Middlebury 2024 acceptance rate sees uptick to 24%

[MWolf]

@transfer1210

As a current Middlebury student, I can tell you that we don’t understand why Middlebury decided to accept that many more students. We received an email from Residence Life last week informing us that they are almost sure that they are expecting over enrollment, even more than last year. Due to this, they are turning rooms from doubles to triples and quads—and singles into doubles.

Besides COVID-19, I also think Middlebury’s image/way of handling things has been on a downhill lately and the administration/admissions know this. For example, last week faculty rejected universal credit/no credit grading model despite the huge student movement, Professor Taylor, the current dean of the college, announced that she’s leaving Middlebury this summer to become the dean of Smith College, and also, “The College will fail to meet its budget this year by an estimated $17 million, and severe cuts are unavoidable.”

This came from a faculty member who is advocating for Middlebury to let go of MIIS—Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California because of budget costs. And Charles Murray was scheduled to return back to speak on campus in May. God knows how that would have turned out.

These issues are less internal and I believe more prospective students are aware of them. Just my thoughts.

The increase in number of students staying on campus is not expected to be from over enrollment of first years, but because there are about 200 students who were expected to study abroad, but likely will not be able to do so. The yield from first years for Vermont private colleges is expected to drop 10%-30%.

As for the choice for universal pass/fail, well, colleges are not, and should not, be guided by what students want, when they make academic based decisions. So it doesn’t really matter whether there is a “huge student movement”.

Middlebury is facing exactly the same situation that every other college is now facing, and is much better placed to weather this than the vast majority of colleges out there. Having an endowment of over a billion does help, you know. A budget shortfall of $17 million from a budget of close to $290 million is pretty small, all things considered.

Also, so Professor Swenton thinks that Middlebury needs to get rid of the MIIS to save money. How does that relate to anything here?

I’m sorry that you had to vacate the dorms and do the rest of your semester online. It sucks, but that is what life is like now. It will get better.

[merc81]

@transfer1210

As a current Middlebury student, I can tell you that we don’t understand why Middlebury decided to accept that many more students.

The alternative, accessing a waiting list at a later time, may represent an insecure approach to building a class:

[Middlebury’s dean of admissions] said that Middlebury doesn’t like to use the waiting list for admissions because "the wait list can be unreliable and interest can fluctuate depending on how other colleges proceed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/04/13/yield-rates-and-admit-rates-are-flux

[merc81]

CC viewers may be interested to see that @MWolf’s alternative perspectives in reply #3 were used to conclude a Middlebury Campus article on a topic similar to that of this thread:

As one commenter wondered aloud on a College Confidential thread about the college’s uptick in admissions, it will be difficult to know until then how many students will actually matriculate in September. “It actually makes little sense, considering that they have had over-enrollment in the past and it didn’t go well,” they said about the higher acceptance rate. “Alternatively, perhaps they know something that the other NESCACs don’t.”

https://middleburycampus.com/49522/news/admissions-markets-midd-in-a-year-roiled-by-economic-downturn-public-health-crisis/

[MWolf]

@merc81

CC viewers may be interested to see that @MWolf’s alternative perspectives in reply #3 were used to conclude a Middlebury Campus article on a topic similar to that of this thread:

As one commenter wondered aloud on a College Confidential thread about the college’s uptick in admissions, it will be difficult to know until then how many students will actually matriculate in September. “It actually makes little sense, considering that they have had over-enrollment in the past and it didn’t go well,” they said about the higher acceptance rate. “Alternatively, perhaps they know something that the other NESCACs don’t.”

Admissions office markets Midd in a year roiled by economic downturn, public health crisis - The Middlebury Campus

I didn’t write that article, I promise ?

I do think that, with last year’s 24% acceptance rates, there may be more applicants next year.

[merc81]

By this new analysis, Middlebury has been predicted to “thrive”: https://www.parents.com/kids/education/college/these-tk-prestigious-colleges-could-close-because-of-the-pandemic/.

[MWolf]

@merc81

By this new analysis, Middlebury has been predicted to “thrive”: Kids Education: School & Teacher Tips & Advice.

I’ve already trashed Galloway’s study in multiple places, so I’ll just say that he is ignoring a decade or two of good research on the reasons that small colleges close, and making up his own really bad methodology and coming up with results which are frankly ridiculous in too many cases.

Midd will weather this storm, but that is regardless of any prediction that Galloway provides.

[merc81]

For those interested in Galloway’s research, this article provides several critical responses to his findings (including, to an extent, from Galloway himself): https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/07/clark-university-mount-holyoke-college-umass-boston-and-dartmouth-are-most-likely-to-perish-according-to-new-analysis.html.

[Contented_Panther]

At the macro-level, COVID-19 is likely to make some schools that have been in financial difficulty unsustainable - but this is hardly news, especially in Vermont.

VT has seen Southern Vermont College, Marlboro, Green Mtn College and College of St Joseph close or merge in the last 18 months - before COVID-19. All of them suffered from small endowments, high fixed costs, heavy reliance on tuition for their operating budget, many fewer 18 year olds in New England and low selectivity. See: https://vtdigger.org/2019/03/08/deeper-dig-vermont-colleges-keep-closing/

The VT state college system is also in deep financial trouble for the same reasons, but when the Chancellor said so, he got fired. (https://vtdigger.org/2020/04/21/vermont-state-colleges-need-25-million-now-even-without-campus-closures/)

So in an industry with overcapacity, some over-extended suppliers and fierce competition, you would expect closures or mergers amongst the weakest providers. Where I break with Galloway’s research is a common-sense check: those with large endowments, strong brands and loyal alumni - Smith, Wellsley, Brandeis and (probably) Mt Holyoke - will be fine; greater selectivity over a five-year horizon certainly helps - and the idea that Wellsley is less safe than the College of the Holy Cross is risible on its face.

Midd too will be fine, and I expect that there will be capital campaign when this is over to boost the endowment and what is for me the key figure - Endowment/Student, where Williams continues to set the pace for NLACS.