Admissions rates dip to 17.5 percent

On April 11 and 18, the members of the recently admitted Class of 2014 will arrive at Middlebury for Preview Days, having been selected from a pool of applicants 16 percent larger than last year’s. The admit rate this year stands at about 17.5 percent, making the Class of 2014, the product of Middlebury’s most selective application season process yet. This increased competition allowed admissions to be even more specific in crafting a class.

“Since we admitted this class from the largest pool that Middlebury has ever had,” Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett said,  “we were able to be even more selective in ‘shaping’ the class in terms of the intellectual, geographic, socio-economic, racial, extracurricular and all of the other kinds of diversity that we want to have represented in the student body.”

Clagett cites the academic programs at Middlebury as a possible factor in the increase in applications.

“I believe that we are resonating especially deeply for many right now, perhaps because of the increased interest [in] some of Middlebury’s historically-strongest programs in languages, environmental studies and international studies,” Clagett said.

Applicants showed broad interest in other natural and social science programs as well, Clagett said. The most popular professed interest of the admitted class was biology, followed by international studies, English and environmental studies.

In addition, the elimination of the supplemental application made applying to Middlebury easier and more accessible.

“The new information that we gleaned about the applicant [through the supplemental essay] was pretty marginal, and it had little, if any, impact on our final decisions,” Clagett said.
 
The additional staff needed to read all the extra essays and the time spent on this aspect of the application also made the essay relatively time- and cost-ineffective. The deliberative process behind admissions is already intensive, occupying a full-time admissions staff of 17, several part-time readers and staff assistants, and five faculty members from November until the end of March.

About 350 to 400 students and their parents are expected to attend Preview Days on April 11-12 and 18-19 this year, and the program for Preview Days will be quite similar to that from last year. Students will hear talks by Clagett and President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz as well as having the opportunity to attend panels on Feb integration and student/faculty research, among others. The financial aid office has organized a Q&A session as well as one-on-one sessions with families concerned about their aid packages. Prospective students will have the opportunity to stay overnight with Middlebury students with the number of prospective students able to do so depending on the number of students who volunteer to host. The most popular aspect of the Preview Days, according to Admissions Counselor Chrissy Fulton, is the ability to sit in on classes.

The professed goal of Preview Days is to allow admitted students a glimpse into Middlebury life, including classes, food, dorms, and the people.

“We want to help our prospective students picture themselves living and learning on this campus for the next four years,” Fulton said. “We want to help them test out the match to see how it fits. The Admissions Committee has spent the last three months poring over the almost 8,000 applicants to pick out students who we believe would thrive on our campus and contribute in so many ways; Preview Days turn the table and allow those same students to evaluate Middlebury and the offerings here.”