<p>RML, I have to engage your propaganda (a great risk, because it only seems to spur you). Berkeley has some great grad programs. You make rash statements with no support. Some of them are outright lies (just because you say something does not make it true). First you make the claim that Midd is not as prestigious as Berkeley. I’ll grant that it may be better know, but awareness does not equal prestige. If it did, then Florida, Ohio State, Notre Dame and USC would be the most prestigious schools in the country. I think we can agree that’s not true. I appreciate you’re love of your school, but don’t let it skew your understanding of the facts. As we readily admit, we’re all fanboys over here. There are lots of us. Middlebury has one of the highest Alumni giving rates in the country. But we don’t let our opinions change our version of the facts. Prestige is difficult to quantify. In our opinion, and certainly on the East Coast Berkeley is simply not as prestigious as Midd. Fine, we’ll agree to disagree. </p>
<p>Second, you invent this unquantifiable claim that Berkeley graduates are so much more employable than Midd graduates that Berkeley would “pawn Midd Big time”. Another delusional statement. I’m sure there is some study of employment rates 6 months after graduation (or the enrollment in grad school equivalent). With the unemployment rate in California being over 11% and the fact that there are more than 10 times as many students enrolled at Berkeley as there are at Middlebury, I suspect the opposite of your claim is actually true. And lets compare apples to apples here, I’m looking only at undergrad graduates. Also, you’re claim that we can’t compare rates of Midd students at top grad schools to rates of Berkeley students - only whole numbers is also so ridiculous I feel silly having to explain it to you. By that standard, people in China are taller than people in any other country because their combined height is greater than any other country (boy I hope that helps clarify your absurdity). </p>
<p>Third, you claim, “You need to be one of the best at Midd to get into any grad program at Berkeley grad school. Midd does not have easy access to Berkeley grad school. It does not.” I’m willing to concede that this may be a semantics argument. No one is claiming that Midd grads can simply walk into Berkeley as grad students. However, it’s not NEARLY as difficult as you claim. Our anecdotal evidence supports that. As we’ve said, Berkeley does have some great grad schools, but it’s not the impenetrable Mecca you believe it is. In my class, students were accepted to Berkeley for MBA’s and turned them down for Wharton and Kellogg - and Haas is a GREAT MBA program. That also ignores the high number of students who chose to attend Tuck, who never even applied to Haas (Please don’t argue that Haas is far superior to Tuck, let’s agree they’re on the same level). Plus I know of another student who went to Darden (did not apply to Haas). Another who went to Stanford (I don’t know whether he applied to Haas). Surely, not all of those students were at the top of their class. That’s just business. For Law school, we had students attending Harvard, UVA, G’Town, and Cornell. I don’t know whether those students applied to Boalt. I do know the student who attended G’Town was wait listed at Harvard and graduated cum laude - not magna, not summa, so I know he wasn’t at the top of his class. He was, however, at the top of his Law School class graduating in the top 10. Finally, let’s look at some less traditional graduate experiences. Architecture. We had one student going to Harvard and another going to Columbia. I’m not sure whether the Harvard student applied to Berkeley, but I know the Columbia student did. He turned it down to go to Columbia. He was however a top student at Midd. Finally, I know of a student who applied to Berkeley for Urban Planning. He was admitted. He was also admitted to UNC (full ride), and Cornell (half tuition). He chose Cornell - for those who aren’t aware, it’s one of the top two programs in Urban Planning. This student didn’t even graduate in the top HALF of his class. All this is to say that Middlebury prepares students very well for graduate application. </p>
<p>Let me close by noting Governor Brown’s recent announcement of the $16 Billion dollar state deficit. The future for a school like Berkeley is not bright. Again, I think it is a fine school. It’s simply that denying Middlebury’s strengths is not the way to making it better.</p>