<p>What are the chances of transferring to Bowdoin from another LAC(Carleton)? Before you give any replies, this is a special case of a friend of mine who, after freshman year at Carleton will take two years off to serve in the Army(Non-U.S.). Not only will he have two years of army experience, he’ll also be helping out in the kinesioogy department in the army so he’ll be studying to be a certified trainer, start his own fitness training business, etc… </p>
<p>On top of that he’s a D3 basketball prospect, and is thinking about contacting NESCAC coaches to see if he can get some sort of pull on admission(He did not play at Carleton but has been to a lot of camps/showcases to garner enough D3 talent). His freshman GPA is a 3.8 -</p>
<p>What are the chances that if he applies during his army service to Bowdoin and get admitted as a sophomore transfer? I realize it’s a tricky and unusual case.</p>
<p>Looking at Bowdoin’s Common Data Set for 2009-2010, of 161 transfer applicants, 8 were admitted and 3 enrolled. Your friend’s military experience (non-U.S.) could make him an interesting prospect. Though he wouldn’t be a Yellow Ribbon Program participant I assume, the recent proposal to Bowdoin Student Government suggests interest in educating veterans on the part of some students. [BSG</a> hears proposal for veteran recruitment - The Bowdoin Orient](<a href=“http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2010-12-03§ion=1&id=8]BSG”>http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2010-12-03§ion=1&id=8)
Amherst currently has one of their soccer standouts serving his home country for two years of military service, started after his freshman year. I would think that your friend, as a possible basketball prospect who did very well at a respected LAC, shouldn’t rule out Bowdoin for possible transfer.</p>
<p>i think it may have to do with him not being motivated at carl - hes from new england and misses the east coast as well as the outdoors, where as minnesota has little to offer in that regard.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? Missing his home region is one thing, but to say Minnesota is lacking in the outdoors is absolutely and outrageously and ignorantly inaccurate. You obviously know next to nothing about the state. Parts of the state are as mountainous and woodsy as New England, and other parts are as flat and barren as western Kansas. I think I know the parts you’ve been to and those you haven’t. I’ve LIVED in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. I’ve also LIVED in Minnesota. The state has over 10,000 friggin’ lakes of every size and description. Some would put New England lakes to shame. </p>
<p>Maybe the guy at Carleton is looking for something right off campus and can’t find it. Blame the town he’s in, not the whole state. New England can’t touch Minnesota for things like freshwater fishing. Not even close. And all the water sports and boating that go with it. Not to mention hiking, running from wolves and bears (LOL), camping, skiing, ice fishing. I swear, the state has more snowmobile dealerships than Honda dealerships.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? I’m a native of the northeast, went to undergrad in New York. I just don’t get the east coast bias some have on CC.</p>
<p>Carleton is considered to have the best undergraduate teachers of any college (US News) is tied for number 6 among colleges (US News ranking) is number 6 on the Forbes list while Bowdoin is number 40, requires SAT scores, Bowdoin optional SAT reporting, Carleton is a powerhouse in PhD production while Bowdoin doesn’t even rank in any category (see Reed College PhD Productivity) So why the heck transfer?</p>
<p>It’s unclear to me why SAT submission policies matter at all to a student attempting to determine whether a certain school fits him or not. I am equally unconvinced that PhD productivity matters at all, unless the student in question (who is putatively not the OP) intends to pursue a PhD. Even then, I’m not sure how Bowdoin not appearing on Reed College’s PhD Productivity Rank is indicative of its ability or inability to educate appropriately for top PhD programs. I’m curious especially since so many of my friends from Bowdoin go to or have gone to top PhD programs in both the Humanities and Sciences despite Bowdoin not being a leader in PhD production. It should also be noted that Reed’s PhD Productivity system ranks 10 schools only, so the undergraduate schools of some of my own college professors and some of my current friends who are professors (Brown and Dartmouth, for instance) are also not ranked. I’m also curious why you think USNews can somehow be trusted as a legitimate source of academic assessment by ranking Carleton 6th, when Forbes ranks Bowdoin, a school deemed by USNews to be of “equal” quality to Carelton, 40th. This same list ranks UPenn 52nd, Reed 92nd, and Dartmouth 30th, just below Union. I think Carleton is fabulous, but it appears the student in question prefers Bowdoin, which is also considered to be one of the best undergraduate colleges in the country by USNews. This is clearly an issue of fit and not quality. Denigrating Bowdoin through the selective use of data makes Carleton no more attractive.</p>
<p>Here is the top 100 per capita PhD list (courtesy of interesteddad):
Percentage of graduates getting a PhD
Academic field: ALL</p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees: ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database
Number of Undergraduates: ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database </p>
<p>Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period.
