This month, JDK College Consulting founder Joe Korfmacher took a trip to New England to visit six selective schools and learn about what their Admissions departments are looking for in applicants. During the trip, Joe chatted with current students and consulted with admissions counselors at each stop to dig deep into each school's culture and personality. Of course, it always helps to have working relationships with admissions officers, too.
The trip included visits to Yale University, Trinity College, Harvard University, Boston College, Dartmouth College, and the topic of today's post: Middlebury College.
General Information
Middlebury College is located in Middlebury, Vermont in an absolutely picturesque setting with gorgeous green lawns and stunning mountain views. Though only 5 hours from New York City, Middlebury feels like a whole other world. The college is very connected to the town of Middlebury, which has 8,000 residents (one of the largest towns around). There are no gates around Middlebury College, opening up into the town and residents are welcome to walk around their campus, audit classes, and use their facilities. The school itself has 2,500 undergraduates, a nice size for a small liberal arts college, ensuring lots of personal attention from faculty.
Ninety-eight percent of the students live on campus all four years, and the majors very much revolve around the liberal arts and sciences. As you would imagine, students spend much of their time outdoors studying on the lawns, hiking in the woods, or skiing on the mountains. In fact, Middlebury College has its own mountain, called the "Snow Bowl," where students enjoy a complementary shuttle and reduced price lift tickets.
There are over 170 different clubs and activities on campus, with Ultimate Frisbee being one of the most popular. Also 30% participate in varsity sports, with many more involved in club sports. It is an extremely active campus, but of course academics come first at this "Baby Ivy" school.
Academic Information
Middlebury College is in the NESCAC athletics conference, and this group of schools if often referred to as the "Baby Ivies" because of their rigorous academics and low admission rates. It is a liberal arts and sciences college, where all students are taught to think, write, and speak persuasively and has an extremely writing-intensive curriculum. There are many interesting majors including Biology, Dance, Greek, Creative Writing, History, Physics, Political Science, and Theater.
Middlebury is well-known for its foreign language department, as they house 10 popular and demanding foreign language majors. During breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Middlebury offers what they call the "language tables," where students and faculty are only allowed to communicate in that specific language throughout their meal. With a 9:1 student to faculty ratio, it's opportunities like the language tables, that make Middlebury a special place, where you can be sure the students are receiving a top-notch education.
Finally, it is important to note that Middlebury follows the 4-1-4 academic calendar. Students take 4 courses in the fall, 4 courses in the spring, and 1, intensive course in January, dubbed "J-Term". This is a course that meets 9 hours a week during the month of January, and students usually take this opportunity to enroll in more of the eccentric courses Middlebury has to offer.
Admissions Information
As mentioned above, Middlebury is a small school with superior academics in a beautiful location - so you may imagine that it is no easy feat to get accepted. Middlebury consistently has a 17% acceptance rate, and seeks students who have done very well in high school, often pushing themselves with a rigorous course load. The accepted middle 50% for the SAT is 1910-2220 and their ACT is 30-33. They are not a test-optional school, but rather are a "test flexible" school as they will accept either the SAT or the ACT or 3 subject test scores. They very much use a holistic approach, and are really trying to see if the student is the right fit for Middlebury.
The essay will be an important part of your application to Middlebury, as the Admissions team wants to find students whose personalities shine through excellent writing. Middlebury offers Early Decision 1 with a deadline of November 1, Early Decision 2 and Regular Decision by January 1. Though not required, admissions would like to see students in high school take four years of English, math, three years of a lab science and history, at least one foreign language, and some study of music, art, or drama.
Finally, Middlebury does a fantastic job with providing an affordable education for those who cannot pay the $63,000/year cost of attendance. They have a large endowment and make a real effort to help accepted students afford a Middlebury education. While many other schools will have the majority of their financial aid package come from loans, Middlebury caps their loans at $3,000 per year, so the most debt a student will graduate with will be $12,000.
Middlebury is not for everyone, especially for a student looking for a large college or a school in the middle of a big city. But if you're looking for that traditional college feel with limitless outdoor activities, a beautiful campus, and a faculty that will ensure you are graduating with the tools to be extremely successful, then Middlebury is a college to look into!