Middlebury Creative Writing Major

there seem to be two prevailing yet very separate stereotypes:
1) the backwards hat wearing, beruit playing, SUV driving, rich, white bro
2) the birkenstock wearing, frisbee playing, bike riding, rich, white hippie
also, there's a general understanding that middlebury students work very hard whether that be in work, extracurricular, or outside activities.

in the sense that any stereotype is accurate. there's definitely a divide that runs through social groups and interests that usually forms along these lines.

middlebury is building itself as a name in the field of liberal arts education. the current administration has a five-year plan to expand the college into an all-encompassing educational experience. this means that they are borrowing against the current students with promises of greatness in 5,10,15 years. there's a lot of distance between the students and the administration and the students often get left behind, even on relatively small points to which one would hope a college would be committed. there's a very strong desire, on the college's part, to have us subscribe to their philosophy and vision. should you not, it has become increasingly difficult to just to find spaces and people who are outside of it. in a sense, middlebury has forgotten about the atypical student and only caters to those that fit in its plan. the practical effects of which involve attempts to control college social life leading to an increasingly cliquey and divided campus as well as a general centralization process that has taken control out of the hands of many student-run organization and made it so that everything must be approved by governing bodies (wrmc, the radio station, has always been committed to bringing small, up-and-coming acts to campus for cheap, but this past year that was lost to a new larger concert committee to which wrmc sends delegates to, but has lost control of its funding.)

i feel that many of the teachers here are not very welcoming. which is not to say that they won't put in time with you should you want, but rather it seems sometimes that they are doing their jobs and that's it. in my 3 years now, there are only 3 teachers with whom i still maintain a relationship. there was a fourth, but she was not granted tenure and since had to leave.
most of the work that we are given seems more intended to keep us busy rather than to help inform us of any greater context. in fact, it is dealing with the greater context that middlebury seems weakest. many of the classes cram information in and then have you regurgitate it on papers and tests. there's very little self-reflection on the material until you get to higher courses (seminars or 300-level discussions). it feels at times like a very expensive high school.

rich, white kids. it seems like everyone here is from just outside of boston. the general attitude is one cultivated by growing up under those conditions/prejudices. thought that doesn't easily fall into these lines will probably not be understood or treated as hostile by most students on campus. that being said, there are places where one can find welcoming, but it will be very much removed from most of the campus. the 'outsider' cliques tend to fall along the lines of the frisbee team, theatre kids, hipsters, international students, &c..

logically following the student body response, the social scene is pretty homogenized as well. you can go hang out in some upperclassman's suite where there is a keg of natural ice and there are so many girls in short skirts and heels or football players cramming into the hallways that you can't leave and in someone's room there's madonna playing loudly so a bunch of kids have removed their shirt (a middlebury staple, so i'm told) and when you finally leave you're not sure how much of the sweat clinging to your clothes is yours but you're sure it will freeze during the long walk home. if that sounds like your cup of tea, then this school is for you.

there are good parties, sometimes. freshman year there would be one or two every weekend. now, we're lucky if there's one or two every month. this is partly because of the centralization i mentioned before, resulting in more crappy middlebury sponsored events and crackdowns on the institutions that used to throw good parties.

however, there's something to be said for having a slow dinner with friends, sharing some good locally-brewed beer, and going to bed at midnight.

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.