Bowdoin College Top Questions

Everyone is VERY accepting. It is considered very strange to not accept someone. Most students are very preppy. Everyone really interacts with everyone they want to. The only table in the dining hall which is really a "table" is the sports table, but that is really it. Most students are from right outside Boston. A majority of people are wealthy, considering the cost of Bowdoin, but to me it really isnt very apparent. I couldnt tell you how wealthy most of my friends are.

The financial and racial background of bowdoin college is diverse relative to other schools in maine. the school is more suited for people looking for an involved experience where they can move at their own pace.

For the first few weeks of school, I couldn't get over how kind people were. I didn't meet my first asshole until a month or two had passed. Coming from a private school where athletes were generally written off as jerks, I was thrilled to find out that many of my friends were varsity high school athletes or even competing on the college's teams. That being said, there is definitely a rift in the student body between athletes and non-athletes. Since athletes can't drink on Fridays or Saturdays, they usually party on Sunday and Monday night, when everyone else is studying. Since a lot of the social life is centered around weekend events, which sport events prevent athletes from attending, athletes tend to do the majority of their socializing with each other. Generally, students are very engaged in what goes on around campus. If anything, there are too many student organizations for the size of the school, and people have trouble recruiting enough support for that reason, but that's hardly a criticism. Being relegated to Maine, political activism is fairly limited, but the Young Democrats have still managed to raise a lot of disucssion and awareness about the presidential campaign. Compared to my high school, which was perhaps suprisingly diverse for a private school, Bowdoin is not so diverse. Black students here definitely tend to themselves, but other minority groups seem better integrated. I haven't yet figured out why the black students aren't more connected, because it seems like relationships between black and non-black students are common. When the weekend comes around, however, people fall back into their respective groups.

See the big pictue.

The student body is incredibly liberal and open. I have witness no homophobia or racism on campus- I think students pride themselves in this fact. Many students are preppy or well dressed, but they mostly wear patagonia fleeces and LLBean moccasins. There is little class awareness here, and financial backgrounds are not that prevalent. The sports teams tend to stick together, and a lot of students are jocks.

Mixture of outdoorsy and preppy

no comment

I feel like Bowdoin is a very open campus. I friends who are athletes and friends who act, and although there may be groups of students on campus they never feel mutually exclusive. For example, there are athletes who participate in Bowdoin College Democrats or a capella singers who played on the JV soccer team with me. I feel like Bowdoin students are generally liberal and relatively politically aware, even if they aren't necessarily politically active.

Diversity - in every sense of the word is the prime initiative at Bowdoin.

Don't know that anyone would really feel out of place. It's easy to find a niche without ending up in a clique. Very intellectually soft, self-affirming leftist political atmosphere, but you won't be castigated for leaning another direction. Econ majors talk about how much they'll earn one day.