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Bowdoin College
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Bowdoin College |
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Bowdoin College
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5700 College Station - President's Office
Brunswick, ME 04011-8448 |
General information
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(207) 725-3000
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| Type of institution: |
Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above |
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| Federal Aid: |
Institution has a Program Participation Agreement with the US Department of Education for eligible students to receive Pell Grants and other federal aid.
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| Degrees offered: |
Bachelor degrees |
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| Carnegie classification: |
Baccalaureate Colleges--Arts & Sciences |
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| Number of students: |
1,716 (2007)
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| 2009-2008 Undergraduate application fee: | $ 60 |
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| About this School |
| Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college, founded in 1794, located in the coastal New England town of Brunswick, Maine. It enrolls approximately 1,660 students and has been coeducational since 1971. Bowdoin offers 33 majors and 4 additional minors; the academic year consists of two four-course semesters, and the student-faculty ratio is 10:1. Brunswick is located on the shores of Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River, 12 miles (19 km) north of Freeport, Maine, 28 miles north of Portland, Maine, and 131 miles (211 km) north of Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to its Brunswick campus, Bowdoin also operates a 118 acre (478,000 m²) coastal studies center on Orrs Island * in Harpswell, Maine and a 200 acre (809,000 m²) scientific field station on Kent Island * in the Bay of Fundy.
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| History |
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Bowdoin College was chartered in 1794 by Governor Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a district, and was named for former Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin, whose son James Bowdoin III was an early benefactor. Although Bowdoin is now non-sectarian, it was initially affiliated with the Congregational Church. At the time of its founding, it was the easternmost college in the United States.
Bowdoin came into its own in the 1820s, a decade in which Maine became an independent state as a result of the Missouri Compromise and the College graduated a number of its most famous alumni, including future United States President Franklin Pierce, class of 1824, and writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, both of whom graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1825.
Bowdoin's connections to the Civil War have prompted some to quip that the war "began and ended" in Brunswick. Harriet Beecher Stowe, "the little lady who started this big war," started writing her influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in Bowdoin's Appleton Hall while her husband was teaching at the College, and General Joshua Chamberlain, a Bowdoin alumnus and professor, was responsible for receiving the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865. Chamberlain, a Medal of Honor winner who later served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin, distinguished himself at Gettysburg, where he led the 20th Maine in its valiant defense of Little Round Top.
There are other Civil War connections as well: General Oliver Otis Howard, class of 1850, led the Freedmen's Bureau after the war and later founded Howard University; Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, class of 1837, was responsible for the formation of the famous 54th Massachusetts; and William P. Fessenden 1823 and Hugh McCulloch 1827 both served as Secretary of the Treasury during the Lincoln Administration. After the war, Bowdoin contended that a higher percentage of its alumni fought in the war than that of any other college in the North -- and not only for the Union. In fact, Confederate President Jefferson Davis held an honorary degree from Bowdoin, which he received while United States Secretary of War in 1858.
right|thumb|300px|Hubbard Hall, located on the main campus quad, houses the Government, History and Economics departments on campus. It is also home to the renowned Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum.
Although Bowdoin's Medical School of Maine closed its doors in 1920, the College is currently known for its particularly strong programs in the natural sciences. While Bowdoin's best-known alumnus in the sciences is the controversial entomologist-turned-sexologist Alfred Kinsey, class of 1916, the College's reputation in this area was cemented in large part by the Arctic explorations of Admiral Robert E. Peary, class of 1877, and Donald B. MacMillan, class of 1898. Peary lead the first successful expedition to the North Pole in 1908, and MacMillan, a member of Peary's crew, became famous in his own right as he explored Greenland, Baffin Island and Labrador in the schooner Bowdoin between 1908 and 1954. Bowdoin's Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum * honors the two explorers, and the College's mascot, the Polar Bear, was chosen after MacMillan donated a particularly large specimen to his alma mater in 1917.
Following in the footsteps of President Pierce and House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed, class of 1860, several 20th century Bowdoin graduates have assumed prominent positions in national government while representing the Pine Tree State. Wallace H. White, Jr., class of 1899, served as Senate Minority Leader from 1944-1947 and Senate Majority Leader from 1947-1949; George J. Mitchell, class of 1954, served as Senate Majority Leader from 1989-1995 before assuming a prominent role in the Northern Ireland peace process; and William Cohen, class of 1962, spent twenty-five years in the House and Senate before being appointed Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration. Maine's First Congressional District, today held by Tom Allen, class of 1967, has been christened the "Bowdoin seat" due to its long occupation by graduates of the College. A total of eleven Bowdoin graduates have ascended to the Maine governorship, and three graduates of the College currently sit on the state's highest court.
