<p>most people generally agree that on a pure pestigege scale(not a good reason to choose a college) that bowdoin rates the highest of the maine schools. most people ive heard from say that colby and bates are on the same level(this is backed up by us news). but then there are some people ive heard from on cc who claim that bates is significantly more prestigious than colby and that colby really isnt prestigious at all(i can sight examples if you guys want). why is this? where does this viewpoint come from? was bates historically more selective and the gap has lowered over the years? does bates have a better connection to top NE prep schools?</p>
<p>i dont want to get into which college is better, im just looking for an answer as to where this viewpoint is coming from.</p>
<p>I think it’s just Batesies boosting. Here in NE I haven’t picked up any of that feeling–both Colby and Bates are seen as prestigious, but Bowdoin may have more name recognition.</p>
<p>Agree that Bowdoin is the most prestigious of the three–I think Bates and Colby are very similar in terms of prestige. Those who think Bates is far more prestigious are simply operating on the basis of misinformation IMO–I’d say the same thing about anyone who says Colby is far more prestigious than Bates. In our suburban Boston town Colby is far more popular than Bates–maybe the person saying Bates is more prestigious is from a place where Bates draws more interest. As similar as Bates and Colby are, it’s not unusual for kids to find one of them appealing and the other not so much. I know many Colby students including S who wouldn’t apply to Bates and I’m sure the reverse is true. The differences may be subtle but visiting is worthwhile since you may find you love one and not the other.</p>
<p>Everyone says this but no one seems to really believe it–prestige is really, really not a good basis for a decision and is way overemphasized. It wouldn’t be crazy at all to choose Colby or Bates over Bowdoin and people do it every year. It also wouldn’t be crazy to choose a lower-ranked college over Bates or Colby and again, people do it every year for any number of reasons. Hope you’ll have a chance to visit all three and form your own impressions.</p>
<p>I think Colby and Bates, prestige and probably academic wise, are on the same level. However, when you look at the two of them side by side, you’ll see how different the two schools are despite them both being small liberal arts colleges in Maine. When I visited Colby and Bates, I got two very different impressions: positive of Colby, and negative of Bates. I don’t want to cite the reasons why, so you should just check them out yourself and see which you like more.</p>
<p>Like you said, you can’t just look at prestige when it comes to choosing a school.</p>
If one were to rank the school I would say it would go like this.
Bowdoin College (14.9% RD Acceptance, 2015)
Bates College (17.8% RD Acceptance, 2015)
Colby College (22.5% RD Acceptance Rate, 2015)
All three school are extremely prestigious and academically rigorous. Bates College, like Bowdoin, has a lot of preppy kids from Mass. Conn. NY, Etc. coming in but thats not to say they dominate the populate. As for Colby v. Bates. Bates wins. They have a better faculty, outreach programs, post graduate opportunities, acceptance rate, quality of education etc. (Sports art too bad either.)
I would have to agree with merc81. Colby has a lower acceptance rate and a higher number of applicants than Bates. And if we are strictly talking prestige here, Colby is ranked higher in almost every ranking - USNWR and FORBES. I also agree that prestige is not the reason to select a school. Both my children got into more “prestigious” colleges and choose schools considered not as prestigious. Specifically, my daughter who choose Colby over other “more prestigious” colleges. She loves it!!!
@MandMom, just a small correction. Bates has a lower acceptance rate than Colby. Last year Colby received more applications than Bates but it had a considerably lower yield.
I’m not sure why people feel the need to peer schools in some kind of rank order. They’re both great schools.