Middlebury Film Major

Before I came to Middlebury, I knew of a few stereotypes, and some I became aware of as I moved through the school. One is that we are outdoorsy, or woodsy, or heavens-forbid, tree-huggers. On the otherside we have the reputation as a preppy school, lots of Saabs in the parking lot and that type of thing. Mostly the stereotype is that of upper middle class white kids.

Well, Middlebury is a school full of white kids, yes. You can't deny that. Our skin is white, but that's no different than going to a school in the part of the country that is predominantly black and exclaiming, "Wow, how diverse this school is!" Vermont is a state that lends itself to historically "rich white people" activities: Golf, Skiing. The school isn't the problem, the problem is the stigma surrounding these activities.
Another thing: how base is it to look at someone's skin color and make a judgement about them? How racist is that? If I have black skin what does that mean? I had a harder life? I'm poorer? I'm better at basketball? I like hip hop music? If I have white skin that means that I like classical music and live in a four story townhouse and love skiing. These are obvious exaggerations but the norms carefully surrounding the "Middlebury's a white school," stereotype that gets thrown around a lot. Without African American students, that must mean that no one knows anything about urban life, hip hop culture, parents who struggle to make ends meet, the outside world, etc etc. You know, you can ski, listen to hip hop and talk about the problems in Gaza all in the same day.
Many students may appear white skinned but are from Europe, the midwest, the deep south, Canada, Mexico, Asia. They have lived and studied abroad. Middlebury students are profoundly diverse in terms of experiences and lives, even though their skin color and clothes may look the same.

So, what I mean is, the sterotype is not accurate.

The Middlebury community is the best thing about the school.
I would abolish Palana house. It is a bad idea. Why don't Latino and African American students live in other dorms? Why must we house them in a special place so nobody integrates? This problem is perpetuated by both whites and blacks at our school...
Our school is just right in size.
Anybody worth talking to knows what Middlebury is.
I spend most of my time on campus in my dorm room, in other friend's rooms or at the library.
Middlebury has a great college town, free of commercialism, and everyone says hi.
I think the Administration works well. However, there is a sense that every person that works at Midd has one job with a set of rules and regulations and deadlines. They look for any and all instances to enforce their little rules in their little corner of the social strata.
I think that the homophobic slurs written on walls were pretty big. But Nick Garza who disappeared is definitely number one.
Yes, People love Middlebury.
The fact that all Middlebury alums, students and faculty help each other is incredibly freakish. We don't need frats at Middlebury, the school is one giant fraternity.
I'll remember sledding down the hill by Old Chapel when it snowed two feet, and having my mind blown by a physics class and then having a two hour lunch with the most amazing people in the world.
Students complain about the weather constantly. But hey, it's new england.

My brain hurts from Middlebury. I learned so much in and out of class, it's fantastic. The Professors change your life. Period. Yes, they know your name. You are paying 45,000 a year, what do you expect. They know your name by the second class. This school is no joke. Students always raising the bar with each other outside of class. Every class the conversation spills into lunch or dinner, or all night long.
As a recent introduction to the American workforce, I can say that Middlebury does not give you the skills for day one, but rather, it gives you the skills to own the place on day two. No, I didn't knwo all the techinical hombo jumbo that is industry specific. But I have the analytical skills so that when somebody says something once, I can figure it out from there.

Who feels out of place at Middlebury? 1. People who wanted to go to the University of Virginia and have a big cookouts at football games and go to frat parties and pledge and live a life that Will Farrell would be proud of. 2. Anybody who grew up in an urban environment may have a tough time. Especially if you hate the outdoors. Movies are one hour away. World-class dining is an hour away, so we have more, hiking, meditating, writing, reading, cooking, thinking type of people. I also know urban dwellers who love Middlebury because it is at last a place with trees and none of that crap you get in many big cities.

THere are four groups of students in the dining hall: 1. The tan girls who wish they went to Clemson. 2. Athletes who are great, white bread American kids who balance practice and academics perfectly, and are generally pretty boring. 3. Artsy kids: These are generally the richest kids in school and take the most time off to go to Brazil or South AMerica or China and do interpretive dance. They throw the best parties ever. 4. The rest of us: we wear hoodies, do activities, and have a breadth of friends in all groups. We are the clear majority.

I wish that athletic events were more popular, I wish we all got behind the sports teams. The truth is though, that some of those kids are pricks, so we don't generally like to go support them when they need us. I met all my closest friends in class. What do we do? In the winter we go skiing, fall and spring is hiking. The social life is difficult when you don't have an I.D, but you should learn that alcohol does not equal fun anyway and go take a hike. One of my friends spent a whole semester not drinking to see what would happen. He had the best semester of his life. Every Friday and saturday there are world-class classical music groups, independent films or theatre shows, usually at low or no cost.