Bowdoin College Top Questions

Bowdoin is great. It's a smallerish college so you really do get to know the professors and deans and lunch ladies. You may not know them your freshman year, but definitely beginning your sophomore year you really start to get to know everyone, and this sense of community is a great feeling. In my home town, few people have heard of Bowdoin. But it is fun when you run into someone who has heard of it, because generally they declare that it's a great school. On campus, a lot of people hang out in the Union (Smith Union) since the cafe, the pub, the mail center, and the gym are all located there. A number of comfortable chairs and couches are set up around the Union so it's a nice place to study when you don't want complete quiet. Otherwise, the libraries generally have a number of people in them, and if you live in a social house or dorm, a lot of times people hang out in the common spaces there as well to do work etc. Definitely, the greatest show of school pride is during the Bowdoin-Colby ice hockey games, which are always packed with yelling fans. The cheers between our two schools are the best part and definitely make the game.

the people in the bowdoin community are its richest asset. from the friendly students, to the generous faculty and staff, everyone is worth getting to know. "the bowdoin hello" is what first struck me about bowdoin-- people are friendly and enthused to be here. the open, relatively communal approach is important in a challenging higher education environment. the friendliness extends to the town of brunswick as well. the bowdoin, brunswick relationship is another one of the critical assets of bowdoin. whether you go in to get coffee, live in the neighborhoods, work with the townspeople, the experience is always well worth it. although the winters are long, brunswick is not in the middle of nowhere. quite contrary-- it is 30 minutes north of Portland, a very hip and eclectic port town, and 2hours north of boston. both of which have a plethora of sweet concerts and delicious eateries. to enjoy the long winter, skiing at sugarloaf and sunday river are less than 2hours away and the outing club provides weekly trips: snow shoeing, xcountry skiing, and mountaineering.

The best thing about Bowdoin is that you can make friends with people you normally would not interact with. I would change class size. Bowdoin is not a big school, but there are still many classes that have more than 30 students in them. I would like for Bowdoin to hire more professors of color, especially in areas that you would not find these professors. When I tell people back home, I get one of two responses. The first is, where the heck is that, or Wow, you go to Bowdoin. There is nothing in between. One problem I have with Bowdoin is the way they deal with issues of race. I feel that Bowdoin places issue of gender and sexuality on a pedestal, but when there are black/white issues, they are swept inder the rug. School pride...it's getting there. Men's Hockey games and Women's basketball games are well attended. The cheerleading squad is made up mostly of students of color. Ivies Weekend is the best Weekend at Bowdoin. Experience Weekend is fun too, only when you are a freshman and sophomore, not after that.

Best things about Bowdoin: the PEOPLE (a-grade human beings very smart and very fun), the PROFESSORS (inspiring, caring, personable, incredibly intelligent), FOOD!!!! (see NYtimes article), Parties (DJ pub nights, social house parties, Crackhouse, Joshuas, fun people), CAMPUS (gorgeous gorgeous accessible campus), NO frats or sororities, Great clubs and events on campus constantly, IVIES. Things I would change: BSG very dominated by the same groups of people, Housing shortage although housing is great overall, cold weather in maine. Bowdoin is a small school but coming from a large public school i found it perfect and i never feel too sheltered or trapped. People's reaction to Bowdoin: "Bowdoin... WHAT!?! a community college in Maine?" or "Wow, YOU GO TO BOWDOIN!?!" Time spent on campus: Classes, Homework, Studying, Partying, Socializing, Eating, going to Club meetings and campuswide events Colelge town: Brunswick Maine, Gem of Maine. Great stores and restaurants easily accessible. Ie. Big Top - best sandwiches, Scarlet Begonias - delicious pizza and pasta BYOB, Joushuas - fun bar and great lobster rolls, Sea Dogs Brewery (great lobster and beer) also half an hour away from Portland (city in the USA with most restaurants per capita) Bowdoin Administration: Unseen but everything runs incredibly smoothly Controvery on Campus: The possibility of getting rid of Credit/D/Fail. Overridden due to student protests School Pride: Come to any Sporting event ESPECIALLY Hockey and Lacrosses and will find devoted rowdy fans

Bowdoin is a tight knit community with nurturing teachers. The physical lay out of the campus facilitates the unified, community feeling of the student and faculty. The academics are challenging and the professors are supportive and champion their students; it is not easy to "fall through the cracks" here. College town is great--doesn't feel like the middle of nowhere. Portland is near by and so is Boston. The best thing about Bowdoin to me is how tight the students get; everyone knows everyone, and while that can seem annoying sometimes, at the end of the day it's awesome. As a junior, I can really see how my class has come together. While there are different groups of best friends, it is not exclusive and "cliquey." We all have fun together and come together to have fun.

Bowdoin is a great school. The relationships between student and teacher is like nothing I have thought. They want you to do well and are willing to help you achieve that goal. It is a small school, which means everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everything about everybody. The curriculum is difficult and it leaves little time to do everything else, expecially if you have commitments to sports and clubs. The town Bowdoin is in, Brunswick, is a little homey town with local shops, delicious gelato, and a 24 hour walmart (so underrated). The administration here are very helpful when needed. The deans and headmaster encourage friendly visits just to catch up on life. The biggest controversy on campus was freshmen hazing on one of the sports teams. Bowdoin takes this issue very seriously. All the students here have unbelievable pride for Bowdoin that we are all ready to shove down Colby's throats. One thing that I will always remember is my teammates. We have formed unbreakable bonds that make us family. We keep in touch with all the alumni who graduated from our team, and we have many memories that will last a life time.

Great atmosphere, everyone is incredible motivated and works really hard and is passionate about all that they do, but at the same time people are all about hanging out with friends. It is not a cut-throat competitive atmosphere. It's more people work hard and get there stuff done because they care about it, not because they want to show everyone up. Everyone is so supportive of each other and genuinely loves the school and what they do.

Bowdoin's faculty is the most kind staff that I have ever met. From Patt, who swipes my card at the dining hall every morning, to Randy Nichols, the head of security with celebrity status, to the professors, everyone who works here is exceedingly generous. At the beginning of the year, I was very intimidated to meet with professors. I shouldn't have been. Besides being incredible people who have accomplished and are continuing to do amazing things and research, they are friendly and very willing to help a struggling student. Coming from a public school, I struggled with academics at the beginning. As soon as I sought help from the writing tutors and professors, though, my work improved drastically.

Great (really great) food, dedicated professors, small classes, involved students

The school is very, very small; after the first few months, you know of know of the majority of people here. This is a comforting thing in that generally when you walk around campus you'll know the people you see. On the flip side, avoiding people can get extremely tricky - not that people actually change their lifestyles because of it. Bowdoin (and any small college) students just deal with awkwardness a whole lot more often. It's seeing and saying hi to your professor who's also getting lunch at the Cafe, but running into that bad hookup from Saturday night at breakfast on Monday isn't always the greatest way to start your week. If you want any kind of anonymity whatsoever (social or academic), Bowdoin is not the place for you. Another thing they don't tell you is the effect the weather has on the social scene, and not just the weekend parties. People certainly still drink and party during the winter, perhaps more so in order to keep from feeling the cold. What I mean is that by the time November comes around, people run inside to their respective niches and generally don't come out again until spring. If you haven't found your group of friends by then, you might have to sit tight until spring.