<p>As most of you know, I have a nephew and a godchild at Bowdoin, and I am familiar with the other Maine schools as well. I am curious as to why there is so VERY little discussion about these schools. Bowdoin is a top ten LAC, in a town (Brunswick) Outside magazine calls one of the nation's top 40 college towns; the kids I know there are constantly going to Portland or even Boston for concerts, etc.; it's on the ocean; it's fantastic in the sciences and has many other very strong departments; it's not too preppy, too hippie, too liberal, or too conservative; it has a very long history of reaching out to African Americans (as mini pointed out, it graduated the third African American in the US, before the Civil War); it's loaded with history (founded in 1794, it is the alma mater of Joshua Chamberlain, Longfellow, and Hawthorne); it's got some cool and unuique programs like Arctic Studies; it's got all kinds of things, including students who have transferred OUT of the Ivy League to go there, students who were accepted at Princeton and chose Bowdoin instead, etc. (Not urban legen - I am familiar with these students); it's tremendously, highly respected (among those who have heard of it, and there might be the rub!!); it's near great skiing; and coastal Maine is quite simply one of the most beautiful places in America.</p>
<p>The first response is usually that it's "isolated," which is not true, but at any rate that doesn't stop people from visiting Hamilton and Colgate.
Another is that it's "cold" - but as a coastal town it is really no colder than many other Northeast schools, and certainly no colder than Middlebury, Colgate, or other non-top-ten schools.</p>
<p>I have never asked this questions before. Clearly many students ARE applying to Bowdoin, as USNWR lists it as one of the most selective schools (numerically) in the country --- but they sure don't seem to be CCers!</p>
<p>The other Maine LACS, Bates and Colby, are also amazing schools, but I never see them mentioned either.</p>
<p>All 3 are excellent schools! My S applied and was admitted to 2 out of the 3. He had a hard time choosing between Bowdoin and Wes. He eventually settled for Wes because it is larger. Both Bates and Bowdoin are smaller than his high school, and Colby, which he knew well from summer camp, is isolated and cold in winter.<br>
Incidentally, this morning on NPR, there was an item about Colby serving wine or beer with dinner for students over 21 as an attempt to socialize them in drinking in moderation as an accompaniement to food.</p>
<p>My son has all three on his "wish" list, but not much hope because of their cost. We will not qualify for need-based aid and they are above what we feel we can afford. It is unfortunate because I think any of the three would be a great fit for him and he loves Maine.</p>
<p>My son spent a few weeks at a creative writing program at Bates and felt it was like his HS, and couldn't get past Lewiston. Both boys nixed Bowdoin, but I thought of the 3 it was best match for #2 with a strong interest in government...I've had several family members go to Colby. I think, maybe moreso when you are not from NE, these schools seem somewhat more "regional"...not sure.</p>
<p>S played the part of Colonel Joshua Chamberlin in the fifth grade re-enactment of the Civil War when we first heard about Bowdoin. We thought it would be a great choice. The reasons he didn't like it:</p>
<ol>
<li> Too close to home. (a little over an hour from home)</li>
<li> Too small.</li>
<li> Viewed it as an extension of high school.</li>
<li> Too remote. (even though Brunswick seemed ok to us)</li>
</ol>
<p>We are still hoping that D (only in middle school) will keep it as an option! Positives for us (maybe not her):</p>
<ol>
<li>Close to home.</li>
<li>Strong Academics.</li>
<li>Good Size.</li>
<li>Good Athletic Program (she's an athlete).</li>
<li>She loves music. (plays guitar and saxophone)</li>
</ol>
<p>Lots of kids in our area apply to these 3 Maine schools - I think they are only not "hot" on CC! My son got in to another school ED but had applied to Colby and really liked it (he also visited Bates but didn't like it as much); a good friend of his from school was just accepted ED at Colby and another good friend from our town is hoping to go to one of the three Maine schools - waiting to hear RD. In the northeast I think these schools are very well known and respected.</p>
<p>Here in sunny Southern California there are a number of children from our public high school who attend all three and are very happy there. I, too, wonder why there is so little discussion about these schools on CC.</p>
