Bowdoin College Top Questions

Bowdoin is a place where people are generally really nice. Nice is definately the word. Sometimes I wish there were a little more 'alternative' people at Bowdoin, most people are quite middle of the road: nice, but a little boring. But, we are always finding new people we didn't know existed. You need to work at widening your circle, its easy to end up hanging out with the same 8 or so people for 4 years. The campus itself IS small, but there's a lot to do. Every weekend I have a reason to stay on campus. If you DO want to get off its pretty easy but you need to be on top of your shit: there's shuttles that can take you into Portland (about 1/2 and hour) and a bus that leaves from the hockey rink. I really like town: there's not much there but theres pretty much everything I need and I like Brunswick townies: you can just hang out in a store and talk to the owner if you would want to. Plus, the weather get gross sometimes and so you're glad its small and you dont have to go far to get to the supermarket or wherever. Even though I think more than half bowdoin kids do a sport, there's not that much school pride, people don't get psyched for much except the hockey team. People don't really go to games that often, thought we did get a pep band last year.

I'm only a sophomore at Bowdoin, but I've already had a few ups and downs here. When sophomore year hit and the novelty of freshman year wore off, I had to look at this school and say "okay, now what do I REALLY like about Bowdoin?". And I have to say, there are times I become frustrated with the social life here, and disillusioned with some people I come across. But when it comes down to it, I love the small size of Bowdoin and the sense of community that results. Community service and the "common good" are big here, and have really motivated me to be involved on campus. It's really easy to get a club or group off the ground if you have an idea for something, and it's pretty inspiring to see the things that students do to help other people. The surrounding town of Brunswick is pretty awesome too. I'm from a city and wanted something quieter for college. Brunswick is perfect for me because it's a moderately suburban town, close to rural Maine but not in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of great coffee shops with wireless internet, and an adorable town library you can work in if you feel the need to get off campus for a few hours. There are also a surprising number of really good restaurants (including Indian and Thai) within a mile of campus. And best of all, pretty much everything is located on Maine Street (the main road that runs past campus) and is within walking distance (coming from a city with subways I don't have my driver's license yet). Overall, I think the administration has a great relationship with the students. There might be a dean here or there that people don't like, but I've never felt very much tension. The administration is very willing to communicate with the students and consider their opinions, and above all, they take good care of Bowdoin students. I've known of a few people dealing with serious issues (a death in the family, depression, etc) and the deans do a really good job of checking in with them and making sure they are getting the help they need. One recent issue on campus was a debate over whether students should be able to take distributional requirement classes Credit/D/Fail. The faculty got to vote on the issue and decided it should not be allowed. It will go into effect for the class of 2012. Pretty much all students were annoyed by this. It seems unfair to have to take a class far outside your comfort zone, work extremely hard in it (taking attention away from classes more important to you), and still end up with a low grade on your transcript. I think it discourages students from taking risks with classes and really exploring what's out there. Faculty argued that it allowed students to slack off in a lot of classes, but I have a feeling those were isolated incidents that should have been dealt with as isolated incidents. It seems like the vote implied that all Bowdoin students are lazy, or at least the ones taking Credit/D/Fail classes are, and that couldn't be farther from the truth. I took Advanced Integral Calculus for my math requirement freshman year as a Credit/D/Fail, and let me tell you, I was up late for many nights to get a "Credit" mark in that class. Had I not been able to take it C/D/F I probably would have dropped it and taken something easy.

