Middlebury College Top Questions

Students come from a wide range of academic and social interests.

Students come from a wide range of academic and social interests.

sadly, students mostly stick to their own kind.

Middlebury students are extremely smart and well-prepared for college, which means they not only excel in the classroom, but also find ways to make a difference outside of the classroom--and even before they graduate.

As I wrote earlier, there are a lot of white kids here. While Middlebury looooves international students, the in-house diversity statistics are pretty dismal. And there are a lot of students from wealthy families. No one flaunts their wealth, but I've experienced some insensitivity -- people not understanding why I can't afford to eat out for dinner, and small things like that which make me feel a little out of place. It shows up in clothes, too. Middlebury athletic sweats are common items, but you don't have to search hard for pearls, cable knit, and pastels. The LGBT scene is a mess, incestuous and gossipy. But it's easy to escape if you're not gay and looking for a date. And the LGBT community is widely accepted. Middlebury's a pretty liberal campus. There's a small conservative presence, but they aren't too vocal about their views, as they're in the minority by a long shot...although the bros aren't above slurs and epithets. Different types of students do interact, although there is self-segregation, particularly regarding international students, who seem only to speak to each other. Middlebury is a cliquey place. Coming from a high school too small to have cliques, playing "name that group" in the dining hall is pretty fun. There's the bros, the bro groupies, the preps, the over-involved overachievers, the coed sports teams, the internationals, the nerds, the outdoorsy kids, the environmentalists, the Febs (it's a cult!), the first-years who haven't made friends outside of their halls, the hipsters, the theater majors, the smokers, the stoners.... The student body essentially splits into two based on dining hall: Ross = standard cafeteria food for standard cafeteria kids; Proctor = healthy, high-quality food with many vegetarian options for healthy, high-quality people who may or may not be vegetarians. You decide.

Mostly, I really like the student body. Overall, MiddKids are exceptionally fun, nice, and cool, not to mention studious. Frustrations -International kids branch out minimally. But they're mostly really nice and interesting, and that's true everywhere, even someplace like Macalester. -Male varsity athletes are too often interested in only (a) themselves, (b) boobs, and (c) keystone. ... But like with international students, that's true everywhere. No getting around it. -Liberal arts colleges can be really difficult places for LGBTQ people, just because there are so few options for relationships. But my queer friends here still like it a lot, and say they're glad they came regardless of any occasional frustrations.

they are bright, open-minded, outdoorsy and fun people that knows to work hard and play hard.

They were always the smartest kids in their classes and now they're all in one room....it can lead to great things and also to a lot of stress.

In most cases, my classmates turned out to be friends for life!

My classmates were smart, independent people who were incredibly passionate about the things they loved most, whether those were sports, extracurricular activities, academics, or all of the above.