Bowdoin College Top Questions

Sports teams are the most popular groups on campus. They tend to attract a lost of interest. I am involved in the women's varsity rugby team. It is a walk-on team. We have an A side and a B side. Anyone can play on the B side; A side is a little more exclusive. The team encourages a lot of camraderie. What dating scene? It is more of a hookup scene. If I am awake at 2am on a Tuesday I am either doing organic chemistry or hanging out with friends. There is no Greek life.

Most students here are dedicated to academics from Sunday-Wednesday night at least. Partying starts on Saturday and revolves areound socail houses and dorm type parties. But there are other things to do: speakers, plays, and performances. Main Street has nice places to go out for dinner. One thing that surprised me is that Bowdoin students don't drink half as much as guide books and sterotypes project. Sure there is drinking but it is not as central as I would have thought it to be as a freshman.

The College Houses really provide a great party atmosphere for the freshman. There is usually at least one campus-wide College House party each weekend, and all students know that they are welcome to attend. Freshman predominate the College House party scene, but it's a great, and comfortable, environment to meet people at the beginning of the year, and even later on. Plus, the parties (aka beer) are free, which never hurts.

Very fun weekends. Thursday night pub night allows for good dancing. Friday and Saturdays are the same scene of a mixture of pre-gaming in the dorms, social house parties then an off-campus party. For the most part students study hard on week nights, and then go out hard on the weekends.

A lot of people at Bowdoin play sports even if it is club but you won't feel left out if you don't. By the same token there are many people involved in community service projects of various kinds and a pretty strong theatre program. People at Bowdoin like to drink but there are things to do if you don't drink. A lot of social life focuses around the social house system especially for underclassmen. The dating scene is a little weird: there is definitely a lot of hooking up that goes on but also some serious relationships.

There are more options if you have a car because you can spend more time off campus but there are always things to do. Most students spend their time on campus. The social life here is fairly inclusive compared to many other colleges. No fraternities or sororities here. There's A LOT of drinking, which can be fun, but there are also plenty of other activities if you prefer to spend your time in a different manner.

Mostly drinking on the weekends. Students also like sports and outdoor activities though. Skiing and outing club trips.

Outing club is popular. I row with the crew team- it's a very friendly group of people. Some guest speakers are very popular- Eve Ensler and Christopher Hitchens each filled an auditorium. I met my friends through dorms, classes and crew. If I'm awake that late I'm doing homework. There are no frats or sororities. Last weekend I rowed and played my cello and repaired my bike. On Saturday nights there are chem-free parties and concerts and movies.

The social life for the first-year students is quite open. The dorms provide forced diversity that goes away when students retreat into their friend groups sophomore year. The independent nature of the upper-class dorms really closes off the open contact that the freshman dorms provide.

The popular groups are safespace, bmasv, and the newspaper. I am involved with Bowdoin Cable Network. I am a editor there. With BCN, you can choose how much time you want to dedicate so it is really great. We have a weekly news episode and several shows that come out monthly. Everyone leaves there door open. Athletic events are somewhat popular, especially hockey. There are A LOT of speakers and events involving the theater. My closest friends live on my floor. If its 2 am on Tuesday and Im awake I working on a paper or studying for a test. Traditions include polar bearing (skinny dipping at the beach) and middle of the night trips to LL Bean. People party almost every weekend (thursday, friday, and saturday). There are no frats, but rater social houses which are governed by residential life and resemble frats in some aspects, but reduce the amount of hazing. When I dont feel like drinking, me and my friends watch movies, go into to town, or simply go out to parties and dont drink. Off campus we go to movies, shopping in Freeport, skiiing at Sugarloaf or Sunday River...

I am a participant in 2 marshall arts clubs and have tried many intramural sports.

You can realistically party three nights a week: Thursday through Saturday. A lot of freshmen do this, and a significant number of students drink heavily through all three years (I could be a bit biased coming from the frisbee team, which, along with men's rugby, probably drink more than anyone else on campus). That said, every night has "chem free" options like movies, swing dancing, poetry and music events, etc. Last weekend I went out on Thursday night with the Frisbee team, playing drinking games in one of the college houses until 11pm when we migrated to the pub to hear The Mathematicians play. They have a huge following among the frisbee team, so the concert was a blast. Friday morning I went to class, and around 1 oclock I left with 3 friends to go ice-climbing on Mt. Washington. We stayed in the Harvard Mountaineering Club Cabin between Tuckermans and Huntingtons Ravine. When we came home on Saturday, I went out again to another social house party, where drinking games and dancing were the main events. I finished that night sleeping at my girlfiend's room.

alot of drinking thurs-saturday so if you're not into that sometimes it's hard to find stuff to do. depending on what dorm you live in, doors are open. no one dates here, they hook up. Hockey and basketball games are somewhat popular. If i'm awake at 2am on a Tuesday I am relaxing after a longggg night of homework or finishing homework. There aren't any frat/sororities but the social houses are an interesting replacement.

Social houses serve as the main place to host parties, and most freshman and sophomores rely on the social house scene. Fraternities and sororities are non-existant, which is nice. Athletic events are fairly popular, especially hockey games. Bowdoin hosts a guest speaker every friday, and that is a very popular events.

Hockey and Lacorsse

Parties here are ok, if you are drunk they have the reputation to be awesome. socializing while not drinking here tends to be problematic, though.

Students in dorms generally leave their doors open, and each floor (at least freshman year) generally develops a sense of community. Also, at some point in the year people begin expanding outside of their floor and even outside of their dorm. The dating scene is relatively non-existent at Bowdoin - don't come here expecting to find numerous individuals who are looking for a serious relationship, at least not at first. The couples I know of are very happy but are relatively rare.

Outing Club, Dance groups, Acapella, Instramural sports

Outing Club is big. Lots of skiers, hikers, etc. About half the student body plays a sport. Being on the soccer team has been a great athletic and social experience. No frats, thankfully. Partying primarily on fridays and saturdays. Ivies is the best party week/weekend of the year. Last weekend of April. Not unusual to go Wednesday through Sunday. Some good guest speakers. Christopher Hitchens most recently.

The college brings in a lot of cool speakers and musicians. The outing club is popular and very well funded, great for exploring the amazing wilderness around Bowdoin. Skiing is also close, it's about 2 hours to Sugarloaf or Sunday River.