Bowdoin has an ideal student body population. It's just less than 2000 which at times may seem too small, but I am constantly meeting new people. It's nice to walk to class on any given day and say hello to a bunch of people along the way. Bowdoin's size is also its downfall at times when personal information gets around rapidly. Its degree of separation probably lies within two people. The best thing at Bowdoin is probably the student life in general, such as dining services, the dorms, and the amount of activity on the weekends. When I mention Bowdoin's name, people generally are hearing it for the first time, which is unfortunate because its a great school. The great thing is that those who do know Bowdoin love it. School pride at Bowdoin is dead; I blame it on the lack of a good football team. We're a D3 school so our athletics department, which generally is at the center of fostering school pride, isn't the greatest. One of the most recent controversies on campus involved the school's Credit/D/Fail option. Great schools such as Brown University provide this option for its students to venture into unknown realms of academia, unfortunately at Bowdoin we can neither use this option in pursuit of our major or in our distribution requirements. This new policy renders the Credit/D/Fail option useless. Brunswick is a quite town full of senior citizens... not the most exciting place. However, it is a pleasant atmosphere, full of cafes and ethnic cuisines. The school has a decent amount of options every weekend so the surrounding town isn't too much of a concern.

Bowdoin's size is often a topic of discussion. Most of the time, the small student body is one of the best things about Bowdoin, it's always easy to find someone you know, classes are small, and professors are very accessible. Brunswick, Maine, is not the best of college towns, cafes close on Sundays, and most stores close early. Downtown Brunswick, aside from these complaints, is generally a nice place. Despite the small town, Bowdoin is not as isolated as one might think. Freeport, Maine is only 15 minutes away, and it's only 30 minutes to Portland.

What most attracted me to Bowdoin was the friendly atmosphere that I found there. Bowdoin is a very small school, so you tend to run into someone who you know, no matter where you go on campus. Brunswick is also a great college town. It has a lot of cheap, homey restaurants and stores are within walking distance from campus. One of the most exciting events on campus is the Bowdoin-Colby ice hockey game. The risers are full and students have so much excitement and pride for their men's ice hockey team. One of my favorite things about Bowdoin is the attention that professors can give to their students. Not only are there world-class professors at Bowdoin, but they actually care about their students and encourage them to come to their office hours. The faculty is very welcoming and open to students' ideas. One thing that I would probably change about Bowdoin is the degree of drinking that happens. The college is relatively permissive of drinking, which makes a campus phenomenon that is sort of hard to get away from.

For me, Bowdoin college is the perfect size- just large enough to not have to see everyone everyday, but a small tight knit community. In this sort of setting, it is easy to find friends to hang with. Coming from a small town, this was a great transition. As for the town of Brunswick, where the college is placed, its a little dull for my liking, but pretty nice for the most part. The restaurants are amazing! I usually spend most of my time on campus, but this changes as you get older/ have a car!

The small classes are an enormous advantage. My professors are more like friends than teachers; not only do they care about what you are learning academically, but also what you learn from and about life. The friendships that are built living closely with your classmates are strong and make it always enjoyable to be on campus.

Socially speaking Bowdoin is great on the weekend because the people are great on the weekend. That said, it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who can't do without a clubbing/bar nightlife. Portland does get some good music from time to time, though, and there's an incredible variety of cultural opportunities that come with being at a college that's as distinguished in the realm of academia as Bowdoin is.

I don't think the undergraduate experience gets any richer than it is at Bowdoin. Like any other school, Bowdoin has its shortcomings, but it is really top-notch in most regards. When current students look at the now 18 percent admission rate, many of them will say that they shouldn't have gotten in, or they don't know how they made the cut. But students don't end up here because they aced the SAT or took 13 AP courses in high school. While students are very smart, I think they're here because they're incredibly interesting and passionate.

The campus is AMAZING - food, housing, facilites, college houses- it is really really catered nicely to students. Maine is BEAUTIFUL. We're kind of an obscure school- for being one of the top 10 colleges in the country, I wish that we were better known. I spend most of my time on campus, but the town of Brunswick is really great, and easy to walk to. People do tend to have a lot of pride for Bowdoin, although occassionaly I get the feeling that people see the student body as just a bunch of ivy-league rejects, which dissappoints me because Bowdoin was my top choice. There aren't too many complaints, and when there are it seems easy to get access to the appropriate people to voice them.