<p>hey so i have a few questions about bowdoin:
what’s the social scene like?/typical saturday night?
how does housing work? (not just for freshmen)
is it easy to study abroad?</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>bump! and I’ll add one more: how would you describe the “typical bowdoin student”?</p>
<p>Are there any artsy people at Bowdoin?</p>
<p>The weekend social scene at Bowdoin is like that at any other college campus in the US: lots of partying. That’s not to say you’d feel left out if you chose not to be part of that deal. People also go to Boston for the weekend on occasion, sit around and watch movies with friends, catch up on work, or do anything else. Most people go to parties, but nobody cares if you don’t. </p>
<p>For freshmen housing, you fill out a questionnaire the summer before you matriculate, and the Office of Residential Life fits you with roommates who seem similar to you. Freshmen live in one of six freshmen dorms. One of those dorms and half of another are designated “Chem-Free,” which means that the kids say that they won’t drink or do drugs that year. There’s no social stigma for living in a Chem-Free dorm.</p>
<p>It’s the easiest thing in the world to study abroad. I think around 50% of kids do it their Junior year.</p>
<p>There is no typical Bowdoin student. Common traits do include a passion for their particular interests and a general outgoingness.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and after Freshman year you choose your own roommates and enter the appropriate lottery (for a single, double, triple, quad, or quint). You are given a lottery number based on the class years of the people in your “block” (all your desired roommates), and then you go to this meeting for people in your lottery and you choose your housing (with people with the lowest housing numbers choosing first). </p>
<p>about 97% of students live on campus. some seniors choose to rent houses off campus and live there with 10-15 of their friends.</p>
<p>Would you suggest the chem-free dorms for people who don’t drink, or could they find a niche in the regular dorms?</p>
<p>Yes, there are many people who don’t drink in the regular dorms, just as there are some people who do drink in the Chem-Free dorms.</p>
<p>Where you live is what you make of it. I lived in the dorm that is half chem free and really didn’t take much notice of it at all. As Tzar said…lots of people live in chem free drink and lots of people who don’t live in chem free don’t drink.
In terms of a normal saturday night, it is also what you make of it. There is typically a larger social house party to go to. I would describe this as a frat type of party. Not so great music played very loud, lots of sweaty people in cramped area, and lots of beer.
(Kinda biased view…not a big fan of the mainstream type of social scene. I do my own thing)</p>
<p>But other than that there are plenty of others thing to do. I have spent lots of saturday nights just hanging out in friends rooms, bowling, taking photos. You can go on outing club trips, go to portland or freeport. the list goes on and on. So it really is whatever you want to do. </p>
<p>housing is a lottery after your freshman year. Don’t worry about that. I dnt know anyone who didn’t get on campus housing who applied for it.
Tons of people study abroad…you can go more or less where ever you want. </p>
<p>There are several types of Bowdoin students. Although the student body certainly leans towards the preppy side of the spectrum. There are a lot of jock types. And then the outing club does its own thing too.</p>