Hi everyone, So far in my college search process my #1 is middlebury. I’m very interested in Japanese, and environmental studies/sustainability and Midd has that, not to mention state of the art and gorgeous campus. I visited last week and I really liked everything, except how far away it is from my hometown, Seattle. I don’t mind the rural setting because I’m pretty outdoorsy but being so far away from my family (10+ hour trip) is really scary and I don’t know if I will like that. Any advise??
Are you a senior and have already applied or a junior looking to build a college list?
Spread your wings and don’t let fear hold you back.
My kids both went to a new part of the country for college and really loved doing that. It does mean it is tough to go home for Thanksgiving, but colleges like Midd usually have some students who stay on campus every year, and you may get invited for dinner or for the weekend to someone more local’s house as an option as well. My kids are really happy they went somewhere different.
You can certainly go home for winter break and in the summers, and spring break if you want to. Once you get outside of the PNW, what are the odds that you are going to go home much anyway outside of those windows?
I did have each of my kids apply to a match school near home just in case they decided they’d rather not go far, but both picked a school that was several states away instead. You could do that, too. You don’t have to decide until next spring.
Junior
I am just curious: How would you get from Seattle to Middlebury? Does Middlebury run buses from Boston Logan airport at the beginning and end of the school year? Would you take a flight to Burlington and take a bus from there? For a one time trip it would seem that renting a car would work, but I don’t know if you would want to rent a car with remote drop off every time that you are going back and forth between school and home.
It seems like this is something that you should know the answer to before deciding to go to Middlebury.
It also seems to me that there are some very good universities closer to, or even in, Seattle.
My youngest has gone out of the country for university (to Canada), and having a convenient way to get from there to here was something that she took into account when choosing from among several very good schools.
@doschicos I’m a junior but I was thinking about ED
@DadTwoGirls , There are non-stops to Boston, and I’m pretty sure they do some sort of bussing (3.5 hour trips) for term breaks and the start of the year. However, I would not be able to rent a car because I think you have to be 25, and flights to Burlington are much more expensive than into Boston.
Lots of kids make the trek to Middlebury from out of state and even other countries. I’m sure you could work the transportation out.
It would be far for my kids.
But my 2 nieces both attend Clemson, a 14 hour drive from our Long Island home, and love it.
My son is 10 hours away and has loved it. He took his car and drove with us there, flies home for Thanksgiving, drove home for winter break and went with friends on spring break. He drove to the airport and took several students with him (2 hour drive. Lots of students help others to and fro on breaks. He loves being away but he is very independent.
@teenangstanxious We’re from MT and my daughter (now a junior at Midd) flies into Burlington through Chicago or Minneapolis or Detroit or Newark (depending on the airline). The Burlington airport does have service to a few major hubs… from Seattle you’d most likely use Delta or United… and because you are starting from a major hub the prices won’t be as bad as they can be for us. Middlebury runs multiple buses to and from the Burlington airport on the holidays. If the bus schedule still doesn’t fit your own schedule there is a private company called Middtravel similar to a taxi service but with larger vans to shuttle students. Very affordable if you can split the ride with others.
OP: with your interests, Midd could be an excellent fit. I had several friends from the west coast, including Seattle - the usual route is out of Burlington via Chicago, Detroit or a hub of your choice. There’s a bus service from Midd to BTV and there are shuttles, of course - BTV is 45 mins to an hour, depending on traffic.
I am from the PNW as well and am currently at Midd. I honestly dislike it a lot and am transferring in the Fall. The feeling here is not at all like the west coast which is somewhat to be expected. Without any family (extended) out here, it is not worth being so far away from home. Also the outdoor community here is disappointing. If you don’t have a car, you are not going to be doing much. The outdoor club is pretty lackluster. In addition, the science departments in general seem to be falling apart. There are too many students, not enough teachers, and not enough lab space. I don’t recommend, not worth the price tag.
@science22 that’s interesting. Could you provide any more specifics? How’s the CS department doing?
If you really love Midd and find it unique, then don’t let the travel stop you. S1 was considering it (he was a recruited athlete, so was likely to be admitted), but it was one among other LAC’s that were similar, and getting there was a hassle he didn’t need compared to the others.
