Middlebury Suffering with larger class sizes and enrollment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had to counter program every tour's narrative on small class size. Small class are great. But so are large classes. Do you want a rock star professor to teach you about the fall of Saigon or do you want to hear the lax bros thoughts who is sitting next to you?

+1

Good point. This is another reason to consider state flagship honors colleges where all students are admitted based on academic factors.

That’s a very strange reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had to counter program every tour's narrative on small class size. Small class are great. But so are large classes. Do you want a rock star professor to teach you about the fall of Saigon or do you want to hear the lax bros thoughts who is sitting next to you?

+1

Good point. This is another reason to consider state flagship honors colleges where all students are admitted based on academic factors.

That’s a very strange reason.

Huh ? How is it strange to want to be in a classroom full of academically motivated & talented peers ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had to counter program every tour's narrative on small class size. Small class are great. But so are large classes. Do you want a rock star professor to teach you about the fall of Saigon or do you want to hear the lax bros thoughts who is sitting next to you?

+1

Good point. This is another reason to consider state flagship honors colleges where all students are admitted based on academic factors.

That’s a very strange reason.

Huh ? How is it strange to want to be in a classroom full of academically motivated & talented peers ?

I don’t think that’s supported by your point. State schools these days are an absolute joke- see UCSD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The closing of the program in Monterey is significant. I know of a few people who attended and went on to be high profile translators across government.

It really needed to go. It was a distraction and financial burden that didn't really add to Middlebury's core mission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:35 students in a class is still quite small, and if you come from a public high school, that’s close to normal, granted most probably came from private. These kids need to stop whining because there is little difference between 20 and 35 in a college class, even 9 and 20 or 35. If they can’t find a way to speak up or use AI to cheat on readings, that tells you more about student. Welcome to the real world.

Extensive research has shown that the ideal class size to facilitate learning, discussion, and engagement is 16 students. So yes, 20 is a lot better and just a few more than the ideal size, rather than 35 (which is double the ideal size).

Cite your source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:35 students in a class is still quite small, and if you come from a public high school, that’s close to normal, granted most probably came from private. These kids need to stop whining because there is little difference between 20 and 35 in a college class, even 9 and 20 or 35. If they can’t find a way to speak up or use AI to cheat on readings, that tells you more about student. Welcome to the real world.

Extensive research has shown that the ideal class size to facilitate learning, discussion, and engagement is 16 students. So yes, 20 is a lot better and just a few more than the ideal size, rather than 35 (which is double the ideal size).

Cite your source.

You don’t have access to google?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right. They need the money, bad.

Ah, the Middlebury troll is back.

Middlebury has zero financial problems, has never had any and likely never will. They are in the top 50 or so schools in the country in terms of endowment (larger than U Miami for example) with more resources per student than schools such as Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago.

Middlebury has had a small nagging deficit for awhile because Laurie Patton preferred to just ignore it. Baucomb quickly made the right decision on MIIS and I suspect that it will quickly disappear. Even if it didn't the actual budget effect is small kind of like their $1.6B endowment functioning more like a $1.4B endowment. Middlebury also draws conservatively from their endowment, taking a full point less (4.5-5.0%) than peer schools like Colby for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Middlebury Campus newspaper has been taken over by a bunch of ultra-liberal snowflakes who complain, complain, complain. Sad.

They provide no evidence to support their claim. Of course it's an editorial, so I guess they can say whatever they want.

You can find a very quantitative article about this topic, but you just sound a bit allergic to journalism…
https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/10/large-class-sizes-impact-faculty-student-experience

Journalism? The article you linked to notes that "more than a dozen students" complained about class size. More than a dozen out of 2,700. It goes on to talk about 3-4 classes that are over-enrolled--out of 850.

There is no data showing the AVERAGE class size has increased, or that the student/faculty ratio has increased significantly. Where's the response from the administration? Oh, that's right. They didn't interview them for this article.

Manufactured outrage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Middlebury Campus newspaper has been taken over by a bunch of ultra-liberal snowflakes who complain, complain, complain. Sad.

They provide no evidence to support their claim. Of course it's an editorial, so I guess they can say whatever they want.

The use of the Trumpian "sad" and "snowflakes" tells me all I need to know about you. You either don't understand journalism, are supremely ignorant, or a bot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Middlebury Campus newspaper has been taken over by a bunch of ultra-liberal snowflakes who complain, complain, complain. Sad.

They provide no evidence to support their claim. Of course it's an editorial, so I guess they can say whatever they want.

You can find a very quantitative article about this topic, but you just sound a bit allergic to journalism…
https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/10/large-class-sizes-impact-faculty-student-experience

Journalism? The article you linked to notes that "more than a dozen students" complained about class size. More than a dozen out of 2,700. It goes on to talk about 3-4 classes that are over-enrolled--out of 850.

There is no data showing the AVERAGE class size has increased, or that the student/faculty ratio has increased significantly. Where's the response from the administration? Oh, that's right. They didn't interview them for this article.

Manufactured outrage.

