Middlebury College Top Questions

Middlebury College and the town of Middlebury gel like a well-formed insole. Everyone is politically active in various ways. Everyone cares for their fellow man. We are comrades in the great struggle for freedom, and our search will not be in vein.

Overall, a great place to spend 4 years, and the only school that after tours of many other schools, I felt I wanted to go. Made me a good writer and a good thinker! Academically very rigorous, at times felt like professors assigned lots of work just for the sake of assigning lots of work. Adorable town, friendly relations between townspeople and students. Stunning setting. A privilege to attend.

I'd say Middlebury is fairly homogenous despite the broad diversity that it advertises. It's a small community and it's pretty isolated. Kids are generally very active and into doing outdoors things. There's also a lot of work which keeps people a little busy.

Middlebury is a small enough school that start to recognize everybody. You can't walk anywhere on campus without running into one of your friends. You can really start to identify with the place like home. But at 2400 and a new class coming in every year (and a mini class in February) you are NEVER going to run out of people to meet. If your excuse for not going to a small liberal arts school is "It's too small; I like to have a lot of friends" then stop for a second and think. That excuse doesn't make any sense. You can have more friends here than at a big school, because that cute girl you met at the library doesn't disappear to her dorm 15 miles away. The dining halls are where we spend most of our time during the week. People here like to have long meal and hang around afterwards to keep talking. You don't need to call someone and make dinner plans to make sure you find your friends there. People cycle in and out.

Our school is great to attend on a day to day basis because of teachers and students, but it really is a corporation, and the administration would never stick its neck out for any one individual.

The best thing about Middlebury is its student body. Almost everyone is really intelligent, friendly, open-minded, and loves being outside. If I could change one thing, it'd be the transportation on and off campus. The school population is just right. I'd say about 3/4 of the people I tell that I go to Middlebury have great reactions, and the other 1/4 haven't heard of it. I spend most of my time on campus in the science building or my room. Good college town. Middlebury's administration is a little too rigid and image-centric. The biggest recent controversy was over very prominent homophobic graffiti. There is a lot of school pride. Middlebury's Geography department and its environmental impetus are unusually active. I will always remember sleeping outside in the organic garden. The most frequent student complaints are about the administration.

Middlebury is an isolated ice castle which is impenetrable by most outsiders (we have little or no contact with the townspeople) and also once you're there it's hard to leave. And this is not only because of the work-load it is also because of the lack of public resources. An international student cannot work anywhere but on campus and is subject to reduced pay. A wait-job ultimately pays more than the high-paying jobs on campus because you can only take so many shifts. well that's relative to the job. The classes are fun but the faculty is difficult to work with. Professors are great on a personal level but when it comes to departmental politics, things get difficult. The people at middlebury are intense and fantastic although the scene gets monotonous because there is only so much one can do over the weekend. It's not that middlebury doesn't try to spice things up with events, its more that you are just gonna see the same damn people! i mean lovely people. you know what i mean. you have to be a midd-kid reading this otherwise it will make no sense. School is on the rise but the administration is more focused on the students that are gonna be students in 10 years than the students in the college right now. Money is all going into development plans because it seems like Ronald is more about how his track record looks on the developmental scale than on the inculcation scale. Do something for the current students. Don't pretend to care and then blow everyone off once they want something. To me these policies are mostly all fart and no shit because yes i will be proud of middlebury when it's one of the greatest colleges in amreeka, but i want to benefit from some of those resources now too. I hope i don't sound too bitter... but this place is expensive and they have to make up for the fact that there is nothing in middlebury town to divert attention of campus.

Middlebury is what you make of it, full of crazy, nice, down-to-earth, eccentric, outdoorsy nutjobs. People that are going to change this world for the better. Of course there is a strong community of LAXers, but they are most spoiled-white nancies, waste of space and time. Best thing by far is the community. Also the school throws around money for your ideas/adventures/interests (get back what you pay for I guess)

Beyond all the new facilities and campus wide opportunities that admissions might emphasize about Middlebury, what's really great is that there are so many different types of people from so many diverse backgrounds that there is always someone with a life perspective or knowledge of one area you aren't familiar with that facilitates great conversation. Students push each other to stay current in all kinds of fields, academic and otherwise, because of a community open to sharing ideas and building off others. Another aspect of Middlebury that I cite as an important factor in my development as a person is the fact that most Middlebury students think before they speak. Random conjecture and fabricated statistics seldom pass in social conversation with other Middlebury students. Moreover, over generalizations are without question analyzed and refuted to the point where a student will actually care about the credibility of their responses. There are far too many kids at Middlebury in far too diverse of areas for someone to pass off hearsay as fact.

1. Social Life 2. Smoking allowed in dorms 3. It could be larger 4. Where is that? 5. Library 6. what college town 7. Do I care 8. The Campus 9. Maybe 10. Yes 11. Cant remember 12. Mine is that its too much

The school is too small and too remote. It is hard to meet people from outside, so you are confined to Middlebury students; people from the age range 18-24 with very little diversity in background and opinion. I miss being able to meet people in the street, miss seeing the real world with poverty and struggle. I think it is hard for many students to be realistic about life while living in Middlebury and having everything cared for. I also miss being able to have an apartment/room in the city, cook for myself, and go out (to places where there are people I do not know).

