Bowdoin College
- 4 Year
- BRUNSWICK, ME
College
Bowdoin College Reviews
Rating 4.11 out of 5 705 reviews
All Categories
many of the students are amazing and intelligent and will do great things after graduating. However, admin struggles to listen to student needs and there is a lack of diversity.
Bowdoin is very academically rigorous. However, this academic rigor and it’s growing reputation ensures that it will give students the best career opportunities. It is a tight knit and intimate environment with a strong sense of community. An all-undergraduate population ensures that students get equal access to resources, professors, internships and research opportunities. Campus is small, but beautiful especially in the fall and winter. Food is really good, and the town has great options if you wanna switch it up. I would definitely recommend this school to someone who is smart enough to get into an Ivy League school, but craves a more intimate environment.
Excellent academics. Good environment for study. Rural Maine is not a thriving social environment, but the college makes up for that limitation. The setting is extraordinarily beautiful and the campus is well_designed and very complete.
I am a sophomore at Bowdoin this year. I come from far away and am a POC. Although the school is flawed in many ways, I do think that they care about their students. I say this as a Covid student, never having a "real" year. There were definitely mistakes and administration could be improved, but the wonderful gems of students and professors and some administration make Bowdoin great. One of the best schools in the country no doubt. It's not for everyone but it's for me and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Amazing college with incredible opportunities and bright students!! The professors are top notch and the school is only 20 minutes from Portland, so while it’s in an adorable Maine town, you can easily get to a city if you like.
I graduated from Bowdoin in 1996 so consider this a long-term owner's review :-) I've appreciated my time at Bowdoin the more as I've moved through life. I most appreciate my friends (still talk to my first year roommates once a month), my professors, and the support I got from the School when I was looking for a job and graduate school. I'm now in a great leadership job at Google, got my MBA from Harvard, and spend a lot of my free time on volunteer efforts for the Common Good. Thanks Bobo!
I did not experience an online learning education from this school. Hopefully it was suitable to others!
Great quality of life, excellent academics, and life-long friends. Plenty of opportunities to study off-campus and get involved in a variety of community service opportunities. Maine is beautiful and a wonderful place to attend college.
Bowdoin, like many of their peers (NESCAC and Ivy schools) is worried first and foremost about their reputation and endowment. Academically it is top notch and is not for the faint of heart.
Socially it's like a Prep School on steroids, if you are looking for a party school this likely isn't the place for you, also the local Police are known to come down hard on the students and the school does more to ensure their reputation is intact than support their students.
As a high end academic school athletics is secondary. Historically they were well integrated into the culture, but as the school has evolved and eliminated things like sororities and fraternities, athletics, especially for the men, has become less valued.
Two examples come to mind. The men's football program has only won 3 games since 2015, and the hockey program, which has a very distinguished history, has struggled for the past 4-5 years since the long term coach retired, as his replacement has struggled.
Socially it's like a Prep School on steroids, if you are looking for a party school this likely isn't the place for you, also the local Police are known to come down hard on the students and the school does more to ensure their reputation is intact than support their students.
As a high end academic school athletics is secondary. Historically they were well integrated into the culture, but as the school has evolved and eliminated things like sororities and fraternities, athletics, especially for the men, has become less valued.
Two examples come to mind. The men's football program has only won 3 games since 2015, and the hockey program, which has a very distinguished history, has struggled for the past 4-5 years since the long term coach retired, as his replacement has struggled.
Online classes have improved since the spring of 2020 but still isn't on par with the on campus experience. But that hasn't prevented Bowdoin from charging full price. If they didn't have an endowment around $1.8 billion you might think they can't afford it, but in fact they do have a considerable endowment and still are looking for ways to charge more.
I have enjoyed my experience at Bowdoin thus far! The professors are all extremely knowledgable, kind, and caring. The students are unique, fun, great people.
I took classes online last semester. The professors were able to adjust content so it felt more engaging.
One of the best undergraduate institutions in the nation. Once you're a Polar Bear, always a Polar Bear.
Professor's try really hard to adapt and provide the best learning experience for students. The school even sent out free iPad Pros to every single student in the school which we get to keep.
Bowdoin is an all-around stellar school. It is comparable to the ivy league in terms of the quality of education.
I was a senior during the year we transition to online school, and most of my classes were seamlessly transitioned to online learning.
I took classes online just like every other college student during the pandemic, for being a small liberal arts school that has never taught online, I would say Bowdoin did a pretty good job at coming together to teach virtually. However the school does not offer online courses with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I couldn't have picked a better school! I am absolutely in love with my college and proud to be a Bowdoin student. The professors and staff are there to help support you during your academic journey and the students are amazing! The campus is very welcoming and the food is great!
The profs did about as well as they could have, but some profs lacked an empathy for those international students who couldn’t attend live lectures. Pretty run of the mill, but with the school going online for potentially the whole next year for students I fear for the longevity of the online learning experience.
I went to Bowdoin very excited! I am from SC and I wanted to see a different area of the country. I’m outgoing so I wasn’t worried about the transition, but what I found made me intensely unhappy at Bowdoin.
-Academically, Bowdoin is great. Profs are great (if a little quirky), but always make themselves available.
-Bowdoin is a VERY culturally homogeneous place. Bowdoin’s reputation as a happy campus stems from homogeneity: a vast majority of students are from the Midatlantic or Northeast, and went to private or boarding schools.
-Socially, Bowdoin takes on a boarding school culture. Acapella performances, plays, and ultimate frisbee teams are big on campus, and if you don’t love these, it’s hard. Many people act aloof, tense, and unfriendly, and the parties are pretty bad. Socially it’s pretty dead here.
These things, combined with a large athlete divide, caused me to transfer. All I can say to incoming students from more diverse backgrounds is to tread carefully.
-Academically, Bowdoin is great. Profs are great (if a little quirky), but always make themselves available.
-Bowdoin is a VERY culturally homogeneous place. Bowdoin’s reputation as a happy campus stems from homogeneity: a vast majority of students are from the Midatlantic or Northeast, and went to private or boarding schools.
-Socially, Bowdoin takes on a boarding school culture. Acapella performances, plays, and ultimate frisbee teams are big on campus, and if you don’t love these, it’s hard. Many people act aloof, tense, and unfriendly, and the parties are pretty bad. Socially it’s pretty dead here.
These things, combined with a large athlete divide, caused me to transfer. All I can say to incoming students from more diverse backgrounds is to tread carefully.