Middlebury Suffering with larger class sizes and enrollment

[Anonymous]

All colleges use their endowments to a certain degree to lower overall tuition costs. The $93k tuition actually cost closer to $110k to deliver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DCs at different ivies have smaller classes than this, even as stem majors. How odd. Middlebury is not elite, should not be a T20 LAC. Move it down below Colby.

If your dear, gifted DCs are at ivies, who are you to opine on the quality of Middlebury or any other school that they don’t attend?

[Anonymous]

The difference between 35 is 20 students is a profound difference in the depth and quality of the feedback students will get from a professor on their essays or projects. This seems to be lost on many of the people here. I guess such people are used to multiple choice and fill in the blank assessments and can’t imagine any difference in these two scenarios except needing 15 more desks in a room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The difference between 35 is 20 students is a profound difference in the depth and quality of the feedback students will get from a professor on their essays or projects. This seems to be lost on many of the people here. I guess such people are used to multiple choice and fill in the blank assessments and can’t imagine any difference in these two scenarios except needing 15 more desks in a room.

+1

Classes which require discussion and written assignments ideally should have fewer than 30 students per class.

Family members have attended Northwestern. Good mix of class sizes. Intro econ courses had large lecture with small break-out groups. Most classes had between 9 students to 18 students. This probably varies by major. Last family member to attend was a triple major and almost all classes had fewer than 20 students.

[Anonymous]

The average class size at Middlebury is 16 students. Some classes have more. Some have fewer. I don't understand why there are 9 pages of comments about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average class size at Middlebury is 16 students. Some classes have more. Some have fewer. I don't understand why there are 9 pages of comments about this.

Because you dropped into a thread started by the Middlebury troll stirring the pot. They post something random or lacking context like an article from the student paper and try to spin it out of context because they are a bit bent in the head. People inevitably step in and correct them but the antics always continue for awhile.

[Anonymous]

They should increase. Nothing wrong with making education accessible to more students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should increase. Nothing wrong with making education accessible to more students.

There is if increasing enrollment & increasing the number of students in each class if it dilutes the quality of the education.

[Anonymous]

409 students (out of 598 total enrolled freshman) are admitted Early Decision.

That's 68% of the freshman class.

Only 2,738 students attend Middlebury, with 400 of them off the books for admissions stats purposes because they are the "February" admits.

200 of the 2738 were handpicked from the waitlist, preserving yield and circumventing need blind admissions.

Schools like Middlebury are struggling to attract high achieving student.

Only 41 freshman out of 500 scored above a 1530 on the SAT.

Middlebury is increasingly having to enroll low achieving students as it battles its financial problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:409 students (out of 598 total enrolled freshman) are admitted Early Decision.

That's 68% of the freshman class.

Only 2,738 students attend Middlebury, with 400 of them off the books for admissions stats purposes because they are the "February" admits.

200 of the 2738 were handpicked from the waitlist, preserving yield and circumventing need blind admissions.

Schools like Middlebury are struggling to attract high achieving student.

Only 41 freshman out of 500 scored above a 1530 on the SAT.

Middlebury is increasingly having to enroll low achieving students as it battles its financial problems.

Because they have a life beyond academics & standardized test prep.

Anyone scoring 1380/1400 or above is intelligent and, most likely, capable of scoring significantly higher if more time was spent prepping for the SAT. But why ? Middlebury College is outstanding & the students get to enjoy life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should increase. Nothing wrong with making education accessible to more students.

There is if increasing enrollment & increasing the number of students in each class if it dilutes the quality of the education.

As an opinion, an undergraduate-focused institution begins to lose its core identity if enrollment rises to much above two thousand students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Professor of Political Science Jessica Teet’s Authoritarian Politics class. The class had 18 students when it was taught in fall 2021, and last fall taught 54 students, nine greater than its target capacity of 45. It is common for professors to allow more students into classes than allotted by the original enrollment cap."

https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/10/large-class-sizes-impact-faculty-student-experience

Moving from 18 to 54 students for that class is a HUGE jump.

Fad course that will be unpopular in a couple years.

Class will be the same but the title will change from "Authoritarian Politics" to "Contemporary Politics". Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly who would want to pay all that money for public school class sizes? Shouldn’t the small class sizes be the draw of a place like that?

Larger class size means there's a higher chance that at least some of the kids will be intelligent. No one wants to always be in a class where curve breaker is a thing that is whined about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:409 students (out of 598 total enrolled freshman) are admitted Early Decision.

That's 68% of the freshman class.

Only 2,738 students attend Middlebury, with 400 of them off the books for admissions stats purposes because they are the "February" admits.

200 of the 2738 were handpicked from the waitlist, preserving yield and circumventing need blind admissions.

Schools like Middlebury are struggling to attract high achieving student.

Only 41 freshman out of 500 scored above a 1530 on the SAT.

Middlebury is increasingly having to enroll low achieving students as it battles its financial problems.

The troll is back looking to be fed.

[Anonymous]

"Only 41 freshman out of 500 scored above a 1530 on the SAT."

By omitting similarly rarefied scorers on the ACT, you have misrepresented Middlebury's profile.