Note: Includes all NSF doctoral degrees inc. PhD, Divinity, etc., but not M.D. or Law.</p>
<p>1 35.8% California Institute of Technology<br>
2 24.7% Harvey Mudd College
3 21.1% Swarthmore College<br>
4 19.9% Reed College<br>
5 18.3% Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
6 16.8% Carleton College<br>
7 15.8% Bryn Mawr College<br>
8 15.7% Oberlin College
9 15.3% University of Chicago<br>
10 14.5% Yale University
11 14.3% Princeton University<br>
12 14.3% Harvard University<br>
13 14.1% Grinnell College<br>
14 13.8% Haverford College<br>
15 13.8% Pomona College<br>
16 13.1% Rice University
17 12.7% Williams College<br>
18 12.4% Amherst College
19 11.4% Stanford University
20 11.3% Kalamazoo College<br>
21 11.0% Wesleyan University
22 10.6% St John's College (both campus)
23 10.6% Brown University<br>
24 10.4% Wellesley College<br>
25 10.0% Earlham College
26 9.6% Beloit College<br>
27 9.5% Lawrence University
28 9.3% Macalester College<br>
29 9.0% Cornell University, All Campuses<br>
30 9.0% Bowdoin College
31 8.9% Mount Holyoke College<br>
32 8.9% Smith College<br>
33 8.8% Vassar College<br>
34 8.7% Case Western Reserve University
35 8.7% Johns Hopkins University<br>
36 8.7% St Olaf College
37 8.7% Hendrix College
38 8.6% Hampshire College<br>
39 8.5% Trinity University<br>
40 8.5% Knox College<br>
41 8.5% Duke University
42 8.4% Occidental College<br>
43 8.3% University of Rochester
44 8.3% College of Wooster<br>
45 8.3% Barnard College
46 8.2% Bennington College<br>
47 8.1% Columbia University in the City of New York
48 8.0% Whitman College
49 7.9% University of California-Berkeley<br>
50 7.9% College of William and Mary
51 7.8% Carnegie Mellon University<br>
52 7.8% New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology<br>
53 7.7% Brandeis University
54 7.6% Dartmouth College<br>
55 7.5% Wabash College<br>
56 7.5% Bates College<br>
57 7.5% Davidson College<br>
58 7.2% Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br>
59 7.2% Franklin and Marshall College<br>
60 7.1% Fisk University
61 7.1% Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)<br>
62 6.8% University of California-San Francisco<br>
63 6.8% Allegheny College<br>
64 6.6% Furman University<br>
65 6.5% University of Pennsylvania<br>
66 6.5% Washington University<br>
67 6.5% Bard College<br>
68 6.4% Northwestern Univ<br>
69 6.4% Rhodes College<br>
70 6.3% Agnes Scott College
71 6.3% Spelman College
72 6.2% Antioch University, All Campuses<br>
73 6.2% Kenyon College<br>
74 6.2% University of Dallas<br>
75 6.1% Ripon College<br>
76 6.1% Colorado College<br>
77 6.1% Bethel College (North Newton, KS)<br>
78 6.0% Hamilton College<br>
79 6.0% Goshen College<br>
80 6.0% Middlebury College<br>
81 6.0% Erskine College
82 5.9% University of the South
83 5.8% University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
84 5.8% Drew University
85 5.8% Wake Forest University<br>
86 5.8% Tougaloo College<br>
87 5.8% Goucher College
88 5.7% Chatham College
89 5.7% Cooper Union<br>
90 5.7% Alfred University, Main Campus<br>
91 5.7% Tufts University<br>
92 5.6% University of California-Santa Cruz
93 5.6% Colgate University<br>
94 5.5% Colby College<br>
95 5.4% Bucknell University
96 5.4% Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
97 5.4% Concordia Teachers College<br>
98 5.4% University of Virginia, Main Campus
99 5.3% Sarah Lawrence College<br>
100 5.3% Southwestern University
<p>Thank you for the nested list, von. Of the 20 or so classmates I keep in contact with, the majority are MDs, LLDs, MBAs. There are only two in scientific research with PhDs. There’s one that works part time as a stuntman in Hollywood. This list is sort of obfuscating because of the evident “8% PhD rate at a massive university means 800 PhDs vs. 15% PhD rate at a smaller school yields 200 PhDs.” And then there are the “Doctors of Slurpology”.</p>
<p>On a different topic, as to why someone might transfer to B-town: Consider the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean and the peninsular midcoast of Maine. Not every top LAC has that. And, of course, there is also the BFI.</p>
<p>There are some academically serious high school kids who might gravitate to academically serious schools like Bowdoin that have a high proportion of like-minded students who don’t care about a school being cool or not. A PhD is often needed to work in any kind of cutting-edge research.</p>
