Chapter One: Shaping the Student Body

At the core of Middlebury's mission is educating an intellectually committed, multi-talented, and increasingly diverse student body. The recommendations in this chapter focus on ways to achieve this goal.

The quality, talents, and motivation of the people who constitute the Middlebury community define Middlebury's past, its accomplishments and standing today among liberal arts colleges, and its future promise as a national and international leader in collegiate education. Our surveys of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents reveal a strongly shared belief that the quality of the student body and the excellence of the faculty and staff are the critical determinants of Middlebury's success as an institution. They especially underscore the community's belief that the College should continue to attract an intellectually committed, multi-talented, and diverse student body. The survey results also indicate widespread support for Middlebury's "need blind" admissions policy and its commitment to providing access to all qualified applicants, regardless of their ability to finance a Middlebury education.

By almost any measure Middlebury's student body has historically been strong, and it has become even stronger over the past several decades. In 2006, a record number of nearly 6,200 students applied for admission to an entering class of around 660 that includes the February 2007 matriculates. The strength and depth of Middlebury's current applicant pool enable us to ask every year what the "shape" of the Middlebury student body should be. What qualities and characteristics of our applicants should inform those decisions that enable us to admit fewer than 25 percent of the students who apply? What assumptions and principles should guide this important selection process?

• The intellectual quality of our students. The College should seek to admit those students who are most intellectually gifted, best able to gain from a Middlebury education, excel in our academic programs, and contribute to the education of their peers both in the classroom and beyond.

• A campus environment that maximizes intellectual benefits both within and beyond the formal curriculum. The College should nurture the unique intellectual passions and diverse interests that students bring to campus, whether within specific academic programs or beyond the classroom. We should further strengthen the opportunities for student leadership through the creative use of College resources for innovative purposes, opportunities for experiencing and participating in the arts, and the availability of a rich program of lectures, panel discussions, and symposia. The prospective student best able to take advantage of these resources should have the passion and energy to pursue initiatives that sometimes fall outside established structures, and be distinguished as much by his or her entrepreneurial spirit as by a willingness to participate in a wide range of activities.

• A diverse student population. Each matriculating class should be diverse in several important respects–racial, ethnic, socio-economic, religious, intellectual, geographic, and cultural–in order to enhance the educational experiences of, and learning by, all students. In placing academic potential and intellectual commitment at the center of our admissions process, we need not sacrifice a diverse and multi-talented student body.

• Expanded access to a Middlebury education. Access to a Middlebury education should continue to be available to applicants talented enough to be admitted, regardless of their financial circumstances. To that end, offering supportive and competitive financial aid packages must remain one of our highest priorities in order to increase the socio-economic diversity in our student body.

With all that Middlebury has achieved over the past decades, we are poised to become an even stronger educational institution. A large number of those who contributed input for planning identified academic excellence and academic reputation as key goals for the institution, and the continued strengthening of our student body should therefore rank among our foremost objectives.

Each student at Middlebury can benefit from encountering a diversity of strengths, backgrounds, and interests in his or her peers. Our talented young people should have varied strengths, whether in academics, artistic performance, creativity, community service, athletics, debate, potential for leadership, or political involvement. A diverse student body benefits the entire community through the variety of their cultures and backgrounds. The admissions process should consider such factors as "one among many" in the language of federal courts with regard to minority status. In other words, no single external factor should dominate the selection decision. Every applicant should compete with every other applicant for admission, with intellectual potential and the capacity of a prospective student to contribute to the educational mission of the College as the primary criteria in determining admission. The academic experiences of all students, who together represent all of these talents and more, will be further strengthened by the diversity that surrounds them.

We have looked closely at demographic projections for the coming years that indicate a decline in the college-age population in New England. The growth in numbers of U.S. college-age students will occur primarily in the south and west. Among the fastest growing populations will be high school graduates who are Hispanic/Latino, and many of these students are potential first-generation college students. Even the brightest among these students may not be predisposed to travel far from their communities to New England to attend college. Demographic projections also indicate a growing imbalance between men and women applying to four-year colleges, with fewer young men than women considering a liberal arts education. The imbalance is especially pronounced in minority communities. Middlebury must recognize and meet the challenges of trends like these as we aspire to enroll a more socio-economically diverse and racially diverse student body.

With these broad goals in mind, we present our recommendations for further enhancing the quality of our student body:

Recommendation #2: Seek more applicants with special academic talents.

Our applicant pool continues to have an excellent academic profile. We should seek applicants with strengths in specific academic disciplines such as comparative religions, art history, the classics, problem solving in mathematics, experimentation in physics, or philosophy. We continue to desire an overall balanced student community; this community can and should be comprised of students with specialized and well-developed talents and skills, as well as well-rounded students with abilities and strengths in a variety of areas. All students admitted to Middlebury College should share a passion for learning.

