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.

It's great that Midd is getting some love on this thread. My child will be in the entering class.

After visiting 10 schools, including 3 Ivies, my DC fell in love with Midd. An amazing education in a gorgeous location.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your DC applying from an elite private school?

It's been drilled into us over and over (even here on dcum) that public school kids have an advantage over private school grads generally in college admissions. Why is midd different?

Is this true? Anyone? I was not aware of that. More I think of it, I don't think it is true.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your DC applying from an elite private school?

It's been drilled into us over and over (even here on dcum) that public school kids have an advantage over private school grads generally in college admissions. Why is midd different?

Is this true? Anyone? I was not aware of that. More I think of it, I don't think it is true.

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...)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your DC applying from an elite private school?

It's been drilled into us over and over (even here on dcum) that public school kids have an advantage over private school grads generally in college admissions. Why is midd different?

My guess is this is the stalker who fixates on certain posters. Now s/he's going after the "elite private school" poster from a recent thread.

+1

FruminousBandersnatch wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
"Midd like the other NESCAC schools takes athletics seriously and are top d3 in almost every sport, and recruit athletes that could easily play in mid or lower tier d1 programs but prefer the top academics at somewhere like Midd and not having sports completely take over their lives/schedules in college. "

Whoever thinks this has not been watching much football. NESCAC is the bottom of d3 and is miles away from Ivy League, which is near the bottom of D1. No NESCAC team got a single vote in the final 2013 top 25.

http://www.d3football.com/top25/2013/final

There are many good reasons to attend Middlebury and the other NESCAC schools, but upper level athletics isn't one of them.

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.

also runners, soccer players, lacrosse players . . .

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, they try to screen for fatties.

Anonymous wrote:
"Midd like the other NESCAC schools takes athletics seriously and are top d3 in almost every sport, and recruit athletes that could easily play in mid or lower tier d1 programs but prefer the top academics at somewhere like Midd and not having sports completely take over their lives/schedules in college. "

Whoever thinks this has not been watching much football. NESCAC is the bottom of d3 and is miles away from Ivy League, which is near the bottom of D1. No NESCAC team got a single vote in the final 2013 top 25.

http://www.d3football.com/top25/2013/final

There are many good reasons to attend Middlebury and the other NESCAC schools, but upper level athletics isn't one of them.

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.

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.