Admissions numbers climb

Author: Lizz Herron-Sweet

This year the Admissions Office saw a 21 percent increase in Early Decision (ED) I applications and a comparable increase in ED II, which means that almost 150 more high school seniors than last year pegged Middlebury as their top college choice. Of the 6,152 applicants for the class of 2010, an unprecedented 900 more than last year, 195 have been accepted ED I and 270 more are vying for ED II spots. In comparison toWilliams' mere five percent increase in ED applicants and Harvard's eight percent decrease, the vast increase at Middlebury has proven to be a special, albeit welcome challenge to the Admissions Office.

Over the past two years, 70 percent of national college and universities have reported an increase in applications, but Middlebury appears to have surpassed the trend this year: Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett says the College's numbers "appear to be significantly higher than our competitors', so it's unlikely that it's solely a function of more students applying to more colleges."

Although counselors have interviewed about the same number of prospective students and traveled no more than in years past, several factors have combined to give the College "higher visibility and name recognition in the United States and around the world," according to Admissions Counselor Val Demong '66. Among these are Middlebury's appearance as Newsweek's Hottest School for International Studies, the number eight ranking for top liberal arts colleges and the top rank for "Professors that bring material to life" in U.S. News and World Report and the new affiliation with the Monterey Institute in California.

"Over the last 10 years or so Middlebury has only continued to be associated with stronger and stronger schools," said Demong. "Over time, our 'overlap' schools include more of the Ivies, for instance."

While Middlebury works its way up the charts, Demong repeatedly sees visitors "blown away" by the beauty of Middlebury and the spirit pervading the campus; in the past decade, the additions of John McCardell, Jr., Bicentennial Hall, the New Library, the Center for the Arts and the athletic complex, among others, have made the school even more attractive for prospective students.

Clagett, after 21 years at Harvard's Admissions Office, pointed to "our well-known interdisciplinary programs, our emphasis on a broad global perspective for our students, our unusually high international enrollment, our commitment to the arts and to the sciences and our extraordinary physical plant" as reasons for the College's current popularity. He added that high school students are especially drawn to the more international aspects now "because there has never been a greater need for a thorough understanding of the challenges confronting the world."