<p>:) My theory is that people drop it from their lists because they don't know how to pronounce it! I hear pepole say it as rhyming with "Cow Coin", but the first syllable rhymes with "no," and the second collpases as a "din" into
it, so it is sort of like "Bos'n" (the way you pronounce "bosun" - the sailing term).</p>
<p>I have heard Mainers say it was too close; I've heard people who want a University say it is too small; but it really is nothing like any high school <em>I've</em> ever heard of - nedad knows that I am the other Bowdoin fan, though none of my kids go/went there, and it is GREAT for being able to do publishable research with full professors. I am also impressed by the hard-working academic culture that at the same time is cooperative, not competitive or cut-throat. It's also great in government and music, and students can go to Dartmouth for a semester to get courses Bowdoin doens't have. It is also in othre consortiums (consortia?) and accepts credits from things like the Williams program at Mystic Seaport, programs at Wood's Hole, etc. Plus they own two gorgeous islands!</p>
<p>As for thinking it is a "regional" school ---- huh??? it's always been nationally ranked.</p>
<p>I have friends' kids who LOVE Bates, but true, Lewiston isn't the world's best college town.</p>
<p>nedad, if you could figure out the answers to questions like that, you'd be rich and famous! I have one observation about Bowdoin, for which I have the utmost respect. When we visited a couplr of years ago on a northern swing which included Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, etc.I was struck by how much the look of the Bowdoin campus resembled the look of the finest n.e. colleges in my day, the sixties: a little austere, a little out-at-elbow, a little lacking in spectacular in-your-face science centers. To me it suggested the kind of austere indifference to worldly display that is properly associated with intellectual pursuits, and the avoidance of ostentation that I associate with the finest side of the old Yankee character. Compared to which, the other colleges looked like country clubs, manicured to a fare-thee-well, smugly gorgeous. Back in the car, during the post visit debriefing, I attempted to communicate this impression to my son, he replied "Dad, I feel that that they are lacking in resources." Me: "Resouces? You mean money?" He: "I like to call it resources." He ended up at Stanford, so I guess he knew what he was looking for, but I remember feeling disappointed. At any rate, I offer this as a possible, partial answer to your question.</p>
<p>Veronwe,
Actually there are a few prep schools in New England that are similarly sized with similar campuses. I think that is why some of the prep school kids could possibly view some of the smaller New England LAC's as a potential extension of high school. I am pretty sure that was my son's thinking. Like idler's son, he opted instead for a medium sized University not so close to home.</p>
<p>Are you and nedad realted? Both have a godchild at Bowdoin?</p>
<p>Both are great schools, D has had her sights on Swarthmore for several years and was admitted EDI for the class of 2009. This isn't a negative on the Maine schools, though, her concept of best fit just fell elsewhere. Bates' emphasis on diversity was very attractive as was its academic program. The students we met were top shelf in every respect. The folks at Bates were honest about some of the issues with Lewiston. There was/is? some strain in the relationship (my information is from summer, '02, so may be very dated.) </p>
<p>Lewiston is a mill/factory town that has seen its share of economic decline. There were signs of revival when we were there in the summer of 2002. Very picturesque area. Bates does a great deal through volunteerism in the area and is very conscious of the social responsibility colleges have. As an aside, there was a really neat shop off campus that offered for sale vintage Grateful Dead, Phish and similar artist's music. Nice clothes, too.</p>
<p>Bowdoin is another top shelf school. We were impressed by the academic facilities and found the town and campus very compatible. What else can one say about a school where one can live in a dorm room with Longfellow's name on a plate under the window? The students, again, were first rate in their friendliness. The campus is beautiful. </p>
<p>Volunteerism and study abroad opportunities were emphasized on both campuses.</p>
<p>About it's history (my undergraduate minor): Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is the South's favorite Union officer. (I had a father-son pair of ancestors on the other side in various Georgia units in that horror.) But I think his legacy of tolerance and healing (he ordered the famous salute of Lee's departing troops at Appomattox, avoiding the bitter feelings of humiliation that could have led to guerrilla warfare) has infused Bowdoin through the years. There weren't many southerners in the group visiting that day; the admissions officer was genuinely interested in the fact that D came from a small Kentucky high school (according to the viewbook, 0 Kentucky students at the time at Bowdoin).</p>
