<p>I’m not a drinker. Will I fit in socially? What about Colby or Bates - are they similar? I’ve heard Bowdoin is a big drinking school, but I haven’t heard about the other two.</p>
<p>They all are. But you can easily avoid it an any of the schools. Don't worry about that too much, you'll find it at all colleges.</p>
<p>In the Fiske guide, it says that one student said, "if you don't drink, don't come to Bowdoin". This isn't going to change my decision, but I still would like to avoid a social scene that completely revolves around alcohol. Is the culture really dominant there, or while avoiding it, will I able to find something else to do?</p>
<p>Bates is the biggest party school out of all of them, I think. Bates kids seem to know how to have fun, Bowdoin students seem to study more. That's what my sister says, she's a Batesie. She also said a bunch of Bates students went to a concert at Colby, and the the Bates students really stood out of the crowd. She said Colby students are much more straight-edge. But there are all kinds of students at all the Maine schools, Bates just has a bit of a reputation for being the most fun. Again, they are all so similar and will get you to the same places.</p>
<p>Here's a saying a friend's dad told me (who was a Bowdoin Student in the 60s)</p>
<p>Maine (UMaine) is for Farmers, Bates is for Jews, Colby for Women, and Bowdoin for Booze.</p>
<p>I say that not to typecast or offend, but to point out that Bowdoin has had a hard drinking reputation for a while...</p>
<p>But we definitely know how to have fun!</p>
<p>somewhere I read that the official preppy handbook (a tongue in cheek guide to the New England Prepster Culture) listed Bowdoin second only to Dartmouth for alcohol consumption lol.</p>
<p>Yeah, but that was a while ago. Recently, especially since Bowdoin went co-ed and got more prestigious in even more recent years, it has lost that reputation somewhat. Bates, from what I have heard, is pretty ridiculous sometimes... and not that many Jews go there anymore (still probably more than the others though). I heard too that Bowdoin was ranked second behind Dartmouth in drinking, but that was in the 60s I think, when it was just sort of a school for rich private school kids who didn't get into Harvard or Princeton from Boston and New York. Bowdoin took a few steps above Bates and Colby, and now has a bit more intellectual reputation than anything else.<br>
oliver, what is your impression of Bates students? Don't you get the feeling they party hard (including smoking)?</p>
<p>Bowdoin was prestigious in its hard drinking days and has always ranked well above Bates and Colby. I don't think that Bowdoin's relative standing in prestige terms has changed much over the past 40 years -- it's just that the pool of students seeking an LAC education has broadened greatly over the years, making all the LACs more competitive. The drinking rep had more to do with the all-male environment the did not end until the mid-1970s and the massive presence of frats on campus that did not end until a few years ago (in the hay day of frats, virtually every Bowdon student belonged to a frat).</p>
<p>Bowdoin is one of several small prestigious schools located in snowy little towns in isolated corners of New England. Other examples include Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, and Colby. All of these schools have historically had a reputation for hard drinking. </p>
<p>However, it is probably true that the rates of alcohol consumption at Midd, Williams, Colby, and Bowdoin have dropped substantially since these schools banned fraternities. The general impression is that these schools are now much tamer, in terms of partying and drinking, than those that still have Greek systems (notably Dartmouth).</p>
<p>I have no doubt that there is still drinking at Bowdoin. But I expect you can avoid it without difficulty if you want to.</p>
<p>I know a variety of Bates kids, from hard drinkers to non-drinkers. They seem no different from the Bowdoin kids I know.</p>
<p>Midd still has frats - they've just re-named them social houses (and maybe made them co-ed?)</p>
<p>bowdoin has social houses as well (I'm living in one next year)</p>
<p>And each of Bowdoin's social houses was, in its prior life, a frat.</p>
<p>In practice, there's a big difference between a college-sanctioned "social house" and a private fraternity or sorority, even if the house occupies a former frat building.</p>
<p>Greek organizations are typically single sex, choose their own members, and operate independently. Since they are private clubs, college administrations have relatively little ability to regulate their activities, except in the case of severe transgressions. </p>
<p>Social houses are typically coed and have members assigned to them by the adminstration. They operate as part of the college, and so the college administration has much more control. In practice, social houses are less likely to develop camaraderie and loyalty to the same degree as frats or sororities; some houses are little more than co-ed dormitories. On the other hand, social houses generally lack some of the perceived negatives of Greek organizations (e.g. immaturity, hazing, sexism, anti-intellectualism, snobbery).</p>
<p>If there wasn't a difference, then schools like Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Colby wouldn't have bothered to ban frats and replace them with social houses in the first place.</p>