A Look Inside Middlebury's Admissions Committee

"Getting In - The Admissions Process"
By Molly Walsh - Staff Writer
The Burlington Free Press - March 12, 2006

MIDDLEBURY -- Millions of high school seniors will find out next month if the colleges they applied to want them. In the meantime, students can only speculate on what admissions officers are saying about them and how the decisions will be made.

A two-hour session last week with the admissions committee at Middlebury College -- one of the most selective and well-respected liberal arts schools in the United States -- offered a glimpse at what goes on as admissions officers make the decision to accept, or reject, an applicant.

This year, admissions officers at the small, Vermont campus with the signature gray stone buildings expect to admit 20 percent of the 6,187 students who applied.

The target acceptance rate is lower than usual because Middlebury applications are up 17 percent over last year. The jump might be because Middlebury admissions officers visited more high schools than usual last year -- well over 1,000 -- or because the college climbed up a few positions in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings.

Dean of Admissions Robert Clagett is not a fan of the rankings, regardless of how the college performs.

"As everyone knows, educational institutions are not like toaster ovens that you can compare in Consumer Reports," he said in an interview.

High school students are not like toaster ovens either, but colleges such as Middlebury are in the position of evaluating and comparing them, and ultimately leaving some students on the shelf because they are not shiny enough.

At Middlebury every application is read twice by admissions staff.

About 40 percent of the first-year class has already been accepted through early- decision admissions. About 1,500 applicants who fall below the school's standards have been weeded out. That leaves several thousand others who are being reviewed this month. Decision letters go in the mail March 31. E-mail notification is set for April 1....

Applicants the committee tended to endorse quickly were mostly academic titans. They were often in the top 5 percent of their class, with all or almost all A's in the most difficult courses available at their schools, and near perfect SAT or ACT scores. The admitted applicants often listed numerous extracurricular activities, although the impact these had on the decision-making process was unclear to this reporter.

Committee members clearly searched the applications for signs of leadership, passion and unique achievements, but their decisions seemed to say that specialists would still need top grades across the board and might not be forgiven for earning a C in AP chemistry while perhaps also appearing on Broadway.

That said, the committee did appear willing to take a chance, occasionally....