We should consider new approaches to identifying talented students with special academic strengths and interests, including those in disciplines that would benefit from having more students. For example, the classrooms, laboratories, and other facilities in McCardell Bicentennial Hall, along with our superb faculty resources in the sciences, invite us to expand our numbers of students with science interests. A recent study found that students who take Advanced Placement tests in the sciences are more likely to complete majors in that area, particularly in the less commonly elected science majors. When supplemented by this and other data such as International Baccalaureate scores, we have strong predictors of academic talent for much of our applicant pool. By considering AP and other honors-level courses a student has elected in the context of the courses offered at a particular high school, we can identify talented applicants without penalizing promising students whose schools don't offer these courses.

We should take advantage of our summer programs to make sure that the College's summer students, many of whom are high-school teachers, are educated about our undergraduate programs so they will be prepared to spread the word about these programs to their students. In particular, the College might replicate in the sciences its success in graduate-level foreign languages and writing by bringing high school science teachers, and perhaps some of their students, to campus during the summer for contact with our science faculty, students, and facilities.
 
Recommendation #3: Implement an academic rating system for all applicants.

The Admissions Office should develop an academic rating system for all applicants. Each applicant should be rated on his/her academic qualities and potential to contribute to, and benefit from, the invigorating intellectual life at Middlebury. In making these ratings, professional judgment should be exercised that takes into account more than standardized test scores—for example, rigor of high school curriculum, unique intellectual intensity and talent, and willingness to engage in intellectual discourse going beyond that expected by one's course work. Studies at other colleges suggest that experienced admissions personnel can do considerably better in identifying intellectual promise using a range of factors than can be done using only standardized tests and/or high school grades.

In recommending the development of an academic rating, we do not suggest that Middlebury discontinue the use of other ratings of applicants—ratings that reflect special nonacademic talents and attractive personal qualities. We believe, however, that the development of an academic rating can help us keep in focus the guiding values that we have set forth above as we make difficult choices in admitting our future students. It can also serve us well as we work with peer colleges to support the common elements of our academic and educational missions.
 
We should monitor the relationship, both quantitatively and qualitatively, between academic ratings and other admissions variables with outcomes measured at the end of the college experience (e.g., GPA, admission to graduate programs, competition for employment, fellowships, and indicators of leadership). We should also attempt to learn from the experiences of our alumni, for example, through surveys conducted five years after graduation.

Recommendation #4: Identify and recruit more top-rated academic applicants.

We should expand our long-standing policy of attracting, identifying, and admitting the most academically gifted applicants, and we should seek to improve our admissions yield of these students through faculty and student outreach to them. Whenever possible, faculty should be involved in meeting with these top-rated applicants during their visits to campus or in contacting them early in the admissions process. We should also take advantage of our current students and young alumni and ask them to identify prospective applicants with special strengths in such areas as the sciences and the arts.

We should expand opportunities in the spring for admitted students to experience the academic life of the College and to see our faculty and students in action—for example, by encouraging more admitted students to visit the campus to attend classes and to meet with faculty. Care should also be taken to introduce prospective students to the distinctive rural character of our campus and surrounding community.

Recommendation #5: Move gradually toward a voluntary February admission program.

For the past five years Middlebury has typically enrolled at least 115 first-year students in February. The February admission program was originally used to balance fall and spring enrollments when there was a greater imbalance in study abroad semesters than now exists. It seems clear that the Feb program no longer offers a structural benefit to the College, though it may offer personal benefit to individual students. February admission can be academically and personally advantageous for some students by encouraging them to step back from their educational pursuits for a period of time. The bonding that takes place among the smaller "Feb" classes has made being a Feb a special experience for many Middlebury students.

Incoming Febs, however, face some academic and social disadvantages. We note that the responders to our annual parent surveys, who are generally positive about the Middlebury experiences of their sons and daughters, regularly cite some problems inherent in the February program—for example, the non-availability of courses needed to begin a particular academic sequence in the spring, or the challenge of integrating into the Commons System. Over the last few years, current Feb students have commented frequently on the special difficulties they face in registering for certain classes, or plans to study abroad. We suggest that the College gradually lower the size of the Feb group so that student participation in the program becomes entirely voluntary, and entering in February is a choice students make when they apply to Middlebury. We should continue to permit admitted students who prefer to begin their studies in February to do that, and we should encourage some admitted students to delay their matriculation for a full year to the following September. As we make this transition, the College should periodically assess the impact of the changes to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all of our students, including those who do begin their studies midyear.

