I never claimed to be a alumnus. I mentioned that my daughter goes to Bates. We clearly don’t have similar experiences with Bates and I hope you’ll respect that and stop sending me private messages claiming that I’m fake. You have been on this site since 2014 and claim to be a parent too. You have made over 7400 mostly positive posts which is admirable. Do you work with Bates Admissions office?
Choosing a college is an important decision and people come to CC to learn about colleges that they are considering. It’s fair that they get different perspectives and not just from a few dedicated parents who have only great things to say.
I am a parent. I am not connected with Bates in any way, other than my child currently attending. Claims of large classes are not backed up by evidence. Freshman have a lot of leeway in required classes. It’s very broad. As I mentioned, my kid had one class with 60. Her next largest class was her short term, with 25. All of her other freshman year classes were 25 or less. Maybe some kids have several large classes, but given that nearly 400 classes have less than 30 students, you have to be pretty unlucky for that to happen…
Some classes are very difficult. My kid is in a language class in which half the kids dropped. My daughter loves it, and her average is 99 in that class. The prof is great. I seriously doubt a Bates prof has done such a poor job that he/she was unable to teach the majority of students. If that is the case, that prof shouldn’t be there. A student can certainly be at fault. Even at Bates, kids get put on academic probation. But it’s speculative to assume kids dropped due to a bad prof.
As far as socializing, Bates has a very high retention rate, at 95%. That speaks for itself.
Besides the Freshman Seminar course that has an enrollment limit of 15, in Fall for example Bates offers about 90 courses for Freshman (100 level courses). Two-thirds of these classes have enrollment limits of 39 or higher. About 16 courses have enrollment limits of 49 or higher and about 6 have enrollment limits of 60 or higher. Smaller 100 level courses are in Arts, Foreign Languages, and Math generally. And yes there are courses with enrollment limits of 90+. About half of the second year courses have enrollment limits of 39 or higher. Courses taken by juniors and seniors (300 and 400 level courses) have low enrollment limits.
Back to the issue of resources and expectations for support. Since the Freshman Seminar Professors are the main advisors to freshmen, the level of support will depend on their interest and effort. In general, while Bates has an impressive US News raking, and a beautiful campus, its endowment fund is not as large as its sister schools’ (Bowdoin’s endowment is $1.46 billion; Colby’s is $710.7 million, while Bates’s is $293.8 million). So Bates cannot spend as much from endowment income. The leadership of the college is working hard to raise funds for Bates and I hope they are seccussful in closing the gap.
@sn1920, You can argue all you want about enrollment limits. I gave you actual enrollment figures for last year in post #17. Using enrollment limits instead of actual figures isn’t helpful because there are many small classes with no enrollment limits but very small classes. For instance, most of the first year language and music courses have unlimited theoretical enrollments but single digit actual enrollments.
Some of the things its peer schools fund that Bates does not fund through the endowment:
A golf course
A ski hill
Cute little downtown shops operated by the college at a loss.
All of these things are nice to have but they don’t affect the quality of academics or of the advisory systems. Your child’s experience may have been different from mine, but in my experience the academic advising at Bates is excellent.
The FYS is an excellent way for freshmen and their advisors to get to know each other. The advisor gets to see the student in action and can assess the quality of their writing. Because the class is limited to 15 and is in a topic the student has selected from the list of available courses the FYS advisor is often selected later as the student’s major/thesis advisor. Because they see them multiple times each week, unlike a traditional advising system where the student needs to make an appointment to see their advisor, the professor can also be on the lookout for warning signs such as missed classes or late work.
You’ve been on this site since 2006 and have posted over 4800 times. Do you still have children at Bates?
Bates seems to do a great job of marketing, but I’m not sure if the faculty and staff are on board with delivering.
I have one who recently graduated from Bates and one who’s still there. I joined this site when I was looking at prep schools that started in 6th grade for my eldest. In my experience Bates delivers.
@sn1920 your posts would be more credible if you could elaborate on the experiences of your daughter. Most of your posts about the school are negative. Your claims about huge classes, profs who are too busy to deal with freshmen, unsupportive staff, etc…don’t seem to be backed up by any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise. There is no evidence to support what you are saying. I’m sorry your daughter is having a bad time at the school, but given that Bates has a 95% retention rate and a very high rate of students graduating in four years, it appears that your child is unfortunately one of the kids who has not benefitted by being there. I am wondering why you would keep her there if she has had, what I would assume is, such a bad experience.
Here is my experience and my child’s experience at Bates. She is now a sophomore. She has enjoyed every single class she has had. I have already mentioned that her largest class so far (intro level), had 60 kids. All of her other classes have been in the region of 25 or fewer, and she is not doing an unusual major. She has told me repeatedly that every prof she has ever had knows her by name, and she is a quiet kid who doesn’t like to be noticed.
When she was having a hard time as a new freshman, the Dean of Students emailed me personally. The director of Res life arranged meetings with her, without letting her know that I had been in touch with them, and emailed me weekly. She was able to get an appointment at the counseling center just a few days after she went in. Her counselor scheduled weekly meetings with her and encouraged her to get involved in several activities. Her FYS prof met with her a number of times to make sure she was taking all the right classes. Just a couple of weeks ago, she went to her first year seminar prof to get a reference for a job. She has already been in touch with her new advisor for her major.
My D is a sample of 1, but her dyslexic friend, who has extended test time, returned for another year. My friend’s daughter also attends Bates and has already secured 2 summer internships (junior this year), and has had a campus job and a great experience with her work/study position. We know, of course, that some kids don’t return to Bates, but the number is small.
I have to wonder why your child is at the college still, if you aren’t sure the staff are “on board with delivering.” Honestly, your posts sound like a former employee with a grudge, rather than a parent with a kid at the school.
I think some of the anti Bates comments are simply inflammatory, a case of dropping little bombs like doubts faculty and staff are delivering. What’s the point?