The Campus’ inaugural Zeitgeist survey saw enthusiastic participation from the student body. 46.57% of actively-enrolled Middlebury College undergraduate students completed The Campus’ first-ever survey.
The survey’s 1,202 respondents were divided roughly equally among classes. The junior class, including the classes of 2020 and 2020.5, had the fewest number of students represented in the survey, under 22%. This may be attributed to the high volume of students abroad.
Over 70% of respondents identified as white. The next largest bloc of respondents, over 11% of the total, identified as Asian. 6.5% of respondents identified as Hispanic or Latinx, and around 3.5% of respondents identified as black; under 7% of respondents labeled themselves as biracial or multiracial.
A quarter of respondents identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ). Cisgender female students were almost twice as likely to identify as LGBTQ or questioning as cisgender male students.
While some figures in the Zeitgeist survey sample size are relatively representative of the share of alike students in Middlebury’s entire population, a skew was present in terms of gender. Notably, more respondents were female than male. Short of 40% of respondents identified themselves as cisgender males when completing the survey, while about 58% of respondents identified as cisgender females. The remaining students either did not identify with either gender or chose not to respond to the question. In reality, the split between cisgender males and females at Middlebury is closer to 50% on both sides. This may introduce skew in our results.
Current demographic figures can be expected to change as the student body becomes more diverse. In a Campus article published in February, the Admissions Office reported a record number of applicants of color while reviewing applications for the Class of 2023. The numbers of first-generation students and students of color admitted have also been gradually rising, as has the share of students on need-based financial aid per year.
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