Middlebury College Top Questions

I strongly encourage everyone to look at Middlebury. You think Midd-Vermont-cows-isolated. But I felt much more isolated when I stayed for extensive periods at Midd's competitors Williams, Amherst and Swarthmore. Take a look- it is a great place to live and study. If you're not used to working a LOT, then don't come to Midd. That's one drawback if you like to only party. Coming from a high school that gave 5+ hours of work a night, I find Midd more challenging. But you'll learn a lot, your ideas will be challenged, and the work will prove ultimately very rewarding.

Middlebury is my favorite penguin.

Generally, everyone who studies themselves to death are not socially accepted. There is a huge hipster scene, and everyone with any sense stays chill even in the hottest times.

Burlington, about 45 minutes away has everything you'd need in terms of movies, concerts, shopping etc. If you want a big city, get a friend with a car (many people have them) and drive two hours north to Montreal. Boston and NY are 4 and 5 hours away, respectively. Most people make at least one trip a semester to one of the three. The best kept secret of Middlebury is the Feb program, which lets you take a longer break after the end of high school and start college in February. Best choice I ever made. It gives you time to slow down and do something besides be in school. Most people take the chance to travel or do a weird, fun, job. I taught English in the mountains of Peru. But better than the time off, is arriving here as part of the February class of 100 students. We get the campus to ourselves for a week long orientation, where you bond with the other hundred kids who have had their own adventures and become your first and best friends at the school. Febs are generally more interesting, enthusiastic and mature than the rest of the school, having been recharged by their time off. Do it. Don't worry what you're gonna do right now. Just do it.

This school (administration) has gone from being ultra personal to ignoring its students and faculty like.

strange to say, hard to explain, but the single defining feature of this place is that it has... genuinely good-natured people kind, thoughtful, hard-working, good souls

Middlebury is deeply appreciated by much of the student body, but some have grown to detest the school. But what makes Middlebury such a great place is that you can make whatever you want of your four years here. You can choose to socialize, find a core group of friends that you know you will have for the rest of your life. You can choose to work hard, possibly audit an extra three classes and maintain three hour a night sleeping habits. You can choose to push yourself and explore a class you've had no previous exposure to such as modern dance. But most importantly, you can choose to be part of a greater community that will embrace you as an individual if you have the confidence to show it, and will facilitate a learning experience you could never comprehend just by flipping through the Princeton Review Catalogue

I don't know. I would do it over in a second, but sometimes I get really angry at the future of the campus landscape and the policies. The new buildings are so ugly, and Liebowitz is a phoney who doesn't care what we think. We compare him to Bush sometimes. But he's more like Lieberman.

I like this place overall. But I am scared of how it is changing.

people don't wave at each other when they cross paths. or smile.

Whether it's shot-gunning Busch Lights in a Stewart bathroom or savoring a pint of Oatmeal Stout at Two Brother's, Middlebury students have a special relationship with beer. Like most American teenagers, I was not allowed to consume alcohol, so once I got to college I started drinking like an idiot. The same goes for anything - when you aren't allowed to do something you're going to want to do it ... like an idiot. On any given Friday I was downing about eight beers, which is a lot for my size, and mindlessly participating in the degenerate shenanigans of my hall. Some of my low moments include vomiting, keeping Public Safety out of my hall with giant bales of hay, vomiting in bushes, indirectly supporting a lobster-fighting ring and projectile vomiting. It wasn't cute. Even though I was well aware of my descent into alcoholism, there was no avoiding the anti-support group that was my all-male freshman dorm hall. But I don't blame them for my lack of self-control. It was the combination of well intentioned but overly protective parents and a bogus drinking age that forced me to learn how to drink by going completely overboard at first and then slowly cleaning up my act over the next three years. I can say now that I don't binge drink anymore, although I'm sure some people aren't so lucky. Anyway, the dark days are over and my relationship with beer has changed from obsessive/destructive to truly reverent and respectful (kind of like girls). After taking a brewing workshop this past J-term I started making - and loving - beer. I love everything about making beer. Millions of recipes exist in books and online, calling for ingredients as wild and esoteric as cayenne pepper, Chinese rock sugar, coffee beans, honey, ginger and just about any fruit imaginable. Currently, I am cooking up a batch of Imperial Cream Stout, a heavy and complex beer with a lot of mouth feel and hints of chocolate, coffee, soy sauce and mahogany. I'm excited about drinking it when it reaches maturity in November - which if you didn't know, is seven months away. You definitely won't catch me chugging my homebrew. Where beer used to be a means to an end, it is now a cherished ritual and creative outlet. Seriously. That's why I propose that a brew club be started at Middlebury. Kids need to learn how to drink and appreciate beer. Do our parents expect us to learn how to drink from kids our age? I hope not. How does Middlebury expect us to drink responsibly when we're forced to hide in our dorm rooms and estimate how much is enough for a full evening? It sure as hell isn't social and it definitely isn't safe. A sub-free campus is as ignorant and insulting as abstinence-only education. So, lastly, for the skeptics that think a brew club would just be a drinking club, please take into consideration that a beer takes at least six weeks to make! You're not going to chug your labor of love - you're going to sniff it like a bloodhound, swirl it and take a slow sip, letting all the beautiful aromas hit your hard palate before swallowing. Not to mention, it's really tough going back to Busch Light after drinking an Imperial Cream Stout.

on the whole, i feel that middlebury views its students as lost children who need a wise guiding hand. i wish they would treat me as an equal and let me alone to do what i need/want.

People sometimes give Middlebury a bad rap for having a weak social scene... those people just don't know how to make their own fun

It's a good spot.

Middlebury is really nice when the weather is nice. I sometimes wonder why I didn't go to a warmer part of the world for school.

Visit the school, spend more than a few days here. It's very easy to get a deceptive first impression but make sure you know what the campus life is like both during the week and over the weekend to get a good idea of what the school is like.

Nope!

The administration needs to start caring more about the student body and listening to its opinions. The faculty and staff are awesome, the students are great, but the President and higher-up Deans are pushing a certain agenda regardless of what anyone else says. The school is raising its tuition and spending its money on construction rather than financial aid. It seems that the school's leadership is concerned more with beating Williams/Amherst to the #1 spot on the Princeton review than what is truly important: the experience of the current students. Finally: If you wanted to go to Harvard but didn't get in, please don't come here.

none

Most kids smoke pot. A few use harder drugs.