I went to Midd and graduated a few years ago. My classmates were fairly split between public and private...from this area there were several of both.
There were a few common themes among students. One, with some exceptions that were clearly legacy/money admits, everyone had basically straight As in high school. And even those hwo didn't would be considered very intelligent. I had straight As at a mid-tier MoCo public, 5s on 3 AP exams, and very high test scores. I was probably mid-tier among my peers in college. Almost everyone had participated in a high level in some major activity in HS. Most were athletes, several D1 recruits (lacrosse, soccer.) Those who weren't athletes were gifted musicians, actoresses, or similar. And most people loved the outdoors. There wasn't a single overweight person I can recall. Great school, highly competitive, most of my friends went on to high earning jobs, elite grad schools, or top-level public service. |
The NESCAC schools tend to attract top athletes who participate in individual/small-team sports rather than the team sports like football. NESCAC schools get good skiers, swimmers, tennis players, fencers, crew, etc. These schools don't have the budget or the size to handle recruiting or supporting a whole football team of players that might be competive at the D1 level. |
Yes, they try to screen for fatties. |
also runners, soccer players, lacrosse players . . . |
+1 |
This statement may be a bit of an over generalization. You can look at the admissions stats at each of the SLACs which do show the percentage of public v. private. Now, the case of Middlebury, the private is a tad on the high side. But, e.g., if you look at Williams you'll see that the public is indeed higher. That may because Williams has made a determined effort to shake the old WASPY New England prep school image (and many argue they have indeed done just that...) |
yeah but don't public school grads outnumber private school grads about 10 to1 (or more)? You'd expect more public school grads at any of the colleges. |
If you take a typical public high school 90 percent of them go to a state college. A typical private school sends a vast majority to private colleges, with even the academically lower graduates selecting a lower tier private. Some of this is cost, some is comfort level with school size based on what you are used to, some of it is recruiting by the private colleges with a pipeline. The 50/50 private/public split seems similar even through the second and lower tier private colleges, where I can't imagine any state college being near 50 percent private school students. |
It's great that Midd is getting some love on this thread. ![]() After visiting 10 schools, including 3 Ivies, my DC fell in love with Midd. An amazing education in a gorgeous location. |
I got a full ride to Middlebury -- very high SATs, grades As and Bs and some specific interesting/unusual international experience. I went to a public high school in a state that has notoriously bad public schools.
I ended up going to Georgetown, though. |