<p>Well said, pmyen. Also, it seems more colleges/universities should encourage their students to use their education and talents to serve the common good for the overall betterment of society - something much needed in this one - and not exclusively for one’s benefit. This was a central theme of President Marx’s most recent commencement address at Amherst and it resonates at Bowdoin as well. I’m not sure about Dartmouth, but I would hope so.</p>
<p>Klaatu, Dartmouth’s new President Jim Yong Kim is a truly inspiring man. He is the first Asian-American President of an Ivy League School. He is a physician, anthropologist, MacArthur Award recipient, and together with Paul Farmer founded Partners in Health which has attempted to address the needs of patients with AIDS and other infectious diseases in Haiti and Africa. Like Marx, he wants to encourage students who have the privilege to attend a place like Dartmouth to truly make a difference in our world. Here is a very nice interview with Bill Moyers.</p>
<p>[Bill</a> Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09112009/watch2.html]Bill”>Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS)</p>
<p>Thank you, pmyen. President Kim appears to be an impressive individual and a great selection. I wish him well.</p>
<p>Okay, I know this is an old post, and I found it while searching for something else, but I HAVE to respond to one point. I graduated from Bowdoin in 1999, so admittedly, the on-campus recruiting may be different now, since the field of banking is different. (At the same time, though, Bowdoin has become an even more selective school.) But in the late 1990s, all the typical prestigious investment banks and management consultant firms recruited on campus… Bain, Andersen Consulting AKA Accenture, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc… I know TONS of people who got jobs at these places. 75% of Bowdoin grads also go on to get advanced degrees, at top universities. </p>
<p>I agree that Bowdoin doesn’t have the wide name recognition Dartmouth has (though I also agree that Dartmouth is one of the lesser-known Ivies, and Bowdoin is known among those in academic circles and at top firms.) But, Bowdoin is an excellent school and I can assure you that Bowdoin grads have just as many doors open to them as Dartmouth grads do. Bowdoin also has something like a 91% admittance rate to medical schools, which is exceptionally high.</p>
<p>I also know several people in my class who turned down Ivies (including Harvard) for Bowdoin because of the accessibility of the professors and ability to be involved in real research while undergrads.</p>
<p>We’re kind of comparing apples and oranges here. Dartmouth may be the one Ivy which is somewhat similar to Bowdoin (a liberal arts college) but they’re still in different classes of institutions. Bowdoin is an elite liberal arts college, and has everything that goes along with that, including excellent grad school admissions stats and high-powered on-campus recruiting. But, as with other top liberal arts colleges (save for, maybe Wellesley, which is ranked just above Bowdoin by US News) it doesn’t have great name recognition. People I went to grad school with at a very prestigious foreign university (to remain unnamed to protect my identity :-)) who were from the US had never heard of Williams or Amherst, either. Does that mean Williams and Amherst grads are greatly limited? Nope.</p>
The is an older thread, but just for the record I think the OP is seriously under-estimating Bowdoin, and frankly is pretty clueless about the power and prestige of a Bowdoin degree.
It’s the 4th ranked liberal arts college in the U.S. (Dartmouth is 11th in the University rankings).
Bowdoin is the 19th ranked feeder school to the most prestigious graduate school programs, placing it ahead of the likes of Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern. http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf
Bowdoin is also a very wealthy school school with an endowment per student about equal to Dartmouth’s (and much higher than the remainder of the 4 “lower” Ivies), and anyone who has visited the school can readily see that in the quality of the campus, programs and facilities. Bowdoin admissions are “no loan” and “need blind” with the average student receiving about $40,000 per year in aid (not loans).
A Bowdoin degree will definitely not hold you back (compared to Dartmouth, or virtually any other school). Personally I found the experience and quality of education there, and the whole experience/vibe/intellectual atmosphere, to be superior to the Ivy League school from which I obtained a law degree after Bowdoin.
Please use old threads for information purposes only. Do not resurrect old threads. closing thread