Our family is discussing the merits of me going to a school like Middlebury which is relatively cut off from major cities. Parents who have kids who have gone to such schools, what’s it been like? If you had your way, would they have still gone? Do you feel like the isolation has impeded your communication with your child?
Hello
My son just graduated from Midd in May. My next son just started Midd in Sept as a freshman. My son had a great experience, hence my next one is now attending. The area is beautiful and with cell phones you can always be in communication. We visited a few times a year, but for us it was great. I believe that the remoteness helps bring a closeness to the students since they do not scrammble in so many directions.
Any questions just private message and I will do my best to answer.
DD graduated from a rural college, smaller than Middlebury. For her, the engagement with professors made possible in the seminar style classes brought many opportunities day to day, as well as awareness of programs beyond the campus. During her 4 undergrad years, she did multiple internships, attended one semester at an urban US university with a specialized program, studied abroad in Europe one summer and did a funded fellowship with an internship in southeast Asia another. She felt she had the best of all worlds. Someone else would have set one foot on the bucolic campus and turned around. While the college was hundreds of miles from home, we kept in touch, largely with phone calls. The remoteness can impact ease and expense of air travel. DD attended an urban graduate school in a large university and was glad for that experience also. It is a matter of sorting out pros and cons for the student and family.
We’ll, I generally communicated via cell phone or text so it didn’t matter where the kids were to be honest. Most of the time cell phone service was pretty good. We are remote so sometimes my phone dropped and S1 was really remote and sometimes his phone dropped but for the most part we communicated with no issues.
@travelnut Was it Colgate by any chance?
Several family members attended isolated schools, and they’re the ones who are still in touch with classmates and attend reunions. DC is now following in their footsteps and is happy.
What I noticed was that these family members and their friends had a little more trouble transitioning to the real world after college than the family and friends who attended less close knit, more urban schools. That seemed like a very small, and temporary, price to pay for the experience of being in a strong, supportive community that kept it’s ties for decades. Not having a city to siphon off energy from the school means your friends are your fun. Of course, YMMV…
@ljnsdkfix, What is it exactly that your parents are worried about? The rural schools that I’m familiar with have decent cell phone and wifi service no matter how far they are from a major city, so basic telephone and Skype communication shouldn’t be an issue. Shopping on line is also readily available.
Most (again, I can’t quaniify) rural schools take pains to bring the outside world to campus in the form of speakers on and performers in a wide range of disciplines from science to politics to the arts. The exposure is not as diverse as you might find in a major city, but then as a student your time to attend such events is limited. Same with internships; most work and volunteering opportunities take place over summers and long breaks, not during the time that school is in session.
I think the major concern in choosing a rural vs an urban or suburban location is how you’ll want to fill up your non-academic time. Rural schools tend to have easy access to nature oriented and outdoorsy activities. If you like to ski or hike or rock climb etc. you will find plenty of opportunities in a rural environment. If you like to try new exotic restaurants, shop or hang out in trendy clubs you might find the countryside suffocating.
My son’s experience at two rural schools (Williams and Cornell) was extremely positive. He benefited from the insular internally focused community and took full advantage of the outdoors. He did manage to make it to New York or Boston once or twice a term either as part of a school sponsored event or on his own. I’m sure the same would be true at Middlebury.
My son and most of his classmates now live and work in urban environments, but they look back warmly at their time surrounded by nature and close friends.
I went to Williams from the Monterey Bay in CA and it worked out great. I loved it and saw my folks at Xmas and during summers.
Are they worried that you’ll feel isolated or that it will be hard to visit? It IS hard to get to some of the smaller colleges in rural areas, and more expensive, but for the student travel is (or can be) limited to twice a year. Parents will have to decide if they want to visit if it involves planes, trains, and automobiles. For the isolation, only you can decide if the small, rural college is for you. It’s definitely not for me but clearly many students choose that experience every year.
With so much technology available now, I don’t think any college is as remote as it was in the olden days. My sister went to Middlebury, and travel was hell. She had to get to Boston, then fly to Chicago, then travel on a puddle jumper to our ‘city’ in Wisconsin, which usually involved a flight with 3-4 stops. It cost a lot and took a long time. Now it would be much easier. There is the internet, phones, cable TV or streaming.
Many schools also run buses to and from the bigger airports for the holidays, if that’s a concern, and arrange for the bus company to stop at campus at times when students might take road trips.
The only drawback my S experienced for attending a relatively isolated college was that it was a real pain in the neck getting to internship and job interviews. He would have to first find a way to the local terminal, then from there take a bus to a the station in a larger city in the state, and then get a bus or train to Boston or New York City, and then maybe from there a plane to somewhere else. It was very time-consuming and affected his academics. That said, it was a number of years ago and since then companies are relying much more on telephone and Skype interviews, and video applications. I wouldn’t expect it’s a much of a problem now.
