Middlebury Class of 2027 Official Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Middlebury College
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Congratulations to all who were accepted! For those who weren’t, it’s not because you weren’t “good enough”.

This year they accepted a particularly large number ED (516), so the number accepted RD was almost certainly smaller than earlier years, so it was a particularly tough year. That means that many extremely qualified applicants weren’t accepted. That means that Middlebury is not able to accept many applicants who are excellent matches. This year they could not accept most of the best matches.

I’m not at all surprised that many applicants who were not accepted to Middlebury were accepted by other excellent colleges, including colleges which have lower acceptance rates than Middlebury.

There are simply far more of you amazing applicants than there are places in many of these colleges.

The good news is that you are all, as I wrote, amazing, and I’m certain that you will do amazing things no matter where you end up!

PS. For actual numbers, of those 516 ED accepted applicants, 30 were Posse, likely no more than 10 were Questbridge (it’s their first year as a QB partner), and roughly 160 were recruited athletes.

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I don’t know…I just find this stuff fascinating to think about I guess… I also have a kid behind her so anything I can glean from this experience is useful. For example, I think what you said makes a lot of sense…if my D had applied ED to Middlebury I expect they would have taken her.

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Perhaps. Or maybe they had 3 of “her” there already and they were all athletic recruits.Or maybe Brown would have loved her - they havea great Latin departmentand might nothavehad a ton of kids interested in classics. Swat did love her, right? Great school - serious academics.

Every school tends to attract a lot of certain types of kids which often means you either find a place where you’ll be an outlier (and possibly unhappy as a result) or you have at least a dozen doppelgangers, making admissions a crap shoot. In our case, my kid looked like half the kids recruited for every sport - except that he wasn’t a recruit because he wasn’t excited by the schools where the coach was interested in him. Admirable priorities - tough admissions strategy!

Since you’re looking for lessons, remember it’s not just about academic fit, it’s the whole package. It’s easy to get caught up in academic stats, especially when you have a high stats kid, but know that most of the applicants will meet that threshold. And who knows, Dartmouth might come through in the RD round. She will excel wherever she lands - that’s the part to remember.

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This one was a “reach” for my DD - but she’s heard nothing yet. Isn’t that unusual? I’m seeing here that people were accepted, waitlisted, and rejected. That said, she should have received something in the way of feedback. So strange …

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Middlebury’s decisions should have all been out last Saturday. You say heard nothing, but has she logged into the Middlebury portal? The e-mail that results are available might have landed in spam or buried in a general e-mail avalanche.

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Nothing on her portal? If she hasn’t received anything at all, it’s worthwhile reaching out. The date for release of admissions decisions was March 18th.

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Well my S23 didn’t actually read his Middlebury decision. He saw it said something negative instead of “Congratulations” so he closed it. He wasn’t rejected he was waitlisted. Very likely the same outcome, but he did take his spot on the WL.

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Did anyone who got in not submit test scores?

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I didn’t and got accepted!

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My son applied without test scores and was accepted RD.

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Thanks! Would you mind sharing your stats?

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Entire process is stupefying. My daughter was accepted to Middlebury! No language. Did not submit test scores. 4.0 GPA but no APs. Average ECs. Middle class. Undecided with interest in music.

Also accepted to U of Rochester. Waitlisted to F&M, Swarthmore, Haverford and Colby. Declined by HWS, Wesleyan and Dickinson. Accepted at other higher accept rate schools like ConnColl, Bard, Clark, Wheaton (MA).

Probably useful to remember that you have to fit a school’s slot for any given academic year, regardless of stats. I reminded my daughter of that every time we talked and encouraged her not to take any of it personally.

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Does anyone have advice on choosing between Middlebury or Haverford? I may not even go liberal arts but I’m having a hard time.

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Middlebury no question. Fantastic school, smart engaged students who really want to be there. A great education.

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Thank you! Do you know if it’s good for pre-law?

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cousin attended Haverford (graduated maybe 7-8 years ago). Loved it. Made wonderful friends. Also followed it up with a Ph.D. from MIT. I have nothing bad to say about Midd except they WL my son, so screw 'em. Haverford is in a less remote location, if that matters to you.

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Haverford and Midd are really different in terms of vibe. Midd is rural and isolated, Haverford has easy access to Philadelphia and is part of the tri-co consortium. Haverford may be a bit more “life of the mind”, while Midd is sportier. Both are excellent schools, so neither is better, but one may be a better fit for you.

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Very different in size and location. A visit would probably help you determine which might be best for you.

Both will get you into a top law school if you put in the work. But then again, so will Bunker Hill Community College. Whether you gain admission to a top law school is more about you than it is about your undergrad college.

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I don’t know about differences in “life of the mind”, since that would be a definition of any LAC, the approach is different.

Middlebury is the archetypical rural LAC. Very outdoorsy, and more engaged in physical activities, which is to be expected when the area is really beautiful all year round, but also has more limited offerings of the big-city type cultural offerings than one would find in a suburban setting such as Haverford.

So outdoors activities are very much part of the culture, and “crunchy” culture is very common -the Middlebury campus achieved carbon neutrality in 2016. They also supplement their pretty good dining with stuff from their own gardens, especially in the fall. So the importance of the outdoors as part of the intellectual life is definitely part of Middlebury’s philosophy, which is why it has such a strong environmental science program.

By way of students, Middlebury has a higher percent of wealthy students, though they have made very large steps in increasing diversity, both ethnic/racial and income-wise.

Haverford is a more typical suburban LAC, and has easy public-transportation access to Philadelphia. So more big city type cultural offerings, and it is also near to a bunch of other colleges - Bryn Mawr is within walking distance, Villanova is just down the road, Swarthmore, Drexel, Temple, and UPenn are not too far away, and others.

Haverford is also smaller - about 1,500 students to Midd’s 2,500.

Academically, students are very similar, and acceptance rates are very similar. However, the vibes are different,

I’m surprised to see kids who are considering them both.

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Regarding the “being isolated” view of Middlebury, I’d like to share S22’s experience. He is a first year there now. He originally wanted a school in a big city, so ending up at Midd was a surprise.
He does not have a car, and is there because of generous financial aid (he does not have a lot of $ to spend on things).
Unexpectedly, he has gone so many places this year.
I think it’s what they make of it. During the week it is pretty intense between classes and studying. He joined the rugby club and has traveled around the region with that, staying twice in Boston (at the house of someone on the team).
During the February break he and his friends from his dorm took the train to New York, got an Airbnb in Brooklyn and went all over NYC. One weekend he traveled to visit a friend’s friend at Yale. During spring break he road-tripped with some friends to one of their houses in Florida where they visited some sights, UF (more friends), and the beach a bunch. They have also driven up to Burlington for shopping trips and a concert.
In other words, he’s getting out.
During his free time on campus, besides rugby practice, he has done ceramics, intramural sports, works out at the gym, gone skiing at the snow bowl, seen campus performances and occasionally goes to parties. He hangs out in his dorm or around campus with friends a lot. He probably has done a bunch more that I don’t know about because I hardly hear from him.
These travels and activities make it less isolated than we expected. Just my 2¢.

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