Opinionated Just-So-That-You-Know-s to navigate the online space at Middlebury.

TLDR: You can skip to the Probably useful links section.

Read the Middlebury Handbook! We are all supposed to follow the rules.

Networking

Connect to the Wi-Fi named MiddleburyCollege, not MiddleburyGuest or eduroam.

For some parts of this section you may want to turn off Private DNS, DNS over HTTPS, VPNs, Private Relay or similar services. This works the other way as well: if you care about privacy, you can follow Apple’s example 1 in using Cloudflare WARP - it’s free!

If you have manually changed your DNS settings, change them back to “Automatic”.

Printing

On your own laptop2, follow this link.

You get $72 per year ($144 for seniors) of printing quota. For pricing, click here. $72 is usually enough, and if not then there usually is a proper reason why you murdered so many trees - ask the person responsible for more quota.

Visit go/papercut to check your balance and printing history; Note the “Web Print” functionality here will direct print jobs to Non_Library_Printers and not MiddColor or MiddBW.

Links like go/bert are short for https://go.middlebury.edu/bert. Connect to school Wi-Fi and type go/bert/ in your browser3.

Enter a non-existing4 Go Link or just visit https://go.middlebury.edu/ to see the Gotionary of all the Go Links and who’s responsible for each5. You can also create your own.

Advanced: Add Go Links to Chrome, Edge or Brave (Chromium-based browsers) as a search engine:

  1. Open the Search Engines settings page (drag into address bar: chrome://settings/searchEngines) and select “Add”.
  2. Name it as you’d like. For the keyword, enter go; for the URL, enter https://go.middlebury.edu/%s.
  3. Select “Add”.

Now, in the address bar, type go, hit Space, type bert, then hit Enter. You will arrive at https://go.middlebury.edu/bert without needing school Wi-Fi.

Databases from off campus

If you encounter a database paywall from off campus, you can try EZproxy to see if the school already has a subscriptios there. You can certainly use the school’s VPN, but you will need to apply for one.

Drag this link into your favourites bar, or create a new bookmark and paste it in:

javascript:void(location.href='https://ezproxy.middlebury.edu/login?url=%27+location.href);

Next, visit a paywalled database like this one. The green “Get Access” button will prompt you to pay or login. But once you click on the bookmark you just saved, you will arrive here after logging in. Now you can click the red PDF button and download this article.

If you click the bookmark on a random page, there will be an error message. Some databases like this one can be proxied even though the school does not have a subscription to them.

Accounts

Attention: Per ITS policy, your accounts will be deleted 6 months after you graduate.

You have a Microsoft account offered by the school. Visit this page to check your MFA (Multi-factor Authentication) settings and make sure you have enough backup options.

Microsoft’s Authenticator app is recommended. MFA/2FA can protect your other accounts as well, not just the school’s.

Your Microsoft account contains 5 TB of OneDrive storage, and Microsoft 365 including the Office suite.

You can log into PCs on campus (like the PCs in Munroe and iMacs in Davis) with this account as well.

Subscriptions

  • Adobe: You have an Adobe account, so you can download Adobe apps(there’s a lot). Enter your school email when logging in to Adobe and you will be redirected to the Microsoft login.
  • Google: You have a Google account. The school as a whole has 100 TB of Google Cloud storage6. Enter your school email when logging in to Google and you will be redirected to the Microsoft login.
  • Zoom: You have a Zoom account, so there is no 40-minute limit. Visit https://middlebury.zoom.us/ and hit “Sign In”.

You can also visit guides from DLINQ, ITS, L&ITS, GMHEC, or Fund for Innovation.

For Online

  • Apporto is a virtual lab with Windows 10 and CentOS 7 virtual machines. They come pre-installed with useful software.
  • Bloomberg Terminal lives on the first floor of Davis. Ask a librarian and consult this guide from Dartmouth.
  • Kanopy has classic films and documentaries for you to enjoy.
  • The Library & ITS Wiki has lots of useful information, and you can add more.
  • MiddCreate is a hosting platform for you to build blogs, forums and more.
  • MiddMovies (Needs school Wi-Fi) is MCAB’s movie service. It is currently empty unaccessable for reasons unknown.
  • TimelyMD is a virtual care service which technically has 24/7 care access. Do still dial 911 for emergencies.

