<p>I’m really interested in several NESCAC schools, and I’m wondering how open the Bates campus community is to people with strong religious beliefs. Is it open and welcoming? Skeptical? Hostile? How would you characterize life at Bates for a religious person?</p>
<p>When I was at Bates my sense was that the student body was pretty accepting of all faiths. I’m an atheist. My freshmen roommates were a mainline Catholic and a born-again Christian, and my best friend outside the dorm was a Muslim. We all got along well, and years later are still close. I felt comfortable enough with my born again roommate to attend a few Fellowship events with her and I never heard her voice any concerns about feeling out of place on campus. My only caveat would be that if you would not feel comfortable in an environment where you’d be living in close quarters with people with different lifestyles or political and religious views from yours Bates might not be the place for you. While Bates has a large and active Christian Fellowship, Hillel, gospel choir and other religious groups, it also has an active LGBTQ group (OUTfront). When I was on campus this weekend there were messages written on the sidewalks in chalk celebrating National Coming Out Day. Like most New England liberal arts colleges Bates is a fairly liberal place and any suggestion of intolerance toward your fellow classmates would put you out of the mainstream. Only you can honestly decide how you’d feel about spending your days living with people who may disagree with your religious views. Would passing signs touting a protest in support of abortion rights or gay marriage be upsetting to you? Would you feel comfortable living with a roommate who was having premarital you-know-what or who was an avowed atheist? </p>
<p>You may also want to ask your question of one of the contact people for the Bates student religious organizations. Their contact emails are listed here:</p>
<p>[Organizations</a> A-Z | Student Activities | Bates College](<a href=“http://www.bates.edu/activities/student-orgs/all/]Organizations”>http://www.bates.edu/activities/student-orgs/all/)</p>
<p>I should add that what I’ve said about Bates probably applies to all the NESCAC schools. While there is some variation among schools the continuum is rather narrow, and if you come from, say, a highly religious Midwestern community you may find that it takes a bit to adjust to a place where the vast majority of students have never been to a bible study group or prayer circle.</p>