The data is in the article from the office of institutional research…

Admin can also just refuse to answer students. You seem really secure in your lack of knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right. They need the money, bad.

Ah, the Middlebury troll is back.

Middlebury has zero financial problems, has never had any and likely never will. They are in the top 50 or so schools in the country in terms of endowment (larger than U Miami for example) with more resources per student than schools such as Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago.

Middlebury has had a small nagging deficit for awhile because Laurie Patton preferred to just ignore it. Baucomb quickly made the right decision on MIIS and I suspect that it will quickly disappear. Even if it didn't the actual budget effect is small kind of like their $1.6B endowment functioning more like a $1.4B endowment. Middlebury also draws conservatively from their endowment, taking a full point less (4.5-5.0%) than peer schools like Colby for example.

It factually has a deficit that president baucom is working to fix. As an alum, it’s tiring seeing threads delude themselves that there’s anything but a deficit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right. They need the money, bad.

Ah, the Middlebury troll is back.

Middlebury has zero financial problems, has never had any and likely never will. They are in the top 50 or so schools in the country in terms of endowment (larger than U Miami for example) with more resources per student than schools such as Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago.

Middlebury has had a small nagging deficit for awhile because Laurie Patton preferred to just ignore it. Baucomb quickly made the right decision on MIIS and I suspect that it will quickly disappear. Even if it didn't the actual budget effect is small kind of like their $1.6B endowment functioning more like a $1.4B endowment. Middlebury also draws conservatively from their endowment, taking a full point less (4.5-5.0%) than peer schools like Colby for example.

It factually has a deficit that president baucom is working to fix. As an alum, it’s tiring seeing threads delude themselves that there’s anything but a deficit.

+1, I love midd. I donate to Midd as a proud parent, but the institution missed out on a decade and a half of financial glory that peer lacs have reached (Swat, Pomona, Williams, and Amherst all passing the three billion dollar endowment mark). It has also made poor enrollment decisions that have helped erode campus culture. I have a DS at Midd and a DD at Williams, and a nephew at Pomona-the differences in resources between midd and the latter two are night and day. It’s a wonderful school but you have to face reality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right. They need the money, bad.

Ah, the Middlebury troll is back.

Middlebury has zero financial problems, has never had any and likely never will. They are in the top 50 or so schools in the country in terms of endowment (larger than U Miami for example) with more resources per student than schools such as Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago.

Middlebury has had a small nagging deficit for awhile because Laurie Patton preferred to just ignore it. Baucomb quickly made the right decision on MIIS and I suspect that it will quickly disappear. Even if it didn't the actual budget effect is small kind of like their $1.6B endowment functioning more like a $1.4B endowment. Middlebury also draws conservatively from their endowment, taking a full point less (4.5-5.0%) than peer schools like Colby for example.

It factually has a deficit that president Baucom is working to fix. As an alum, it’s tiring seeing threads delude themselves that there’s anything but a deficit.

Nobody said it wasn't a deficit but it is a meaningless one except for being a bit embarrassing. As to delusion, the only delusion here is you pretending to be a Middlebury Alum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right. They need the money, bad.

Ah, the Middlebury troll is back.

Middlebury has zero financial problems, has never had any and likely never will. They are in the top 50 or so schools in the country in terms of endowment (larger than U Miami for example) with more resources per student than schools such as Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, Chicago.

Middlebury has had a small nagging deficit for awhile because Laurie Patton preferred to just ignore it. Baucomb quickly made the right decision on MIIS and I suspect that it will quickly disappear. Even if it didn't the actual budget effect is small kind of like their $1.6B endowment functioning more like a $1.4B endowment. Middlebury also draws conservatively from their endowment, taking a full point less (4.5-5.0%) than peer schools like Colby for example.

It factually has a deficit that president baucom is working to fix. As an alum, it’s tiring seeing threads delude themselves that there’s anything but a deficit.

+1, I love midd. I donate to Midd as a proud parent, but the institution missed out on a decade and a half of financial glory that peer lacs have reached (Swat, Pomona, Williams, and Amherst all passing the three billion dollar endowment mark). It has also made poor enrollment decisions that have helped erode campus culture. I have a DS at Midd and a DD at Williams, and a nephew at Pomona-the differences in resources between midd and the latter two are night and day. It’s a wonderful school but you have to face reality

They aren't and you 'd know it if you actually were such a parent. Another swing and miss little troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:35 students in a class is still quite small, and if you come from a public high school, that’s close to normal, granted most probably came from private. These kids need to stop whining because there is little difference between 20 and 35 in a college class, even 9 and 20 or 35. If they can’t find a way to speak up or use AI to cheat on readings, that tells you more about student. Welcome to the real world.

Extensive research has shown that the ideal class size to facilitate learning, discussion, and engagement is 16 students. So yes, 20 is a lot better and just a few more than the ideal size, rather than 35 (which is double the ideal size).

Cite your source.

Educator here, it's not rocket science. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/fdf9ce53-d846-4b23-a551-78730bc4b0b9