<p>’“8% PhD rate at a massive university means 800 PhDs vs. 15% PhD rate at a smaller school yields 200 PhDs.”’</p>
<p>A higher percentage at a small school might be of interest to those who value a group of like-minded peers.</p>
<p>‘And then there are the “Doctors of Slurpology”.’</p>
<p>Bowdoin does well in the science and technology categories:</p>
<p>Percentage of total grads getting PhDs in Engineering, Hard Science, and Math</p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees: ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database
Number of Undergraduates: ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database<br>
Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period
1 34% California Institute of Technology<br>
2 24% Harvey Mudd College
3 16% Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
4 10% Reed College<br>
5 9% Rice University
6 8% Swarthmore College<br>
7 8% Princeton University<br>
8 7% Carleton College<br>
9 7% New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology<br>
10 7% University of Chicago<br>
11 7% Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br>
12 7% Case Western Reserve University
13 6% Harvard University<br>
14 6% Carnegie Mellon University<br>
15 6% Johns Hopkins University<br>
16 6% Haverford College<br>
17 6% Grinnell College<br>
18 6% Cornell University, All Campuses<br>
19 5% Kalamazoo College<br>
20 5% Stanford University
21 5% Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
22 5% Yale University
23 5% Cooper Union<br>
24 5% Oberlin College
25 5% Lawrence University
26 5% Bryn Mawr College<br>
27 5% Williams College<br>
28 5% Pomona College<br>
29 4% Colorado School of Mines<br>
30 4% **Bowdoin College**<br>
31 4% Earlham College
32 4% Brown University<br>
33 4% University of Rochester
34 4% University of California-Berkeley<br>
35 4% Wabash College<br>
36 4% Duke University
37 4% Worcester Polytechnic Institute
38 4% Amherst College
39 4% Stevens Institute of Technology
40 4% St Olaf College
41 4% Hendrix College
42 4% Beloit College<br>
43 4% University of Missouri, Rolla<br>
44 4% University of California-San Francisco<br>
45 4% Occidental College<br>
46 4% Alfred University, Main Campus<br>
47 4% Allegheny College<br>
48 4% Whitman College
49 4% College of Wooster<br>
50 4% SUNY College of Environmental Sci & Forestry<br>
51 4% Mount Holyoke College<br>
52 4% Bates College<br>
53 4% College of William and Mary
54 4% Knox College<br>
55 3% Franklin and Marshall College<br>
56 3% Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus<br>
57 3% Washington University<br>
58 3% Long Island University Southampton Campus<br>
59 3% Macalester College<br>
60 3% University of California-San Diego<br>
61 3% Dartmouth College<br>
62 3% Wellesley College<br>
63 3% Trinity University<br>
64 3% Juniata College
65 3% Ripon College<br>
66 3% University of California-Davis<br>
67 3% Florida Institute of Technology
68 3% Polytechnic University<br>
69 3% Michigan Technological University<br>
70 3% Columbia University in the City of New York
71 3% Lehigh University<br>
72 3% University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br>
73 3% Centre College<br>
74 3% Hampshire College<br>
75 3% University of Pennsylvania<br>
76 3% Wesleyan University
77 3% University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
78 3% Colorado College<br>
79 3% Bucknell University
80 3% Davidson College<br>
81 3% Northwestern Univ<br>
82 3% Texas Lutheran University<br>
83 3% St John's College (both campus)
84 3% Furman University<br>
85 3% Hope College<br>
86 2% Clarkson University
87 2% University of Virginia, Main Campus
88 2% Illinois Institute of Technology<br>
89 2% Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ<br>
90 2% Union College (Schenectady, NY)
91 2% University of California-Santa Cruz
92 2% Lafayette College<br>
93 2% Brandeis University
94 2% University of Dallas<br>
95 2% Rhodes College<br>
96 2% University of Notre Dame<br>
97 2% Middlebury College<br>
98 2% University of Wisconsin-Madison
99 2% Colgate University<br>
100 2% Hiram College
<p>Remember that the big schools are at a disadvantage in such tables; they typically offer more variety, lowering the percentages of students in any single discipline. Try comparing big with big, small with small.</p>