<p>I met a kid who was transferring successfully from Brown to Bowdoin last summer. He had not liked the unapproachable teachers at Brown and extra large classes and was looking for something more intimate. I’m sure it helped that he was coming from a well respected school. Bowdoin seems to really want to know the character and personality of its students. I think honest, polite, mature written correspondence is well received. As a parent of a Bowdoin student, I feel my child was accepted for stats (which you obviously have) but also for the personal qualities they picked up from essays and interviews. The school is small and the winter is long and kids that “work and play well with others” make the school the special happy place that it is. Let them know how you could contribute to the mix with your personality and interests and creative ideas. A disease like mono for example is something that Bowdoin is very familiar with and they would absolutely respect a kid that was able to keep grades up and also that students inability to do much else. If you truly feel you can explain something that was lacking in your application then by all means put yourself more on their radar, it couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>I would agree with the many posters to give Middlebury a chance as it is very similar to Bowdoin. On the other hand, if you really are sure you want to attend Bowdoin, I would defer one year at Middlebury, and reapply to Bowdoin early decision this coming year. I would try to find something interesting and personally meaningful to do in the next year as a gap year. You may even want to let the admission staff know that you have taken a gap year to improve your chances for admission to Bowdoin. Your odds probably go up from 3% for transfer to 30% by ED. I vaguely remember reading on CC about an American living in Britain who said she wanted to attend Bowdoin and took a gap year to improve her chances. I believe she may have been on the waiting list. Don’t know if she ultimately was admitted. If you are willing to take the gap year, you can try again for Bowdoin, and at the same time hold a place for next year at Middlebury in case you don’t get in. Seems like a safe bet as long as you do something worthwhile with the gap year rather than just biding time.</p>
<p>I second pmyen’s recommendation. Take a gap year and go do something helpful in a third world country or something. Go see the world after you’ve sent in your application. That would add something different to your application and up your chances of admission. Transferring from Middlebury would pretty much guarantee you’ll be a Middlebury graduate. Which is fantastic, but not what you want.</p>