Choosing Bates

I ended up committing to Bates ED1 early in my senior year. It took a great deal of stress off of me having chosen a college enabling me to focus on gaining skills that would later prove useful instead of obsessing over college applications. I was a “recruited” track and cross country runner, meaning I had reached out to Bates’ track coach and he assured me after a pre-read that I would be accepted and he would love to have me on the team. As far as recruits ranked, I would estimate I was around the 150-200th ranked recruit nationally based on 3200m times - though this did improve senior year. I was also a likely admit at Wesleyan, however, the coach seemed slightly pretentious as he assured me his school was far superior to Bates in such a way that served only to dampen my interest in his school. It’s also worth noting my top pick would have been Yale, however, I wasn’t fast enough junior year to get a likely letter (ivy league version of LAC pre-reads). Ultimately, I was drawn to Bates for its laid back reputation and high regard among people familiar with the school, who to me were an important minority.

While at Bates the atmosphere paid many dividends, I was driven by the creative and academically focused atmosphere to become a specialist in my field of “vague internet stuff”. My grades did suffer at times from my focus on “vague internet stuff,” but that’s almost inconsequential as I really do not need to work for anyone else at this point. The coaching staff and training grounds were excellent and I ended up becoming an All-American. The only negative aspect is that the winters can be very rough.

I do occasionally wonder what it would have been like to go to Wesleyan, but overall I have few regrets about my college experience. These days I put in research for my family office and do the occasional favor or project for one of my internet contacts.

Go Bates!

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Thank you for this. Just curious, was there any relationship between your academics and your intended career? How did Bates classes prepare you for your future work? Not that there is anything wrong with simply getting a liberal arts degree for the sake of education and life enrichment.

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Yes, I studied economics and I mainly work in finance so it has helped.

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Part of “fit” is how you fit in with the people at the school. So if the coach at Wes turned you off, you made the right decision to choose Bates.

I generally think all the NESCACs are sufficiently strong, so kids choosing between them – including your choice between Wes and Bates – should decide primarily on fit (academic, social, environmental…) and cost.

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So nice to read that you are happy at Bates!

I was interested in this:

Did you design a major for yourself? Or anything you care to elaborate on? I’m intrigued!

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I did only one major: econ. It was challenging enough on its own. I also did concentrations in Law and Society (philosophy) and knowledge and the public good (sociology). I really enjoyed the sociology classes and I’m considering getting a Masters in the field.

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Based on faculty publishing in the field, you may have attended the Maine LAC with the strongest economics department: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html.

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Yeah that’s a cool stat. The econ dept was strong for sure.

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