I have two who graduated from two different large state flagship universities, and one who is now attending a small isolated rural LAC.
The things the two older kids loved about their universities were not what my third was looking for. The things she loves about her LAC were not what her older siblings were looking for. All three were/are very happy.
Both experiences can be wonderful.
The experience of my kids was that small school in small town was not too good. At least it is risky. Though, from what I’ve read, it can be great if you fit in well with the prevailing culture there. Small schools may tend to have those.; they can attract a “type”. Or a couple of types. Not as wide a gamut.as a larger school, IMO.
Bigger school in small city was better. For them.
If D1 had fit in well with the prevailing social culture at her school (NOT Middlebury) she would have probably been fine. But it turned out she didn’t, and since there was little to do/go to outside of the school, she became unhappy with being there. She did an internship in a big city one summer, and after that she was never happy being at her college.
She is now in a big school in a small city for graduate school, and loves it there. Because there is so much more to do, for her, than at her undergrad school.
My D2 attended a mid-sized university in a small city, and loved it there. The school itself was big enough that there was not one prevailing social type. People found their own groups, which they could, more easily, because a large, diverse pool of people attended there. There was plenty to do on or near campus, given its size. And the city, though small, was big enough to provide some off-campus alternatives.
Small school in a big city is not too good either, my D2 found. Because everyone leaves the campus all the time to go into the city, and the sense of school, campus life is diminished. That’s what D2 experienced, before she transferred to the other school.
So that’s my answer, base on my family’s experiences. YMMV.
As for “impeding communication”, I detected no difference in the amount/ nature of communication that could have been attributable to any of these environments. Except that, at the small school in the big city, my D2 came home more. Because we happen to live very close to that particular city. That was nice, we liked that. But it had little to do with the size of the school, for the most part, much more due to its specific location.
Now that I think of it, D2 came home more when at the mid-sized U than D1 did. Because it was closer to us, easier to get there. But she didn’t come home much either, because she had too much to do there, at her school.
My D loved her college in a small town in remote upstate NY; people tended to stay on weekends since you couldn’t leave without a car and she made many friends, joined a sorority, no traffic, people are friendly, professors live in the community etc. Cons were without a car it would be really expensive to come home for weekend, would have to take taxi 45 minutes to city, you go to the same hangouts all the time, She had a minor medical issue and had to go to a doctor half an hour drive away. Had a car sophomore to senior year which helped.
D15 is a sophomore at Middlebury and couldn’t be happier. She embraces the remote location for its proximity to the mountains and she loves the charm of the surrounding New England villages. Has easy access to Burlington, even went to Montreal with friends last winter. Communication has not been a problem whatsoever. Travel can be a pain (makes for a long day) but Midd runs buses to the airport, Boston, and New York which is extremely helpful. We couldn’t be happier, she is truly thriving at Middlebury.
Both my sons chose a mid-size university near an urban environment (brown and tufts), and love(d) their experiences. These schools have strong on-campus communities but are close enough to all the amenities a city offers. The city activities that they took advantage of with their friends added to their camaraderie, such as attending Celtics games in Boston.
For undergrad, I went to a rural school and it got old by my junior year, not just because of its campus location but also because of its small student body. Its best feature was that I was able to form close relationships with my professors, although I’ve noticed that my sons have done the same in their mid-size school. For grad school, I attended the University of Michigan and that’s where I recognized that you can make a huge school smaller by affiliating with particular groups, but you cannot do the same in reverse…a small school will remain a small school all 4 years of college.
My D is a freshman at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. She loves it. There is a very small “Main Street” within walking distance of the campus, and she loves it. The surrounding area is rural - lots of rolling hills, farms and the beautiful Susquehanna River. It reminds her of home, since we live in a rural area outside of Portland, Maine. She is very happy to be there. She can always get a shuttle to Philadelphia if she wants. And in September, the school bused all of the art students to New York City for a day. 
I miss him terribly but that has nothing to do with the ruralness of the school. My kid has always been a west-coast city kid at heart but he is insanely happy out in the cornfields. It’s the academic fit and the people who make the school for him, not the location.
Yes. After I visited the school, I realized that it was the right place for him.
Quite the opposite. In high school he was either out with friends or in his room doing homework or playing video games. We Skype, text, and phone multiple times a week now and probably have more genuine conversations than we did when he was at home.
You can’t know if the isolation and vibe of Middlebury are right for you until you visit. One remote school might feel terrific while another doesn’t fit at all. A visit is especially important if you’re considering ED.
I googled hospitals in middlebury after reading your post…
I know nothing about the hospital but it was one of the things that come to mind when thinking about a school that is “isolated”(proximity to a hospital) hopefully it is never needed but it is close by.