Hi everyone, so I recently got admitted to Bowdoin and Carleton College in the US, both with really generous scholarships, but I’m really lost on which one to choose. I’m a first gen low income Latam student so this is definitely a big deal for me.
For Carleton, I received a full ride, they covered my tuition, room, food, health insurance, well everything. I’ll still need to work on campus bc part of my scholarship is from student employment (3K), and this will basically cover my personal expenses.
As for Bowdoin, they also covered my tuition and health insurance, but I still need to cost 4K per year to cover the remaining housing and food expenses. Besides, I’ll also work there to pay my personal expenses (2.5K).
I’m aiming to major in political science and data science (or something related to tech in general or economics, still deciding). Both schools are amazing but idk how to weight these things since I need to compare college life, academics, prestige, financial burden and many other things, so I would really appreciate your opinions on that
IMO Carleton is a bit more academically intense than Bowdoin, partially due to the Trimester calendar. Bowdoin is on a semester calendar, where you have most of January off.
You might ask Bowdoin to match Carleton’s FA offer. There’s no risk in asking, and they could say yes.
These are both great colleges and you can’t make a bad choice. I agree it wouldn’t hurt to ask if Bowdoin would match, the worst thing they can do is say no.
I agree about asking Bowdoin to match (though that may just make your decision harder if they do!) I am not sure of your exact circumstances but I would imagine for most low income students from developing countries, an extra $4000 a year to find is quite a lot.
I don’t think you can go wrong. Fwiw a couple of people in my team graduated from Carleton in the past few years and both of them absolutely loved their time there.
I really appreciate Bowdoin’s efforts at “leveling”, or addressing the hidden disadvantages for low-income students. For example, everyone gets a laptop, funds for winter coat, boots, hat and gloves, $7500 for a low-pay internship, etc. There’s easy access to some kinds of recreational gear/equipment, etc. I think they’ve thought through some of the financial hurdles that can create an uneven experience for its students.
I don’t know any details, but I believe most of that is organized through the TRIO program:
If the OP (or anyone with an offer considering Carleton) had questions about these sorts of services, I suspect they could ask Admissions, who might either know the answers or could put them into contact with someone who does.
