Colby College Top Questions

The first five are accurate. I feel like upper-class is accuarte in terms of stats, but they don't act snobby or superior for the most part. My first impression of Colby was that students weren't as preppy as I was afraid they'd be, but I have begun to question that. I often feel like the oddball in the group because I'm anti-preppy and maybe even partially emo. In terms of acceptance, I feel like the school is tolerant of different kinds of people, but there really isn't much diversity on campus.

They definitely exist, and I might even say they predominate, but there is a surprising amount of diversity here that people never mention.

This is not completely true. There are many other things to do in Maine, many including outdoor activities with the Outing Club, and Colby will also provide transportation to many places in Maine on the weekend for sightseeing or shopping. Some students do drink a lot, but they would anywhere else.

Yes. errr No. uh, it depends. From my experience there are many Colbys. Of course there are the pearled and plad weekend warriors (the last rallying cry from our no-longer existent fraternities) but there is also a huge eco-activist/outdoors population (Read: cult) and small but vibrant international population.

To a certain extent the stereotypes aren't true. There are international students and kids from things like POSSE but on the whole you are going to find a bunch of preppy, rich, white kids from just outside of Boston who study all week and party until they pass out in their dorm rooms on the weekends.

To some extent

Often enough for the stereotypes to be unsurprising. We have more students from Mass. than from Maine, it's true, and between us and our sister schools (Bowdoin and Bates), we have the biggest international population. It's also true that many Colby teams hold beer dear, but no more so than at any other college. And yeah, pretty much every day on the General Announcement e-mails, someone's lost a Nalgene or a North Face. But I, at least, own neither. Some people are preppy, some people are crunchy, some fall in between, but a decent chunk fall outside the box, too. All of which is to say that the stereotypes work from a distance, but as with anything else, the truth is a little more complicated and a lot more interesting.

for the most part, they are. i'd be hesitant to say that all colby students are environmentally aware, although a large percentage of the campus is attuned to 'green' issues. colby as an institution is pretty green. the majority is indifferent.

In a way. I have visited schools that were far less homogeneous than this one, so i guess by comparison, then yes, we are. But then some of my best friends are from different countries and extremely different parts of the US.

no. although many students here come from affluent families, many of us aren't. when i walk through the waterville walmart with my colby sweatshirt on, i just want to yell out, "I'm from a tiny poor town in Maine just like you guys!" also, of those students here who DO have a lot of money, many of them are still grounded, because they know what it's like not to (their parents started out with nothing, etc.) but...i do see where those stereotypes come from. upon coming here, i was jealous of all of the nice cars in the parking lot, and could imagine the beautiful suburban house that a large percentage of the student body comes from. i heard people talking about designer brands, most of which I had never heard of.