Middlebury vs. Bowdoin

urbanslaughter
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:57:59 +0000

These Midd/Bowdoin threads have been going on forever. I can respond to a few of your concerns. There is virtually no difference in prestige between the two. As someone else pointed out, there may have been a time when Bowdoin was viewed as slightly more prestigious. If anything, that’s switched and today Midd may be viewed as SLIGHTLY more prestigious, but it’s not enough to matter. Anyone who has heard of one will have heard of the other. Today USN&WR ranks Midd a spot or two better, but that certainly doesn’t represent any sort of qualitative difference. Interestingly, a few years ago Newsweek published their list of the New Ivies. In that article they stated that it used to be that you wanted to attend any of the Ivies plus Stanford, MIT or a few of the select LACs which, according to Newsweek included Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore and Middlebury. The article went on to say that the list has grown and now includes Bowdoin among other schools.

Don’t misinterpret acceptance rate as an indicator of prestige. Both Middlebury and Bowdoin have lower acceptance rates than Williams and higher acceptance rates than Centre College. Surely, you wouldn’t say Centre was the most prestigious school in that group.

I also wanted to discuss the artsy vs. athletic aspect at Midd. One thing I’ve always liked about Midd is that the students really interact well (I presume this also occurs at Bowdoin). It’s not at all unusual to see the football quarterback or lacrosse goalie attending an art opening. In just the same way, it’s not unusual to see the student who had the art opening rushing out to catch a hockey game. This interaction is a big part of your education. Good luck. It’s a great choice to have.