On Sept. 23, U.S. News & World Report released its 2025–2026 national liberal arts colleges rankings, which dropped Middlebury to 19th place — eight positions lower than last year, tied with Grinnell College and Washington and Lee University. This ranking is Middlebury’s lowest since its first appearance on the list in 1988, when the college was ranked 17th.
To evaluate liberal arts colleges, U.S. News considers 13 factors, including graduation rates, financial resources, faculty resources, social mobility, standardized test scores and peer assessment. According to this year’s data, Middlebury’s faculty resources remain in the top 10 nationally, demonstrating that the college’s high academic expectations have not changed. However, Middlebury’s financial resources have dropped to 45th, and its social mobility ranking is tied for 120th, which undoubtedly contributed to the significant decline in this year’s overall ranking.
Theoretically, changes at a college can take time, so an eight-position drop in one year raised suspicion for some members of the college community. Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies Miguel Fernández remarked that this drop is insignificant. In an email to The Campus, Fernández commented on the ineffectuality of the U.S. News ranking.
“Middlebury hasn't changed as much as the criteria that US News uses and modifies on a regular basis. The information they use for their rankings is what has changed more than what has changed at Midd,” Fernández wrote, citing the inclusion of students from the Middlebury Language Schools and Bread Loaf School of English as one reason the college’s endowment to student ratio is lower than for just the undergraduate population. “U.S. News compares apples to oranges, making the rankings rather useless.”
A spokesperson for the college shared that Middlebury remains a prestigious institution, which may not be accurately captured by the ranking system.
“Middlebury is among the top institutions in the nation, and rankings are just one measure of value,” they wrote in an email to The Campus, adding that movement by other colleges in the rankings and tied positions contributed to the decline. “Ties are common in the rankings and can create the perception of big drops from year to year when, in reality, the shifts are fairly subtle.”
The spokesperson also indicated that pandemic-related issues influenced the college’s performance in rankings, as leaves of absence during that period led to higher student enrollment and fluctuating graduation rates. Additionally, Middlebury’s test-optional policy have played a role in seemingly huge shifts in the ranking.
“Our priority is to fulfill our academic mission — to prepare students to lead engaged, consequential, and creative lives, contribute to their communities and address the world’s most challenging problems,” the college wrote. “Rather than prioritizing factors that influence any one ranking, we are focused on those that align with our mission and provide an exceptional educational experience.”
Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin wrote in an email to The Campus that, despite dropping in the U.S. News rankings, interest in Middlebury is unaffected.
“Interest in Middlebury remains robust, and our holistic admissions process is highly selective… For the incoming class of 2028, we admitted 12% of applicants,” she wrote. “We [admissions officers] hear that Middlebury’s reputation as a highly regarded liberal arts and sciences institution has not changed.”
This sentiment is echoed by some students, including Dani Pham ’28.
“For me, the value of school includes the social life, abroad opportunities, things to do around the city. Academics is important but at some point all schools offer the same outcome,” Pham wrote. “Even though there is a decline in ranking, the faculty and opportunities are still the same, and the curriculum is still teaching me how to think critically so Middlebury’s overall value remains the same to me.”
Nevertheless, some faculty members expressed concerns about the decline and the underlying causes, noting that Middlebury’s lower performance in the rankings did not just begin this year. Professor of Film and Media Studies Jason Mittell pointed out the flawed nature of the rankings and acknowledged the impact they may have on perception of the college.
“We all know that these rankings have many flaws in their ability to quantify and compare very complex college experiences, yet they have a significant impact on our institutional reputation,” Mittell wrote in an email to The Campus.
“Based on what we know now, the decline does seem to reflect some significant changes that many faculty have witnessed at Middlebury over the past decade: increasing enrollment, larger classes, and decreased financial support for the core undergraduate college,” Mittell wrote.
Henry N. Hudson Professor of English Marion Wells echoed Mittell’s concerns, and expressed that the college should view the drop in rankings as a call to action.
“This precipitous ratings drop is one serious signal among others that the college needs to look carefully at its priorities to ensure that the core areas of the undergraduate academic experience at Middlebury receive the focus and resources they deserve,” Wells wrote in an email to The Campus.
As faculty and others pointed out, rankings cannot fully define a college, since many important factors — such as culture and living conditions — are unquantifiable but vital to students’ college experience. Nevertheless, shifts in rankings can serve as a tool for evaluating a college’s operations from various angles, but may cause unnecessary stress if thought about for too long.
“These rankings make most of us feel great when we are ranked highly and make a few nervous nellies freak out when we drop,” Fernández wrote. “I would venture to say that we probably weren’t the 4th-best college when we were ranked 4th and probably aren’t 19th today, but rather somewhere in between.”
Editor’s Note: Jason Mittell is the faculty advisor to The Campus.
Correction 10/4/24: An earlier version of this article mistakenly identified Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies Miguel Fernández as currently serving as Chief Diversity Officer and Interim Title IX Coordinator. He previously served in the role for seven years before Khuram Hussain, current vice president of Equity and Inclusion and associate professor of Education Studies, assumed his current role in spring 2022.
