing!! They even have their own snow bowl!</p>

<p>The only real problem with Midd is its location...Rural Vermont. In a very cold area. With very little going on outside of the campus itself. It's a 45 minute drive to Burlington, which, while being an interesting and progressive city, doesn't offer too much to do.</p>

<p>Well OniLawliet pretty much got all the strengths dead on...
But the location... can be a problem or it can be nice. Rural Vermont has something a lot to offer to people who like climbing, hiking, skiing, sailing, picking apples, admiring fall foliage, etc. I've lived in rural Vermont for most of my life and (somewhat coincidentally) am now still going to school in rural Vermont. While I've wanted to live closer to an urban area for a while now (the lack of shopping, nightlife, etc. can get to you), I really love Vermont. I'll be studying abroad next year in two large cities so I'll still get some urban experience while in school.
Anyway, long story short, location for some is a pro and for some is a con.</p>

<p>Thanks guys,
that really helped.
I am wondering about the student body though.
I've heard a wide range of things about them, so I'm hoping someone can comment in their own words, their take on it, and whether it's a pro/con of the school.</p>

<p>I think that the Middlebury student body is fairly representative of what you'll find in most small colleges--a range of crunchy, hippie types, jocks, over-studious people, artsy people, gays, straights and everything in between, etc. There's always some truth in stereotypes, so whatever you've heard will probably be somewhat right. (when it comes to stereotypes about us, I think of Middlebury-sweatpants-wearing jocks, which is not the total picture, but is definitely a segment of the student body) There are more international students here on average, I think... At the same time, though, I'm pretty sure the overall number of minorities is lower than some similar schools.</p>

<p>I was there over the weekend and the student body is ridiculously hot. Couldn't find a single ugly student strolling on campus. Maybe it's part of the campus beautification that I don't know about but this would be a pro for Middlebury.</p>

<p>Cany anyone comment on Middlebury's Commons system, is it as good as other schools (Yale, Rice etc) what are the pro/cons?</p>

<p>And also, what kind of stuff goes on in the wintertime, besides winter sports, in the athletics complexes or around campus?</p>

<p>I think they're actually trying to shift away from the commons system now. I don't think it worked out quite as well as they imagined. The idea was to create little mini campuses... each commons would have a quad and the housing would be clustered to create smaller communities. But the housing is still sort of spread out and people weren't happy with some inequalities in terms of junior and senior housing. So commons only apply to freshman and sophomore year now, junior and senior year you can try to live anywhere. Pretty much, the commons system doesn't play a huge role for me. I'm in Atwater, which means that a lot of stuff I do goes through the Atwater commons office and I can get free tickets to concerts that Atwater gives out, I can go to Fondue Friday (exactly what it sounds like--fondue buffet once a month on Friday afternoon), etc.
In winter, winter sports are big (skiing, or learning how to ski, going to hockey games, broomball, etc.), but there are still parties, concerts, random snowball fights, sledding on the hills next to Battell Beach or in front of Mead Chapel... You obviously can't just hang out outside like people are doing today, but there's still stuff going on.</p>

<p>PROS: I visited middlebury over the accepted students weekend, and found the student body to be a lot more diverse and eclectic than I'd expected, in a really good way. Such an insanely beautiful campus. Gorgeous location - panoramic mountain views.</p>

<p>CONS: There was some construction going on. The museum was smaller than ideal. At least in my case, not getting much generosity at all on the financial aid front. Unsatisfactory tourguide this time - a Feb who had been at Middlebury for two months; I knew a lot more than he did about the school.</p>