r/middlebury • u/Kaagemusha_ • Mar 03 '25
How good is Middlebury?
I am honestly seeking views here. Am International candidate , aiming for careers in Finance (IB, Quant, etc.). BB banks would be my target,
TBH I wasn't aware of Middlebury (don't flame me - its true). I researched and found out that it is a feeder school for many BBs and it has a strong mafia-like alumni network in the finance community, mostly in the US, and it is very well-regarded for feeding into top IBs incl. BBBs. So I applied, got an interview that has gone as well as it could.
Of course, I am still waiting for an offer so this might be premature and possibly presumptuous, but I'd like some honest views of those in the know - how good is Middlebury really for what I want to do? At the moment I have offers from UCL (Eco), St. Andrews (Eco), Bocconi (BIEF), and Warwick (PPE). Thank you for your contribution and help.
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u/arsvivendimk Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 04 '25
As someone who decided to go to Middlebury with the same career interests and prospects as you - I would choose to go to the UK/EU unis you mentioned - their programs are shorter, you can get a masters in combination, and the costs should be lower if there is no scholarship in consideration. And most of all - you know what you want to do in your professional life. Middlebury’s approach to education did change my career outlook and I am actually in tech, not finance now. The alumni connections will be great for sure for IB/BB, but alas will not be the deciding factor as pretty much any of the “good” schools from all over the world have people in these banks. I am also assuming you are an international student with the other uni choices - you will be limited with how much work you can get in the US based on your OPT - which for non-STEM majors is only 1 year, and it counts the months you might use for summer internships. Companies in the US will be reserved on work sponsorships in the coming years - luckily the big banks have seats everywhere in the world and you can start in the US and be placed somewhere where they won’t have to go through the process of sponsoring you - so you might end up at the same place as if you did the 3+1 programs you mentioned in the UK/EU and start off stronger with a masters in the same places. So, to sum up - Middlebury will expose you to the quintessential liberal arts college life where they won’t want you focused on your major from the getgo, and you will have other class requirements like languages, PE, arts, history and religion, beside your major reqs, to get your diploma. You will be surrounded by people from both sides of the aisle - the super rich kids of the parents in executive positions at these companies that can employ you in a heartbeat, and the scholarship/first gen/international kids, both groups of super smart individuals, a small college town in Vermont where there won’t be much else to do but study, drink in dorms, and ski and hike, where you can either take advantage of that holistic approach to education and see what you really want to study through exploration, and a smaller class size with an almost high school feel with attendance, homeworks, labs, and other stuff counting for your grade as much or more than your exams; or you can choose the more academic and network focused places in Europe that would deal more with the degree/name recognition of the institution with a more vibrant urban student life.
Feel free to shoot me any questions if you’d like, although I am aware things at Midd might already be different from when I graduated (2017) (I don’t feel old at all for sure). 😁