Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. It was founded in 1800 by Congregationalists. The college currently enrolls 2,526 undergraduates from all 50 states and 74 countries and offers 44 majors in the arts, humanities, literature, foreign languages, social sciences, and natural sciences.
The college is the first American institution of higher education to have granted a bachelor's degree to an African-American, graduating Alexander Twilight in the class of 1823. Middlebury was also one of the first formerly all-male liberal arts colleges in New England to become a coeducational institution, following the trustees' decision in 1883 to accept women. In 1886, May Belle Chellis was the first woman to graduate, and she was the valedictorian . Middlebury was listed as tied for the seventh-best liberal arts college in the U.S. in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report rankings.Middlebury's 31 varsity teams are known as the Middlebury Panthers and compete in the NCAA Division III's NESCAC conference. The school is known for its graduate programs that focus on literature, language, political science, and entrepreneurship.
