Pros and Cons of Middlebury College

Well, I attended Bates and it got me where I am today. It’s a top rated college for do-gooders-like myself- and it’s location in miserable downtown Lewiston gives you plenty of disadvantaged people to help…The pool is dreadful, but the faculty and other facilities top-notch. I loved it there. Access to the Maine coast is easy and the Outing Club very popular.
My sons liked Bates too, and the Bobcats showed lots of school spirit at NESCAC meets.It is about 5 hours further from our home, which they saw as a disadvantage. When we toured the campus we ran into 3 of my former professors who greeted me by name after 25 years! It’s that kind of community, and I was proud of my alma mater.

Midd is more highly rated by US News and Princeton in many areas, and it has a bigger endowment. I really loved visiting and the town is safe.As I said, I think all the NESCACs are great schools, and you can’t go wrong.

However, Bowdoin, Amherst, Trinity and Williams didn’t accept women til the late 1970s, while Bates accepted woman and people of color from its inception in the 1860s. It was started by abolitionists and suffragists, and has a long and proud liberal(in the best sense of the word) tradition. Midd accepted its first woman in the early 1888 by mistake-she didn’t indicate her sex on the application and they finally allowed her to attend-but more soon followed. I think a school reflects its traditions and culture, and that’s part of my preference for Bates and Midd over some of the other NESCACs. Their diversity is recently imported and not necessarily reflected by the alumni.

As a fan of all the NESCAC schools (having visited 9 of the 11) the pro’s and con’s of any seem like splitting hairs. If admitted to all, location, quality of life, resources made available to the student all come into play and perhaps history and tradition are meaningful as well. OldBatesieDoc is rightfully proud of her alma mater as well as her children’s. My kids loved Middlebury for it’s beauty but ultimately took if off their lists because of it’s perceived isolation and a couple other not so favorable impressions upon their visits. No worries, both would have (i’m sure) adapted and loved the experience had they matriculated there. It’s resources and student body would have, no doubt, won them over and they do love winters, skiing, and the outdoors, but ultimately felt it’s location limited other opportunities and were thrilled with the schools they did attend. It was their

Just to clarity a couple points made by OldBatesieDoc, Williams became co-ed in 1970, Bowdoin in '71, Amherst in '75, and Trinity in '69. Hamilton in '78, Colby accepted it’s first female in 1871. Today Bowdoin has an even split, male and female, with both it’s student body and it’s faculty.

We all have preferences and choices. Each school has it’s own character and feel. All have similar student bodies and dedicated faculty. They are all quite wonderful. As many visits as possible may clarify ones thinking. Good luck.

My D is a junior at Midd. I have visited many dozens of colleges. Some bullet points:

Drop dead gorgeous campus, probably the most beautiful of any college I’ve visited.

Incredibly accessible faculty who will really know their students. My D offered a TA and an RA in Neuroscience as a rising junior. Students are on a first name basis and email frequently with their professors in their majors.

Very academically rigorous. Students work very hard (even Princeton Review puts Midd on the top 10 list of “Students Study the Most.”)

Not really remote unless you’re the type that wants/needs a city. Burlington is 37 miles away, 45-50 minutes or so. Burlington of course is a “top college town” on most every list out there. My D likes to go into Burlington occasionally on Saturdays to visit the Farmers Market, although there is also another right in downtown Midd (and the Co-op within walking distance of campus.)

While we’re on food, it’s great. And there are no tedious dining plans or dining cards. You just walk into any of the 3 dining halls and eat. Nothing to keep track of. Guests too.

Students are mostly “Type A’s”, hard workers. It can take a year or more to settle in to the rigor expected. Many athletes. The typical scene in the dining hall includes many kids in practice gear. My D is not an athlete but has many friends who are.

Cons would be the same as some of the Pros depending on your idea of fit. Too remote if you want a city, too academically rigorous if you don’t want to work that hard.

Also - study abroad is a bit more restrictive than the norm in that if you want to study in a country that speaks a language that is taught at Middlebury, your study-broad courses must be taught in that language. Thus, many Middkids who want to take courses in English go to Australia, Denmark or Great Britain (including University of St Andrews in Scotland, where my D is going in a month.) Also, your financial aid does not go with you when you study abroad unless you go to a Middlebury study-abroad program or a few other affiliated options (mostly in humanities I believe.)

