Middlebury College Top Questions

Middlebury advertises its extreme diversity all the time and while there are students from every state and many different countries, there is still a feeling of homogeneity. Maybe it's just in my Middlebury expereince but I've experienced a Middlebury where people tend to dress similarly and are interested in similar activities.

I have described the Middlebury student body as a rake. At one end you have the handle, which is the very distinct kind of frat-boy culture. Mostly varsity athletes from a few big time sports and their groupies, they are pretty separate from everyone. They don't really mix with other groups, and they can be pretty closed minded towards people who don't fit their mold for whatever reason. I'd say they are like 20-25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the campus. At the other end of the rake you have other groups which have their own core members, but all kind of blend together as you get closer to the shaft of the rake. The international students have a distinct group, the environmentalists, the theater majors, the hipsters, the very studious. Most of the campus kind of move between these groups. Or they don't really fit into any of these categories, they are just normal. They are the shaft of the rake. I regret using the rake metaphor in the first place. Racial diversity at Middlebury from within the US is low. We have a lot more South American students than latinos. And a fair number of africans, but not a lot of african americans. It's a liberal school. Period. It's not hard to be a quiet conservative, but homophobia, racism, war hawking or denying global warming will be met with hostility.

Its white and rich and from Boston mostly, but if you want, you can find anyone. I've found some of the most diverse, optimistic, nonjudgemental, amazing people ever.

The most active minority group on campus is MOQA, the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance. It makes sense they are the most active, as they are the most discriminated against by graffiti and everyday speech. I think an inner city kid might feel out of place, unfortunately, which is something most students would regret. Most students wear comfortable pants/shorts/skirt and a t-shirt or button-down. In the dining hall, there will be the theater table, the mountain club table, the political activist table, and the athletes' table. Most Middlebury students are from New England. Most are from middle-class financial backgrounds. Students are politically aware, not necessarily active, and are predominantly left-wing. Students hardly ever talk about money, and/or how much they'll earn one day.

Middlebury although tries really hard at facilitating diversity, it really isn't very representative of america's population. i think this is mostly because poor people cannot and are not willing to take loans to pay through their noses for an education. yes it is a good education but it is a capitalistic market and opportunity cost is not worth it unless you are sure you're gonna ride middlebury's name into a high-profile finance job. financial aid is good, but not good enough. this filters out many people and so i think it would be safe to say that most midd-kids are rich and by rich i mean the spectrum of rich, not all billionaires, white, and to a great extent privileged in some way. but their fun people who are mostly humble. but they do bring their social status into a classroom because they cannot help their upbringing. Most students are from just outside boston and/or new york city. not many fanatical religious kids.

Students are a little bit too stressed, missing the paradise that we are living in now. Need to take a deep breath and enjoy life.

See above

Middlebury college is not very diverse. Even though the college tries to enroll students from all sorts of backgrounds in terms of racial and international characteristics, socio-economically the student body is very homogenous. People of 'poor' American background would feel out of place, and so would people with a worldview differing from the norm (rich American charitable thinking)

There are very few black people at Midd. I had a much more diverse high school and I miss black people! Gay people, there are so many gay boys now! Not many gay girls. There's the MOQA kids (the queer organization) and the non-MOQA kids. Sometimes they fight over feisty editorials in the newspaper. It's fun! I actually don't think anyone would feel out of place at Middlebury. Except maybe a truly hipster indie post-rock music nerd. They should go to Hampshire or something. If you're really alternative and different, that faction at Midd is dying. It was alive and well five years ago, before we were number 5. Go to Bard.

diverse student body in terms of interests but still very sports-oriented becoming more racially diverse everyone seems to be financially well off