My D applied and we are from MA. I found it far too isolated and worried about travel back and forth during snow, adding much additional time to driving in bad weather. It is not an easy school to get to even in the best of circumstances. I estimate about an hour + from any major interstate.
Be very careful about school-sponsored travel arrangements. My D’s LAC advertised holiday and spring break transportation and it just wasn’t true, or had been cancelled just her first year? Getting to the airport, bus station or train station required a cab/$$ and the logistics are terrible for that type of transport. To take a bus, she had to go to Boston for transfer and then to Cape Cod so a 5 hour trip ends up being 7 or 8, same with the train. Flights were outrageous ALB-PVD or ALB-BOS but good options for other travel spots including MCO and to other family members at BWI. After that first year, she took a car and drives herself back and forth.
We live in Southern California and my D is a freshman at Midd and she loves it and is getting use to the cold weather. She came home for a three-day break in October and that was a lot of travel but she already thinks Midd is the best decision she’s made so far; teachers, classes, and the community.
I happened to be in Middlebury last weekend for a reason other than anything to do with the college. I love New England, love the outdoors and have never lived in a large city. However, while I was there I found myself saying, “this is beautiful but I could not go to school or live here.” The isolation is real and honestly I found the people to be very unfriendly. To be honest while I was there I found it so far removed from the real world I wondered what kind of education you could get there. Vermont is also its own culture - maybe that is why I found the people to be unfriendly. In your case it is so far away from a major airport. It really is something to consider. You really would need a car to be able to do anything. It is such a beautiful campus and the school has a rich history but I found myself thinking about how the world has changed since there were just the few top Liberal Arts colleges in the Northeast many moons ago. There are so many good options now. Good luck with your decision.
Middlebury is both an incredibly beautiful campus and a great match for your interests.
From the posts above, it sounds like Middlebury has good bus service to airports/hubs at the start and end of breaks. That is important to someone traveling from a distance.
That said, distance from home may matter to some applicants. Air travel is complicated and expensive, and the extra ride from Middlebury to an airport or hub adds even more time to the journey. It may be hard to see all the northeasterners’ parents on campus during parent weekend, if your parents can’t come because the trip is too long to take in a weekend without missing work and/or too expensive. As a parent, I love that I can just hop into the car and be to my son at his college in four and a half hours if he ever needs me, and we even did an extra visit in the fall when I had a long weekend off from work, which we all really wanted by then. If he were across country and we had to book (and pay for) flights to get to him, it would be much harder.
So the question is whether the benefits of Middlebury are so attractive to you that you are willing to have longer periods apart from your family if visits during parents’ weekend or reading days or random times are not possible. (Of course, you can Skype or Facetime every day if you want. Modern technology makes face-to-face contact so easy!)
Some more independent kids may be ready for this degree of separation. Others might find it a bit overwhelming when living away at college would be a big step even if it were only an hour away from home. It depends on your own comfort and readiness.
Lots of kids do it. There will be kids at Middlebury from all over the world, all managing this degree of independence and supporting one another as they adjust together to being at college and away from home.
Also, some kids who live in the northeast take their friends from far away home with them over Thanksgiving, so kids take care of one another.
(Just an aside: I was so surprised to hear @Empireapple describe Vermont as unfriendly, when my parents always described Vermont as the friendliest state they ever visited! My H, S and I found Middlebury College kids to be friendly and helpful when we visited, so I guess it depends whom you meet!)
^^ @TheGreyKing – My Midwestern relatives find all of new England pretty standoffish. What we think is privacy, they see as coldness. My new England relatives find the friendly Midwesterners “creepy” in their attention to strangers. (That always makes me laugh!)
And most of my AA friends find northern NE “scary” regardless of where they are from.
Probably a matter of who you meet, who you are, and what you are used to.
For OP, if the location is a deterrent, you certainly have other equally amazing options. Most rural schools do a pretty good job with airport transportation but things like winter weather, for example, will at times be beyond control both in terms of getting to the airport and flight delays and cancellations.