Middlebury College

Quick Stats

Middlebury, VT 05753: [map]

Phone: (802) 443-5000

2011-2012 Tuition

$53,800: comprehensive fee

Students

2,532: enrolled

49%: male /

51%: female

Admissions

Jan. 1: application deadline

17.2%: accepted

More Information

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U.S. News Rankings

Ranking score and category

U.S. News rank	Category Name
#5	National Liberal Arts Colleges

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Summary

Middlebury College is a private institution that was founded in 1800. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,532, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 350 acres. It utilizes a 4-1-4-based academic calendar. Middlebury College's ranking in the 2012 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 5. Its comprehensive cost is $53,800 (2011-12).

Middlebury College is located in the Champlain Valley between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks in the small town of Middlebury, Vt. The Middlebury Panthers have 31 NCAA Division III varsity teams and are members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Students can join about 140 organizations on campus. For skiers, Middlebury has 17 trails on the Middlebury College Snow Bowl ski area. The school also competes in "Muggle Quidditch" and founded the International Quidditch Association based on the sport from the Harry Potter novels. Middlebury also hosts the country’s oldest Winter Carnival, featuring a ski competition and music. All freshmen are required to live on campus and are assigned to one of five Commons, which provide academic and social activities.

Middlebury College’s graduate programs offer a Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Modern Languages. The Middlebury Language Schools take place in the summer and offer instruction in 10 languages. Middlebury is also the home to the Bread Loaf School of English, as well as the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, one of the oldest and most prestigious writers’ conferences. C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad has more than 40 schools in 13 countries for students to study abroad, and more than 60 percent of juniors study abroad. Notable alumni include former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer; playwright Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues; the members of the popular band Dispatch; and writer Jeff Lindsay, who wrote the books that have become the basis for the TV show Dexter.

School mission (as provided by the school):

Located in the quaint New England town of Middlebury, Vermont, Middlebury College offers scenic mountain views and a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that is particularly strong in environmental studies, international studies, sciences, and literature. A commons-based residential life system allows students to pursue their interests in an intimate atmosphere while participating fully in the life of the larger college community. Success in NCAA Division III sports competition reflects a culture that embraces the importance of the scholar/athlete. The student body encompasses a broad array of cultures, ethnicities, religions and economic backgrounds, making up a vibrant community with numerous intellectual perspectives.

General Information

School type	private, coed college
Year founded	1800
Religious affiliation	N/A
Academic calendar	4-1-4
Setting	rural
2010 Endowment	$783,225,000

Applying

When applying to Middlebury College, it's important to note the application deadline is January 1, and the early decision deadline is November 15. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due January 1. The application fee at Middlebury College is $65. It is most selective, with an acceptance rate of 17.2 percent.

For more information about the tests, essays, interviews, and admissions process, visit the Applying to College knowledge center.

Selectivity	most selective
Fall 2010 acceptance rate	17%
Application deadline	January 1
SAT/ACT scores must be received by	January 1

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Academic Life

The student-faculty ratio at Middlebury College is 9:1, and the school has 67.6 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Middlebury College include: Economics; Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies; Political Science and Government, General; Environmental Studies; and Psychology, General. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 96.0 percent.

Class sizes

Student-faculty ratio

9:1

4-year graduation rate

84% - High

Five most popular majors for 2010 graduates

Economics	14%
Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender, and Group Studies	8%
Political Science and Government, General	7%
Environmental Studies	6%
Psychology, General	6%

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Student Life

Middlebury College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,532, with a gender distribution of 49.4 percent male students and 50.6 percent female students. 97.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 3.0 percent of students live off campus. Middlebury College is part of the NCAA III athletic conference.

See what students are saying about life at Middlebury College.

Total enrollment	2,532
Student gender distribution

Undergraduate men who are members of a fraternity

Undergraduate women who are members of a sorority

Collegiate athletic association	NCAA III

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Campus Info & Services

Middlebury College offers a number of student services including nonremedial tutoring, health service, and health insurance. Middlebury College also offers campus safety and security services like late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, and controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc). Of the students at Middlebury College, 61 percent have cars on campus. Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Middlebury College.

Students who have cars on campus	61% - Medium
Health insurance offered	Yes
Students required to own/lease a computer	No

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Paying for School

At Middlebury College, 47.4 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $32,236.

Paying for college doesn't have to be difficult or devastating. Go to the Paying for College knowledge center to get advice on raising cash and reducing costs.