Closely allied with this issue and equally vital to Middlebury's strength as a liberal arts college is the matter of financial access. In order to build an intellectually and culturally vibrant community, the College must matriculate a student body that is economically diverse. Middlebury has made progress in expanding need-based aid programs in the last two decades. However, financial aid is a highly competitive area; we continue to face challenges and the financial costs of meeting them will be high. Middlebury is trailing much of its competition in the packaging of financial aid, especially in terms of the amount of borrowing we expect of aided students. We also have fewer students (currently around 40 percent) who qualify for aid than do most other peer colleges. One group that merits our special attention is first-generation college students who show exceptional promise and talent.

Recommendation #6: Increase the grant component in our aid packages.

We recommend an income-based differential aid package that provides a reduction of $500 to $2,500 per year in the loan portion of the self-help expectation, with a commensurate increase in the grant portion of the package, for all students who qualify for need-based aid. Although this reduction could be used to replace part or all of the job portion of the self-help expectation, we are especially concerned that student debt not has an undue impact on our students' post-graduate plans. We also believe that there is value in encouraging students to hold academic year jobs, by providing employment experiences as well as opportunities for close interaction with staff members.
 
The reduction in the anticipated debt would be greatest for students from families with the lowest levels of income and other financial resources, so that a student from a family with an income below $40,000 would have a loan reduced to $1,500 per year, those from families with incomes between $40,000 and $80,000 would be expected to borrow $2,500 each year, and those from families with incomes higher than $80,000 would be expected to borrow $3,500 instead of the current $4,000 annually. These changes would be phased in over four years, ideally beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year.

Recommendation #7: Increase the socio-economic diversity of the student body.

We recommend that the College gradually increase the percentage of students who are eligible for need-based grant assistance above the current level of around 40 percent. Although we do not specify a target percentage, we note that the proposed differential aid packaging is likely to increase the yield rate among students with financial need who are offered admission. Thus we can expect a gradual increase in the aided student population, and we should welcome that. This change will be expensive, but access to a Middlebury education for the most qualified students should continue to be our number one priority. Note that the changes in financial aid we have proposed would especially benefit our international student population. Strengthening financial access to a Middlebury education should be at the top of the College's priorities.

Recommendation #8: Enhance recruitment and retention of students of color.
 
A diverse student community contributes to the educational experiences of all students and thus to our core educational mission. Middlebury should continue to actively recruit and admit students of color to Middlebury who can benefit from a Middlebury education and contribute to the College's core educational mission. The shifting demographics of high school students make it essential that Middlebury continue its gains in attracting a strong minority student population, so that our student body will resemble a microcosm of the greater society. A group that continues to require special efforts and imaginative approaches to student recruiting will be African-American students. To ensure that our focus is on educational outcomes and not simply admissions statistics, we suggest a goal of annually increasing the percentage of U.S. students of color in the graduating class.
 
Since the mid 1960s, the College has developed innovative programs and outreach efforts to matriculate underrepresented students of color. Programs like YOU in the 1960s, the Middlebury Urban Task Forces and the Dewitt Clinton Partnership of the 1980s, and our current Posse program are important examples of special programs that have supported student of color enrollment gains. They have also enhanced College visibility in educational communities and schools where Middlebury is less well known. The sustained efforts of members of our admissions staff have, for example, increased the percentage of U.S. students of color in the Middlebury student body from 11 percent in 1994 to 18 percent in 2004.

Middlebury's Posse Program has helped us in attracting and supporting a more diverse student community, and we should continue to strengthen our efforts in other venues as well. One possible approach to expanding racial diversity is to develop a partnership with an urban school system in the South or Southwest from which few students currently apply. Middlebury would provide this school system with special opportunities for counselors and students to visit the campus, and it would emphasize that adequate financial aid is available to make it possible for students admitted to Middlebury under this program to attend. In this way, we would hope to get many strong applicants from the school, and this process could lead to our accepting other academically gifted students in the future. Using carefully targeted approaches, we would attract students from diverse backgrounds having high economic need. We note that the Admissions Office is already developing such a model with the Atlanta Public School System—the Atlanta Underground Railroad Project.
 
Recommendation #9: Maintain our strong international enrollment.
 
Our long-standing commitment to attracting and supporting a student body with 10 percent international students distinguishes Middlebury from other liberal arts colleges in the United States. These students contribute a great deal to the College and to the experiences of all students. Moreover, our commitment to international students reflects the College's determination—emphasized in its mission statement—to educate leaders for a global society. Building on the successes made possible through the Davis United World College Scholars Program, our prospects for continued progress in this important area are bright. Through aggressive recruiting efforts and competitive financial aid packages, we should continue to attract an outstanding group of international students from a broad range of countries and socio-economic backgrounds.

