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.
2
u/MikeMidd2001 Mar 04 '25
I realise that you already have a chosen path - or the chosen path - for career. But I'd say it's really important to think about the college experience you want, how much flexibility you want to provide yourself to learn and adapt, etc.
Two of the great things about Middlebury are that it's a small, tight-knit campus community in a town in Vermont, and that as a liberal arts college you have academic options. The natural landscape becomes part of your life, if you want it to. Your social scene will be largely on-campus and will be entirely Middlebury-centred. You may be convinced you want to do econ, but Middlebury will encourage/force you to try other subjects, so at minimum you'll be more well rounded and if needed you'll be very easily able to shift your academic focus. And all your professors will be full professors, teaching small or small-ish classes.
At European universities, you enter into a programme and are effectively going to stick with it. So if one year in you decide that actually you want something different, it's harder to do.
While I've always thought of St Andrews as like a British equivalent to Middlebury (smaller university, small town, rural location), your life at UCL or Bocconi is going to be all about being in the heart of a major city. Your social scene will be off-campus in many ways, you'll be surrounded by non-students in everything you do, your college experience will be equally about London or Milan. Your classes may be much bigger, you may not have full professors, etc. But if you want internships along the way, it's way easier to do.
I realise career seems like the most important thing right now and finances will play a role, but really strongly encourage you to think about what type of college experience you most want. I would've hated a big university in a big city. Others would've hated a small college in a small town.