Admissions Dean to Leave at Year’s End

Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles will leave his position at the end of the academic year. After seven years in his current role, he will become dean of enrollment management at the Lawrenceville School, a private boarding and day school for students grades 9-12 in central New Jersey.

“Greg is a valued colleague who has brought great clarity, integrity, and energy to his work,” President Laurie L. Patton wrote in a campus-wide email.  “During his time here, he has been a champion of diversifying the College’s student body, maintaining our need-blind admissions policy, and expanding our relationship with the Posse Foundation.” 

Before coming to Middlebury in 2008, Buckles served as director of admissions at Kenyon College. He graduated from Denison University and holds a Master of Arts in literature from Trinity College in Connecticut. Prior to his work in higher education, Buckles held administrative positions for several years at private boarding schools. 

During his time in Vermont, Buckles worked to bring a subjective outlook to the admissions process that looked beyond test scores and grade point averages. 

“An overarching goal of admissions at Middlebury is to not be able to answer the question, ‘What is a typical Middlebury student like?’ ” Buckles said in a video about college admissions made by the Communications Office in 2011. “While our averages our quite high and we are selective, and we ask for and expect a very rigorous background, we are also interested in more subjective and tangible qualities. A sense of self awareness, we think, is important, mainly to take advantage of what Middlebury has to offer.”

Buckles also emphasized Middlebury’s commitment to admitting a diverse student body. 

“We want the student body at Middlebury to be a reflection of the global stage,” Buckles said. “We are defining diversity in lots of different ways. Certainly we are interested and very committed to racial diversity, we are interested in socioeconomic diversity … first generation students, students who come from a variety of different backgrounds.”

Buckles is also an outdoor enthusiast, and enjoys cycling and skiing in Vermont.

“Greg’s enduring contribution to Middlebury will be the thousands of exceptional students he and his team have admitted over the years,” Patton said in her email. 

Buckles was not available for comment.