The best thing about Middlebury is that everyone is intelligent, but not in a pretentious Harvard way. I've met the greatest friends of my life, and while they were carefully selected and there are many people I don't like, Midd is doing something right if it attracted this many cool people. I would change our place on the US News and World Report rank. I'd like it if we went back to 7th or 8th, so we'd stop getting so many hard-working, not fun students. The town is gorgeous, and you can get a great sandwich in many different places. I grew up there and I'm still never bored. Steve's diner has the best service in all of Vermont. Administration sucks- they see Midd as a comapny, a product to be sold and spread throughout the world. They keep amassing more property and schools all over, building heinous buildings and tearing down the ones we love.

best: beautiful campus in a beautiful place, challenging academics school is a little on the small side

Middlebury is a great size. It is big enough that you meet new people all the time and small enough that you actually get to see them again.

The atmosphere of the student body is wonderful, but I would change the lack of socioeconomic diversity.

Best thing: Location Thing to change: Desire to grow and build more Best thing academically: Ability to connect with professors outside of the academic context. At least this is true for Geography and Chinese depts. The Otters rock my world.

its pretty much what i was expecting. i mean, small(ish), pretty, wonderful when it's nice and absolutely horrific when it's not. a lot of people have no idea where it is or what kind of a school it is, at least where i'm from. tres liberal artsy

Have you ever noticed how awesome Middlebury looks on the College home page? Needless to say, if people took that thing halfway seriously there would be a lot of pissed off people. Let's say I was a high school senior from the planet "Snompson" (an alien) with aspirations of attending an elite liberal-arts college, but without the means to travel. After a short Internet search I would probably run across the Middlebury Web site and fall head over heels in love with its language programs and Sound of Music-inspired campus. Now let's pretend that I actually got in. (At Snompson Central I was editor of the yearbook, captain of the lacrosse team, Hug Club founder and MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient) Upon arrival as a Feb, I would be mortified to find Middlebury in it's winter state ­- a frozen wasteland - and rue the day I ever found that god-forsaken Web site. For those of you who haven't been there in a while, the home page generates a triptych of photos depicting scenes of cheery co-eds and landscapes bathed in magic-hour glow. A far cry from the meteorological hell we endure six out of the nine months we're here. For many students here there has been a big difference between what they expected and what they've experienced. I of course, am no exception. My first semester, I hated this place. And it wasn't just the weather - it was the people too. I thought the guys on my hall were obnoxious, immature and stupid - which wasn't far off the mark - but looking back, I was just as stupid and a lot whinier. The real problem was that Middlebury was failing to meet the lofty expectations I had created for it all summer long. These expectations included: Becoming instant soul bros with my roommate. Hot smart girls would start liking me. Everyone would be into the same cool stuff I was into. And, perhaps most damaging, Middlebury would be the free-love utopia that it was when my dad went here. That's right. That whole summer I was getting the Middlebury story by way of my dad who wears rose-colored nostalgia glasses with panthers and pot leaves on them. Just like Dad I was going to Middlebury, and it was going to rule just as hard, if not harder, than my dad and the class of 1977. So of course, to my shock and dismay, it did not rule as expected. And that crushed me. As far as I was concerned, I had already bought into the Middlebury brand name and I deserved to feel like the kids on that homepage. Why didn't I want to paint my face blue and go to hockey games? What was wrong with me? It was like buying a can of Axe deodorant only to find out that the Axe effect is just a marketing ploy. But, you know what, I'm not that special. For every four kids that double major in Chinese and Econ there's one trying to smoke oregano. I found my niche, and maybe not so ironically, it wasn't in the image of those kids on the homepage.

Generally, Middlebury is a great place to be. However, it is not for everyone. Although it is essentially in the middle of nowhere, I like being able to use the natural surroundings. I love how I can drive only 20 minutes and be on the slopes. While this is definately a plus, it does at times get small, with a town that is asleep by 8 on weeknights, and weekends for that matter. I have met amazing people who are dynamic and interesting and motivated. It is great to be surrounded by these types of people. The academics are challenging, leading many of us at times of become overly stressed.

My school is very small, but for me, it is just right. The town is also extremely tiny, which, for me, is just right. The best things about Middlebury are the great professors and the general focus on the undergrads...(Since there are basically only undergrads.) I wish there was a more united pride about the college. There is definitely Midd pride present, but I wish it were more universal. In general, I adore it here. The opportunities I get at this college--academically--are unbelievable. People often complain about the social life on campus, but I believe if you go in search for what you want, you will find it. There are many different types of very cool, often intense, people here. One problem with the administration is its focus on getting Midd to dominate in the ratings for lib. arts schools. Its made for a more stressed out, less balanced/well-rounded/"chill" student body. I'll always remember sledding at 2 AM after the Valentine's Day blizzard--the winters here can be awful, but they can also be incredibly fun! We have our own ski mountain. That's unbelievable. We also have an awesome dining system--no cards! Go in whenever you want!