Why do so many students at Middlebury come from private school?

I went to visit Middlebury and stayed with my cousin in her dorm while I was there. When I was talking to other people who go there, it just seemed like all of them went to one of the fancy private boarding or day schools. No one seemed to have gone to public school. Even my cousin went to private school. I go to public school and I’m thinking about applying to Midd, but do the admissions staff have a strong preference for private school students?

Middlebury is popular with prep school students and at the same time over half of its enrolled students are public high school graduates. 48% are from private, parochial, or home schooling backgrounds: http://www.middlebury.edu/admissions/start/faq

My daughter is a public school graduate, her close friend group a mixed bag but mostly public school grads as well. Admissions will not have a preference for private over public, evaluation is based on how the student performs at the school the student attends (they don’t compare students across a spectrum of schools).

Classicalmusic17

There’s certainly no preference for private school kids at Middlebury as far as I know - as alumni admissions volunteers we’re clearly instructed to assess the students we meet on their merits alone. If you’re keen on Midd, please apply - it’s all about what you as an individual bring to the campus that matters.

My sons, public school from Upstate NY, could keep up with richest preppies in the country-both graduated with honors, and loved Midd. Their friends come from a variety of backgrounds, and it wasn’t an issue-except over breaks they came home to work, while some of their friends jetted off to more luxurious locations!

I agree with OBD as usual. My boys public school in NJ. High GPA and was very prepared

I think having lots of private school kids comes with the territory of being a private LAC. That being said, I go to Midd and I went to the tiniest, rural public school. Plenty of my friends there went to public school too!