Over the last several decades, Bowdoin College has modernized dramatically. In 1970, it became one of a very limited number of selective schools to make the SAT optional in the admissions process, and in 1971, after nearly 180 years as a small men's college, Bowdoin admitted its first class of women. Bowdoin also abolished fraternities in the late 1990s, replacing them with a system of college-owned social houses. Recent developments include the 2001 appointment of Barry Mills, class of 1972, as the fifth alumnus president of the College, and a 2002 decision by the faculty to change the grading system so that it incorporated plus and minus grades.
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| Academic year prices for full-time, first-time undergraduate students |
| Tuition and Fees | 2009-2008 | 2008-2007 | 2007-2006 |
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| In-State | $ 38,190 | $ 36,370 | $ 34,640 |
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| Out of State | $ 38,190 | $ 36,370 | $ 34,640 |
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| Books and Supplies | $ 800 | $ 800 | $ 800 |
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| On-Campus |
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| Room and board | $ 10,380 | $ 9,890 | $ 9,310 |
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| Other Expenses | $ 1,200 | $ 1,200 | $ 1,200 |
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| Off Campus |
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| Room and board | ---- | ---- | ---- |
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| Other Expenses | ---- | ---- | ---- |
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| Off Campus w/ family |
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| Other Expenses | ---- | ---- | ---- |
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Financial aid 2006-2007
Financial aid to full-time, first-time undergraduate students
| Type of Aid | Percentage of students receiving aid | Average amount of aid they received |
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| Federal Grants (scholarship/fellowship) |
10% |
$ 5,099 |
| State/Local grants (scholarship/fellowship) |
4% |
$ 774 |
| Institutional grants (scholarship/fellowship) |
41% |
$ 23,886 |
| Loans to students |
33% |
$ 3,811 |
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End of file for Bowdoin College.
Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Africana Studies | |
African studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to bring the scholarly approaches and perspectives of several traditional disciplines to bear on an understanding of black life. Emphasis is placed on the examination of the rich and varied cultures, literature, and history of black people in Africa... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Art History | |
Art History offers courses that examine works of art in their historical, social, religious, and philosophical contexts. Students study not only the formal aesthetic values of these works, but also the ways in which works of art reflect the cultures and the personalities that produced them. Many of the... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Asian Studies | |
Asia is home to half the world's population and much of its history. Bowdoin offers Asian Studies courses in anthropology, art, government, history, literature, music, religion, and sociology, as well as Chinese and Japanese language instruction. Majors focus on either South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Biochemistry | |
Bowdoin‘s Biochemistry Program draws upon Chemistry and Biology offerings to present a course of study examining the structure and properties of the molecules that make up living organisms. The major in Biochemistry enables students to explore a broad diversity of related disciplines through elective... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Biology | |
The biology department offers a wide range of courses in biology, from the molecular level to that of whole organisms, populations and ecosystems. The curriculum provides majors with an excellent background for graduate or professional school or for employment in biological science.
Courses are taught... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Chemistry | |
The chemistry program provides a rigorous pre-professional education for students who intend to pursue a career in science. The tradition of combining its primary teaching role with an ongoing and exciting research program has long been a hallmark of the department. The department is committed to the... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Classics | |
The classics program is designed to accommodate both students who have not studied classical languages and those who have had extensive training in Latin or Greek. The goal of the classics major is the study of ancient languages and literatures in the original, involving students in the politics, history,... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Computer Science | |
Computer science is a dynamic and exciting scientific discipline. The Computer Science Department at Bowdoin offers major program, as well as an interdisciplinary major with mathematics. This program support the fundamental liberal arts philosophy that emphasizes breadth and depth of study, critical... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Economics | |
The Economics program is designed to introduce the basic theoretical and empirical techniques of economics. The major provides an opportunity to study economics as a social science with a core theory and to study the process of drawing inferences from data and historical evidence. The aim of the program... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
English | |
The Bowdoin College English Department approaches literature with an open and eclectic spirit, combining the pleasures of literary reading with the rigors of an intellectual discipline. Its goal is to give students the knowledge and skill to be active, sophisticated, and resourceful readers, whatever... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Environmental Studies | |
Environmental Studies at Bowdoin reflects the college's recognition that humans must learn to live in harmony with nature and that human activities are dependent upon natural processes. This recognition, coupled with an aspiration to present and future human well-being, provides a critical perspective... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
French | |
