Bates College Top Questions

Social life at Bates is pretty cliquey. I have been disappointed to find that the environmental activities, outing club activities, and even the Ronj (the on campus coffee shop) are enshrouded in pervasive social groups that are quite exclusive. My saving grace is the folk circle, which I find to be an incredibly warm, off-beat, accepting group of people. This has become my absolute favorite part of Bates. It is a small, but thriving culture that brings charm to the campus.

I am part of the sailing team, which is, in my opinion, the best team on campus. We are completely student run and self-motivated. We have set high goals for ourselves and even though we are considered a club team by the school, we provide fierce competition for our division 1 competitors! The team is also very close: we have weekly gatherings and fabulous theme parties. The social scene, in terms of the dating scene, is a little rough towards the end of four years. But, it's okay - who needs a serious boyfriend in college, anyway? You are too focused on yourself and what you want to do with your life. That is most important. The traditions at Bates are great fun - the pub crawl, the puddle jump, midnight madness... they are what bond students together.

Truthfully, if you're social you have no problem fitting in to anything at Bates. We party and bullshit a lot! If you say Bates isn't fun, chances are you've convinced yourself of that way before you visited. Like any other place in this world, "In order for shit to happen you have to make it happen." All i can say is don't expect something to make things fun for you. Step up and do it yourself. That's what i do. Don't believe me ask about me "Kevin Artist Chambers" AKA "Artist"

There are too big things I like most about Bates. First of all I love the New Commons. The New Commons is the place where we eat all of our meals on campus. It was built during the 07-08 school year and has such a variety that no matter what i am craving, they will have it. Whether it is belgium waffles with whipped cream and strawberries in the morning or a nice bowl of Lucky Charms at nine o'clock at night, they have it. Chicken Patty Saturday's is a tradition that has stretched back for many years. The Second thing I most importantly love is the Sense of school spirit. I love the way that all sporting events are free, and how people from the community are there to support us. I love playing basketball in Alumni Gym against a rival team and having the heat cranked up and the seats packed and overflowed with win hungry fans. Sports are big at Bates, and i like knowing that there are so many people there that support our team.

Tons and Tons of clubs on campus, Outing Club one of the largest and most active clubs for sure. It has the 2nd largest club budget next to the club that organizes school concerts, and every time of the outling club budget is spent, ranging from new skis, snowboards, hatchets or footing the bill for a school wide clambake. Traditions include the puddle jump, jumping into the only water body on campus in the dead of winter.

I've rarely been bored here. There's always something to do, whether it involves drinking or not. My social scene revolves around Frye Street, an off campus street where Bates owns houses. The dating scene here is pretty odd in that random hookups often develop into relationships.

Bates has a very active social life. The college hosts a ton of concerts and other forms of entertainment every weekend. The outing club always sponsors local trips. Students will always be partying on the weekend, but it does not dominate the social scene. There are always bus trips to major cities around New England. We have tons of very fun traditions that almost all Batesies attend. I met some of my closest friends on my hall freshman year and I made a lot of other great friends during freshman orientation AESOP trips, classes, and clubs. Unforutnately Bates does not have a dating scene, there are hook-ups and people in very serious relationships, those are pretty much the two poles.

There are a lot of organizations here on campus, and if there isn't one that suits your fancy, it is really easy to start one up. Also, sports are HUGE here. I think its something like 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of our kids participate in athletics in some way...there's the varsity level, the club level, and the intramural level, all of which are a lot of fun. We're division 3, so we don't recruit, and basically anyone can join in the fun. Running for Bates is my favorite thing about the college. Most of this stuff goes on during the week, and there isn't always a lot of stuff to do on the weekends. Sure, there's a concert or a play every now and then, but not as many as admissions makes it seem like. Also, Lewiston isn't really the safest, nicest town to be hanging out in. So, basically...much of what goes on during the weekends is alcohol-related. Everyone says you can still party if you don't drink, but let's face it, it's really not that easy or comfortable, so if you're not a big drinker, you may have a hard time with the weekend life. People never really party during the week though; if you're up at 2:00am on a random tuesday night, you are probably in your room writing a paper that's due tomorrow. As for the dating scene....we're more of a random-hookup campus. And there are no fraternities or sororities-there never have been.

The Bates social life is the best. Whether it is playing indoor soccer or beer pong on a wednesday night... There are a plethora of social activities to keep your mind engaged.

All kinds of activities are possible at Bates--my taste runs to outing club adventuring (rock climbing, backpacking, wielding chainsaws, etc.) and cycling on the ill-maintained back roads of Maine. I also work as a campus EMT, so I see and deal with firsthand the worst that can occur at parties on a regular basis. I'd say that by and large, sports events do not draw large crowds, though most students are involved in some kind of athletic endeavor. We keep our dorm doors open, and we are more likely to be battling an essay at 2 AM on a Tuesday than getting housed. One noble tradition at Bates is the Puddle Jump, hosted annually as the culmination of Winter Carnival, during which the outing club saws a good chunk of ice out of Lake Andrews (the Puddle, our small campus pond), and brave/foolhardy students jump in and out of the frigid water before running over to the raging bonfire on shore. We have no frats/sororities, which I think is great--I spend my weekends doing a combination of hiking, drinking, going out to breakfast at one of the numerous local diners, and facing an enormous and grim workload on Sunday evenings. My usual solution for this workload is to make my way to one of my favorite places on campus--the Ronj, a student-run coffeehouse which is open every night. I then proceed to divide my time between actually getting my work done, and playing pool or hanging out with my friends who work there.