Advisory Committees for Admissions and Financial Aid

Middlebury differs from many peer colleges in having only limited participation by the wider college community in developing policies and practices in admissions and financial aid. Although we have for many years had a part-time faculty associate in the Admissions Office (and we support its continuation), we have not yet developed systematic ways for people from other areas, including the faculty, to support the development of transparent policies in these two critically important areas. Such participation is needed if our community is to embrace a shared goal of further strengthening our excellent and diverse student population.

Recommendation #10: Create an admissions advisory committee.

We recommend that the College establish an admissions advisory committee to help identify priorities, to provide advice to the Admissions Office on policies and practices, and to contribute to admissions decision making. The Dean of Admissions would chair this committee and its members, faculty and staff, would be appointed by the President. In particular, the role of this advisory committee would be to
 
• Participate in shaping goals for the composition of the Middlebury student body.
• Help evaluate the College's success in meeting these goals.
• Work with and advise the Dean of Admissions on the development of policies and procedures (for example, use of standardized test scores, early decision policies).
• Increase the transparency of the admissions process.
• Engage the faculty to help attract and yield the most highly qualified applicants.
• Participate in the decision-making process by helping to evaluate some applicants.

The early decision program is an issue that the committee may want to address. Although this program has been an effective way of evaluating some students who are especially interested in attending Middlebury and informing them earlier of our decision, we propose a general review of our early decision policies. Doing so will help us determine the optimal percentage of matriculating students who should enter through that program so that we do not restrict our ability to admit the most attractive applicants in the regular decision applicant pool.

Recommendation #11: Create a financial aid advisory committee.

We also recommend that the College establish a Financial Aid Advisory Committee to help establish policies and priorities and provide guidance to the Student Financial Services Office on its work. This committee would be chaired by the Director of Student Financial Services and would include faculty and staff representatives appointed by the President.

• Coaches should be systematically invited into dialogue with the rest of the faculty about the place of athletics in the whole education of Middlebury students.
 
• We should provide competitive athletic opportunities for a wide range of students, including those not recruited for a particular athletic team.

• A strong and varied intramural and club sport program is just as important as a high-quality intercollegiate athletic program.

• Intercollegiate athletes should be representative of their peers in academic strength and intellectual engagement, a principle that was recently reaffirmed by the NESCAC presidents as a core assumption of the eleven NESCAC colleges.
 
• Intercollegiate athletes should be permitted a level of balance in their lives that allows them to pursue whatever academic directions they choose, and to participate fully in other aspects of college life.
 
Recommendation #12: Continue to offer leadership in addressing the relationship between intercollegiate athletics and academic mission.
 
For three years, representatives of the Faculty Council and of the Admissions Office have met with their counterparts from the ten other NESCAC Colleges to examine the academic-athletics interface. These meetings led to recommendations that were forwarded to the NESCAC presidents. We recommend the continuation of these collaborations, which, in part, implement a "sense of the faculty" resolution about intercollegiate athletics adopted by the Middlebury faculty in October 2002.
 
Since making a decision to participate in NCAA post-season tournaments, colleges in our league have experienced a heightened emphasis on winning and increasing schedule conflicts with classes. These problems are not unique to Middlebury and must therefore be approached vigorously through collaboration with other institutions. In 2004 and 2005 Middlebury helped develop a collaborative national program, the College Sports Project; see www.collegesportsproject.org. This project seeks to focus the attention of institutional leaders and coaches on two fundamental issues—integration of athletics with larger educational purposes, and good educational outcomes for athletes. At the end of 2005, 138 NCAA Division III colleges and universities had agreed to participate in the project, including all eleven NESCAC colleges. Specific programs for improved athletic integration and for data collection to help better understand representativeness of athletes will begin in 2006.
 
Recommendation #13: Establish a systematic procedure for consultation between coaches and other faculty members about the balance of athletics and educational mission.
 
Our coaches are valued mentors to their athletes and they identify strongly with Middlebury's educational mission. In our busy community, though, there is little assurance of serious dialogue between that group and their faculty colleagues about such matters as recruiting, admissions, scheduling of practices and competitions, and general integration of athletes into the life of the College. One noteworthy initiative is the Faculty Affiliate program that links members of the academic faculty with a particular intercollegiate team, and we recommend a strengthening of this program. The current Athletic Policy Committee governs regulations, and we encourage a rethinking of the charge for this committee to include a broader agenda for its work. We also propose a meeting once a semester between three coaches nominated by the Director of Athletics and three faculty members nominated by the Dean of the Faculty. The agenda will be an open one, but with the general concern always being to promote communication and pursue the ideal of scholar-athletes at Middlebury. NESCAC in general and Middlebury in particular have a responsibility, and an opportunity, to offer leadership to the nation in this regard.