Middlebury Hurting Itself

urbanslaughter
Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:35:44 +0000

All this got me thinking about my information session (some 20 + years ago), but as it turns out, I don’t remember a second of it. I remember having a great meeting with the Dean of Admissions. I remember when I was very sick, the Dean of Students called my parents daily, to let them know how I was. I remember that when I was doing poorly in a class the professor approached ME (rather than me approaching HIM), to offer help. I remember when I was doing well in a class, a professor approached me to discuss future career options. I remember when I was working on my thesis and my professor who had been working with me on a regular basis told me, on the due date, “I know you’ve been working hard on this. I’d like you to fix up this section and turn it in tomorrow”. I remember when the College President several years after graduation met with me to discuss doing a reading at my wedding. Those are the memories I have interacting with the administration and staff at Middlebury. I’m not sure whether my info session was good or bad though.

Look, I’m not trying to dismiss a bad info session. It’s upsetting to me to hear about something like that. But I do think you’ll hear good and bad stories from all sorts of people applying to Middlebury and its peer schools. A school doesn’t reach the level Middlebury has reached by making a LOT of mistakes. Mistakes are made. I don’t deny this. I hope people will take the time to dig deeper. If only for their own benefit. I think nowadays people apply to so many schools that it’s easy to dismiss one when everything doesn’t go perfectly.