Williams vs Bowdoin vs Amherst vs Dartmouth

Colleges and Universities A-Z Bowdoin College
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<p>Hey guys! I am a rising senior in high school and am interested in the four following schools-- Williams College, Bowdoin College, Amherst College, and Dartmouth College. I am very interested in psychology (mainly) and education, as I want to work with special needs kids in an educational way when I grow up. I go to a very small private high school (300 kids) where there is an obvious community feeling, awesome teacher-student relationships, no bullying/cliques, everyone is accepting of each other-- we’re pretty much one big family. I am not really a very social kid outside of school, as I am the kind who’d rather stay home in a comfortable setting than go out partying; have also never drunk nor smoked or done any drugs, so I wouldn’t be really comfortable in a social climate where such behavior dominates. </p>

<p>Knowing this about me, I have a few questions–</p>

<p>1) How are the psychology and/or education departments at each school (versus the others)? In terms of professors, academics, post college-successes, etc… strengths and weaknesses</p>

<p>2) How would you describe the social life? In terms of the people, dominant activities (drinking, extracurriculars, weekend stuff), etc. </p>

<p>3) Regarding the people, how would you describe them? Are they cliquey? Or are they accepting of one another, generally happy, care for one another, etc? What is the feeling you get when you walk through each campus?</p>

<p>4) In general, how are the professors? Are the professors willing to meet with you outside of class, answer questions readily, want to help you, care about your success, are knowledgeable in their respective fields, etc? Or the opposite?</p>

<p>5) Since I am pretty uncomfortable partying and doing a lot of social activities, how is the residential life? Is it beneficial in that you are able to make friends easily? Any good or bad experiences?</p>

<p>So I’m pretty much looking for pros and cons, similarities, differences, uniquenesses, etc. Anything else you want to add, please do! Thanks in advance!!</p>

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<p>If you are uncomfortable with partying I think you really need to consider if Dartmouth should be on your list. While there are kids who don’t party, it’s widely acknowledged that the frat party scene is the dominant social focus on the campus, for better or worse. It consistently ranks well in terms of professor-student relations.</p>

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<p>current bowdoin student here. Please forgive the limitations of my knowledge</p>

<ol>
<li>Psychology, which I have not taken any courses in myself yet (I would like to take 101 but it’s not totally my thing and we only get to take so many courses), is supposed to be a rather tough major at Bowdoin unlike (From what I hear) at a number of other schools. I’ve heard it from a number of people that psych 101 is the most failed course at Bowdoin. That said, all the people I know studying psych, and there are a fair number, really enjoy it here and think the department is great. </li>
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<p>I took Education 101 my first semester and thought it was a great course. While I don’t really have any further interest in education, the course was very interesting to me, not too tough, but it made you really think about our modern american educational system. If i had to knock it one way, I would say the teacher was a little too biased (though she tried to hide it), but she was very good and very passsionate. I have friends taking further education classes currently and they LOVE it. Lots of hands on experience at local schools (and even one course I believe that involved visiting prisoners taking classes in prison), which was even present in my 101 class (we each sat in on a class for a full day and wrote a report on it). While it’s certainly not the most popular department around, i’d say it’s one of the more underrated ones and i’d definitely recommend it.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Social Life - I enjoy going out to drink and partying. Lots of other people enjoy going out to drink and partying. Lots of other people don’t enjoy that kind of thing and spend their friday and saturday nights elsewhere. Lots of people are somewhere in between. I wouldn’t be worried about finding things to do on friday or saturday if you don’t feel like drinking. It seems like there’s plenty to do and plenty of people to hang out with, as is indicated by the fact that Bowdoin is this year opening a new chem-free dorm (and there are already a fair number of chem-free dorms). I will mention that the outing club is very active on campus and is AWESOME. Frequented by both drinkers and nondrinkers alike, it provides great activities year round. If you’re outdoorsy or have an interest in becoming outdoorsy, I strongly suggest you take that into consideration.
P.S. I’ve heard similar things about the dartmouth drinking scene</p></li>
<li><p>Bowdoin people are nice. Are there exceptions? Yes, of course, but the heavy majority of Bowdoin students are incredibly nice, welcoming, friendly, and supportive of each other and our school. I would say social groups develop because you can’t be friends with everyone, but I wouldn’t say it’s cliquey. The groups themselves don’t hold much stigma, there are no “cool” groups or “uncool” groups, it’s just who you generally enjoy spending time with. There’s also lots of interaction between the groups and nobody cares about any of that (for example, at school in what I would call my “group” i have my my best friend and other very good friends, but my second best friend is in another group). Long story short groups are what you make of them. I will say in terms of social life, cliques, life, etc. Bowdoin is very laid back when compared to the other colleges on your list. We tend to have a very relaxed, calm atmosphere and try not to care about things that don’t need caring about.</p></li>
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<p>4.Professors are amazing. I’ve taken 8 classes and one seperate lab, each of those profs knows my name and all except 1 know a fair bit about me. If I see a professor I know around campus, I’ll say “hi, hows it going?”. TAs only exist to lead study groups and all the professors hold office hours all the time to help out students. And if you can’t make office hours, they’ll make special arrangements to meet you another time. Obviously there are exceptions, but the professors are the main reason bowdoin academics are so great. They’re smart, well-informed, enthusiastic, nice (for the most part), friendly, and are there to help you succeed.</p>

<ol>
<li>Res life is awesome. My proctor and RA freshman year were incredible, so nice and helpful and welcoming. Plenty of chem-free options for housing every year if that’s your thing. Freshman year most people will get very close to their floors (chem-free or not) and argue their’s is the best, tightest-knit floor on campus. It’s great because freshman floors (but not rooms) are done randomly so you get a great amount of diversity in them. Long story short freshman year res life will ensure there are plenty of opportunities to make friends, chem-free or not chem-free. They don’t try to do as much for the upperclassmen because they don’t have to for the most part, and the student groups/clubs take on a lot of the burden.</li>
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<p>So yeah, bowdoin’s the great, basically the best school ever, let me know if you have any questions.</p>