Colby College Top Questions

My classmates study hard and play hard.

fun loving, kind, drunken, athletic

The student body is ok. There is a heavy emphasis on social competition and feels much like an extension of my highschool in MA. Very much divided into different cliques and if you can't find your own little clique you are going to be pretty miserable for 4 years. Most kids just choose to transfer.

The kind of student who ends up feeling a bit out of place at Colby is one who dwells too much on preformulated conservative values. It's perfectly okay to be politically and culturally conservative, but if that precludes an open mind, Colby might not be the best place for you. Most people wear trackpants to class. Usually accessorized with pearl earrings and a ribbon in your hair. UGs and crocs are the most popular footwear. Northface and LLBean are the brand names of choice. Technically yes, there are 4 tables of students. The football table, the international kids, and usually one other sports team and/or class. But the real truth is that while people do tend to touch base with their "cliques" (for lack of a better word), students do generally interact with different groups. I am one of those blessed international kids and my two best friends and Americans, one of whom lives in the appartments and never makes in down to the dining halls for dinner. The political atmosphere is dominated by the Democrats. The Republicans are a small but surprisingly active group. Debate is rampant on the Digest of Civil Discourse, though not all of it is civil or fair.

Students are pretty diverse, but not racially. There's a fair amount of social diversity, in that mostly anyone can find a niche. Going to class outfits range from sweatpants and sweatshirts to khakis and sweaters. Most students are from somewhere "20 minutes outside Boston" and are fairly wealthy (upper-middle class). Most students are on the left, although there are many Republicans and those who fall somewhere in the center. I feel as though those on the right do get a fair amount of teasing from their more liberal peers.

Most students white, heterosexual, and middle class or higher. It feels like an accepting campus in general, but I'm not sure anyone in the minority would really feel accepted at Colby since the ratios are nothing like an acurrate popluation sample. I think half the kkids went to private schools. People where whatever to class - either something cute and mainstream or just comfy. Not many people get all dressed up - we all wear either jeans or sweatpants most of the time. But I alos think not many people dress as creatively as high school students do. I haven't seen many wiith streaked hair or anything outrageous like that. We do have groups of friends but it's not really a heirarchy of popularity. There are some cliques, but I don't know if it's all teammates and clubmates and such. My friends are all in a group, but we don't really have one thing in common to make us a clique. the campus is mostly left-wing

I wouldn't say any type of student would feel uncomfortable at Colby, but then again I am white from a middle class family. However, I do have friends who are of different races, and who are only able to be here off of financial aid. Most students where sweatpants or jeans and a t-shirt to class. Hardly anyone feels the need to look nice for class. Most Colby students are from 20 minutes outside of Boston, but we also have people from all of the US and from many different countries.

A lot of eating goes on at Colby. Its cold and we have nothing better to do. So it seems that it would be the best way to assess our campus culture. Student-Athletes often eat at Dana (football, basketball and all of the other sports that we are terrible at). Other people eat there too, but mostly those who identify themselves with sports culture. The Average Hardworking People eat at Bobs, more formally Roberts. These kids LOVE Colby and its new aesthetic (Pulver Pavillion, our website, etc.) and finally The Hippes, The International Kids, and The Crunchy eat at Foss. If you like to eat granola for breakfast lunch and dinner (with organic, homegrown milk of course) or like international cuisine then Foss is for you. Of course this cross-sectional study highlights the stereotypes of our own dining halls just as most people would tell you that we're all a bunch of kids from Boston. Both not true, entirely. People are generally very nice pretty accepting of others (one reputation well deserved). We have a very proud and visible LGBT group on campus called The Bridge and many of my friends are international students. People are even accepting of the one or two republicans who happen to reside on campus. I think they are rarely seen in Foss because ninety percent of the people who eat there have copies of The Communist Manifesto on their nightstands. Bottom line, everyone has a place here.

Most of my friends are white, upper/middle class. It seems like Colby has to work hard to attract diversity. The best thing about Colby though is that I feel like I can sit down at nearly any table in the dining halls. People weren't that friendly in high school so that has been a great change. Colby students are really open to meeting other students, no matter what.

For a small college in central Maine, Colby's pretty diverse, and there are clubs representing different ethnic groups, the LGBT community, different religious denominations, and so on, but from time to time there are tensions. Most of the time these are overwhelmingly outweighed by pride, fortunately. More importantly, in most social situations, I personally find differences of this sort to be interesting but less than relevant. Interests make more friends than sexual orientation or skin color. Clique-wise, some people certainly stick to "their type of people," but there's also a lot of mingling and most people have a ton of acquaintances from different groups. It's my impression that some students think they're more political than they are, but that scene's still pretty active. Most Colby folks lean left at least a little, although there's a vocal conservative minority and a large chunk of relatively quiet people in the middle or on the fringes.