<p>So I know thay Bowdoin has great academic, nice campus, and all that sorta stuff. But does it get lame after a while? I live in Maine, now, and am familiar with the college-- I know a few students. My friend told me that his impression of the social life (after to going to a number of parties and hanging out on the campus) that the social life was just lame. He said all the interesting people just stay inside and study, while the others go to the same social house (theirs) to a keg party every weekend. And it’s just always the same thing. He also said it was really preppy. He said it was just like high school (the groton school)… really preppy, stuck-up, jockish, and boring. My sister goes to Bates, and her experience seems like a much more real and rich college experience, not lame at all. She has so much fun, and learns so much just by interacting with the people there. My top college choices are Bates and Bowdoin. Can anyone convince me that Bowdoin is not as lame as everyone says? I really like Bowdoin, but I want to get the most out of college as I can.</p>
<p>Just letting you know, I'm a transfer student but I'm considering both schools like yourself. Although the Bowdoin name may go a bit further than Bates, I ultimately have scratched Bowdoin off my list and have decided on Bates instead. I have heard the same things a/b Bowdoin on far too many websites and I'm NOT looking for high school all over again. You really can't go wrong with academics at either school, and so based on the environment I'd go with Bates. Good luck with whatever choice ya make.</p>
<p>i think it's a pretty bad policy to base one's decision to apply/not apply to a school based on hearsay from online fora. my experience at bowdoin involved a house party, once. the rest of the social life i liked: private parties, trips to portland, hiking, arts, etc. and some people like house parties. i'm unclear about what, exactly, folks expect socially from a liberal arts college in maine. brunswick is not new york city, but bowdoin was, for me, nothing like what you both imply or describe. also, to assume that bates is more a "real world" experience and bowdoin a stifled prep school duplicate is cleary demonstrative of the online phenomenon that one corroborated opinion makes a reputation. specifically, this is utterly untrue, but generally it's just a bad policy. </p>
<p>enjoy bates!</p>
<p>thanks for your replies. maybe bowdoin isn't so bad after all!</p>
<p>autmaine, why don't you visit bowdoin?</p>
<p>trotwood brings up a good point - the best part of social life is private parties and hanging out with friends, something a friend who doesn't actually go to Bowdoin wouldn't experience. By 'hanging out' on campus as a non student, the only parties you're going to hear about or be able to go to will be the big social house ones. If you go here, you develop a network of friends and can find much more interesting stuff to do on the weekends.</p>
<p>Bates is a nice school but not even close to Bowdoin academically. As far as socially have you taken a peek at Lewiston yet?</p>
<p>i got into both,and am going to bates in the fall. SP135- have you taken a peek at the Bates campus yet? its beautiful, and there is never an end of things to do. i loved both schools, and they are practically identical in many ways. i would not say by any means however that bowdoin is superior academically. if you are referring to the rankings, they are paper thin. i think anyone would be equally happy at both places</p>
<p>yeah im a soph now at bates and the social scene rocks. Security is real cool, and you get to know them, unlike at bowdoin where they really throw down the law in freshmen dorms. Notice somebody picking fun at lewiston, please, like bowdoin our social life in mainly on campus, and besides once you meet some lewiston residents they are genuine and really cool to talk to. "better academically" uhhh, i'd say they are close. bookie good choice and i hope you enjoy your AESOP if you are going to one.</p>
<p>I have two family members at Bowdoin and completely disagree with the "friend" in the first post. Yes, it is true (as it is at every single school in the nation) that you have a group of the drinkers/high-school-type-partiers, but there is plenty of other stuff going on - you just have to look for it or create it yourself, as you do at every other school. My two family members went to one or two of what they thought were ridiculous parties feshman year, then never again. And I hear there is a new co-op house with great dinners and parties that involve great conversation, great guests, and no alcohol. There are all kinds of groups, from a fantastic group of Catholic students to the politically active to vegetarians to who knows what (many of the groups overlap!), not just people who think they are still in high school! And believe me, the kids winning the huge fellowships - the Udall, NOAA $25G, the Watson $25G, etc. etc. etc. - have fun too and do not just sit in their rooms and study!</p>
<p>On the Bates issue, I have nothing but respect for Bates -it is a great school, a beautiful school (though Outside magazine listed Brunswick, home of Bowdoin, as #16 in the top 40 cool college towns - Lewiston was not listed at all). But it is simple fact that Bowdoin IS considered academically superior to Bates. It's reputation goes way, way back, when it was the alma mater of Longfellow and Hawthorne and Joshua Chamberlain, and has never been surpassed in Maine - and it is ALWAYS in the top ten for those who care about such things. That said, Bates is still a great school, and you would have to visit both to see where you want to be (but if you like the ocean or sailing, you really MUST sea Bowdoin's sailing cove, the most beautiful in New England or maybe the US!).</p>
<p>Well, I think most of you know that the only way of getting people to reply on these online forums is to slightly offend the readers. It worked, and thanks for you replies. I have visited Bowdoin numerous times, and Bates too. I really think that Bates (or Wesleyan) is better for me. As far as "Bowdoin is better academically" that is just wrong. They are about the same. I live on the coast of Maine now, so being in Brunswick isn't such a thrill for me-- or in Bowdoin's sailing cove. Lewiston is a diverse, interesting, and dangerous (for Maine) town. The Bates campus is in some ways, I think, nicer than Bowdoin's-- but that just a matter of opinion. Anyway, thanks for responding.</p>
<p>Good luck autmaine. I like Bates college as well and like their campus a little better than Bowdoin's but.....I really don't like Lewiston and much prefer Brunswick as well as being very close to Freeport and the ocean inlets. Bowdoin is academically rated in a different category than Bates, much higher. That's why I chose it over Bates and others. If I were you I would probably try a college outside of Maine just to experience something different.</p>
<p>well, I just transferred to Bowdoin. Transferring makes it a bit harder to assimilate socially. However, I can say that my first Friday night (last night), I was invited to two private parties with very different sorts of people, and that I wound up going to the pub to listen to professors play in an 80s cover band, I danced my ass off and it was actually pretty good yet hilarious all at the same time. If you are a confident enough person that you don't care about most of the campus being just like you, I'd say there is a fair amount to do at Bowdoin. Tonight, I am going to a substance-free house event with pizza, Family Guy, and games like twister and DDR, and later I may go to a Snakes-on-a-Party house party in the house where the frisbee players and Democratic Socialists affiliate. Tomorrow I'm going on a hike with the outing club, which are a lot of pretty rugged, cool people. Oh yeah, and I don't know much about Bates, but I'm pretty satisfied with the approachability and intelligence of profs here so far.</p>
<p>If I had chosen to transfer to a school based on the mainstream culture of that school, I may have wound up at Wesleyan. However, I was somewhat more impressed with the administration and classes at Bowdoin and it offered more for my major -then again, this could have been a coincidental impression gleaned from too short a visit. Either way, I'm pretty damn quirky/artsy/liberal and I'm happy in my first week at Bowdoin.</p>
<p>welcome ecape - racerx was pretty darn good last night!</p>
<p>My son is a happy sophomore at Bowdoin. He loves everything about it. Choose your school wisely...this bickering is ridiculous (although I cannot imagine another school for him...Bowdoin is the BEST). Focus on your goals, interests and happiness. He also loved RacerX.</p>
<p>i see no bickering here, really. and i don't think giving hs students the idea that there is one, "BEST" school for them out there somewhere is a good thing, either. I think it results in a lot of unproductive stress and insanity between the ages of 17-19.</p>