The French section of the Romance Languages Department offers courses in French language, literature, and culture. In addition to focusing on developing students' fluency in French, the department provides students with a broad understanding of the cultures and literatures of the French-speaking world... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Gender and Women's Studies | |
Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College is an interdisciplinary program that incorporates into the curriculum recent research done on women and gender. Women's Studies combines the scholarly traditions of each field in new and productive ways to develop a culture of critical thinking about sexuality,... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Geology | |
Geology courses at Bowdoin take students outside to study bedrock, marine and environmental geology. Maine is geologically rich with coastal exposures of metamorphic rocks, ancient volcanoes, rock and gem quarries, an extensive fault system, fossils, sand beaches, glacial sediments and landforms, bedrock... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
German | |
The German Department offers a flexible German studies curriculum that embraces language and culture study as a humanistic endeavor while intersecting a range of academic, interdisciplinary, and personal interests; for example, art, history, and music, German film, politics and business, personal heritage,... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Government and Legal Studies | |
The proposition that politics is the "comprehensive science", as claimed by Aristotle, provokes debate at Bowdoin as elsewhere. Some argue that it is not a science, others that it is not comprehensive. Still others look with jaundiced eye on anything that smacks of politics. Yet the basis for the claims... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Italian | |
The Italian section of the Romance Languages Department offers courses in Italian language, literature, and culture. In addition to focusing on developing students' fluency in Italian, the department provides students with a broad understanding of the cultures and literatures of Italy and Italian America... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Latin American Studies | |
The Latin American Studies Program comprises a thriving community of scholars, students, alumni, and local residents who work together to foster the understanding and recognition of the complex set of cultures from Mesoamerica, the Caribbean and South America. Our interdisciplinary approach integrates... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Mathematics | |
Bowdoin‘s mathematics curriculum reflects the department‘s belief that mathematics is important both for its practical applications and for its beauty. A broad program of courses has been designed to serve students with a wide range of interests.
The department also participates in an interdisciplinary... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Music | |
The Bowdoin College Music Department offers a wide variety of musical opportunities. Students can major and minor, take lessons, sing in Chorus or Chamber Choir, play in Concert Band, Orchestra, Chamber Ensembles, Jazz Band or ensembles, the Middle Eastern Ensemble, or the Mbira Ensemble. Students can... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Neuroscience | |
Neuroscience is one of the newest and most exciting areas of study in the sciences. It integrates aspects of both biology and psychology in the investigation of the brain and behavior. The Neuroscience Program at Bowdoin College is an interdisciplinary program that provides students with a wealth of... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Philosophy | |
The study of philosophy has traditionally been regarded as an essential component of a liberal arts education. Philosophy deals with fundamental questions about the ultimate nature of reality, our place in the world, and our relations with one another. What sort of person should I be? What are my obligations... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Physics | |
Physics majors enjoy discovering how things happen and speculating about why things happen. They learn to approach new problems confidently”to identify general features of these problems, apply appropriate methods to their solutions, and communicate the consequences of such solutions effectively. Many... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Psychology | |
The program in psychology examines contemporary perspectives on principles of human behavior, in areas ranging from cognition, language, development, and behavioral neuroscience to interpersonal relations, and psychopathology.
The Department of Psychology currently offers courses in areas ranging from... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Religion | |
The Department of Religion offers Bowdoin students opportunities to study, from a variety of academic perspectives and without sectarian bias, the nature and significance of religion in its philosophical, literary, social, and cultural expressions. Courses are critical, historical, multi-disciplinary,... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Romance Languages | |
The Department of Romance Languages offers a broad variety of courses in the cultures and literatures of Italy and the French-speaking and Spanish-speaking worlds. All courses are designed to enhance students' understanding and appreciation of Francophone, Italian and Hispanic cultures while preparing... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Sociology and Anthropology | |
The goal of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology is to develop students‘ insight into the nature of society, the diversity of cultures around the world, and the similarities that all peoples and societies share. Course work, independent study, and collaborative research work with faculty all... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Spanish | |
The Spanish section of the Romance Languages Department offers courses in Spanish language, and in Hispanic literatures and cultures. In addition to focusing on developing students' fluency in Spanish, the department provides students with a broad understanding of the cultures and literatures of the... |
| Bowdoin College
Bachelor degree
Visual Arts | |
The Visual Arts Department offers courses in a variety of media that explore not only the ways in which art can be taught but what it is that art can teach, whether a student is preparing for a life in the visual arts or simply hoping to gain a more creative, informed, and visually engaged outlook in... |
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