For Offline

  • Dining Services has a calendar that tells you which dining halls are open during breaks.
  • ID Card: after registering, you can check where & when you swiped into each dining hall. You can also keep track of your Declining Balance.
  • Floor Plans are available on Google Drive (school login needed).
  • go/menu has menus for each dining hall.
  • Presence lists a magnitude of student activities. The app is called MiddSpark onAndroid and iOS.

Library Genesis

Disclaimer: this is not legal advice. See also Wikipedia’s fair use page, the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index, and the school’s Policy on Intellectual Property Rights.

Google libgen to find the newest usable link (this works for Sci-Hub as well.)

Type keywords relevant to the book and author, like “statics hibbeler”. For the 14th edition, search “statics hibbeler 14” and there will be only one match.

To the right, find “Mirrors” and click on [1] to go to library.lol. Hit GET for faster downloads, or the blue buttons for (usually) faster downloads7.

Academics

Course Schedule

Here is a long list for every single course offered by semester.

The searchable catalog is here.

Coursicle is a third-party service for you to build schedules quickly. Just remember to double-check when and where classes are happening.

This the Banner for student information, and not the Banner for registering.

Student Records & Registration

Check your final grades each semester here.

Print an unofficial transcript here.

The Degree Worhsheet tells you which requirements you have fulfilled and what else you need to graduate.

Personal Information

Mailbox combination: click here.

Enter your preferred name here to have your display name changed across the school’s systems (like on Outlook). Leave “Chosen First Name” empty and submit to go back.

Canvas

Canvas is usually where you hand in homework.

Canvas App

Download “Canvas Student” on Android or iOS. Don’t get “Canvas Teacher”.

Click on “Account” on the top left, then “QR for Mobile Login” to log in.

Notifications

Click on “Account” on the top left, then “Notifications”.

For each item, you can make Canvas send an email immediately, send a daily/weekly summary, or disable it altogether.

These three items are probably the most relevant: Due Date, Grading and Submission comment.

The “Include Scores” switch under Grading might tell you your grades before the professor releases it; but it might also report a low grade even though the professor isn’t done with grading yet.

Calendar

Click on “Calendar” on the sidebar, and then “Calendar Feed” on the right.

You can import this link into your own calendars. Here is how to do it on Outlook, Google, iOS, and macOS.

Not Academics

Disclaimer: this is not legal advice. See PwC’s Legal disclaimer for a complete disclaimer.

Cell Phone Plans

Get a family plan with friends if you like contracts.

AT&T and Verizon are both usable in Middlebury; for T-Mobile, not so much.

If you hate contracts, the r/nocontract community on Reddit has information on which operator to use.

Cellmapper has detailed signal tower information, and Kimovil has a frequency checker to see if your phone might work (subject to operator limitations).

Only certain iPhones have two physical nano-SIM slots. The US version of iPhone 14 has none.

Work

You can work on campus, with CPT or with OPT as a F-1 student; ISSS has more information.

Simply put, OPT needs USCIS approval, and CPT needs school approval. On-campus jobs require the least paperwork.

You can apply for a Social Security Number (SSN) after getting an on-campus job, although theoretically you can apply for an ITIN and use it when you need an SSN.

Visit Workable to find job openings, or take note of departmental emails.

You can set up Direct Deposit on Oracle to not have to grab a physical check from your mailbox every two weeks.

Taxes

Tax Day every year is around April 15. You will need to submit last year’s tax forms to IRS and the Vermont Department of Taxes before then.

First check if you are a resident (for tax purposes). IRS says students are usually exempt for their first five years in F-1 status.

The school uses Sprintax TDS to determine your tax status. There is also a discount on Sprintax Returns, at least for non-resident aliens.

Of course, you can also go find a tax expert at places like H&R Block, but the relatively well-known TurboTax software also uses Sprintax for non-resident aliens.

I need help!

The school’s Who Do I Call? page usually tells you who to call. For example, it mentions that all maintenance requests should go to ResLife.

Numbers on this page have a 802 area code. Middlebury’s telephone prefix is 443, so if you see x5911, the complete number should be 802-443-5911.

  1. Portions of the Private Relay infrastructure is operated by Cloudflare. ↩︎

  2. See here under “Faculty and Staff” if your laptop is owned by the school. ↩︎

  3. Some browsers require the / at the end; others do not. ↩︎

  4. It has to not exist. go/republican is a thing. ↩︎

  5. Some older links like go/anna will only show random characters. ↩︎

  6. Google once offered infinite storage, but they changed their minds. ↩︎

  7. Those are IPFS links. The files are distributed across the whole Internet, kind of like a blockchain. ↩︎