Due to the small size of the university, the walk to class is never longer than a few minutes, no matter where you live. At Bowdoin, traditional dorms are occupied by freshman, while sophomores try to get placed in the social houses, where the parties are, instead of the less popular “Chambo Doubles.” Upper classmen usually opt for off-campus housing. One of the major hang out spots on campus are actually inside these dorms and social houses, all of which have a common area. Besides large rooms by college standards, dorms at Bowdoin have automatically flushing toilets, floor housekeepers and hotel-like swipe cards in freshman housing.
Alexandra Locke ‘10 says of Bowdoin's accomodations:
“The major dorms on campus can be broken into four groups: freshman bricks, on-campus upperclassmen, off-campus upperclassmen, and social houses.
Freshman bricks consist of eight dorms, six of which surround the quad, and two of which are across the street that runs down the middle of campus.
One dorm, which rotates every year, is always “chem-free,” meaning no alcohol or other illegal substances can be kept in the rooms. The bricks on the quad are four-story dorms called Winthrop, Maine, Appleton, Hyde, Moore, and Coleman, and over the last two years, they have all been completely renovated into quads with a huge common room and two smaller bedrooms. All the dorms are no more than a five-minute walk to Moulton Dining Hall, Smith Union, and most of the academic buildings. The remaining two dorms, Osher (formerly known as East) and West, are five-story dorms of doubles and triples, with the fifth floor of each building reserved for upperclassmen housing. Osher and West are probably now considered to be on the bad side– but just two years ago, they were the best, so that tells you something about the quality of freshman housing at Bowdoin. I’ve been in student housing (not including tours) at Tufts, BC, Duke, Williams, and Middlebury, and rooms in Bowdoin freshman dorms were at least 50% bigger (if not twice as big) as all of the freshman rooms I saw at those schools.
On-campus upperclassmen dorms aren’t quite as amazing as the freshmen dorms, so for a sophomore, living in what would be a typical dorm at other colleges feels like a step down.
One major dorm for sophomores is Chamberlain, a large upperclassmen building located right behind Thorne Dining Hall. A “Chambo double,” which is just a bedroom shared with another student, is generally considered the worst housing on campus, even though it’s really not that objectionable. Sophomores can also live in the top floors of Osher or West, or in Brunswick Apartments, which are doubles or triples with one or two bedrooms, a bathroom, a common room and a kitchen. Brunswick is considered to be pretty good – the only drawback is that they’re about a ten-minute walk from campus, which is incredibly far at Bowdoin.
A huge amount of sophomores choose to live in social houses, mostly for the social life, but also because the rooms are usually much better than any of the dorm options for sophomores. There are eight college houses (a.k.a. social houses) on campus, each of which is affiliated with one of the freshman dorms. Baxter and Ladd are located on the main campus, while Burnett, Howell, Helmreich, Quinby, and Mac are located across the street on College Row, with Reed around the corner on Boody Street. Some houses are associated with parties they throw every year, such as Quinby’s ’80s party, Ladd’s toga party, Baxter’s blacklight party, or Mac’s haunted house. Bowdoin replaced the fraternity system with social houses in 2000 for a variety of reasons. Today, the houses are coed, and while they are non-exclusive, a few houses still have certain characteristics associated with them (such as the football house, the chem-free house, or the stoner house).
As a junior or senior, there are a large variety of options, including a lot of off-campus houses. The big three that underclassmen are familiar with are the Tower, Harpswell, or Pine Street, because that’s where the parties are. Coles Tower is a 16-story dorm, which used to be the tallest building north of Boston. The Tower quads are suite-style, with four bedrooms, a common room, and a shared bathroom – the first eight floors are mostly juniors with a few sophomores, and the rest is almost entirely seniors. Harpswell and Pine Street are both four-person apartments which are almost identical – Harpswell is mostly juniors, while Pine Street is mostly seniors. Pine Street is sort of like a social house for upperclassmen – the people who live there usually throw the first party of the year, “Pinefest,” the Halloween party, and “Pinestock,” the biggest party of the spring semester on the last night of Ivies weekend.”
Cameron Weller ‘11 adds of dorm life:
“All of the dorms have many things in common. For the most part, people from the get-go become very close with their floors, if not their entire dorms, and as far as I’ve observed, these relationships continue throughout students’ time at Bowdoin. One unique thing about Bowdoin housing is that guys and girls share floors, which makes for close friendships between sexes and discoveries that a neighbor is prone to nakedness when intoxicated, or that a female neighbor looks very different without makeup on.
Additionally, all of the freshman dorms are incredibly well maintained due to the mostly respectful behavior of the students and the excellent work of the housekeeping staff. A lot of students grow quite fond of their floor’s housekeepers, and although each dorm has had its share of holes punched into walls and puking incidences, students are for the most part quite clean, even on weekends.
All the dorms have a unique entry system: each student has a hotel-like swipe card for entering most buildings on campus, and any student can enter another freshman dorm before 1 a.m. This system is great, because no one wants to carry around big metal keys. The only downside is that fact that the keys are prone to slipping out of back-pockets, so many a key has been lost in the school’s plethora of automatic-flushing toilets.
When it comes to room size, the units are a whole lot roomier than the first-year dorms on other campuses, but they’re by no means spacious. Advice for first years: when packing, put all that you think you need in a corner of your bedroom. Okay, now divide that by half. That’s what you should bring to college. Trust me, you won’t wear half of the cute things you plan on bringing here. As long as you have a Patagonia fleece, some t-shirts, a down jacket, a durable pair of jeans, Bean Boots, a scarf, clean underwear and socks and maybe some gloves, you’re fine. Really, you’re set. Don’t complicate your life.”
Barry Mills, the fourteenth president of Bowdoin, is always available to the students, and everyone meets him in person when first entering the college.
As reported by Cameron Weller ’11:
“Bowdoin’s President, Barry Mills, is a very distinguished fellow. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he graduated cum laude from Bowdoin with a double major in biochemistry and government in 1972 and earned his doctorate in biology at Syracuse University in 1976. He then went on to earn his law degree from Columbia University's School of Law and then became the deputy presiding partner of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, one of the nation's preeminent international law firms.
Barry Mills was a member of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees from 1994 until 2000 and became the fifth alumnus of the College to serve as president. He currently serves on the board of directors of Lexicon Genetics Incorporated, Maine Bank & Trust Co., and Galileo Fund Management Limited, as well as several philanthropic boards.
Mills is seen frequently around Bowdoin’s campus, eating often at the dining halls with colleagues, having coffee with a student, being interviewed for The Bowdoin Orient, or simply walking from building to building. He’s known around campus as a genuinely friendly guy who is accessible to the student body and truly cares about the well being of Bowdoin’s students. He’s available to students with any and all concerns during his weekly office hours, though they aren’t much attended.”
Joshua Chamberlain (1852)was a distinguished Union General who went on to famously end the Civil War at Gettysburg before becoming Bowdoin’s president and the governor of Maine.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1825) was a famous American writer.
Oliver Otis Howard (1850) was a founder of Howard University.
Alfred Kinsey (1916)was a controversial entomologist-turned-sexologist.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1825)was a famous American writer.
Franklin Pierce (1825) was the 14th president of the United States.
