College of the Atlantic Top Questions

There are really too few students for student groups to be effective. There's a water-polo team that is not officially affiliated with the college that seems quite popular. I think the most popular student activity is engaging in annual (at least... maybe biennial) email wars.

Student groups are rare and do not influence daily life all that much. There is a newspaper, LGBT support group, international group, etc, but most interest groups spawn and die with incoming and outgoing classes. Typically they'll go like this: Eli: Want to start a baking club? Liz: Sure. Eli: Or we could just make some bread right now and cut the bureaucracy. Liz: Sure. We are in a small summer resort town, so in the winter you have to make your own fun. Most houses on campus are substance-free and most students are as well. Parties primarily occur off-campus and are small. University of Georgia this is not. You're surrounded by creative and fun people, though, so there's a lot of random stuff that happens on the weekends when you're not studying. Plus there's acadia national park so you can hike your heart's desire out.

You live on an island that shuts down after October and doesn't start up again until late May. If you need prepackaged fun COA is not for you. It requires creating a lot of your own fun. There are a lot of places around campus for outdoor activities and all students get free membership to the YMCA. We do not have any fraternities or sororities and most parties are a few kids hanging out. All of the dorms are substance free except for one. Most weekends are spent doing homework, hanging out in house common rooms, getting outside and catching up on sleep. Meals are not available on the weekends so students have to make their own food. Most houses/dorms have community dinner on Sunday nights in which a few students cook for the whole house. These usually coincide with house meeting and chores. There are not any student groups but throughout the year groups will surface depending on students interest. If there is something you really want to do you can typically find at least one or student who wants to as well. A lot of students get together to regularly swim in the cold Atlantic, play soccer or water polo and rock climb. Like most anything here, students are responsible for creating anything they want to do.