Middlebury College

Founded 1800. Vermont college famous for language schools and the Bread Loaf writers' conference.

Overview

Chartered in the year 1800 in a town of scattered farms, Middlebury grew into the liberal arts college most identified with languages. Its summer language schools, running since 1915, enforce pledges of total immersion; the Arabic and Chinese schools set national models. The Bread Loaf School of English and writers' conference, oldest in America, hosted Frost summers for decades. About 2,600 students study between the Green and Adirondack mountains. The environmental studies program, founded 1965, was among the first anywhere. February's winter carnival dates to the 1920s.