<p>The area of both schools, to me, is one of the prettiest in the lower 48. I think our D would have been happy at either, her interest happened to be somewhere else.</p>
<p>Maybe there is a bit less angsting amongst applicants; hence the lower level of activity on their forums.</p>
<p>Maybe part of these three being overlooked is that when people take early swing visits throught the NE & have limited time, they are easy to cross off the list because they are off by themselves. Colagte/Hamilton while snowy and distant from urban life, <em>are</em> nearby Syracuse, Union, Hobart & William Smith, St Lawrence, etc. So pehrhaps they get visited more, thus discussed more.</p>
<p>I agree with your assessment that these schools are really excellent. Part of "isolation & snow" is that it makes for a very tight student body. The kids we know who have gone to B,B, & C are very devoted to those schools.</p>
<p>Not related to nedad, lol!!! But we're both Catholic, and have godchildren at Bowdoin - hence our off-list "friendship" :) (maybe we were separated at birth, though....)</p>
<p>As for Bowdoin resources, they recently built a really fine state-of-the-art science facility that has some dang thing that I has slipped my mind at the moment, but it is supposedly the kind of thing that few schools have....darn, I'll have to do a search.....</p>
<p>It could be that more people would apply to Bowdoin except they try to visit in the summer and can't get within 20 miles of the place thanks to the traffic jams that back up Route 1 to the Mass. border! Visiting Brunswick in the summer is like it must have been trying to drive to Woodstock!</p>
<p>Seriously though, the Maine colleges are very popular around here. My daughter didn't consider Bowdoin because it's only an hour away. Just too close and too similar to home. Zero adventure. However, she has classmates at all three Maine schools.</p>
<p>People who want big U's won't want Bowdoin, but the size thing (and that it is too like prep school) is still odd, because that applies to Middlebury, Colgate, Hamilton etc. as well.</p>
<p>Nedad - we must have been separated at birth! Your typo makes it that you are not related to YOURSELF! Senility is creeping in! The other day I had to fill out papers and I wrote 1)that the year was 1985 2) my old last name (from first husband!) and 3) the wrong birth date for my daughter!</p>
<p>My d and I visited all three last summer. Bowdoin was easily the most impressive to me, and Brunswick looked like a great college town. Unfortunately, Bowdoin didn't offer the major my daughter wanted, so she didn't appy. I liked Bates better than my d; she couldn't really explain what it was about the school that she didn't like, but it just didn't "click" for her. Neither of us liked Colby very much. I think the uniformity of the buildings was something of a turn off, plus it felt really isolated. But I would certainly recommend all three of them to anyone interested in a New England LAC.</p>
<p>I agree with SBMom (#13). Geography is destiny. There's sort of a nice rectangle formed by the top colleges in CT, MA, and RI (OK, trapezoid), within which you can get a lot of visiting bang for your driving buck. Leaving this efficient little box greatly reduces the economies of travel time. You can go outside the box to visit Dartmouth and Middlebury, or you can swoop up to ME and do Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, but you can't do both if you're also visiting other schools in the area. There's no straight route from the "Vermont Triangle" (Williams, Dartmouth, Middlebury--and I realize only Midd is actually in VT) to the "Maine Triangle," and the yield of colleges visited to miles traveled/time spent goes down dramatically. We fully intended to visit the Maine schools, but ended up having to make a choice between the VT triangle and the ME triangle, and the chance to see Dartmouth won out.</p>
<p>As a born notheasterner I've heard of all three my entire life, but now that I'm living in the Southeast I never hear these colleges mentionned by anyone..(except my northeastern friends on e-mail!).....I'd give my eyeteeth to have one of my kids go to Bowdoin (when I was in college Bates wasn't taken very seriously, but I think things have changed alot) but already I can tell that they're partial to the milder climates that they're used to down here.......maybe things will change.....sigh......</p>