<p>Here's a link to the video of NBC News item on Wil Smith and diversity at Bowdoin:
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18355083/%5B/url%5D">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18355083/</a></p>
<p>shut up hellojane</p>
<p>What a great and constructive comment, fobnyker. It's too bad that these discussions, rather than providing differing informed views on Bowdoin, are deteriorating in the manner that they are.</p>
<p>My bad, hellojane and oliver.</p>
<p>let me second fobnyker's FIRST comment. hellojane, please, we know what you think already...we have heard a GREAT deal from you about just how bad of a place bowdoin is. Every last post you have made has been unrelentingly, unequivocally, unstintingly negative. You don't explain your situation, other than saying that people make fun of your accent. If you have any personal anecdotes, examples from people you know or experiences that you've had, or you would care to specify the type of situation that you're in and WHY people made fun of your accent, who tends to do it (if there are specific TYPES of people who make fun of it, i.e. the hockey team, which I've heard is pretty meatheaded) please, CLARIFY. Otherwise, don't just go venting your frustration with Bowdoin on every Bowdoin-related thread on CC that you can find. I'm definitely NOT asking you to provide information that might personally identify you while furnishing anecdotes, but I do ask you to be more constructive in your postings and not feel the need to chime in every time anybody posts anything bowdoin-related on this website.</p>
<p>we prospective students have become well-acquainted with your point of view, believe me, and while we don't doubt that you have had some bad experiences, the proper place for you to vent your frustration would be on xanga or blogspot or some type of blog, not on college confidential. Once you've made your point, there's no need to keep beating a [long-dead] horse to death. People who participate in these discussions are making real decisions and are running out of time to do so, and your perpetual need to make yourself heard, at the expense of constructive discussion, is interfering with that.</p>
<p>I personally feel that the hockey team is composed of some of the nicer male varsity athletes who I know.</p>
<p>My D's best friend from middle school days is going to Bowdoin. She's wonderful, bright as can be, black and from a Baltimore public high school -- a magnet school, the oldest public girl's high school in the nation... And she knows of three other black girls from Baltimore public high schools going to Bowdoin in the fall.</p>
<p>It sounds like Bowdoin is trying to have true diversity -- where there's a critical mass of black and other minority students so that the white majority can really learn from them instead of expecting them to assimilate into the white majority.</p>
<p>Here are some stats (go to the far right drop-down menu for Student Characteristics):
<a href="http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?InstitutionID=161004%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?InstitutionID=161004</a></p>
<p>Anyway, she's really excited and got a good feeling from her visit so she's going. She's also getting a full scholarship, so that helps :)</p>
<p>It was asked that I describe specific situations, and make more constructive. I can tell you that you do not understand the nature of this place. I write the wrong sentences, and it will be extremely obvious who I am. If you are tying to make an informed decision, come to the school when people are off their guard. Go to the parties. Everyone has a motive for whatever they tell you. I am not not going to list specific situations here: that is the bottom line.</p>
<p>i feel like i really need to say that IT IS IMPORTANT to hang out with the right people. no, if you don't look like the perfect blond preps, i wouldn't advise applying to live in baxter house. i figured that would be kind of obvious, but i guess not.. obviously people aren't going to be super accepting at parties--drunk people go to parties to find the most attractive person willing to hook up with them. i don't go to parties (like that, anyways), i have friends, and i do feel happy and comfortable at bowdoin. i think that that is possible for everyone, honestly, though if you are looking for a school that is already diverse, bowdoin is not the place you're looking for.</p>
<p>Maine itself is becoming more diverse, especially in the south and on the coast.</p>