I agree. My daughter ended up at Middlebury because she was rejected at many other schools and at first was really worried about being in the middle of nowhere. She had also spent a gap year in a big city so I think we were all really nervous she might not like it. She is a skier which I think has helped a lot with the winter. She is really busy on campus with classes and activities. She has met a lot of wonderful people and traveled with some over spring break. I thought she might feel trapped but at least for the first year it hasnât worked out that way at all. I would definitely visit if at all possible before deciding.
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Any waitlist movement?
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One of my daughters friends was called yesterday and offered a spot for Feb
Anecdata addition: I took a look through the academic honors lists and summa/magna/cum laude lists based on weighted GPAâs, etc. in our Dâs graduation program. Itâs not a school that typically sends many kids to NESCACâs and other small LACâs in the NE other than the occasional lax or hockey player, but this year I knew of at least 6 from their Instagram college decisions page. Four of them are headed to Middlebury - two athletes, two URM students - and the other two are athletes going to Trinity and Colby.
One of the four Midd kids would have had a very good chance at acceptance there without their hook; one would have been someone you wouldnât have really batted an eye at 5-10 years ago, but really doesnât look like the stats of kids getting in these days, and two would be summarily rejected were it not for their hook. One of them is, at best, somewhere below the top 62% of the class in terms of weighted GPA. Itâs a competitive college preparatory high school, but for comparisonâs sake, others in that band are heading to schools like Dayton, Boulder, Syracuse, Baylor, Purdue, and Ole Miss (a wide range, certainly, but nothing remotely competitive to Middlebury in terms of admissions selectivity). Iâm not sure how the college weighs the other things this particular student brings to the buffet against the fact that they likely will need significant academic support if theyâre to take full advantage of all that a Middlebury education can provide.
This was repeated at the Ivies - only one kid into Cornell, but itâs an athlete somewhere in the approx. 29-62 percentile range of wGPA, for instance - and some of the other more prestigious universities like Duke and Northwestern, but not as pronounced as at the LACâs. Probably because of size - thereâs a football player going to an elite Power 5 school despite not nearly fitting the academic profile, but theyâll be joined by another half dozen top end students from his class. When youâve got a class size of 500, on the other hand, but youâre determined to fill out rosters for pretty much the same sports that a huge D1 public university carries, then something approaching 30% of the school is recruited athletes. Thereâs just a vanishingly small number of spots for everyone else, before even touching first generation, URM, and legacy considerations.
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