<p>something good/bad about each. what are their main differences? can someone please help me out here? =)</p>
<p>Generally, Bowdoin is rated quite a bit higher than the other 2. All 3 schools are great, though. I found Colby to be too isolated. And Bates is in Lewiston which is a pretty lousy town.</p>
<p>"THE NARCISSISM OF MINOR DIFFERENCES</p>
<p>Freud coined this phrase to refer to the phenomenon that similar countries or peoples, living in proximity to one another, develop rivalries and antagonisms. This makes the individual communities more cohesive, and allows each to assert its prominence. The same holds for colleges. Elite institutions of a certain size and locale tend to resemble one another and yet to fight fiercely to maintain a sense of superiority, which is to say, a higher U.S. News ranking.</p>
<p>Universities use rankings as a lure, making it seem that admission to a college ranked higher than another is crucial, only to turn around and blithely use the club of selectivity to beat away the hordes that, as a result, want desperately to gain entry. </p>
<p>A student is likely to experience great disappointment when rejected from, say, Amherst, despite being admitted to, say, Colby. (Or should we say rejected from Bowdoin but not.....) But since these colleges are seemingly very similar, enormous time and energy are required to distinguish one from the other. </p>
<p>Monet painted many pictures of Rouen Cathedral, which art historians have spent their careers studying. Likewise, parents pore over the catalogs of Dartmouth, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, et al. </p>
<p>As with all connoisseurship in which extremely small, elusive qualities are subject to analysis, the results are bound to be uncertain and contradictory, leading parents to an even deeper analysis of small New England liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>The admissions process is not unlike the kabbalah or "Finnegans Wake": one works hard at coming to an understanding under the assumption that one never will. Urban (or rather suburban) legends abound: how the student with perfect scores a third-generation legacy whose grandfather has a building named after him was deferred from Yale. Parents are told "it's a crapshoot" so many times they may be tempted to join Gamblers Anonymous." </p>
<p>For the full article see last Sunday's NYT "When The Best Is Not Good Enough"</p>
<p>We parents need to consider our own insecurites......and those we obviously pass on to our children.</p>
<p>Bowdoin: good town, good sciences, nice campus, lotsa money, good food, most prestigious, very historic, well ranked (not that that means anything), friendly/ hard to get in to, a bit snobby, lotsa money, bad study abroad and foreign languages, a bubble, not extremely diverse.
Bates: diverse town (many Somalian refugees-- lots of great cs opportunity), nice campus, cool kids, laid back, awesome professors, 4-4-1 plan, senior thesis, great alumni connections, historically unique (always co-ed, very innovative and ahead of the times-still is!), really brilliant students/ not so good facilities, a little snobbiness, not such great sports (well, they're ok), bad endowment, Lewiston.
Colby: friendly, nice campus, a good solid education, good sports/ isolated, I dont know too much about Colby, that's another thing-- it just doesn't standout. I think the other two seem to attract more attention.</p>
<p>They are all in Maine, all are very expensive, and all have top-notch everything. They also use each other's resources a lot. It's a good set up. If you go to any of them and do well, you'll be all set. They all send kids to top grad. schools, it's up to the student. A matter of preference, it seems Bowdoin attracts a bit more attention because of it's history and high U.S. News ranking.</p>
<p>yeeeesh this question has been asked about 90840239478 times. the main difference is that bowdoin is marginally more difficult to get into and has a larger endowment than the other two. granted admission to all three, i think most people choose bowdoin unless there is some significant financial reason to choose otherwise.</p>
<p>and since when do we have bad study abroad? or bad foreign languages?</p>
<p>The same questions will be asked over and over again as younger people, who are interested in learning about colleges, set up accounts on CC. I think the plan was the the old people would fade away before they got too annoyed with repetitiveness. Maybe you shouldn't post anymore, unless you are trying to help us curious kids-- don't you have enough to do at Bowdoin? I'm from Maine and know that the schools actually do have significant differences.
Bates was ranked #1 in the country for study abroad programs this year, and Colby also sends more than 50% of their students abroad. When I visited Bowdoin, our tour guide actually told us that the school doesn't really encourage study abroad-- and the other two schools have a lot more programs available. I went on a trip to Bangladesh with a Bowdoin student a few summers ago, and he said that Bowdoin's foreign languages are terrible. I doubt they actually are, but it doesn't seem like a subject Bowdoin puts a lot of emphasis on. Not that anyone cares anyway.
Yeah, just visit and pick the one you like best (if you get in).
By the way, I really have no idea what I am talking about. My sister goes to Bates, I live 25 minutes from Bowdoin, but I am just saying all this stuff based on my personal impressions-- which I think is ok for this forum-site.</p>
<p>I can't speak for all of the foreign language departments, but I feel like I learned more French in one semester at Bowdoin then I did in 4 years in high school.</p>
<p>Is it true that Bowdoin doesn't encourage study abroad? Do you know how the German department is?</p>
<p>Bowdoin's German department is quite good. </p>
<p>read on...</p>
<p>Uhh, I really don't think that Bowdoin DIScourages kids from studying abroad. There is however, a certain mentality on campus where kids don't want to stay away for too long. I knew someone who wanted to go away for a whole year, and people would question her and say to her, "I really don't think I could stay away for a whole year."
They have study abroad programs, but last I heard, it's pretty much the same as Bates and Colby in that they all use each other's resources so their programs are pretty much the same.
I don't know much about the German department, but my friend who is majoring in German loves the professors. She's excited about the new professors for next year (visiting? not sure) who came to talk. Bowdoin encourages students to go listen to their talk and considers their opinions on them.
I love the french department. I've taken classes with two of them already and they are nothing but motherly, patient and encouraging (which is very very important characteristics in language professors). I've only heard good things about the other ones.
They also hire some pretty cool Teaching Fellows from France, Spain, Italy, Russia who handle discussion groups for the lower levels and other things.</p>
<p>Actually, autmaine, there seems to be more of an expectation on campus that you will go abroad your junior year. People ask where you are thinking of studying abroad. And the school needs a certain number of students to go abroad to accommadate the rest of us.</p>
<p>seriously. i'm a junior who didn't study abroad, and everyone thinks i'm weird for not going anywhere... bowdoin definitely doesn't discourage it (and this year has been a rather lonely one for me as a result).</p>
<p>I live in Maine, and just from the perspective of where the colleges are, Bowdoin is by far the best town to be in. Lewiston was starting to revive, but then the economy went downhill and Waterville is pretty much dead.</p>