As a current Middlebury college student I want to begin by thanking all those who have commented. I have no doubt that you sons and daughters look back on Midd fondly, and for the most part are happy with their experience. However, though your messages are well meaning, I find that many are filled with overly optimistic images of the college and its student body. While your ardent support is inspiring, remember that prospective students deserve to hear all voices and that dissenting opinions our not always from “suspected non-accepted …”
Mikesmithfield’s post, though poorly formatted, I must admit, has withinit a great deal of truthful statements. For many, the town as a whole is sorely under utilized and, particularly during past two brutal winters (although this current one is shaping up to be quiet mild) can feel far away. I however take issue with oldbastesiedoc’s estimation that it takes “7 mins from the top of the hill”. It is more around 10-15 minutes and can take up to 20 depending on where you begin your journey. This, along with rural location create a bubble that draws many students, but can be off putting to those who wanted college to be like the real-world. It feels much more like prep-school 2.0. Furthermore, I think its important to note that the snow bowl, for those without a car, can be accessed by bus, and the bus does in fact take 35-40 minutes as the bus is required to make acouple stops along they way. A drive is right around 20 minutes. In town, many of the restaurants our overpriced, and middtransit (sponsored by the college) is an utter ripoff. Any taxi cab will gladly get to an from midd at half the cost regardless of how many people you want. The restaurants do have special days where discounts our good though (half night burgers on Tuesdays) .
Sking admittedly is cheaper than most places and Midd is lucky to have a mountain so near to the college. But after rentals and a pass, the total cost is around 300-350$ and if one is new to skiing. Five lessons are a reasonable $100 dollars, but again, for those from less well of backgrounds, that cost is intimating.
oldbastesiedoc, I again implore to not take this as a slight to the school which has many positives, but there are inherent weakness that Midd, like all schools, has. Take for instance the shortage of class offerings in particular majors. Computer science in particular has a dearth of professors and Midd, like many schools in the nescac, takes its time to higher new professors. But given computer science’s monumental growth, the requisite time is leading to fewer course offerings for up level computer science. This is true in certain specific science tracks as well, with required classes being held once year with only one class offering for some specific majors. Now, this is most likely a problem across the nescac, but one that I did not hear about. If you are uncertain about your major, it quickly becomes difficult to complete meaningful research or a thesis with out these upper-level courses under your belt and takes away from the liberal arts experience. If your interested in psych/neuro there are to many professors to count, but hard bio,chem, and physics are oddly lacking. Its important to also remember that many tour guides will tout Middlebury’s environmental science major as “the first the nation”, when in reality its environmental studies major was first in the nation, and founded by an English professor. While the hard science and policy arms our not weak, they are frankly average among the nescac and many state schools have stronger programs focused on each sub section of environment particularly in science.
Additionally, it is very important to remember that Middlebury’s language program was MUCH more famous for much longer than the undergraduate institution. Having spent the summer there and seen the program, the college pulls out all the stops, and, most importantly, hires a variety of DIFFERENT professors who come from university’s across the country. While the normal languages are not weak, don’t think that your language training will be spectacular 100% of the time.
The narp/athlete divide can be real for many on campus and since athlete’s drive a great deal of the social life and represent such a high population of the school, they do have certain undeniable privileges. I speak as an athlete who enjoyed the benefits of a sport, but clearly see where closed parties and athlete only getogethers our common place. When coupled with Middlebury very restrictive rules (a result of town policy more than anything else), a dichotomy is quick to form. This is not to say that other clubs do not have parties, they do and they are often very good, but anyone can join a club, a sports team is built around “making the cut” and is inherently exclusive, and there is no way around. This divide is felt mostly as q freshman/sophomore as there athlete peers have an immediate network of friends from different grade levels, but dissipates as one moves through the ranks of middlebury.
Middlebury has alot of work to do in terms of diversity, mostly in terms of professors, but also with the student body as a whole particularly with socioeconomic stratas. While yes, there are many who come from less privelaged backgrounds, an overwhelming amount of students from boarding schools are accepted (15 from the class 100 taft students in my year alone). This not to say that this bad, but it is telling of a particular class of citizens on campus. Many view the Feb system as a way that middlebury hids its true diversity numbers as well. (http://middleburycampus.com/article/college-excludes-febs-from-diversity-stats/).
Frankly, to those interested in Midd, I wouldn’t take my word for it on any of these issues, or any of the commentators on this site. Talk to a RANDOM student, not your tour guide, not an admissions officer, and ask them about there experience and really listen. No one persons experience is the same, and for many they are great, but for many they are not so great, and that is alright.