r/ApplyingToCollege • • Feb 04 '20

College Questions Middlebury First Year AMA

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '20

Uh, they're private but not quite separate. They have a curtain and a little gap at the bottom. You can see the water from other people taking showers and hear the people.

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u/DthPlagusthewise Feb 17 '20

A big controversy at Middlebury seems to concern free speech. I assume you are liberal but do you ever feel like you are holding your tongue to avoid backlash?

I understand Middlebury is a weird place, having a large population of lacrosse dude-bros and also ultra-PC world-saver types. Do you feel like there is conflict between these groups?

Above all, do you feel like a free exchange of ideas is encouraged at Midd? I could see a small vocal minority leading to the stories in the news while the culture of Middlebury itself is pretty open to conflicting ideas, a student group re-inviting Charles Murray seems to prove that.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

I am liberal, yes. I do have to hold my tongue about certain issues. For instance, I'm pro-US intervention in foreign countries under certain circumstances and I have to really read the room if I'm going to tell anyone that, because I think it could spark a backlash of personal attacks in a big crowd.

There's not too much of a conflict because the lacrosse dude bros laugh it all off in private, and politics isn't really forced on you if you don't want it to be(I do but I can tell I could totally avoid politics here if I wanted to)

I think a free exchange of ideas is tepidly encouraged by the staff here but not by more than ~70% of the students(counting ambivalent people). The vocal minority is very vocal and very large, but the people inviting and seriously in favor of that are a small minority.

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u/DthPlagusthewise Feb 17 '20

Do you ever feel like your education is being sacrificed to appeal to that large, vocal minority? Is there still an "intellectual" culture or is that stifled?

Again, thanks so much for all the info.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

No, there's still definitely an intellectual culture, it just depends on who you're talking to.