The next Doogie Houser at Midd?

Author: Caitlyn Olson

Forget AP classes. Each semester, a number of seniors from local high schools have the opportunity to take actual college courses here at Middlebury. The Dean of Student Affairs Office is in charge of this program, which offers 30 "slots" every term to students from Middlebury Union High School (MUHS), Mount Abraham Union High School, Otter Valley Union High School, Vergennes Union High School and Rochester High School.

Only seniors who have exhausted all the high school options in a particular area of interest are able to apply for a slot. The application process basically consists of collecting the signatures of a student's parents, guidance counselor, advisor and principal on a form specifying the class that the applicant is hoping to take. This paper is then returned to the college and handed off to the apropriate department, which decides several days before the beginning of the term whether or not there will be room in the class for an additional person.

"It's important to note that we give priority to our Middlebury College students and that no Middlebury College student is denied entry because a high school student has a spot in the class," said Divisional Operations Manager Joanne Leggett.

The department to which high school students most commonly apply is Mathematics, usually for the Calculus II course. Although participants in the program do not receive credit from Middlebury (in fact, they are not even recorded in the College's databases), they can ask that the course appear on their high school transcript, which makes the fall semester (with 15 students on average) more popular than the spring one (usually less than 10).

As for tuition, the program is a gift in kind from the College, meaning that neither the high schools nor the participants' families have to worry about costs.

"When you figure what the cost of each class is for our Middlebury students, I would consider it a very generous gift that the schools and students receive," said Leggett.

MUHS senior Tim Bolger echoes her sentiments: "I feel very lucky to be able to do this. I just really enjoy being able to come here and take higher level courses."

A resident of Shoreham who has attended the local public schools his whole life, Bolger is off to Dartmouth College next year and figured he would take advantage of Middlebury's program to become familiar with the structure of college courses. He took Contemporary Moral Issues last semester and is currently in Associate Professor of Biology Helen Young's Biology 195 class on genetics and evolution.

"I've taken the other bio classes at my high school and evolution really interested me. I've always been into the bigger questions of life and the origin of our species," Bolger explained.

As he is "trying to take it easy this last semester of senior year," Bolger has only two high school classes right now - physics and health, and he misses a good deal of the latter due to scheduling conflicts with biology. His extra-curricular activities include basketball, lacrosse and music. In fact, the band in which he plays bass guitar performed at the Grille the other week.

Bolger seems to feel comfortable on campus and often conducts his studying in the school library, sometimes late enough at night that he simply crashes in the dorm room of friend Matt Leonard '09, who went to MUHS with him last year.

Although Leonard chose not to participate in this program, another current first-year, Tucker Levy, did.

"Taking that class [Calculus II] made me realize that I could handle the work here, and that the classes are interesting. I am definitely glad that I took a class here, and it prepared me for coming to college because it gave me a glimpse into the course load," said Levy, who was accepted to Middlebury as an Early Decision candidate.

Young, who has two other high school students besides Bolger in Bio 195 and strongly supports this program, agrees with Levy's reflections.

"It's pretty apparent that these students are ready for college, and I imagine that this is something they can get out of the experience, realizing that hey, I can do this," she said.

"I think it's great community outreach - good for both the college and the high school students, just a wonderful resource."

Bolger definitely feels that his time here has been worthwhile, providing him with insight into the college world that a student simply cannot receive from a high school classroom.

"The structure of college classes is drastically different. A lot of times, you have to figure out ways to teach yourself in college rather than having the teacher give you worksheets."

Clearly, both the specific benefits as well as the overall concept have made this a program about which all involved parties are enthusiastic.

"The high schools, of course, are delighted to have this opportunity to send their more advanced students into a college environment. Our faculty usually loves to have these bright students on board, and the students usually savor the experience," Leggett summarized.

"It's a win-win situation."