Bowdoin College Top Questions

I would say for the most part Bowdoin is a pretty non-judgemental place, albeit still very liberal and New England. A lot of students tend to adopt the Maine culture as far as dress is concerned. Dress as warmly as you can! Thankfully if you are from a warm place you can cruise down to the LL Bean outlet in Freeport, 20 min away. Although it takes some students longer than others, I would say just about everyone I know has a group of friends or place where they feel they fit in.

Bowdoin's diversity has and is continuing to increase. Economic diversity might be more lacking than racial diversity, however, as Bowdoin students mostly represent the upper echelons of American society in financial terms. I was surprised at the lack of interest in politics - more students seem to be passively liberal without doing much about it, while a small group are much more active. Maybe it's just the culture of college, but lots of kids are pretty lazy/spoiled. There are really only a small number of students who dress and act in ways that challenge the status quo - not many "alternative" kids. For example, there are some who share my tastes for indie rock, but classic rock continues to be most popular.

The student body is mostly composed of upper-middle class kids from the northeast, but with a growing population of kids from the south and west. There is significant diversity on the campus, and different groups mingle together and there is very little in the terms of cliques.

While Bowdoin is predominantly white and wealthy, I don't think anyone would feel out of place. Everyone is accepted for who they are, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive. While the LGBT and racial minority communities are quite small, there is not need to stick with those groups because you feel you don't belong anywhere else.

Typically the complaint about Bowdoin's student body is that it is not very diverse. This is not exactly true. When freshmen first get here they are fairly diverse - people look different. But as time wears on everyone starts wearing their sweats to class; everyone buys the same North Face fleece or J. Crew polo or L.L. Bean boots. Bowdoin has you basic groups of people: the jocks, the girls that follow the jocks around, gov. majors, art majors, etc. But there is a lot of overlap since all Bowdoin kids are uber-involved. There is a big difference in the different sports teams, as well - you can tell who the ski kids are, or the crew kids, or the hockey boys, the softball girls, and so on. And so many kids play sports.

There is a real mix of students here. From Vineyard Vines to flannel and Carhardt, we've got it all. I guess what I'm most impressed with is how well everyone meshes together. There are certainly groups of friends, but everyone is just so friendly. Upperclassmen are really welcoming to underclassmen - that's the nature of the social house system.

As said before, most people are very friendly and may appear to be similar but are in fact not. It is true that a lot of people come from the same area/tax bracket, but that doesn't mean that they are not individuals. This year I have a much more diverse group of friends than last year, which has contributed to my feeling that the student body is not homogenous. People dress casually but not sloppily (in general) when going to class, which is nice. I'm glad everyone doesn't wear their pajamas because that would be disrespectful. At the same time I'm glad that people don't stress too much about what they wear/try to dress up too much. I think people are predominantly left of the center, politics-wise. But it is not a very politically active campus - which is fine with me.

Students at Bowdoin come from all sorts of backgrounds, be it race, religion, etc. I think most people could be happy at Bowdoin, but students with a love of the outdoors would be particularly well suited to Bowdoin. That said, I know plenty of people who would rather die than go on a day hike.

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.

I've met people on campus from all over, and with a certain variety in religion and socio-economic background. Admittedly, while the overall trend is towards richer people either from the northeast or the west coast, there is still some definite variation. However, most students are fairly open, so there is almost always a place for anyone to fit in at Bowdoin. Students are aware of politics and often quite active, but don't seem to be especially to one side. There are students to both the right, left, center, and libertarian on campus.