Bowdoin College Top Questions

Again, the people are great, and thus the nightlife is more than sufficient for those who get off on friends and community. That's important in the cold months of the Maine winter (though in all fairness the fall and the last month of school are beautiful), and is something that has more than anything made Bowdoin my home.

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There is a WIDE variety of types of people here- I think that there is definitely a group for everyone here. I like to say that most Bowdoin students are "very mainstream with a few quirks". Most people are pretty friendly, and mix with diverse people. I get the sense that the vast majority of people here are very well off economically. If there is one thing that I don't like about the student body, it is that too many kids have the prep-school (wealthy) mentality, and there is pressure to fit in with that.

While Bowdoin students are incredibly diverse with respect to their interests, they are not particularly diverse when it comes to race, sexual orientation or socio-economic issues. That being said, everyone is really interested in increasing the diversity on campus. No one would feel out of place here as everyone is so welcoming but many of the students here are wealthy easterners. This shouldn't scare anyone as anyone who breaks this mold is a hot commodity and source of interest.

So the diversity isn't immense in any way, but considering we are a small liberal arts college in Maine, we have a fair amount of ethnic, religious, and demographic diversity. Coming from a white, middle class, small town in Maine, I've never been in a school with so many Asians, African Americans, and Jewish people. But if you come from a city, the diversity may seem lacking. Fortunately, not everyone here is your stereotypical private school snob. I was also surprised to find that not everyone is from Massachussetts either! So there may be a sizeable fraction of students at Bowdoin from New England, but there is a pretty good following of students from New York and California. There is at least one person from almost every state in each class and several international students too. Bowdoin has a predominantly liberal student body, but I don't find that politics affects student interactions too much unless it's election time or you are part of one of the political clubs. Maybe it's the fact that girls are attracted to the city, or that the Maine's woods scare them away, but the ratio of attractive girls to attractive guys at Bowdoin is very small.

common complaints are that the campus is too white, too privileged, and too heterosexual. nevertheless, i have friends who are straight, gay, bisexual, all different races/ethnicities, and anywhere from on full financial aid to none. the student body is very left-leaning, but for the most part is not that politically active. because many students are athletes (50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}?) a lot of students wear sweatpants/sweatshirts to class and to meals so they don't have to change before practice. some people really get dressed every day, but you wouldn't ever feel out of place if you did not.

I would say that most students wear jeans and a t-shirt. There will always be those people that you never see wearing sweatpants, but I can say that I have zero problem wearing a sweat suit to class. I don't feel uncomfortable, under-dressed or out of place. I think there's a pretty good mix of politically aware and active students and ones that have no clue what's going on and don't care. Bowdoin definitely is predominantly left on the political spectrum, however, I have seen some fliers around campus recently about a Republican group on campus, so they're small but visible.

People are pretty accepting here, especially the gay community (I would know being on the rugby team). Students who feel out of place are ones who aren't satisfied with the work hard, play hard mentality, where you work your ass off all week and then spend the entire weekend trashed. Most students are from the east coast, so there is that kind of cutthroat academic attitude here...even if students aren't competitive with each other, which I don't think they are, they hold themselves to incredibly high standards. Everybody's pretty liberal, and many students are on financial aid, which luckily isn't taboo at all.

I find it to be diverse enough for a school in maine and that usually attracts people from new england which isn't such a diverse place in the first place.

At Bowdoin your roots and history are important, but things like race, sexual orientation, and class rarely come into play. I have friends of all backgrounds and these things don't ever come up. Bowdoin students are who they are regardless. At Bowdoin the only people who would feel out of place are unmotivated people who aren't outgoing. There are people here like that, but I think that they just aren't as happy. The students here are incredibly smart and inspired. If you aren't willing to work hard and keep up, you might feel a little excluded from the majority of the student body. So many students here, myself included, find so much joy in constantly meeting new people. Not being socially outgoing or excited about meeting new people from all kinds of places might also leave someone excluded.