Bates College Top Questions

Everyone lives on campus, there are very few people who live off campus because the school is not in the best of areas. Because of this all the parties, etc. are always on campus in dorms or on campus houses. The alcohol policy tends to be very lax when dealing with beer and wine, however as soon as hard alcohol is used, whether your 21 or not, you can get in a lot of trouble. The "big" nights for going out are usually thursdays and saturdays. Fridays people will drink, howevr usually not that much because everyone is tried from a full week of classes and studying so people generally like to sleep and relax on Fridays. If you are an athlete, you usually can not go out as much as much as people who do not play a sport. You will have practices and games 6 days a week, and its not until the mid season that the coaches will give their players sundays off (which allows athletes to drink saturdays). Before that random days are given off, such as a Tuesday, so there is not much parties to be done.

house parties, some bars (id is required), a lot of partying in dorms. beer is allowed in all dorms even all freshmen dorms. students drink a lot. a lot of smokers on campus, mostly marijuana,, not so much cigarettes.off campus parties are more for upper class. freshmen usually party with themselves which is better anyway for solidarity and meeting people.

Students at Bates love Bates, love Partying, love Electronic music, and love dancing. Radio is really big at Bates, and listenership is up among students, and in the local communities. There are no Frats or Sororities, so clubs mean a lot. People at Bates get out and support their friends, at Shows, Games, etc. Its a great place to be.

Bates social life, unfortunately in my opinion, tends to revolve around the drinking scene. The college offers non-alcoholic events most weekends, but they are not well attended. I was not part of this scene, so most of my free time was spent with other non-drinking friends watching movies and playing games. There is a small group of students who don't drink, and in my opinion they are the coolest people who permeate every aspect of Bates, but they are the minority. Theatre, concerts and atheltic events are not the highlight of the social scene, but are always well-performed and worth going to! Most students prefer to participate in unorganized events. When the weather is nice though, especially during Short Term (May!), everyone is out on the quad playing frisbee or croquet or reading or baseball. Bates doesn't have a "dating scene" because there are few places to go out in the area. It is more of a long-standing hook-up scene. Rumor has it that 60-70{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of Batesies go on to marry other Batesies, though not until 5-10 years out of college. I met my closest friends through my freshman housing which was the chem-free house and then through these friends as well. In some houses people leave their doors open, but this doesn't happen as much in the dorms.

Sports teams are probably the greatest social groups on campus and tend to have a demanding impact on the schools social activities but there are other parts of campus most specifically the 'outdoors kids' who mostly live in houses on Frye street have another demanding influence on campus social life. Students live in dorm and house. Bates housing is unique because they have many dorms but also own a substantial number of homes in or around campus for student housing which gives a completely different living experience! People party very frequently, and there is not a lot to do on campus that does not invole drinking unless going to the parties and not drinking. I must say that as a student athlete and not being able to drink often in season i still have a great time without drinking.

So much to do... always!! Choose wisely!

Bates prides itself on its extracurricular activities. I would venture to say that every student participates in atleast 1 extracurricular activities, whether it be the Bates Outing Club (BOC) or athletics or political or academic groups.

Social life - which consists of performing your membership to what is essentially Greek Life OR to "chem free living" - is extremely important at Bates. It's a tight knit community, which is euphemistic for gossip-centric, though in more subtle ways as it takes on the facade of being "outdoorsy" (which initially contrasts with the gossip girl thing)... There are very few cultural opportunities at the school, relative to other colleges of our "ranking", with a weekend night's options including the screening of one blockbuster hit per Fri-Sat night in a classroom in Olin.

The outing club is the biggest club on Bates campus. Students are automatically members and have access to a plethora of athletic equipment. Members send emails around all the time asking if people are interested in embarking on outdoor adventures. The greatest thing about Bates clubs is that they are non-exclusive--- anyone can join anything. The activities fair at the beginning of the year is over the top and amazing---- Upper class club members set up tables underneath the library quad and try to coerce freshmen into joining their clubs. Freshman year I signed up for rugby and the water polo team-- neither of which am I qualified for.

The biggest problem for me at Bates is too many activities, which can at times be overwhelming... but never boring! For me the summer tends to be a break in which I get some alone time, because at Bates I am constantly with friends. Athletic events are not as popular as other schools (our teams tend to not be that good) but any event tends to be well attended. Traditions (puddle-jump, pub-crawl, Nemann day, etc.) are numerous and endlessly entertaining. And the chem-free scene is vibrant. I didn't drink as a freshman or sophomore, and felt completely welcomed at every event that I wanted to attend. A welcome change from the institution I transferred from.