Hello, everyone! I applied EA to UChicago and was accepted. However, I also applied RD to another two colleges, which were Columbia and Middlebury. I am an international student whose intended major is international relations (also want to take some mathematical and economics courses in the college). I also want to learn a foreign language in the future. I am not very intelligent but hard-working. So I prefer a collaborative environment rather than competitive one. After graduation from college, I hope to pursue a graduate degree directly.
I visited all three schools–Middlebury has an amazing and friendly campus but isolated. Columbia and UChicago are very similar to each other, both intellectually-focused institutions with similar levels of prestige, but have different locations.
And few additional questions:
Does Middlebury has a great undergraduate education same as UChicago and Columbia?
In Middlebury, can I have more opportunities to ask for professors’ help?
Can anyone give me some advice? If UChicago seems very fit for me, I will withdraw all my applications and reply to UChicago admission office.
Middlebury does have a great undergraduate program and professors are much more approachable at Midd than at any university, though the two you named are truly excellent. You will be on a first name basis with most of your professors before you know it at Midd. I found research opportunities abound at Midd when I went there. Midd is recognized internationally due to its language program and ownership of the Middlebury/Monterey language school on the west coast. If you are going to learn a language, Midd is absolutely one of the best schools in the world to do that (language school since 1913, though the school was founded in 1800). Oh, and by the way, when we published our research results, the professor shared authorship equally among all the contributors. That means I was listed as first author in a prestigious science journal while still an undergrad. I am not sure that any research university professors would have done the same, most likely relegating student contributors to a footnote. Overseas Midd has an excellent reputation, in large part because it pioneered the year abroad program that has now caught on everywhere. However, because Midd is a small liberal arts college, it will still not have the international, man-on-street name recognition of the other two schools, but that will not matter if you are going straight to graduate school where admissions will know very well about Middlebury. At UChicago/Columbia you will likely be taught by at least some teaching assistants, either graduate or undergraduate students. But check those institution’s information as they won’t hide this fact from you. At Midd you will get professors for every class. Some will be more easily approachable than others, but all will make themselves quite available to you. Office hours or otherwise. That is the reputation and that was my experience. Many of my best friends at Midd came from abroad and to my knowledge they were all well received and happy there (I do remember one that went home early to China and one back to Vietnam but that was the exception). I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the schools you mentioned, but you can be sure that your experience at Midd would be different than the other two universities, though the quality of education at all three will be the very highest. You can message me if you have any other questions.
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If you were admitted to UChicago EA, I seriously doubt that you are “not very intelligent.”