Just got an email from Bates about a virtual event on the 21st! Planning on going and hope to meet some of you there!
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Just to offer a counter opinion here, Bates was the most generous in financial aid when my older son applied of all schools to which he was accepted ( inc. Bowdoin, Middlebury, Cornell, Georgetown, Hamilton, Colgate ). He eventually chose Bowdoin and they brought their figure down when I presented Bates award. Bates gave my younger son an equally great package and he will be attending in the fall. I think when you are looking at schools this small you need to cast a wide net. Most of the applicants are qualified, but they may have needed a tuba player from Montana to balance their class rather than another skier from Vermont. My son loves Bowdoin, but I think he would have been happy at most of the LAC’s so hopefully everyone will find a spot and fall in love with the wonderful things about it!
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Definitely agree with both my and your opinion! Bates is particularly tough when admitting people with financial aid, but IF they do they give VERY generous aid! And totally agree about the LACs. That’s what I did: cast a wide net and hope to land a few! I definitely think that LACs (particularly well respected ones) have a lot of similarities!
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Decision: Admitted
ACT: 33
SAT: N/A
GPA: 3.55 UW 3.77W
Activities: Outdoor Leadership, flag football and soccer, some community service, a foreign language immersion program in Costa Rica, an internship, and summer camp. (Wow why did I put any of those honestly)
Special programs: N/A
Major: Biology
Anything extra: IB Diploma candidate, strong essays, strong LOR, had an explanation for my bad junior year GPA (covid), some demonstrated interest in Bates
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Totally unrelated and pretty superficial, but Bates’s class of 2025 is HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE (based on the profiles of the admitted students’ site)!
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@PerformingDude , you can link it here if you like.
I’m not sure if I should, since I believe the link is only supposed to go out to admitted students (because its to the forum of the Class of 2025 )…
I see. No problem, thought it might be a public link to Facebook or similar. I’ll put a link to the Bates page here: Bates College
Very exciting times for all of you who have been accepted. Congratulations!
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Here is the Bates Instagram page: Bates College (@batescollege) • Instagram photos and videos
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D21 is v excited about her Bates acceptance - hasn’t taken off the baseball hat! As of now, it is her first choice. However, she is in at Reed and a bunch of other schools further down her list. Also waitlisted at three LAC’s. And still has 10 more to go…
My question is: What, if any, are the negatives or complaints about Bates? I can’t find any!
The info session for accepted students last night was also fantastic!
Wondering how @homerdog is doing - my D21 is also a dancer. Would love a status update.
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D didn’t end up applying to Bates. Is that what you’re asking? Congrats to your D!
@homerdog Oh, sorry. Thought you were on this thread. Must be other schools we have in common.
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I suggest asking @fluffypandas0101 , a current Bates student, about positives and negatives.
You can read the pinned posts here on the Bates page, which will give you a lot of insight into Bates.
My D, a 2020 Bates grad, would say the positives outweigh any negatives. She had a fantastic experience at Bates.
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Bates has a WONDERFUL dance program, as I am sure your daughter is aware. My dad has a lot to say about cons at Bates (he went there for two years and transferred because it was a terrible fit for him lol), but overall it is a great school.
Something to note is that Bates’s diversity (or somewhat lack thereof) compared to schools on the same level. 50% of last incoming class came from independent high schools (which is VERY substantial), and only around a quarter of their class are people of color. I would also guess that Bates has less socioeconomic diversity than, say, Colby or Bowdoin.
That is the only downside I can think of when comparing to other prestigious LACs.
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I don’t have a horse in this race but would like to know where you’re getting your information. Do you know the percentage of Colby students from private/public high schools? Bates publishes that on its student profile, but Colby doesn’t.
As far as I can tell, socioeconomic diversity at these schools is almost identical. I can cite other sources, but just a few years ago, Colby was listed in this article. Bates wasn’t far behind. I believe Bowdoin does a better job than the other two in that regard, though they all have room to improve.
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A follow up question for any who have insight, between Bates and Colby, which is more progressive/liberal? For my D21, this is very important, as well as it being a welcoming atmosphere for someone who identifies as LBGTQ. Hence why she’s applied to known progressive schools such as Vassar, Oberlin, Macalester. She also applied to Colby, Bates, Middlebury, but we don’t have a clear feel for how progressive/liberal/LBGTQ accepting they are.
Hi.
Firstly, note that I did not attempt to directly compare Bates and Colby’s private vs. public high school percentages; I instead noted the high percentage Bates has. Unfortunately, when I looked for LACs to compare it to, I found most schools (including Colby) do not include that information in their profiles. But I am aware that having half an admitted class from independent high schools is quite notable, and in fact matches Georgetown’s class of 2024 (which, of course, is known to have TONS of independent feeder schools).
Since you seem to be going after Colby, in terms of socioeconomic diversity, look at the changes Colby has implemented since the your article was posted (http://www.colby.edu/news/2018/11/15/colby-announces-new-financial-aid-fund-for-middle-income-families/). In addition, from an admissions officer at Colby just shared that they have “also implemented new financial aid policies to ensure the most talented students from all backgrounds have access to a Colby education, ensuring nearly half of all American families can expect a parent or guardian contribution of $0.” Bates’s financial aid is not nearly as generous, so I would expect there to be significantly less socioeconomic diversity at Bates than Colby (or Bowdoin, which is a need-blind school).
If you want sources in terms of racial diversity, I got you covered. 
I am on a similar boat. I am also LGBTQ+, and have the same schools on my list (Bates, Colby, Midd, Vassar, and Oberlin)! I can assure you that all of these schools on your daughter’s list are generally going be very accepting and liberally-minded (as most LACs are), particularly Vassar, Oberlin, and Mac. I am also less familiar with the others. They don’t seem to have as big of a reputation for their LGBTQ+ community, but I can assure you that at least Midd is very accepting to all students (from what I’ve witnessed as a brother to a student there), and I would expect Colby and Bates to be the same. Of course, there are always going to be those few in every school who aren’t quite ready to be fully open-hearted…
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I was in no way “going after” Colby. Colby and Bates are great schools, and our D is considering both. My point is that, from a socioeconomic standpoint, the schools are currently more alike than different.
ETA We toured many LACs before the pandemic, and at several (Pomona comes to mind, though I certainly never fact checked) mentioned that the ratio of private to public HS represented was about 50/50. We were originally surprised and then got used to it.
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It just seemed that way based on your focus on Colby, my apologies that I misinterpreted that.
I would argue that they are not that similar in socioeconomic diversity (see reasons in my above post). Would be happy to change my mind if you have sources from after Colby’s revamp of financial aid. Not trying to favor either school here, but rather look at them in an honest light. Both are wonderful schools, as you said.
I find the 50/50 ratio alarming for any school (even if it is somewhat common). I would be curious what Bowdoin and Colby’s ratios are. For another comparison, Yale’s ratio of public school high schoolers to private school high schoolers is around 2:1.
Best of luck to your daughter! 