<p>i am an international applicant coming from a school which is not very familiar with anything other than the ivy league universities so i didn’t know much about bowdoin when applying except that i really liked it. i know that bowdoin is always ranked as one of the best liberal arts colleges but i wondered if anyone could tell me in more detail how the college is considered academically? thanks</p>
<p>How could you "really like it" if you knew nothing about it's academics?</p>
<p>the food?</p>
<p>it is considered well.</p>
<p>You can get into any grad school you want from Bowdoin.</p>
<p>what i knew of it's academics consisted of what i had read on the bowdoin website and in various college rankings. however, several liberal arts colleges, eg. swarthmore, vassar, amherst, had similar descriptions regarding their academics and i was just trying to find out if there was something to distingush between them especially. it's been pretty hard to find out information since as i said, i have no contacts with anyone who knows anything about the university first hand or otherwise. in england some colleges that are ranked highly in the literature actually get pretty crap reviews from students and aren't worth attending. i'm trying to make sure that this isn't the case here.</p>
<p>thanks oliver</p>
<p>Bowdoin's quality of life is pretty much top-shelf - the food is amazing, and our dorms are so much more spacious and accomodating than virtually any one else's. People always stress strong academics - which Bowdoin definitely has - but they also overlook things like food/dorms, which will have a huge impact on how well you do with your studies, believe it or not.</p>
<p>Depends what you mean by reputation. It has a strong reputation for grad schools and such, but not many people in the general public recognize it, like most LACs. Almost no one in my school has heard of it.</p>
<p>I second that. People in academia and probably also a lot of people in New England (although I'm from San Francisco so I can't say that with certainty) know that it's a fantastic school, but outside of that small circle of people, it isn't always very recognized for its strengths. When I told some of my friends that I had just gotten into a top 10 LAC, they were really impressed, but had never heard the name "Bowdoin" before in their lives. That something that you'll probably want to be prepared for if you intend to go to an LAC since they don't have the same kind of name recognition as ivies, Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, etc. even though the quality is often just as good.</p>