Hi all, I am currently a student at Connecticut College in New London. My cousin is deciding between applying ED to either Connecticut College or Bates College in Maine. While I know a lot about Conn, I do not know that much about Bates (I was unable to visit during COVID). How do the two schools compare? This question is more for me but is there a reason Bates is considered more “prestigious” when we have almost the same sized endowment and have quite similar programs?
I mean, you could pay to get all the rankings details from USNews, and that would tell you why they ranked Bates a bit higher. But would that really answer your question?
I will say that my own two cents is Bates has long been known as a very academically strong college, which also has a lot of appeal to certain people because of its setting including proximity to lots of outdoor recreation.
I also note it was early on known as a relatively progressive school, including being quick to admit women after it evolved into a full LAC, and I believe never had frats or sororities. It was therefore sort of positioned as the more progressive and middle class alternative to the then more conservative and upper class Bowdoin. I think in some ways it moved more upscale over the decades, but I think it still retains at least some of that branding, which again appeals to some people.
I actually like Connecticut College’s location (New London is a cool small coastal town), and I think it is very good academically too, but maybe with not quite the same academic reputation as Bates. It also has a pretty different history–it was founded as a women’s college when Wesleyan went male only (ending what was known as The Wesleyan Experiment), which is relatively recently as these things go. So it doesn’t have quite the same deep history. I also think it faces more direct competition given the proximity of so many other colleges, including now Wesleyan again since it is back to coed.
Does this historical comparison help? Maybe not either. The fact of the matter is there is huge demand for good LACs in the Northeast, so plenty of room for both Bates and Connecticut College and many more. Some people may favor Bates for various reasons, but I wouldn’t let that concern me if Connecticut College was right for me.
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Probably a few factors include:
More selective.
Higher yield rate.
Older.
Close ties to the other two Maine NESCACs.
Slightly less urban setting.
More even balance of men and women.
@NiceUnparticularMan , I think you may be misinterpreting some Bates information about its founding. It was the first college in New England to admit women. It started with 16 men and seven women. Chapter 3 | 150 Years | Bates College.
To the OP, I wouldn’t hesitate to apply to both. Both are excellent schools. My own kid is a Bates grad, but considered Conn. I suggest your cousin make an account, as we don’t usually allow “asking for a friend” posts. You can send you cousin a link to CC and let them know what I said here.
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I would recommend your cousin visit both and decide for him or herself if there is a top choice that is worth an ED application. Both are fantastic.
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Yes, you are correct! Here is the story I was getting wrong:
In the fall of 1863 six women and sixteen men (all of them were presumably white) enrolled at Bates in the first freshmen class, but none of the women stayed at the College. All six of the women eventually dropped out by 1867, and only eight men graduated that year. . . . Although President Cheney may have asked the first women at Bates to withdraw, presumably because of “inferior” credentials, he seems to have been fully supportive of the next female student to enroll at the College. In 1865, Mary Wheelwright Mitchell applied to Bates College and “instead of the negative reply that was given to Mary A. Livermore by a New England college President, Mary W. Mitchell was assured that she was in Bates College to stay.” Four years later she became the first female graduate of a New England college.
I was recalling the bit about the first woman to graduate enrolling a couple years after Bates transitioned to being an LAC. I either forgot, or perhaps never knew, about the women who enrolled earlier but then never graduated.
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I’m going off topic here, but one of the ideas behind Bates was that it would serve as a college for the “working class.” From thishttps://www.bates.edu/150-years/history/progressive-tradition/chapter-4/#:~:text=Regardless%20of%20its%20relatively%20poor,class%20of%20people%20it%20attracted. page, it’s worth noting one of Bates’ more well known attributes: egalitarianism.
“During the period from 1855 to 1877, Bates was a relatively under funded college attracting a student body comprised overwhelmingly of poor, rural, Baptist farm boys. Due partially to this demographic characteristic, Bates never developed a fraternity system, made tuition affordable and remained a relatively egalitarian institution during this period.”
This is a large part of the reason why to this day, Bates’ endowment is much smaller than that of, say, Bowdoin. Richer people attended some other NESCAC colleges.
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I may be overly generous in my sense of what is on topic, but I actually do think the information in your post is relevant to answering questions like, “How do the two schools compare?,” and, “is there a reason Bates is considered more ‘prestigious’?”
Prestigious is rarely a helpful word in my experience, but I do think different colleges have what I would call different brands, different submarkets, and so on. With lots of overlap, and they are constantly evolving. But these are not what I would call commodities, they are complex institutions with potentially relevant differences when it comes to the value they offer to different students.
And I do think often, at least some elements of the history of one of these institutions is relevant to understanding their current branding and market positioning. Not the only thing, not in any sort of simple way, but it is all part of what helps to give these institutions their individual characters.
Of course we may be just boring the OP at this point, but at least for me, I think learning some history has always helped me better understand colleges today.
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I’m okay leaving this thread open as long as it remains a general conversation comparing these two schools. For information specific to the OP’s cousin, such as how their stats and preferences fit at each school, the cousin should create an account and ask the questions. Asking for a friend posts are against ToS in 99% of cases. Thanks for your understanding.
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Conn has merit scholarships, so for many students it’s $120,000 cheaper than Bates over four years.
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Making it one of the most interesting (to me at least) colleges in the area to have a really robust merit program.
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Considered by academic fields for which I’d suggest one school over the other, I’d recommend Bates for geosciences and Connecticut College for botany, visual art and dance.
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No I agree with you there!
Yeah my family member asked if I could post on their behalf with another account because they are already so overwhelmed and I did not realize that was against the Terms of Service for this forum. I will see if they will make their own account and ask these questions.
They liked the courses at Conn more than Bates but are also looking for that outdoor recreation you mentioned. Not sure which is more important to them, but they seem to be in love with Conn’s courses and like their student life while they are in love with Bates’ student life and just meh - ok with about their course offerings.
As this thread is already discussing the family member, I’m closing the thread.