Comprehensive fee	$53,800 (2011-12)
Room and board	N/A
Financial aid statistics

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Student Reviews Ratings data provided by Unigo

Middlebury has a pretty stable relationship with the town of Middlebury, Vermont. No one gets stabbed like at Bates, no one gets mugged like at Trinity, and you can leave your house open and the keys in your ignition when you go to the liquor store. The community is really important downtown, and there is significant collaboration with the college in some respects. The college is the major employer in Middlebury, so people are a little uncomfortably dependent on it. It drives rents up all over town, and certainly has a very influential say in town politics. That being said, the college has done more for the town than the town has ever done for anyone. The small slices of culture in midwestern Vermont are directly solicited by Middlebury College. The college brings music, guest speakers, readers, orchestras, sports events, artists-in-residence, racial and geographical diversity to the town, and nearly all its facilities, events, and resources are open to the public - though privileges are naturally reserved for students. Adversely, the community provides some pretty awesome resources too, that the college could never do on its own. Vermont has a highly-honored tradition of living well, and keeping its priorities in the right place - since no one lives in Vermont to make it big. This manifests itself in several incredible things you won't find anywhere else. First: the Otter Creek Brewery. You can ride your bike or drive here, and drink free samples of micro-brewed beer and eat delicious gourmet whole-seed mustard and pretzels while you decide what beer to buy. Otter Creek has the most incredible deals I've ever seen. You can get a growler, a 64-oz glass jug of beer, for $4. That's almost four pints of excellent micro-brew for $4. (There's a $2 deposit on the growler itself.) Then they have specials on their seasonal beers when the seasons are changing, which is all the time. Last time I was there, I bought a case (24 bottles) of their delicious Oktoberfest for $11. Can you beat that? Then there is the Meat Shack. Follow a dirt road off of Weybridge St one mile out of town until you come to the unmarked farm that has animals on its mailbox. It's not easy to find, and most college students don't know about it. You go down the driveway and feel like you're trespassing until you enter a small red house, the size of a bathroom. Three walls are refrigerators and freezers, filled with freshly-cut vacuum-sealed farm raised meat. Their bacon is un***ingbelievable. They've got four kinds of sausage, pork-chops, sheep-sticks, hamburgers, Canadian bacon, etc, and you pay the same as you would in the supermarket, for hormone and antibiotic infused crap that will make you *** liquid. And the best part is, the whole thing operates on The Honor System, which, in this case, is a small metal box overflowing with cash. Each customer is asked to fill out an invoice saying what they're buying, and then you put your money in the money box and take your change. Just like that.

StuBalls Senior

Middlebury does not exaggerate about its academic rigor or its dedicated professors. The incredible learning that occurs is certainly one of the school's most impressive aspects. However, the environment is absolutely a double-edged sword. What may appear to be a gorgeous, vibrant refuge from the hustle and bustle of civilization in the fall and spring can also become vicious, bone-chilling loneliness during the five-month-long winter. Similarly, a small campus of approximately 2350 means faces are familiar and the community is intimate, but also means one has no chance from escaping from undesired company, or from the questions of a professor in class. Students from cities will not at all understand the feeling of sheer isolation until they visit. The College can easily become a bubble, even from the town five to ten minutes away, if one does not make the effort to walk there.

Michael Freshman

Overall, despite how many different kinds of intelligent people go to Middlebury, there was always a sense of a smaller community within that of active and interested people. People always wonder how I got all the way across the country to a small school in Vermont. Either they've heard of it and are properly impressed or they are completely clueless and think I'm crazy for moving away from Football U. Middlebury students are driven, but despite the myriad of things people could choose to be up in arms and active about these days, it was always crazy to me how impassioned students got about the littlest things. "Stop the Lockdown" had people angry. How DARE they lock doors during the day and keep us safe? And "Save Proctor." Now I love Proctor dining hall as much as the next guy, but I think pouring your energy into keeping an old, dirty, but amazing dining hall open, is extremist in the way only Midd kids tend to be. What is immediately important, right in front of my face, affecting my day to day life? That, I'll fight tooth and nail for. Anyone who remembers the New Logo debaucle summer of '08 will see it. It's that stupidly strange power, that we hope will later be harnesed for good in the world, that makes Middlebury unpredictable.

Caitlin Alum

More student reviews

* Overview details based on 2010 data

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Summary

General Information

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