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The fall 2020 acceptance rate for College of the Atlantic is 64%. That means, out of _____ applications received in 2020 , _____ students were offered admission. The number of males who applied was _____ vs the number of females which was _____.
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What should every freshman at your school know before they start?
Before you leave, make sure you have packed the essentials - plenty of clothes, snacks (because you will be hungry at odd times and often you won't have the energy to cook), and most importantly, quarters! Quarters are essential for doing laundry at college, so bring extra in case you need to loan your roommate some. If she doesn’t pay you back, well, you know where she sleeps... Also, you can't live on instant oatmeal and ramen during the weekend. Bring ingredients for pizza, pancakes, bread, cookies – you get the idea. Be prepared to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. They might be expensive, but they are good for you. Oh, and keep a stash of dark chocolate for emergencies.
Once you are at college, remember to get plenty of sleep so you won't doze off in class. Take notes and ask your professor for help if you don’t understand something. Have other people read your essays and papers before submitting them - you will always miss some tiny but embarrassing error. When you are studying, take breaks occasionally, but don’t procrastinate, and NEVER leave things until the last minute. All-nighters are bad for your health.
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Describe the students at your school.
Friendly, kind hearted, helpful, passionate, unique, beautiful souls from all walks of life.
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Here's your chance: Say anything about your college!
Cheers.
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What are the academics like at your school?
Terms are 10-weeks long, which is not as long as you think it is. Classes meet 2-3 times a week and reading assignments are light. Most classes have a term-project requirement, which is typically a variation on a presentation or term-paper. Professors make room for students to delve deeply into subjects that interest them and relate it to class material, but as far as resources go, don't contribute much. The library at the school is small and does not keep a high standard of journal subscriptions. Research projects are challenging if students don't have a connection to a larger university with better resources. It's possible to be engaged and learn a great deal here, and it's just as easy to float by. That doesn't make COA special... what's special is that you can get a B here either way.
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What are the most popular student activities/groups?
There are really too few students for student groups to be effective. There's a water-polo team that is not officially affiliated with the college that seems quite popular. I think the most popular student activity is engaging in annual (at least... maybe biennial) email wars.
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Is the stereotype of students at your school accurate?
Stereotypes always have a nugget of truth. Our marine biology program is very strong, mainly due to our facilities (2 research boats and islands, oceanside campus, Allied Whale (private organization affiliated with the college that is on campus and which responds to marine mammal strandings, photo-identifies whales and does marine mammal research), and strong marine biology/policy professors. As someone who has served on the admissions committee and who is a marine mammalogist, I can say that coming to COA solely for marine biology is looked down upon. We are a liberal arts institution, and a special one at that, where you are expected to marry a variety of interests to tackle larger societal and environmental problems. We have a small population of strict marine biologists (I admit to being one of them) who immediately focus in on the hard science and never really break out of that. It's great to focus on something, but pursuing marine science so unilaterally defeats the purpose of Human Ecology. My advice, if you are applying to COA and love marine biology (or think you do, it's often romanticized by high school seniors who love the idea of playing with dolphins and living on a boat), is to showcase your diversity of interests and the level of passion you have for the field, but also your desire to have an interdisciplinary and well-rounded education.
You're going to have friends doing wildly different things. My best friend studies agriculture, history and anthropology, while I have other friends who study film theory, politics, food systems and herpetology. This is a great thing. When I come home from a day of seal necropsies, the last thing I want to hear about is whale diving physiology. There's a lot to learn in other areas of study, and typical COA students are curious about them.
To address the hippie issue, yes, there are some hippies. Everyone who goes to a liberal college adds the disclaimer that hippies are just a small minority of the population. Why would they do that? Because let's face it, hippies are slightly annoying. Theres a social stigmitization towards being a hippie because it is associated with hypocritical free-will but also judgement (what do you mean you don't eat cage-free, free-range, organic, anti-Monsanto local eggs?!!!), a perceived attitude of indifference and laziness, substance use (sometimes abuse) and anti-establishment mentality that ranges from indifferent complaining (dreadlocks) to annoying activism (canvassing). These things are true for some hippies, but for the most part, not ours. All students at COA actively try to seek better things for the world, and so you have genuine, hard-working people who are actually passionate about their views and interests, and who "do things." There are some slackers, but they do not have a prominent position in the community.
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What is the stereotype of students at your school?
COA has the aura of a science school with an emphasis on sustainability. While this is true to an extent not all of us here are focused on environmentally friendly alternatives. We are not pot smoking, tree hugging hippies. All students study marine biology because we are on the ocean and we all love the outdoors because we live across from a national park.
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What is your overall opinion of this school?
We're extremely small, there's no getting around that. You either love it or hate it (and sometimes both), but most students tend to enjoy such an intimate community (why would you be here if you didn't). The campus is small, but beautiful, and Bar Harbor is a nice town, albeit dead and lonely in the winter.
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What's the most frustrating thing about your school?
College of the Atlantic is a unique campus environment. One of the aspects that make COA so "COA" is the relaxing way we go about our lives. Everyone is very passionate about their work and interests, and sometimes we forget a little that the rest of the world runs by a clock. We still have deadlines and such, but a few minutes here and a couple days there...the students and the professors aren't always timely.
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Describe how your school looks to someone who's never seen it.
College of the Atlantic is a life changing experience.
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Describe your favorite campus traditions.
My school is best known for being the greenest college in the USA!
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What's unique about your campus?
College of the Atlantic is a graduate school for undergrads. Every student majors in Human Ecology with classes that focus in an area of your interest. I have the freedom to choose classes I am interested in and not worry about filling petty requirements. The classes are challenging and the work is fascinating! With each class, my mind makes new connections to previous knowledge and my eyes open a little wider with the capability to analyze from different perspectives and see the interconnectedness in every aspect of human life.
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What is the stereotype of students at your school? Is this stereotype accurate?
Within COA there are two stereotypes -- Seafox-dwelling substance free do-gooders, and Blair-Tyson-resident substance abusing party animals. I think for the most part, that's not how people really identify.
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What's the one thing you wish someone had told you about freshman year?
I would have liked to have known that the Thorndike Library uses the Library of Congress cataloguing system. The library I volunteer at back home uses the Dewey Decimal system, so I was a bit confused by Thorndike’s layout at first.
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What kind of person should attend this school?
Someone who is environmentaly conscious and socially engaged. This school is for students who love to be challenged and are self sufficent. It fits the mold for those who are creative thinkers who constanly question the world around them and want more than the conventional answers we are given.
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