Rejected but not bitter, kinda knew it was a reach, more disappointed in wait list at Kenyon and denied at Colby as I thought I was a strong contender at those two, thinking financial aid at those two plays a bigger role than I thought.
@bleem7, probably all true. It all makes a lot of sense.
Rejected here, but not at all unhappy. I know this was a reach for me and of course middlebury admissions knew it was a reach too, but they didn’t have to act like. Fake it and answer my emails - don’t ignore me write a 5 word email back because it is clear you are not admitting me. Kinda poor taste. Only 1 admissions rep, but I am seriously unimpressed. 2 emails unanswered and 1 barely answered. Bad feeling about the place. Not sour grapes - already have another school, but still poor form I think.
Thx OnEdge2021. Also, 27 of the ~90 Febs for this year were already given offers during ED, which were binding. I would bet that the non-URM deferrals (60) who were ultimately accepted, would be made Febs, given their high interest. One could argue that they are “weaker” in some way, but the overall quality level of ED applicants is generally quite high, and again URMs are going to pull the GPAs and test scores down. Plus, there were a lot of outright rejections, so I suspect many of those deferrals might have had a pretty good shot. 28% of ED acceptances were URM, none presumably Febs (~96 students), meaning the September ED admits represented an even higher % URM. So the number of RD applicants who end up being Febs (and didn’t deliberately or inadvertently select either “no preference” or “Feb”) is actually probably fairly small. Middlebury is probably telling the truth about the characteristics of Febs if not “the whole” truth.
If a student spent time composing essays, submitting information, possibly attending an interview and now have the ability to state on this site to state that they were accepted, I would think being accepted would be the desired goal 
I can’t imagine that the start date would be the deal breaker if this was their ‘first choice’. It is not easy to get in to Middlebury - period! To all of the candidates that made it CONGRATS! Job Well Done!
@OnEdge2021 – Sorry to hear you had that experience. In contrast, my D was actually very impressed with Midd admissions. Her emails were all answered, virtually immediately, and always provided helpful information. She was waitlisted.
@cbredear, likely she was a better candidate.
@elise303 I’d like to think so (as her mom!) but some of her emails were sent before she had officially applied, so they very little information to go on. No point beating a dead horse – I just wanted to reassure future applicants that we found Midd admissions to be very responsive.
My daughter was accepted as a Feb and is not interested in starting months after the majority of the class. If you are waitlisted, maybe expressing that you would be delighted to start as a Feb in your letter of interest would help your case. I’m sure there will be others declining the Feb admission.
@bleem7 - As the parent of an admitted URM, who can happily write the tuition check and fund a gap semester, I have to object to your statement. Maybe your statement would be more accurate, if you stated that students with financial need are not offered February spots. I also disagree with you on qualified URM being viewed as unicorns. I believe it’s the 1st gen URM who get the big boost followed by URM from ecomically disadvantaged areas.
Thanks @stndacy for the suggestion.
Testingearly, I refer to the general situation; clearly there are plenty of exceptions. I think the hook of being a URM is pretty well established, though undoubtedly there are tiers as with anything else. The more additional hooks, the more attractive a student may be. There’s nothing wrong with a hook; frankly it’s getting impossible to be admitted without something that makes you stand out in addition to excellent academic performance. In the HS with which I have experience, admittedly anecdotal there is many years history of bimodal acceptance statistics, with URMs lower on GPA and test scores. Of course one could argue that both clusters meet the threshold for the colleges where the students ultimately went; but the difference remains nonetheless. Our athletic program is no great shakes, but I imagine elsewhere you might see something similarly bimodal for athletes and so on. Clearly again there are exceptions, cases where numbers don’t tell the whole story etc etc. But the overall results speak for themselves. I don’t think this differs from what I gather is the general situation elsewhere.
Here is Dean Clagett excerpted from https://middleburycampus.com/article/college-excludes-febs-from-diversity-stats/
“We tend not to offer February admission to American students of color unless they specifically ask for it, since we know that those same students will be receiving offers of admission from other excellent colleges, and typically for admission in September,” Clagett explained. “That’s why we want Middlebury’s offer of admission to be as comparable to those other offers as possible, since for some students, admission to the February cohort can be a less attractive option.”
Ashton Coghlan ’11, a September student, said that this information led him to understand why diversity statistics do not seem to match up with what he sees on campus.
“This makes sense,” Coghlan said. “When you look at the diversity figures that the College gives, they make it seem like this school is much more diverse than it actually is. So I guess this shows how it doesn’t add up.”
Rhiya Trivedi ’12.5, a Canadian-born Feb student of Indian descent, said that she is very aware of being one of few non-white Feb students on campus.
“The lack of racial diversity of the Feb classes is something I’ve definitely thought about,” Trivedi said. “There’s a connection-building exercise that we do at Feb orientation where we stand up if we have something in common. At one point when I was a Feb leader, someone said, ‘Stand up if you are a student of color.’ And of all of the Feb leaders and new Febs, I was the only person of color. It was just kind of awkward.”
Is it true that if you apply ED and are Feb’d the decision is still binding? I chose that I’d prefer to attend in September.
If you say you choose September as an ED applicant they will not admit you as a Feb. That is not true, however, for the RD round… in RD even if you say you prefer September they could still admit you as a Feb. Either way just know that Middlebury Febs have a fantastic experience. I get that there is skepticism about Feb admits for a variety of reasons but from everything I hear from my Middkid (who was not a Feb) she says the Febs are a truly remarkable group and would have without a doubt been exceedingly happy to matriculate with the Feb cohort.