Racism/Classism at Middlebury

<p>From what I saw of Middlebury in their letters and website it looked like a nice college and I was planning to visit over Feb. vacation,</p>

<p>but some of the comments at studentsreview.com were pretty discouraging.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/VT/MCi_comments.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentsreview.com/VT/MCi_comments.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>At one point (around pages 3-6??) a 2nd year sociology major posts:</p>

<p>"I chose Middebury College out of 12 top Liberal Arts Colleges. I thought that I would major in romance languages since Middlebury is well-known around the world for its language program. First of all, that was a mistake because the college brings in all the great professors during the summer session. The average language session is as good as any school's. The liberal arts curriculum is adequate mosly because of the small class sizes and professor accessibility.</p>

<p>As an African-American female, I must say that I have never encountered so much classism, racism, and sexism in the world! The students who come here are close-minded, WASPY upper class snobs from gated communities. Comments like "nouveu riche" and "nigger" are a part of my daily routine. There are even "exclusive parties" where many students of a certain ethnicity were turned away at the door. The gay pride "closet" has been torn down year after year. Students write racist remarks on cultural diversity boards. If it weren't for my strong spirit and determination to succeed,I would have left this school after the first semester. Infantile would be a compliment to these J. Crew ski freaks whose idea of a good time is getting drunk in a stuffy dorm room.</p>

<p>A warning to open-minded, mature, intellectually stimulated and diverse people: AVOID THIS SCHOOL LIKE THE PLAGUE!"</p>

<p>I know her case might not apply to all minorities, but that was really shocking.</p>

<p>Reactions?</p>

<p>For one thing, the viewbook I received from Middlebury made it clear that the summer is the usual time where serious language students learn through the immersion system. I wonder if the viewbook drastically changed between 3 years ago and now. </p>

<p>I also heard Middlebury is a pretty "white" school, but my teacher told me that between there and MHC, the former is one school that tends to "take care" of their students a little bit more. <em>shrugs</em> Don't know if he's right. He taught at MHC a long time ago. Things could've changed.</p>

<p>wow..</p>

<p>first i have to warn you about these websites where people leave random remarks. i saw one post in another website saying "senior dorms are worn down and made of straw [...]" and negative stuff like that, so I asked my brother, who's Asian and a frosh at midd right now, to look at the post and comment on it. He said this person obviously never visited midd; he said these senior housings he was talking about were one of the nice houses. </p>

<p>also, he said he experienced absolutely no racism. While midd is definitely "whiter" than many schools (thanks to the location), his friends are nice, fun, outgoing people who associate with anyone. Also about language, my brother takes chinese and raves about the profs. Sure, he says the workload kills him, but he can speak chinese quite well and it's only been a semester! Some of his friends who are taking romance languages are analyzing poems and writing papers in foreign language all the time. </p>

<p>If you search other schools in the same website, you'll notice that there are lots of disgruntled people, and some of them posted same bad stuff over two different colleges. If these people really attended the college, I feel sorry for the experiences they had, but they're probably one of few who hated the college, and every school has a few kids who don't like the school. </p>

<p>But please, beware of the internet posting. I find CC people more honest and truthful because they have ID's and we can search their posts. but in the website you've mentioned, anyone can write comment. </p>

<p>Also, please don't worry about racism. the black male from last year who accused middlebury of racism for accusing him of breaking into a dorm was found guilty in the court, and he also officially retracted his statement that middlebury was "racist." But it is true that midd needs to work on diversity, which is pretty hard for a school located in an isolated northeast corner of the U.S. </p>

<p>I hope Lindyhopper can jump in and add more insights.</p>

<p>muhaha, looking at the comment again from this person, i'm pretty sure that this person never attended midd.
stories of people throwing the word "nigger" around everyday and turning people down at parties for their ethnicity are ridiculous stories.</p>

<p>thanks, what you said about your brother and Chinese is encouraging because I actually read through all those comments (believe it or not) and there was one guy claiming to have graduated with a degree in Chinese knowing absolutely no Chinese due to some weird circumstance. Uhh, didn't really believe that one anyway but. :&lt;/p>