How does the student feel about frats? Wesleyan has frats (see http://www.wsj.com/articles/partys-over-for-fraternity-houses-at-wesleyan-university-1445217737 re. issue of admitting women), Bowdoin got rid of them in 1997, and Bates has never had them.
Bates enrolls nearly as many football players as they do Pell Grant recipients, as they do First Gen students. That just seems wrong.
What does one have to do with the other? Do you even know what percentage of football players are Pell grant recipients or first generation students?
Wesleyan has closed down all frats and converted them into program houses.
@doschicos My comment was limited to Wesleyan and I was 100% factually correct. My post #5 was crystal clear.
Amherst location is different from the others. It is much easier to achieve that diversity in Amherst than the other locations.
@circuitrider Bates Pell Grant was 12% of kids enrolled. The better metric is accepted students and it wouldn’t surprise me if the number was twice as high. Middlebury BTW is 11%. My point on distance from high population centers happens to be an issue the schools wrestle with. Students actually do not follow through with even the fly-in programs like you would expect.
I would advise you to do it again.
@OnTheBubble you are not a good spokesperson for Bates if your power of persuasion is focused on denigrating the other very fine institutions. As a civil rights attorney, I take offense that you feel that you can speak on behalf of minority students.
@Deaston, I stand corrected. 
I was thinking the frats had ended up off-campus but because Wesleyan requires most students to live in approved housing I can see how that couldn’t happen. On the other side, most schools that have banned frats have struggled with unapproved or underground frats for at least a few years after they were shut down. A friend’s kid was a member of one at Colby long after there were no official frats at the college.
“I would advise you to do it again.” (#25)
Well, I didn’t know I’d be assigned homework on this thread. However, these were the base figures for the math:
68 players on the Bates football roster
1773 full time students
50/50 f/m ratio
Sources: link provided (#16), USNWR.
This is been a gradual process over the past couple of years and one that I support. It started with requiring all frats to be coed and then eliminating them completely.
If the student is interested in a sense of community, fostering close relationships with teachers and not falling through the cracks, I would give the nod to Bates or Bowdoin as that is a big part of what defines them as schools
Even more precisely, according to the CDS, 884 male students According to the roster 68 players.
68/884 = .07692
@wisteria100 I think that’s basically what all LACs are known for, although Bates and Bowdoin are a bit smaller.
@Deaston Where did I denigrate any school? Please be specific, as you are an attorney. Whether you take offense is more of an issue for you, not me. If you have a problem with me and my parish working with students and families in Trenton and Camden and other places helping kids with the process and driving families around to visit schools then I feel really bad for you. You are just hypersensitive, its common nowadays.
All kids self-segregate, perhaps you should read the studies and articles on the topic rather than bloviate, but you are an attorney.
@usualhopeful I agree with your point, but within the world of LACS, some focus on community building more via community service, fostering spirit, transition activities for first yr students. You see/feel it more at some schools vs others.
@OnTheBubble You point out that Bates is only 2 hrs from Boston and that Wesleyan is between New Haven and Hartford which has no sizzle. But Wesleyan is only 2 hrs from NYC. And while new Haven and Hartford aren’t the greatest towns, they do offer opportunities for concerts, cultural and sporting events, good food, shopping and access to other campuses.
@Deaston Suggesting that someone “remove [themself] from further discussions” is uncalled for. I don’t agree with everything @OnTheBubble says, but I wouldn’t ask a helpful member of this site to leave based on a couple posts I disagreed with.
@wisteria100 That is true about the proximity to NY but on balance central CT is not Maine. It is also totally choked with traffic and could never offer the array of activities Maine does.
Getting back to the original question, this would be a hard choice to make but a great problem to have. All three are strong schools and they’re more similar than different. I think with standardized test scores at the 85th percentile he’d be fine at any of the 3 and they would all find ways to support him if he were to falter. He’ll find club sports and activities at all 3.
These are my subjective opinions on the schools’ strengths and weaknesses.
Bowdoin. The most prestigious of the three. Probably the best town of the 3. Strikes some visitors as a bit preppy or uptight.
Wesleyan. Most scientific research going on. Most diverse student population. Most likely to find issues with drugs other than pot. A student was recently convicted of dealing synthetic molly on campus. He was selling drugs to a quarter of the football team. This follows on the heels of an incident a year before where a bunch of kids were hospitalized with molly OD’s and 5 kids were kicked out.
Bates. An extremely warm campus and a history of inclusion (no frats, admitted women and black students from the start). Well balanced students. Purposeful work initiative provides paid summer internships (school will provide a stipend if outside internship does not), meaning students on FA can participate in what might otherwise have been unpaid off-campus research in addition to the normal on-campus paid research. Lewiston’s not a great city but is improving. Smallest endowment of the 3.
On a visit to Bates last spring I really liked the fact that the college had a poster congratulating all of their Fulbright recipients for that year, and naming them, right in the center of campus. I think it speaks volumes when a campus takes demonstrable, public pride in its students.