I’m currently a freshman here at Midd, and about food:
The open dining plan is so, so important. Do not underestimate how much it impacts your quality of life here at Midd. I love being able to go to any dining hall whenever I want (within the operating hours, of course), and eat as much/as little as I want without worrying about how it’s going to impact my meals later on in the week. I have a friend here whose older sister is at Tufts, and she says that she has a friend who will go to a dining hall for breakfast on the weekend and then stay there and study all day until lunch/dinner so that she doesn’t have to swipe her meal card again to get in, thus saving swipes for the week. You don’t have to worry about that here. I went to visit a friend at Brown over fall break, and we intentionally ate out at restaurants because she said the food at the dining hall was not worth me paying for a guest meal–she wouldn’t let me do that. (This is in contrast to when I had a friend in high school visit me here at Midd, and he could eat at the dining hall for free–and it was pretty good). You can also take food back with you, and it’s not uncommon to see students grab apples or bananas on their way out of the dining halls. I remember once earlier this semester I got out of a class at 4:00, and then I went to the dining hall and got half a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a cup of chocolate milk to go. I can’t tell you how much a simple thing like that made my day. It felt like I was at home again, eating an after-school snack. It’s those little things that feel really important once you’re actually here. Food is so fundamentally essential in your life. You shouldn’t have to worry about it.
About the quality of the food: I’ve always been satisfied. If I don’t like the menu at one dining hall, then I can either go to another, or I can make a salad or a panini. And even if the menu is bad tonight, odds are it will be good tomorrow or the day after. It’s never consistently bad, it’s just that some menus (like chicken parm!) are better than others.

Honestly I love that most of the people who are commenting on this thread are not actual Middlebury students. So from a previous student here is a honest list of all the pros and cons at Middlebury:

Pros
Academics are top notch - the classes are intimate and the professors genuinely care about you.
Food is decent, but I definitely have had better food at other colleges.
If you are looking to be somewhere outdoors, then Middlebury is the place to be (although bear in mind you will not actually have that many opportunities to hike because Middlebury Mountain Club is oversaturated)
Languages at Middlebury are amazing. If you are there, it will be waste not to take a language class.
Snow Bowl (although beware it is $150 for a college pass for the reason, $150 for the equipment and it is a 40 minute drive from campus, so it is not as close as they advertise it)

Cons
Location, location, location. I cannot stress how rural Middlebury is. Don’t listen to all of the people saying how easy it is to get to Burlington - the truth is, it’s not (well, not if you don’t have your own car. But even if you did it still takes an hour to drive there and there is nothing to do in Burlington except to eat out). Buses run twice a day from Middlebury to Burlington (once in the morning and once at night) so it’s extremely infrequent. Additionally, downtown Middlebury is a 15-20 minute walk and the restaurants at Middlebury are incredibly overpriced. There isn’t an awful lot to do in Middlebury so it can be very depressing.
Lack of research opportunities if you are not in the physical sciences.
Not diverse - the whole campus is very segregated and people tend to hang out in their respective ethnic groups. It is extremely preppy as well.
Insane athletic privilege - there is clearly an athlete non-athlete divide at Middlebury (athletes call the other people NARPs non-athletic average regular person) and the social scene is divided along those lines. The athletes tend to think they are above everyone else at Middlebury. (this is very tangible on campus and any Middlebury student can affirm this)
Lack of name recognition. Unless you are applying to grad school or finance, not that many people know of Middlebury.
Cold. Extremely cold. It can get really depressing in the winter since it’s also very isolated.
High stress

^^^You sound less knowledgeable than an actual Middlebury student.

I can assure the readers that either the above poster is an extremely slow walker, or he picked the furthest spot on the campus to clock his 15-20 minute walk to the center of town. Takes me about 7 minutes from the top of the hill, and I am not a power-walker. I also have driven to the Snow Bowl many times-40 minutes will take you almost to Mad River Glenn. The Snow Bowl is 20 minutes away, and $150 for a ski pass for the entire winter is an incredible deal.

My son got research opportunities in Econ and in Poli Sci, with funding over 2 separate summers.
One son was a recruited athlete, and the other not. They never heard of the above acronym, and both were very happy on campus.The non-athlete was just as happy and busy as the athlete.
The Mountain Club is “over-saturated?” Whaaat?
I could go on and on and refute most of the above. I suspect a non-accepted troll, myself.

Thank you @OldbatesieDoc, I was thinking the same things, but I graduated a long time ago and wondered whether things had changed that drastically since I was a student (other than the distances, at which I just chuckled).

Huh?

http://middleburycampus.com/article/its-actually-just-a-game/

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.

