<p>Although this may be bias on this board, which college is better? (Your opinion)</p>
<p>Bowdoin...more outdoors...more prep kids.....more preprofessional. better food..better dorms. more drinking...more competition.
Carleton...wider selection of classes...more academic/intellectual...much longer list of classes...several majors much more filled out and robust than Bowdoin. Very compatible kids...wider range of interests on campus. food is fine dorm life is good. more socioeconomically diverse. Academically probably tougher.
Both fairly outdoors, cold winters, carleton has warmer spring, summer, fall seasons. Carleton is closer (50 minutes) to a large metropolitan area. Bowdoin is closer (but 4 hours away)to the megapolis that starts in Boston.</p>
<p>Bowdoin's only 2 hours from Boston and about 40 minutes from Portland.</p>
<p>I can't really answer the original question in too much depth because I know very little about Carleton, but they have more similarities than differences. I'd go with your gut as to which place you'd feel better at because you'll get an exceptional education at either place.</p>
<p>how far is bowdoin from nyc?</p>
<p>ideally 6 hrs, but more like 7 or 8</p>
<p>We made it from my roommate's house just outside New York to campus in about 5 1/2 hours, but that was on a Sunday with little traffic. From where I live in Central Jersey (about an hour and a half or so from NYC) it usually takes about 8 1/2-9 hours. The bus from campus to the Port Authority makes the trip in 8 hours and change with an hour stop off in Boston. Thats all I can say from personal experience, but, average it all together, it's probably around a 7 hour trip.</p>
<p>I have lived right outside of Boston for my whole life. I have been to NYC twice in my life, each time to see an opera for a school trip. We drive straight to the Metropolitan Opera House and then drive straight back after the show. It's not a long drive. 4-5 hours? tops? Anyways, I guess my point is that it is not necessary to go to NYC to have fun. I LOVE Boston and personally found my little bit of NYC exposure scary. It was just too huge and, I thought, dirty. I guess I could learn to like it, or find some cool parts to it... and my friend who goes to NYU loves it... but I just don't see the appeal!</p>
<p>If you cannot see the incredible difference between Bowdoin and Carleton, you must visit each school. You may love them both, but do not think there is any similarity other than each being a good LAC.</p>
<p>Make the reservations NOW.</p>
<p>Bowdoin......</p>
<p>go to bowdoin.</p>
<p>sea1, it's not very helpful to just say go to bowdoin... it would help to give a reason for saying that. otherwise, i doubt it will influence anybody's choice.</p>
<p>i don't know if my response will influence phanitdasack. he/she does not say what they are looking for in a college. my response fit their question. bowdoin obviously has a tremendous history. as a matriculating freshmen you sign the same book that longfellow, hawthorn and so many others signed. that sense of history is very cool and permeates throughout the school. carleton cannot compete. jesse james did not go to carleton. brunswick and northfield are both nice towns, although i would take the proxcimity to boston any day over the twin cities. cold....they are both cold. bowdoin/ocean carleton/? lake superior.
i would take the atlantic over ?lake superior/boundry waters. academically speaking these are both top notch schools and you cannot go wrong. there you have it. i would take bowdoin hands down to carleton.</p>
<p>Carleton is my pick all the way. People are talking about Bowdoin's history: It's very true that Bowdoin has a longer and more prestigious histroy than Carleton, but now, Carleton is considered the superior school. Also: Minnesota vs. Maine? Both are cold, but at least you aren't in the middle fo nowhere, where Bowdoin is.
Bowdoin is also much more predominently upperclass prep school kids who applied to Williams, Amhearst , etc., where Carleton is more you're average middle slightly upper class who applied to kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell etc.
This of course is and incredibly stereotyping response. Both are great schools. It would probably be a good idea to visit both.</p>
<p>Bowdoin is hardly in the middle of nowhere. Brunswick has over 20,000 people (more than the town of Princeton) and is along the south/mid coast of Maine, which is a pretty bustling area and the most populous part of Maine. By comparison, Northfield, with two colleges, has only 17,000 people.</p>
<p>the point is, carleton is pretty close to one of the most exciting cities in the country. bowdoin may have cities nearby, but not like minneapolis/st.paul.</p>
<p>People don't go into the cities nearly as often as Carleton admissions literature makes it sound like, but Minneapolis/St. Paul are still pretty close. I think the drive to the Twin Cities takes like a third as long as the drive from Bowdoin to Boston would. There are people with cars here who do credit internships in the cities several days a week, so it's not really a horrid commute. Carleton also regularly has free transportation for things happening in and around the Twin Cities like cultural/art events, lectures, conferences, job fairs, and such, you just have to sign up and take advantage of it. If you want to go to a concert, you're pretty much guaranteed that a couple dozen more Carleton kids want to go too, and you'll get a ride. There are a ridiculous number of colleges and universities within an hour's drive of Carleton. UMN is pretty closeby, which has some 30K undergrads and has to keep THEM all entertained with a bunch of stuff happening all the time. Oh, and let's not forget the Mall of Freakin' America, which is a ridiculous place but hey, everyone needs to visit a mall where you can't get any practical shopping done at least once.</p>
<p>My point is that any argument for Bowdoin's superiority over Carleton because of location is crap. Neither really has a great location, let's be honest, but Carleton definitely has the edge because it is closer to much bigger things than Bowdoin is.</p>
<p>Had I applied to Bowdoin and gotten in I still would have chosen Carleton, but probably not on the basis of location.</p>
<p>If you look at the % of kids who qualify for financial aid, Carleton is really not much more economically diverse. Both schools are populated primarily with upper-middle class white kids. I also believe both schools offer good academics and teaching. Probably there would be a tremendous overlap in the difficulty of classes, depending on what classes you took. You should check out offerings in your dept, and think about location. As someone currently in college and thinking about transferring, I have to tell you that experiences will be so individual at whatever top school you go to that you REALLY can't generalize, and trying to do so might distract you from choosing on the basis of real differences (resources, offerings, location, social options, etc.)</p>
<p>i chose bowdoin over carleton. the kids seemed a lot friendlier at bowdoin. when i went to carleton, everyone seemed obsessed with the fact that
1. they were ranked as the #5 liberal arts school
2. they weren't a 'preppy new england school where everyone is snobby'</p>
<p>i thought that was kind of pretentious and close minded to look down on all new england schools and stereotype them like that.</p>
<p>besides, bowdoin's food is better.</p>
<p>yeah and i guess this comes kind of late but i wanted to share my opinion.</p>
<p>I also want to share my opinion. Maybe I got placed with a better host when I visited Carleton, but none of the kids I met seemed focused on talking about academics and left the administration to do all of that. In fact, the only time they talked about other schools was when I told them where else I was thinking about attending. This seems a bit funny in contrast to windcriesmary's experience, but many of the people I met were actually considering attending LACs in New England.</p>
<p>I didn't apply to any LACs in New England because I don't want to go to college close to home, so I have nothing to say about Bowdoin.</p>
<p>Let's face it, when you're talking the top 10 LACs, then the academics are awesome at all of them. The decision gets made on other criteria. My daughter really enjoyed the friendly, non-competitive atmosphere. She had a lot of fun with her hosts and other prospies. She wants to see Schiller. She chose Carleton.</p>