Middlebury College
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Russian
Minor: None yet. As of now, I’m interested in environmental studies. It’s a very environmentally conscious school.
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Heterosexual Female
Summary
I am part of Midd Masti, which is a Bollywood style dance group; Feminist Action at Middlebury; I’m a tour guide; I play JV women’s lacrosse; and I do some of the things that Outdoors Programs puts on.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
I came the second semester because I was part of the “Febs”
High School Experience: Private school in Baltimore, MD with a graduating class of about 100 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Russian
Minor: None yet. As of now, I’m interested in environmental studies. It’s a very environmentally conscious school.
Extracurricular Activities: I am part of Midd Masti, which is a Bollywood style dance group; Feminist Action at Middlebury; I’m a tour guide; I play JV women’s lacrosse; and I do some of the things that Outdoors Programs puts on.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience? In what ways?
I joined Midd Masti during the first week of classes because my orientation leader was part of it. It’s one hour a week on Monday nights and is really fun and relaxed. I was the only first-year Feb there, and I didn’t know any of them. Now I’m friends with all the sophomores, it was a great way to step out of the bubble and helped jump-start my life at Middlebury.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
For all 100-200 level language classes, you have class every day for either 50 minutes or an hour and a half. The language isn’t easy for me, but it’s something I’ve done for the past 8 years, so doing homework for it every night isn’t new to me. We have to do writing and grammar exercises from the workbook, or sometimes reading from the news or Russian folk stories, so about 1-2 hours of Russian every night. It’s very repetitive, which is good for learning the language. In class, we do lots of talking and textbook exercises. The major assignments are lots of written tests, and about two oral exams a semester.
Is there anything your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
They do a great job of nailing down grammar, which is something you need. They have a worked-out system for how you should learn it. Because of that, the professors are well versed about the struggles the students will feel during a unit. Something that I didn’t like is that we didn’t do a lot of speaking. I was the only freshman of a class of sophomores and up and they were speaking in English and would respond in English to questions the professors posed in Russian, which I thought was weird. It’s also a small department. Next semester I’m going to be in a class with three people in it because the older students are going abroad.
What was your favorite class in your major?
My first-year seminar called Memory Matters, which was a class about the Holocaust. All the students were Febs. It wasn’t in my list of top five choices, but it was a great experience. We had a really interesting German professor that is currently doing research in that area. What’s cool is that professors aren’t forced to teach a freshman seminar, each professor chooses to teach their seminar, so they’re very passionate about the topic. It was an intense, emotional class. She understands the struggles of being a student. She told us all to give ourselves a break in the middle of the day when picking classes and would spend the first 15 minutes of each class asking about how we’re doing and what was going on with us. She was sort of like a mom on campus.
What has been your least favorite class so far?
Nature, Power, and Society, a geography course that looked at world problems and how people are solving them incorrectly. I was the only Feb in the class of 25. It was very reading intensive, and Febs haven’t read anything in about 6 months, so I wasn’t prepared for it. The professor was a weird guy. He was one of those people that are too smart to be able to teach something. I was obviously struggling and he didn’t take the initiative to seek me out, so I had to take the initiative and go talk to him.
Reasons to Attend
1) All the people I’ve met I have really liked. Middlebury attracts the kind of person that is willing to put on a big jacket when you go outside. People that are attracted to Middlebury are interesting and driven. That sounds [so cheesy], but I’ll vouch for that [laughs].
2) There is very focused attention from the professors. If you show initiative on your part, they will respond with equal interest.
3) The Spring is really pretty. When it starts to get warm people start popping out and there’s a whole new energy on campus.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If you want raging frat parties, it’s not for you. People study a lot.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: I lived in a suite in the basement of Gifford Hall, which is traditionally a sophomore dorm. It’s where the Gamut Room is.
There are five housing groups called Commons. Everybody on campus is in a Common to make a small community within a community. You have to live within your common freshman and sophomore year. I ended up in a sophomore dorm because Febs are stuck wherever there’s space within their Common.
Is there an on-campus ride service?
Yes, Midd Rides. You can call it whenever and they’ll pick you up. I’ve never used it, but I see it a lot.
How walkable is the area around campus?
You can walk to get the regular necessities, but it’s about a 20-minute walk. A lot of people at Middlebury are from Connecticut and Massachusetts, so a lot of them have cars, which is nice for those of us that don’t.
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
Taste of India or American Flatbread, which is a pizza place.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
Lake Dunmore. It’s in Branbury State Park, so you can go set up your hammock or play spike ball there. Every year Mountain Club has a barbecue there. There are also waterfalls and other lakes to go explore around the park.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I usually went out Friday and Saturday, and I went out a couple of times on Sunday and Thursday. Middlebury doesn’t have frats, so sports teams will host parties. Atwater is a dorm with massive suites so people flock there. There are social houses that have something pretty much every Friday and Saturday night where everybody’s invited. My roommate and I lived in a sophomore suite in the basement, so we’d sometimes have parties. There are also student bands that have concerts. Wednesday nights there is a student open mic night in the Gamut Room that people will go to. There’s a bar where upperclassmen will go, and Burlington is 40 minutes away so people will sometimes go there as well.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Middlebury? Is there anything you would change if you could?
It’s good, I love Middlebury. My only complaint is that it’s hard, and there are times when you’re just with your friends walking around in the cold.
Campus Culture
How was it entering Middlebury as a Feb?
Being a Feb creates a drive for each person to be in college because they all had the first semester off to get a job, travel, etc. Many work as a waiter or something to make money before school. This, plus the feeling that you’re stupider than the rest of the freshman class because you were accepted after them, creates a sense of drive and initiative. It’s tough academically because you have to relearn how to read, focus, and remember why you were accepted to this school.
I think everybody should take a semester off because you have had fourteen years of straight school before that. The fact that I was given six months to explore what I actually like and what my interests are was great. I wasn’t told what I had to study or what my options were, instead I was given nothing and I had to figure out what to do, and I ended up having an out of the box experience. It was frustrating having people ask me why I’m not in college and explain to people what I was doing, but all Febs are cooler people because of those six months off. When you get to Middlebury it’s cool to be a Feb because you’re the new kid and people are interested in what you did.
How did you meet your closest friends?
My best friend was my roommate. Two of my other really good friends were in my first-year seminar. All of my closest friends are Febs. It’s easy during orientation week to establish those friendships and bond over the collective problems we had academically coming back from a break.
To what extent do different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Middlebury is very white. 5 out of the 99 Febs that I enrolled with were non-white. In terms of mixing, yes they do. There are so few non-white Middlebury students that it’s hard for those communities to not mix in. The majority of students in Midd Masti were of South Asian descent, and they have lots of groups for non-whites to congregate and talk about certain issues. There’s definitely a mix. [About 62% of students at Middlebury are White.]