<p>My son is looking into LACs, but probably will be unable to visit Bowdoin. Anyone visited? What are your impressions?</p>
<p>anyone with any insight?</p>
<p>My d is a first year at Bowdoin and absolutely loves it. She began her college search with larger universities in bigger cities as a priority. After a 4-day visit, courtesy of Bowdoin, she dropped all her other plans and chose Bowdoin. She was immensely impressed with the friendliness of the student body, faculty, and community. She loved the work hard, yet still have fun attitude. She also was smitten with the fact that cutthroat attitudes are pretty much non-existent. H and I didn't see Bowdoin until this fall at orientation. Upon arrival, we understood immediately what it was about Bowdoin that drew our d to choose the school. By the time that we had arrived, our d was already happily hanging out with pals she met during her pre-orientation trip. She hasn't had a moment of homesickness yet! Her classes are challenging. It's been very easy to get involved in a wide variety of activities ranging from newspaper to crew. And she readily reports that she doesn't miss home-cooked meals because the food is great there.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. I went to the web site and the school immediately appealed to me, but I am not the one going! Did your d visit Dartmouth,Amherst or Williams? If you know, how does the vibe on campus compare to those schools? Is Bowdoin similiar to any of these?</p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply- holiday busyness! My D visited Dartmouth and Amherst. Of the two, she preferred Dartmouth. The students were friendly and more than willing to talk about their experiences at Dartmouth. She had a harder time striking up conversations with Amherst students and therefore was not as impressed. I asked her how she would compare the feel of all three campuses. In all honestly, those junior year visits seem like a lifetime ago to her! But if she had to compare, in her opinion, she says that Dart probably is closer in feel to Bowdoin than Amherst is. Although, she did say that the party atmosphere at Dartmouth seemed to be more intense than Bowdoin in a negative way. Not that Bowdoin doesn't have its share of parties! However, her experience at Dartmouth was limited to one overnight visit so that may not be a fair assessment.</p>
<p>One more thing, she didn't visit Williams because the remoteness didn't appeal to her. One of her friends, though, is quite happy there.</p>