@longtimeluker101 While I respect your intention to offer an honest opinion of the College on the Hill, I’m confident your opinion was pushed toward the negative due to alcohol. There is no way a sober Middlebury student could have written that post. I joke, and it’s not fair to attack a post, but honestly, how could any college student fill a post with that many grammatical and spelling errors and typos? Please tell me you were just really tired.

@longtimeluker101: your statement on the ES program is incorrect, and leads one to question the accuracy of your other observations.

You stated: “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.”

The ES major was established in 1965 by four Middlebury faculty members: a biologist, a chemist, a geologist, and a geographer. Three hard scientists and a geographer who knew physical geography (and taught it). The English professor you credit with founding the major, probably John Elder, became interested in and part of the program in the early 1990s. Steve Trombulak, recognized as the faculty member who reinvigorated the major and brought it back from its low points in the mid-to-late 1980s, is a field biologist. I don’t know where your info comes from on the program, but the incredible talent on the faculty and in Middlebury’s facilities makes me wonder about your rather outlandish assessment of the program. Ask any liberal arts college if it would trade its ES program for Midd’s and I would wager big bucks the answer would be yes, and yes in a heartbeat.

IMO longtimelurker101 has a lot of fair points to make-- don’t dismiss them because of typos or one or two innacuracies. I am a current Middlebury student and while I really love my experience, there are definitely people who don’t, and I think that post speaks to many of the complaints people have about Middlebury.

My daughter loved Middlebury. She applied and would be very happy to attend if accepted. Interestingly, her alumni interviewer brought up many of the points of longtime. She was shocked when he said he really didn’t like the school and that it was too deserted and too cold and he didn’t make very good friends. (And yes…I have NO IDEA why he interviews for the school.) Luckily it did not put my daughter off.

It’s just really interesting to me to see what some people consider a major disadvantage. To each his own, luckily.
Nearly, I suggest you give the alumni office feedback on your daughter’s interviewer-!!!

Con

Their alumni interviewers

It might be worthwhile to point out some of the greatest positives of Middlebury. My wife, my son and I all went to Ivy League schools. Some of them considered to be very undergraduate oriented by Ivy standards. This was nothing compared to what we saw with our son at Middlebury. He would write to his professors several times over the weekend regarding papers or homework, and they all responded. We were flabbergasted. I have never seen a college where the professors were so engaged with students, even over the weekend. They were easily available also at office hours and even lunches. If you think about, the fact that Middlebury is isolated may have something to do with this. What else do the professors have to do? No real access to big cities. But I also think it is the ethos of the place. As a parent, I feel that my money has been very well spent from an education point of view at Middlebury. It has been tough, but the professors have been with my son every step of the way.

I thought this thread was called ‘pros and cons of Middlebury’. Seems like every time someone mentions a con, 3 people jump all over them.

@trekslxchick
“Not really remote unless you’re the type that wants/needs a city. Burlington is 37 miles away, 45-50 minutes or so.”

To most people, 45-50 drive away = remote.

Seems to me pros and cons also include pros

Seems to me like a lot of the reviews are coming from new posters. Which might simply mean that this topic is convincing people to join CC to share their experiences.

From a parent standpoint one strong pro is with 2 sons graduated in the past 3 years, a Midd education has been well worth our family’s substantial investment. Many of our friends have their children back home, in debt and floundering-the Midd education plus the alumni network has worked well for our sons-

One has an excellent job in Washington DC, where he has been extremely pleased with his ability to affect policy with a bachelor’s degree. He’s supporting himself and paying back his loans. Our other son just returned from 18 months working overseas, has saved a pile of money plus learned a lot and gained valuable experience. He’s looking forward to grad school in the fall.

It’s great to see them so well-launched. It’s part of what makes me a “Middlebury Mom”(-plus an “OldBatesieDoc”, of course.)

Why did my kids chose Midd over Bates? Really, the main reason was it’s 8 hours closer to our house. Why over MIT, where their father attended? Class size and mentorship opportunities. My husband felt that MIT opened doors, but almost killed him in the process.No one really cared if he succeeded or not. He learned to write in grad school, because his undergrad education was so quantitative, classes so large, and grades mostly given on problem sets and tests by grad students, not the actual professor.

I’m a strong proponent of the small LAC as the best place to get an undergraduate education unless you are extremely focused and very self-driven. To pick one of the top LACs over another is really just splitting hairs. So pick, if you have a choice, the place that feels “right” for you.