Bowdoin College
OVERVIEW
Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college in US. It has been a coeducational higher education institution since 1971, and has an enrollment of about 1,777 undergraduates at present. It was described as a “New Ivy” by Newsweek in 2006, as one of a range of elite universities and colleges outside the Ivy League.
It was established in 1794, and was named after James Bowdoin, the former Massachusetts governor at that time. With the main campus located in Brunswick, a coastal town of Maine, it also has a studies center on Orrs Island, and a scientific field station in the Bay of Fundy on Kent Island. The main campus houses a number of museums and notable buildings, such as the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, and Massachusetts Hall, the Harriet Beecher Store House, etc.
Bowdoin College offers degrees in bachelor’s program, with 33 majors and 4 minors provided. In addition to the bachelor’s program, it also offers combined-degree programs, including a 3-3 law degree program in cooperation with Columbia, and 3-2 or 4-2 engineering degree programs with Dartmouth, U Maine, Columbia, or Caltech.
The mission of Bowdoin College is:
It is the mission of the College to engage students of uncommon promise in an intense full-time education of their minds, exploration of their creative faculties and development of their social and leadership abilities, in a four-year course of study and residence that concludes with a baccalaureate degree in the liberal arts. At the root of this mission is selection. First, and regardless of their wealth, Bowdoin selects men and women of varied gifts, diverse social, geographic and racial backgrounds, and exceptional qualities of mind and character. Developed in association with one another, these gifts will enable them to become leaders in many fields of endeavor. Second, it recruits faculty members of high intellectual ability and scholarly accomplishment who have a passion for education both of undergraduates and of themselves, as life-long creators and pursuers of knowledge.
ACCREDITATION
The school was chartered by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1794, and has been maintaining the accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Commission of Institutions of Higher Education sinve 1929.
ACADEMICS
Bowdoin College comprises 33 academic departments, from Africana Studies, Anthropology, to Theater and Visual Arts.
The most popular majors and course of study for students are as follows:
- Political Science and Government
- Economics
- English Language and Literature
- Biology
- History
In U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 list, Bowdoin ranks No. 6 as a liberal arts college. Its art history program was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the top program in the United States in 2010.
Bowdoin College provides six distinct options for students, including department major, double major, interdisciplinary major, coordinate major, student-designed major, or any of these coupled with a department minor. Over 60 percent students choose independent studies and design their own study topics.
ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants are required to complete a five-page Common Application, together with the Bowdoin Supplement, in which they need to answer an essay question with no more than 300 words. High school transcripts, GPA score, a personal statement and two teacher recommendations, a secondary school report form and the application fee must be included in the application materials.
COSTS AND FINANCIAL AID
The tuitions and fees for the 2011-2012 academic year is USD 42,816. The room and board fee is USD 11,654 or higher.
Every academic year, Bowdoin provides financial aid to over 40 percent of its students. The average grant is around USD 32,000, and the school has been replacing loans with scholarships or grants as financial aids since the 2008-2009 academic year.
