Bates College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Erin

Class: Alum
Major: Classical Studies
Gender: F

High School: Heritage HS
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

Bates is a home away from home - with all the good and bad that implies. The good is your friends become family, the staff are family, and the professors can become just that close. The bad is tensions do arise, just as in a family. It is a small campus that tends to become isolated (especially during the cold winter months!) from the rest of the world unless you make a concerted effort to expand your bubble and participate in the Lewiston/Auburn community. That closeness means you know everything about everyone, and they know everything about you. In reaction, most students -over half - spend at least a portion of their junior year abroad experiencing a new envrionment. This makes the campus more dynamic with a wide range of experiences. Everyone has a unique and interesting life story to tell that shapes the culture of Bates. In recent years there has been significant racial tension and complaints that Bates is not as welcoming to non-white ethnicities. Personally, I never found this to be the case. But in response to these concerns the administration is making a concentrated effort to expand our diversity. Bates is in a transition period where they are defining how we want the college to look in the next 50 years and the students are happily included in this process. The biggest complaint I have is the Bates Apathy - in an effort to accept everyone and PC, controversial topics are shied away from in daily conversation, though often discussed in the classroom.

Academic Life

The class sizes are fairly small except in the intro sciences. They have just redone the curriculum for incoming years so I cannot speak to the ease of finishing gen-ed requirements and how competition for classes will come about. I know that the new requirements work to build writing skills However, the professors are amazing people who are almost always ready to talk with you if you go into their office. I loved the Classics department, they are curious people who instill passion in their students. Bates is fairly flexible in terms of creating their own major and the professors will help these students study what they wish especially in junior and senior year. Every student (except possibly math majors) is required to write a Senior Thesis. (My thesis advisor and I met over tea once a week during the evening to discuss my progress and my concerns. He even hosted my mother during graduation!) Length requirements vary among disciplines, but students pick a topic they are interested in and then spend a semester or a year researching and writing on that topic. This is the culmination of your education career, a chance to pull together everything you've learned in four years into something that you are passionate about. I wrote my thesis on Cicero as a Political Philosopher: examining and trying to prove that his philosophy was not merely a Greek copycat or something haphazardly thrown together to support his politics, but a product of his education and his Roman practicalities that is entirely different from, but not second to, Greek philosohpy. It is a long process during which you want to tear your hair out, but afterwards everyone is proud of what they have accomplished! Bates wants students to succeed after college. They are a liberal arts college. This means they are educating students to think critically in whatever field they study and to learn for education's sake. If you are looking for a place where you can just learn for its own pleasure, this is the place. The by-product of this philosophy is that you can succeed in any job you get because of the well-grounded background in critical thinking, problem solving, and love of a challenge. They have many programs to help students look for jobs and internships outside of Bates, and in your senior year you can use your thesis and classes as a way to tailor your education for the work force. I'm a Classics major - the skills I've learned are completely useless for any area outside education, but I have had no problem entering the work force, my talents are still valued. Like most places, what you get from your education depends on what you put into it. If you are willing to talk to the professor outside of class, do all the reading, ask questions and be engaged, then you will reap infinite benefits from the experience. If you are a passive about your education, then Bates will be less than stellar - go look somewhere else! The classes are rarely lectures. Even when they are, they tend to have smaller study-groups that are discussion based where students are Expected and encouraged to participate.

Student Body

Bates students are predominately white, upper-middle class students from "30 minutes outside Boston" who want to make a difference in the world. They don't tend to flaunt their wealth, but you can still tell who is wealthy and who is not by whether or not they work a campus job. The college is looking to change some of this, primarily to make the college more economically and racially diverse. The college used to have a "granola" feel, with wonderful students who did not fit the typical popped-collar image. This group has dwindled in the past few years, but those who are still there are a vibrant part of the active campus. We have a strong LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual, Queer, Advocate) society who is determined to question the stereotypes. They are not obtrusive, but quietly affect the mindset of students through example. It is not a very religious campus, but those who are find support with the multi-faith chaplain and are accepted regardless of their religion. The center of student life is the on-cmapus dining center "New Commons." It is the heart of conversation. The meal plan is: eat as much as you need, enter as often as you want, just don't take any food out of the building. It is a warm environment and the commons workers are the most delightful, consistently joyous people on campus!! The tables are set up to include as many people as possible. There are certain "areas" of students (athletes, quiet ones, eclectic groups) but they are not set and tables are a fluid intercourse of students joining and departing tables. You can sit there for two hours and sit with several groups during that time.