Middlebury College

There is so much wealth and privilege at this school, and if your not on a sport team, in "posse", or some other all intensive self identifying group you will not do well socially here. This is not a safe and accepting space for students of color and non-new england prep school backgrounds. There are many international students and students of color. However, all the international students come from prep-school type backgrounds and many of the students of color mostly hang out among themselves and leave Middlebury jaded and unfriendly. Being in the middle of nowhere gets old fast and you can go to a school much closer to civilization with everything Middlebury has to offer (including the outdoors).

4th Year Male -- Class 2016

Faculty Accessibility: A, Social Life: D

I want to preface what you are about to read by saying I am a very active member of the school, both academically and socially. Middlebury has an amazing group of people and there are lots of redeeming traits, but . . .

The administration and CCAL (Center for Campus Activities and leadership) are slowly suppressing the last vestiges of a once vibrant Middlebury social scene. If you are at a small party, 60 people in a large house, public safety (some really nice people but largely made up of dissatisfied townspeople) will harass everyone they see, repeatedly demanding identification of everyone even if they know you are 21. If you respectfully criticize their methods in any way you run a solid risk of being put on probation through a very opaque judicial policy where the dean of the college can and will throw you under the bus.

If you are in a club or student organization CCAL will closely supervise and restrict you. Even if you have an approved budget they will interfere if you step out of line of their wishes. The worst part of this is the way they do it. They will smile to your face and say you are doing a great job while trying to cut your budget and digging around in your files to get you on probation. If that fails public safety will be told to keep a close eye on you as an individual and the organization as a whole.

In addition much of the econ department are ineffective teachers. The school, to its credit, is trying to force them out but as they have tenure they linger on in their inefficiency.

Quality of life, from food to student services has declined steadily in my three years here and in the past decade from everything I have heard. It has gotten to the point where I and many of my friends would transfer were it not difficult to do as a junior.

In a recently released poll taken by the college, satisfaction with social life was ranked a 2.5 out of 5 overall. I believe it to be even lower this year.

For those thinking about coming to Middlebury, I encourage you to still apply because it is still a beautiful place with a great reputation and a lot of opportunities. As a whole the professors are really helpful. Just know you will not have much fun and will face an administration, made up of very few middlebury graduates, that pursues its own agenda regardless of students needs and desires.As I am still a student and fear reprisal I am not going to give my contact email, hope you understand.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2012

Education Quality: A, University Resource Use/ spending: F

I am currently a freshman at Midd, and I have to say I can't wait to transfer out. There is absolutely nothing to do here, and I currently have too much work to party anyway. The closest city isn't even a real city, and it is literally in the middle of nowhere. I knew that the school was small and the surrounding area even smaller, but I had no idea it would make me feel this isolated. Coming from an urban environment, I have never felt more alone, and cry myself to sleep almost every night. The people here are 65% friendly, and the other 35% are assholes, but that's to be expected at any school. I'm just warning prospective students that yes the academics are obviously fantastic, but expect to feel disconnected, isolated, and completely alone.

1st Year Female -- Class 2014

Education Quality: A+, Surrounding City: F