Middlebury's beautiful Vermont location help to set an amazing environment for the school. The natural surroundings are gorgeous and provide a lot of things to do that are not necessarily apparent. No there's no mall, and yes the movie theatre downtown sucks--but that's not what this school is about. If you are someone who is creative, enjoys doing things off the beaten path (often quite literally), and don't need every minute of your "social time" to be planned out for you with the usual dances, movie nights, and whatnot (all of which Middlebury has as well), then you will do well here. Middlebury is well respected and becoming more so all the time. It has a reputation for excellent language programs (although they are far from the best departments) and its connection with the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and School of English are strong and help bring a lot of interesting speakers and professors to campus. The people here are phenomenal, the teachers are (on the whole) engaging and highly highly intelligent, and the quality of life is off the charts.

The best part of academics at Middlebury: The professors know you. The classes are small, individual attention is huge, and you can really get to know your professors if you put yourself out there. There are not a lot of core rerquirements at Middlebury and students often have a lot of freedom in choosing classes and--barring a double major or 300 minors--taking a number of classes outside of their major as well. Students work hard but aren't particularly competitive, but this might depend on the major. As an English major, I find the faculty to be phenomenal. There is a wide array of classes and a close connection with the Bread Loaf faculty allows for a lot of creative writing opportunities. The strongest departments here are the interdisciplinary ones: International Studies, American Studies, Geography, Environmental Science and--of course--English and American Literatures.

There are all kinds of kids here and lots of different social groups. That said, the majority of people are white, wealthy, slightly liberal, athletic, straight, from outside of Boston or New York, intelligent, active in the community, and good looking. Diversity of all kinds is on the rise but not where it should be. Socioeconomic diversity is also something that coul be mch better here. Students are, on the whole, not extremely politically aware or artistically inclined. Although there are many different kinds of people here, let's say a "diversity of personality", a lot of social groups intermingle and you get to know all kinds of people involved in all kinds of things.

You don't have to lock your door. You can feel safe walking across campus. Social Houses are a fun part of the community and provide a place to party and meet new people but they aren't the be-all-end-all of social life by any means. The improv group on campus is hilarious and extremely popular. The theatre scene here is strong, the music one is not. If you are an artist, a musician, a hilarious actor, come here and prosper. If you know how to play the harmonica, teach me! Thursday - Saturday nights are usual party nights but it all depends on your schedule. If you have class at 8:00am on Friday and not at all on Wednesday, then Tuesday is going to be a bigger night than Thursday. All in all, though, there is always something to do when you've got the time. As far as dating goes, the school is big enough to accomodate a healthy social life but small enough where people are going to know your business--or, at least, your friends and their friends will.

I think when most people think of the typical Middlebury students, they think of someone who is generally well-rounded, athletic but not necessarily on a sports team, good looking, outdoorsy, intelligent, and passionate about their academic and extracurricular interests. Middlebury may also be thought of as a pretty crunchy school because it is in Vermont and because granola is served at every meal.

The trend of Middlebury students is tending, year after year, to shift from students who are well-rounded to students who are specialized. Whether this is because of the students choosing Middlebury or the other way around, it is happening. Middlebury is not, on whole, super crunchy, super liberal, or super alternative. You can loosen your tie a little because it's not Williams--but don't lose the shirt altogether because it's definitely not Wesleyan.

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.