I’ve visited and researched them all and finally narrowed it down to these two. Any opinions/comments/observations to help me break the tie are appreciated. Thanks.
Why do you need to break a tie? Why not apply to both? (And I certainly hope you are applying to other schools as well; both of those are quite selective)
Are you implying you are applying ED to one or the other? Otherwise, yeah, why wouldn’t you apply to both and some other schools too, including some safeties.
It’s going to be impossible for anyone to help you break that tie unless you provide some more color on yourself. What do you like about both of them? What are your concerns? Any idea what you want to study? What do you like doing when not studying? Any preference on what kind of community you would prefer the college to be situated in – large, small, medium, rural, suburban, etc.? They are both excellent schools so there’s no some all-defining objective standard that puts one ahead of the other. They have many overlapping but some different strengths.
I will assume you have other colleges on your list and want to apply to one of them as a reach?
Bowdoin, IMO, is a little more “snooty” and preppy. It is also closer to civilization. The campus is very manicured and lovely. I think it is harder to get into than Hamilton.
Hamilton has a nice arty edge, despite being a little preppy. I loved the two sides of the campus. The open curriculum is great. It’s big downside is its isolation. We visited many campuses and it is by far the most isolated.
Both have excellent reputations. Both have great academics, smart kids, and good professors. If I had to choose, I would choose Hamilton. It didn’t feel so pristine, and Bowdoin was a little too pristine, again IMO. Good luck.
Bowdoin is slightly more selective and probably still has a slightly bigger rep, though Hamilton in its own right is generally recognized as an elite LAC. I would disregard rep in this case because it’s likely that the quality of teaching and support are pretty even and, in my opinion, those are the most important things. Both are reputably outstanding and if you show up and work hard, you’ll get a first-class education.
I think you are going to have to do the following to make a well-informed decision, since on the surface these schools are peers with plenty of (at least nominal) similarities:
- Examine the social vibe at each school. How do students spend their free time, what is the political discourse climate like, athletic scene, clubs, etc.?
- Examine the campuses and surrounding areas to figure out which you prefer. I suspect Bowdoin will be a bit colder in the winter, but these are both temperate schools with four seasons. Maine is closer to the Atlantic, while obviously Clinton is in rural Upstate NY. How hard is it to get groceries or a bite to eat at night, or to get to a good mall or go clubbing? How easy is it to get around town and to get home (and back)?
- Look into dorms and food – you have to be there for four years, and you will spend a lot of time sleeping/studying in your room and eating.
- Look at programs/majors offered and graduation requirements
- If you are accepted to both or if you are considering applying ED to one: Visit both while school is in session for that true “gut” feeling
- Try to communicate with a professor in your department(s) of interest, if that can be arranged
- Finally, run the NPC to figure out approximately how much it would cost to attend
If you like both, why not apply to both?
A few misc. differences:
– Hamilton is in the minority among the elite LAC’s to still have Greek life, though it’s somewhat well controlled by the college. Bowdoin has no frats but does have 8 “social houses” (in former frat houses) that are tightly controlled by the college res life department who own and operate them.
– Hamilton is in a more rural area, though does provide transportation to the nearest larger town and is not too far from major cities in upstate NY. Bowdoin is traditional college town with an active shopping district directly adjacent to the college and is in the middle of the town. It’s also only about 30 minutes from the largest city in the state that has an airport, Amtrak station, bus lines, etc.
– Hamilton’s campus is more spread-out. It originally was two colleges that were merged. The building architecture reflects that duality too. For some this is a really plus, for others a turn off. Bowdoin is a particularly small campus among its elite LAC peers (it owns a lot of land, but the physical campus is pretty tightly consolidated and you can pretty much walk between any two points in five minutes). Again, for some this is a positive, for others a negative. Hamilton has some obviously newer buildings (which are quite nice) where even the newer construction at Bowdoin tends to preserve or mimic the look of the older campus. If you like a mostly brick campus, Bowdoin is up your alley. If you don’t, Hamilton may feel more comfortable.
– Hamilton has ~$850MM endowment; Bowdoin $1.4B.
– Having gone through so many of these tours and info session, I laugh at the semantic games some schools play with things like “open curriculum” and “no distribution requirements.” Wesleyan, for example, cites both of these catchphrases but if you want to graduate with Honors which most people want to try and do there, you actually have a 9 course distribution requirement (not called that) spread out across three categories. Brown is truly an open curriculum with truly no specific non-major requirements. Few others are… All that said, Hamilton is pretty close. They effectively have 3 distribution requirements (not called that), one of which is physical education so really only 2 academically – a writing requirement and a quantitative reasoning requirement, all very easy to fulfill. Bowdoin has 6 of these – one writing-intensive freshman seminary and 5 others spread out – quantitative, the arts, international/cultural, etc.
– Bowdoin is renowned for its good food. That is totally lost on my comfort food son.
Distribution requirements are rather easy to fulfill at most of these schools. Usually students who are ‘core curriculum’ adverse usually do not want to be forced to take math classes (for humanities people), humanities classes (for math/science people) and language classes. All the distribution relaxed schools offer cross disciplinary courses which can fulfill science or math requirements in a decidedly non math or science course and vice versa. So for instance you could take a course like “Nuclear Politics & Philosophy” Which would fulfill social science (government), humanities (philosophy) and math/science requirements… such a course would probably not have any math work nor be particularly heavy on writing papers. So in most cases fulfilling distribution requirements is rather easy at most of the Nescac/elite LAC school level.
Potential academic interests?
You could choose based on beauty:
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/the-25-most-beautiful-college-campuses-in-america
http://www.bestdegreeprograms.org/best-beautiful-small-college-campuses-america
What did you like about them specifically and what are you looking for in a college? Potential majors? Give us more to go on.
That Thrillerist list is laughable. It looks like an intern found a bunch of beautiful pictures and then formed the list on that basis. I’m taking nothing away from Hamilton specifically and there are some very pretty campuses on that list. But there’s also quite a few that I wouldn’t even put on my top 100 list and a lot of conspicuous absences.
Thank you all for your input. I deliberately didn’t mention what I was specifically looking for or majoring in because I’m just looking for everyone’s general opinions and impressions. I of course am applying to numerous colleges but am considering going E.D. to either Hamilton or Bowdoin, possibly biomedical engineering through the 3-2 program.
I’m no expert in engineering but based on things I have read and gleaned over the years, I’d definitely kick the tires on a 3-2 engineering program before committing to one.
If you are interested in a LAC experience and an engineering major, consider Swarthmore and Trinity CT as well as Lehigh and Lafayette, each of which has a full fledged engineering program. Also take a look at Haverford’s 4+1 program with UPenn.
For engineering, consider these two colleges’ respective 2-1-1-1 programs as well.
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Bowdoin is more prestigious and has much better food!
Prestige should not be the reason for choosing a school. OP, it really boils down to this: should you apply ED and be accepted, you must be sure it’s a place you will be happy to spend four very important years of your life.
Hamilton’s history of having been formed through the union of two colleges with different characteristics and emphases gives the current school diversity, depth and balance – curricular, architectural, spatial, cultural – beyond that which would commonly be found at a small college. If this distinction resonates with you in a meaningful way, then you might find Hamilton to be a very desirable and interesting choice.
That said, either school would offer you outstanding opportunities, provided that in your case you would be interested in pursuing your engineering coursework through an associated program at another institution.
Agreed Linda