Founded in 1800, Middlebury College is one of the country's top liberal arts colleges. It offers its students a broad curriculum of 44 majors with emphasis on the arts, humanities, literature, foreign languages, social sciences, and natural sciences. In addition, Middlebury has a long-standing international focus, which includes several overseas programs that seek to further students' foreign language skills and provide them with cultural enrichment.

Middlebury's main campus is located in close proximity to the village of Middlebury, though the College maintains extensive athletic and recreational space, including a golf course at the periphery of the campus. The College also includes the Bread Loaf Mountain campus, located in the middle of 30,000 acres of forested land in Ripton, Vermont, 15-20 minutes east of Middlebury. The Bread Loaf campus contains residential and academic buildings that accommodate about 350 participants in the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.