Trip report: Bates, Bowdoin & Colby

bateskid09
Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:11:39 +0000

I am an upcoming sophomore at Bates. I love the school. The College was founded by those who were ahead of their time. Bates was the first college in New England to accept women, the only college discussed of the three to never have frats, and today’s policy of optional SATs. Their really is an egalitarian feel to the school. I’m from a small town of 1,600 in southern md, and comign to the Lewiston Auburn area is like a metropolis to me. I love Lewiston, it really makes you realize how difficult some people have it. Unlike Brunswick it does not have any seasonal residents, I feel as if you get more of a “maine experience.” I am a double major in poli sci/history (american politics, asian history) and I can tell you that the facultyof the Asian Studies program are top notch. If your son was to come to Bates, he would find that Chinese is the second most popular language (after spanish), and the college has 5 full time faculty members devoted just to Chinese and Japanese. Also a new dorm and dining hall are currently being built and we just finished a Campaign that will help the College’s resources. As for the rankings, I do believe Bates is highly underranked (i think should be around 15ish), but was ranked number 1 by Pr for “best value college.” Bates faculty are also very very committed, they currently make on average less than 10,000 than their peers at other nescac schools (with the new campaign being ended faculty salaries will be improved considerably). A lot of professors told me they have had offers to leave to go to other schools for higher pay, but they said that they could never leave Bates one professor told me not for a million dollars! Well sorry for being so long, if you have any other questions about Bates or Lewiston just ask!