<p>Saturday Morning 11/6 my son and I flew to Portland Maine from Denver after a 5 hours drive from our home in the greater part of nowhere (northwest nebraska)</p>
<p>My son has already been accepcted at University of Nebraska Lincoln and will probably be offered a very decent national merit scholarship but we wanted to look at some schools that are equal to or better than UNL in terms of academics, offer a decent nms scholarship AND provide an oppurtunity to continue in organized athletics at the division 3 level playing football and or baseball</p>
<p>Bowdoin really fit the bill. Bowdoin offers a financial aid package to nms finalists that says you will not have to take any loans beyond your EFC which is not bad for a school with a price tag of $37,000 + a year</p>
<p>Colby does not offer any where near that kind of aid (I think) but we had filled out the football prospect form on the Colby web page and we had gotten some very good letters over the summer and fall from the head coach and a phone call from one of the assistant coaches. The original plan was not to visit Colby it was a maybe we will drive up thier sunday morning before I droped my son off for his overnight stay Sunday evening.</p>
<p>We rented a car in Portland, its a quick drive from Portland to Brunswick, we took the senic way off the interstate and were still there in less than 40 mins. We had a room at the Comfort Inn in Brunswick saturday night and its a great place to stay, helpful staff, coffee and real milk (cream would have been better but what the heck) in the lobby all the time and Hi speed wireless internet!!!!</p>
<p>We drove to over to Bowdoin and had a look around as the sun was setting Bowdoin had a home football game that day and there were still tailgaters in the end zone (no sign of beer or liqour bottles in the trash cans)</p>
<p>Bowdoin is shoe horned right up against the houses of Brunswick nice neighborhood middle class nothing real fancy but certainly nothing unkept. There are shops and stores within walking distance</p>
<p>I had heard stories of Bowdoin being preppy and it may well be but as far as fashion style it was jeans and jackets. It would have been an awesome looking at the campus a couple three weeks ago when the trees were in thier full glory but as it was most of the leaves had fallen</p>
<p>I would not say Bowdoin was a pretty place but it does have character. pretty is probaly relative to the time of year and the weather no doubt at times it is lovely</p>
<p>We had a great seafood dinner in Brunswick saturday night and hit the hay it had been a long trip we left our house in nebraska 1230 am saturday and arrived Bowdoin around 4 pm </p>
<p>Sunday we woke early and decided to go see Colby its just up the road 40 miles or so. Colby is pretty nice. Apparently some time in the past they moved the campus lock stock and barrel from its downtown waterville location to its current location. It shows the bulding all have a similar style and are laid out in a neat and orderly fashion the grounds are well kept everything seems thought out </p>
<p>We droped in on the football staff unannounced and they were kind enough to sit us down and visit with us about Colby Football even though they were about to review the game film of thier saturday win over Tufts. The facilities are very nice orderly and again well laid out. I was impressed with the head coach. He was proud of his team and the program. He encouraged us to submit a game tape for thier review and was impressed with my sons academic accomplishments We spoke about thier off season conditioning program and my son gained some confidence in that the program he did last summer was very similar to what Colby does (its neat to see your kid have one of those I can do this moments) </p>
<p>Colby is diffrent from Bowdoin in that on the edge of campus at Bowdoin your right up against homes while at Colby you get the feeling that your isolated Your not going to walk to the store for sundries at Colby. on the other hand you do get that your in your own world feeling</p>
<p>My son was not impressed with the baseball field at Colby its a nice field in my opinion but he said heck Dad I have played on better fields where we live and they are just american legion fields. I was trying to be positive and saying this is not bad then he pointed to the bleachers and said there is not enough bleacher space for everone on the teams mom even. I had to agree with that but over all the rest of thier athletic fields and facilities are pretty decent to say the least.</p>
<p>We did not do the guided tour of campus probably should have. Colby is on a Hill if you go there your going to be walking up and down grades not steep but then again its not flat</p>
<p>most of the students we saw were either working out or going to breakfast. the fashion stlye was casual jeans, sweats no one dressed up. All in all what we did at Colby was more of a drive by with an extended pit stop at the atheletic department but what we saw was good enough for us to send the football staff a game tape and for my son to (start) filling out an application.</p>
<p>We had a couple hours and spent them at the shops in freeport. nice place to shop within a 20 min drive of Bowdoin. I droped my son off at bowdoin for his overnight stay. The overnight host did a crappy job in my opinion</p>
<p>first off he was not there at 5:30 pm but instead sent a buddy to escort my son around because he had to work until 8 pm. The escort took my son to dinner. afterward he hooked up with his host and he took my son to a house meeting, (where the dorm residents engage in self goverance) the high lights of which were a student asking for donations for st jude hospitals, a survey about on campus drinking, and a report on the lack of progress on a house faculty dinner @ $60.00 a plate. the host then left my son in his room saying he had to head over to the music department and do some studying because he was behind in a couple of classes he returned about midnight and they went to bed. Not the kind of effort on the hosts part that I would expect.</p>
<p>Bowdoin has a rep for great food when I asked my son about dinner he said they do a mediocer Chinese I pressed him on that and he said that it seemed like it would be pretty good dining over all but that the Chinese food that night was not quite up to par. </p>
<p>my son woke the next morning showered and took a solo walk around campus and then did his interview I asked him how the interview went and he said pretty good he describd it more of a chat without much content </p>
<p>we both took the guided tour of campus which was pretty informative and well done by the girl who guided us. she knew her stuff. we did see some preppy types in other groups doing the guided tour, outfited in blazers and ties very obviously not Bowdoin students. Bowdoin really does some interesting things with its space like an underground passage betwen the library buildings and an skywalk between the science buildings. We saw a freshman triple. Basicly 2 rooms one with three desks and living space, the rear room had three beds. not a bad set up having the study and living space seperate from the sleeping space. we saw two dorm rooms both housing 3 guys, one of the rooms we saw was neat and orderly the other was almost messy.</p>
<p>after the tour we met with the football coaches and droped off my sons game tape the coaches seemed pleased with my sons academic standing and gave every indication that he could participate in football. I found it odd that the coachs office and the weight room were in the student union. the coaches at bowdoin seemed a bit more laid back than the coaches at colby but the general drift of the conversation was very similar. </p>
<p>overall bowdoin seemed to be pretty much it claims to be and colby was beter than expected. it is very hard to see it all in the little bit of time we had. I sure wish the overnight host had been more of a salesman for the univerity becuase that was not a very productives use of my sons time on campus. bowdoin should do some qualty control on this I am sure there are great overnight hosts but this guy did not serve the college very well I think my son liked both schools and gained some confidence that he could fit in way away from home and in thefootbal programs and that alone made the trip worthwhile.
niether bowdoin or colby knocked his socks offs to the point where he said YES!!!!! this is where I want to go. we plan to visit furman, mccalaster, and grinnell some time probably after his wrestling season is over. I really want to see the contrast between furman and the new england schools.</p>