Class Year Experiences

The Care Form

The responsibility to support and care for one another is a core component of the Middlebury College community. The Care Form helps us provide guidance and assistance when students are facing challenges beyond the classroom. Find more information about Using the Care Form.

First Year

The first year of college is filled with new opportunities, and all of us at Middlebury College encourage new students to approach things on campus with curiosity and an open mind. 

Many students find that this approach often leads to fun and exciting experiences. It is also just as likely that there will be moments of discomfort along the way. Do not worry if you start to feel this way! These multifaceted feelings are an integral component of the college experience and are associated with taking on new and challenging opportunities. Meaningful growth happens when we are challenged, and your first year of college is going to challenge you in any number of new ways.

First Year Learning Outcomes

• Seek out opportunities to learn across the liberal arts, regardless of intended major, on your path to intellectual development
• Engage in a wide variety of co-curricular opportunities and develop connections with peers who share similar interests
• Identify and utilize campus resources that support the development and maintenance of healthy, safe, and balanced lifestyles and contribute to academic growth
• Understand how actions impact residential spaces, classroom environments, and the broader campus community.
• Behave in accordance with the standards outlined in the Honor Code and Middlebury College Handbook.
• Access resources that support your ability to reframe challenge and conflict as opportunities for growth.

Sophomore Year

One of the biggest decisions of the sophomore year is choosing a major to declare. 

Some students may start the year with a clear major declaration plan, while others might still be exploring. Students will also continue to make decisions related to time management, establishing healthy priorities, and finding the right balance of extracurricular commitments. Planning for study abroad and internships might be foremost on students’ minds as well.

Sophomore Learning Outcomes

• Declare a major and articulate how it will help create positive change.
• Develop and progress toward long term goals through purposeful engagement with curricular and co-curricular opportunities.
• Engage with the Experiential Learning Centers and reflect on how these experiences support their development as members of shared living, learning and working communities.
• Reflect on the impact that behaviors have on others when living in a diverse, residential and educational community.
• Develop and practice personal strategies that support leading a healthy, safe and balanced lifestyle aligned with reaching their goals. 

Junior Year

Junior year is a time for students to focus on high impact experiences such as internships, research and studying abroad.

While many students will feel excited seeing how these experiences can be a catalyst in achieving their post-collegiate goals, others may wonder what it means if their time spent outside of the classroom was less than ideal.  

Junior Year Learning Outcomes

• Participate in high impact experiences such as research, study abroad, and internships that challenge personal and intellectual growth.
• Explore career trajectories that support plans for leading engaged, consequential, and creative lives.
• Embrace leadership roles on campus, in the broader community or within their field of study and be able to explain how actions within these roles contribute to the greater good.
• Explore how personal and community well-being is linked through experiential learning opportunities.

Senior Year

Senior year is a time for students to reflect on how the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their time at Middlebury has positioned them to successfully transition to their lives beyond college.

Developing clear goals and priorities, and continuing to utilize college resources, can help make this year of transition empowering and insightful.

Senior Year Learning Outcomes

• Actively engage in making positive contributions to the Middlebury College community and the world beyond in keeping with Community Standards
• Create goals for life beyond college, including well-developed action steps, that align with the values and experiences cultivated over your time at Middlebury.
• Appropriately seek out and utilized resources that support their life-long success and well-being.
• Articulated how their experiences at Middlebury College have prepared them to lead engaged, consequential, and creative lives, contribute to their communities, and address the world’s most challenging problems.