Bates College Top Questions

It's pretty accurate. Bates is really hard, you have to work for your grades, there is no grade inflation or coddling to students who are used to making straight A's. But for those who are driven, the opportunity to succeed and get a lot out of a class is always there; it is completely up to the student to take the initiative and invest the effort. It's a good place for students who genuinely enjoy learning and who are excited to take on new ideas and learn about things they've never been exposed to before.

I don't really think there is a single accurate stereotype about Bates. There are actually very few hippies, and they are very elitist about how much they care about the environment, they are patronizing and so insular that they don't realize that everyone really doesn't like their crap. Most people at Bates are Liberals, and almost everyone gets high on a regular basis. Bates students are generally nice, save the exiled big city people who are aghast at small-town America. Bates is, however, ideally situated, really close to skiing, the ocean, Portland, Boston, and Freeport. Lewiston needs some work though. Bates students don't really study all that much, tend to be activists in strange fields, and really like to party.

While a lot of people like the outdoors, and the outing club here at Bates is extremely popular, I wouldn't classify Bates as a crunchy granola type school. While a lot students' first choice was Harvard or another Ivy League, almost 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} or more had Bates as a top choice and/or applied early decision