<p>Hi everyone, i posted this in another forum but would love to hear your opinions!</p>
<p>I’m having trouble deciding between these three schools after being accepted to all. I have heard different opinions depending on who I ask. I plan on double-majoring in biology and psychology. What can you tell me about them in regards to professors, dorms, food, volunteer opportunities, outdoor adventures :), academic advising (do we get advisors?), partying, students (mainstream or independent, preppy or artsy), etc… anything I cant really find in a college catalog. I will be visiting in a couple weeks and would love some insight from any of you. Thank you so much!</p>
<p>Didn’t apply to Amherst or Midd, but regarding Bowdoin, i can answer one of your questions pretty unequivocally: the food is phenomenal, consistently ranked the bet in the country</p>
<p>I was deferred and rejected from Amherst and got into Bowdoin RD. I honestly wasn’t that devastated once I found out about Bowdoin because Amherst had the WORSE food of any school I visited. In response to my question about food there, every student replied “there are plenty of places off campus, but it gets expensive.”
Bowdoin actually has the 2nd best food in the country behind Cornell (school of hotel management or something).
In my experience, Bowdoin students are really nice. Although you can’t get along with everybody, it has the most friendly student body I’ve seen.</p>
<p>I’m currently a junior at Middlebury College, so I hope my perspective can help you a little bit in your decision-making process. </p>
<p>Hmmm…if you intend to major in Psychology, honestly speaking, Amherst is academically superior than the two other colleges. However, Biology at Middlebury may be better. So, if you intend to double major in the two academic areas, then I think you should choose Amherst or Middlebury.</p>
<p>My sister went to Amherst and she was really happy there, so I guess it’s a great school in terms of both academics and social life. </p>
<p>About Middlebury, from my own perspective, I would say:
Professors: Professors here are top-notch and dedicated to teaching. Even in lecture classes, the professors still try to get to know students individually and accommodate each one’s need. Almost every day after class, my professors stay to answer our extra questions, and they would invite us to lunch so that we could discuss more about it. My biology professor even stays after his office hours explaining everything. Once, it became so late, the building must close, he even followed my to my dorm common rooms to finish the teaching!
Classes: Classes here are all challenging and stimulating. You’ll have a heavy workload in every class, but you’ll love it much!
Dorms: Of all the three colleges, I would say Middlebury has the most gorgerous buildings and dorms.
Foods: Foods on campus are really delicious and more importantly, very fresh. The fresh meats and vegetables come from the local farm. We also have our milk delivered from our own farm downtown.
Volunteer opportunities: Students here are very reponsible, active, and engaging, so volunteer is definitely one of the most important extracurricular activities here, at Middlebury.
Outdoor adventures: Midddlebury is in-between the Adirondack and Green Mountain ranges so there are definitely a bunch of awesome outdoors opportunities–hiking, kayaking, ice climbing, etc.
Academic advising: Yes, we do have academic counselors and especially many pre-professional and advising programs for juniors and seniors.<br>
Partying: It depends. There are people on campus who party every weekend. But if you don’t like parties, then you’re not alone–there lots of other people out there who never go to any party. No problem at all.
Student body: The student body here is ethnically and socially diverse (which is completely different from Bowdoin). You can meet any type of people on campus. But in general, Middlebury is an incredibly friendly and active community. We work hard & play hard, btw.</p>
<p>My advice, after all, is that you should visit the campuses before making your decision. Good luck!</p>
<p>Midd’s academics aren’t quite as good as Bowdoin’s (except for in language) </p>
<p>Bowdoin is closer then those other schools to cities but still has the whole naturalistic thing going for it. </p>
<p>Professors at Bowdoin are top-top-notch and any college rating book you read will make special reference to how much time they put into the students. </p>
<p>Bowdoin is consistantly rated as having one of the highest qualities of life of any college/university in the country.</p>
<p>Do a little research about the idea of the “Common Good” at Bowdoin and espcially “Common Good Hour.” The Common Good really exemplifies the kind of person who goes to Bowdoin.</p>
<p>The Outing club is the most popular club on campus and leads all sorts of naturey events…from hikes to white water rafting to acting as a polar bear club during the winter.</p>
<p>Contrary to popular belief there is diversity at Bowdoin, especially compared to other North Eastern Liberal Arts colleges. 30% of the student body is nonwhite</p>
<p>Correct - the Middlebury advocate was not accurate when he/she said that Middlebury was more diverse than Bowdoin as the numbers tell a significantly different story as to which school is doing the better job on the diversity front . . .</p>
<p>Each school has its own strength.
Bowdoin in certainly known for more programs than middlebury.
Bowdoin is known for its Gov, and econ is also recognized as really good program. Hence those specifics are probably “better” if thats what you want to call it, departments.<br>
Midd is more known for their language programs.</p>
<p>The 70% of cross admits going to Middlebury i think is a kind of misleading statistic. There is a lot that goes into a decision such as choosing a school. I dont think that having more kids in the year 2000 choose Midd over Bowdoin means anything about how good the education is. I would liked to see other statistics than one admissions cycle. Those types of things change from year to year. </p>
<p>Overall though the academics at both are amazing. Only a couple thousand of the nations best students are accepted to come and study at each institution. The difference between one place in the US News report means nothing.
They are both great schools and you can’t go wrong either way!!!</p>
<p>everything apple_oranges says about middlebury can be said about bowdoin or williams or amherst etc.</p>
<p>there are small differences…bowdoin’s food is better (rated #1 nationally 3 times, featured in the nytimes many times). middlebury does have a prettier campus.</p>
<p>i don’t want to make the statement that bowdoin has better academics because that would be just as dumb as someone saying midd has better academics than bowdoin, but bowdoin is smaller and more personal than midd. </p>
<p>bowdoin’s a little more selective than midd. bowdoin has a stronger alumni network because it’s been around longer and has good gov connections. (also as we all know midd is an up and rising school and was ranked like 78th or something in the 1970s, bowdoin has always been in top 8)</p>
<p>there IS less of a jock feel at midd though when compared with bowdoin/amherst (small schools). this is true. and it’s true because of many reasons, 1) midd has a bigger student body (main reason) 2) lots of language oriented people go there (more econs/govs at bowdoin– although language students get more attention and personal interaction than they would at midd. this is excluding midds summer language school, it should NEVER be confused with their regular departments) 3) midd has a bigger commitment to international students</p>
<p>midd is stronger in sports</p>
<p>both midd and bowdoin have GREAT summer experiences. the internationally renowned music festival at bowdoin and the connection it has with curtis and midd’s summer language school, where the CIA and state department often train personnel</p>
<p>midds in more of a nowhere than bowdoin. this is the hardest thing for many people…if you spend some time in midd you will grow to like it though. burlington’s got a really unique culture. bowdoin is easily “accepted” because of it’s proximity to freeport, portland. this is bad because theres all these blocky outlet stores like burberry and jcrew and polo. or midd is bad because you literally have to drive 45 minutes to find a wal-mart. and…no outlets/stores at all. (girls used to be able to get sevens, citizens, etc from a UNIQUE middlebury store but it has closed. go 45minute drive.) again, it’s how you look at it. (technically burlington is more of a 50 minute drive)</p>
<p>vermont is a richer state than maine and prettier in my opinion. anyways…you get the picture now. each school has its pros and cons</p>
<p>The “prettier” thing is so subjective - the Vermont landscape is definitely more pristine than Maine’s but Maine’s beauty is in the coastal area and there’s nothing in Vermont that comes close to Casco Bay or Penobscot Bay in terms of beauty (IMO of course because the ocean and the coast do more for me than rolling hills).</p>