<p>How would you describe the immediate locale surrounding colby - lower, middle or upscale commercial?</p>
<p>How safe is the campus and surrounding area? </p>
<p>How far would a colby student have to go to go to a restaurant or coffeehouse? A walk?</p>
<p>also, where is the nearest airport that wd fly to chicago? is there a way to get there from campus if a student did not have a car?</p>
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<li><p>It varies depending on which of the entrances/exits you take from campus. One side is nicer, one is a back road that leads to the highway and shopping area and one side is not as nice.</p></li>
<li><p>Maine is EXTREMELY safe (3rd safest state in America?) and Waterville is no exception to this, so no worries here.</p></li>
<li><p>I suppose you could walk, but it might take a while. Colby isn’t in Waterville; it’s up a hill. You could drive downtown (to restaurants etc) in less than five minutes or take the Jitney (free student taxi).</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not sure about flights from Augusta (which is 20-25 min away), but there are definitely flights to Chicago (I’ve taken them, so they exist) out of Portland (1 hr 20 min). You can have a car all four years, but if you don’t have/want to have one on campus, you can find a ride with someone over breaks, or take any of several buses that Colby provides for transport to airports/cities during breaks.</p></li>
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<p>thanks for the detailed responses. so would you say it is a good idea to have a car at colby? about how many -what pct - of students have a car?</p>
<p>also, do students live all 4 yrs on campus?</p>
<p>Much of Waterville is lower middle class. It is an old mill city. (I love it, but central Maine has definitely had a hard time through the recession and even in the best of times) Some neighborhoods surrounding Colby are on the nicer end. Colby is most definitely within the city limits of Waterville, Maine, there is no disputing that.</p>
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<p>I have no idea what percentage of students have cars. A lot? You don’t really need one though. My freshman year I was the only one who had a car in my close group of friends (7 of us total, so maybe less freshman have cars, but two of those friends have cars this year) and they all got on fine (although they did mooch the more than occasional ride).</p>
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<p>Yes. Something like 95% live on campus all 4 years. Housing is guaranteed.</p>
<p>Waterville is a small working-class city in a rural area. Colby is a mile or two removed from the downtown. I didn’t see anything depressingly run-down on the main roads, though we did not really explore, as we were on our way to Camden, and we spent a lot of time talking with the admissions staff and students after the campus tour. The immediate areas around campus are rural/suburban feeling. The countryside between Waterville and Camden is beautiful.
There are 2 hospitals in the city. Waterville is the basis for the city in the novel “Empire Falls”, by Richard Russo who taught at Colby. Reading that novel should give you a fair representation of life in Waterville.<br>
My D applied to Colby ED, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and holding our breath for the next 5 days!</p>