Middlebury College

Middlebury College enters the story as a hoped-for college choice for both Katherine and Michael, and as a possible answer to the separation they anticipate after high school. Its place in their plans is brief but consequential: the possibility of attending together gives their relationship a future to imagine, while the admissions outcome and Katherine’s parents’ refusal expose the limits on that hope.

Place in Their College Plans

In an early conversation about college, Michael says he hopes to attend the University of Vermont or Middlebury. The choice gives shape to a shared prospect at a moment when the couple is considering where they might go after graduation. Middlebury is named alongside the University of Vermont, not as a settled decision but as one of two possibilities.

Katherine later wants to change direction for a similar reason. After her mother asks what will happen when she and Michael are apart the following year, Katherine approaches her guidance counselor and says she wants the University of Vermont or Middlebury because she and Michael want to be together. Middlebury thus becomes part of a response to anticipated distance, rather than simply an independent academic preference.

Admissions and the Unfulfilled Plan

Katherine has already applied to Michigan, Penn State, and Denver when she raises the possibility of applying to Middlebury and the University of Vermont. Her counselor warns that Middlebury is difficult to get into and cannot promise anything; Katherine would also need her parents’ permission. Her mother refuses, reasoning that Katherine has already applied to three schools. The evidence does not establish that Katherine ever submits an application to Middlebury.

The eventual admissions results further separate the hoped-for plan from what happens. Michael is accepted at the University of Vermont but not at Middlebury. Katherine is rejected by Michigan and accepted at Penn State and Denver. Middlebury therefore remains an unrealized option in the couple’s plans, rather than a college either of them attends in the events described.

Narrative Significance

Middlebury’s importance lies in the way it concentrates the couple’s wish to carry their relationship into the next stage of life. Katherine’s effort to change her choices follows her recognition that the coming year will place her and Michael apart, but her mother’s decision and the admissions results prevent the shared future she imagines from becoming a practical arrangement. The college is not developed as a setting or institution in its own right; it functions as a specific, consequential possibility in the story’s account of how young love meets family decisions and the uncertainties of leaving high school.