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Bowdoin College - SAT Scores, Costs and Admissions Data

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Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College

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Bowdoin College Description:

Located in Brunswick, Maine, a town of 21,000 on the Maine coast, Bowdoin takes pride in both its beautiful location and its academic excellence. For its strengths in the liberal arts and sciences, Bowdoin was awarded a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Eight miles away from the main campus is Bowdoin's 118-acre Coastal Studies Center on Orr's Island. Bowdoin recently changed their financial aid practices, and students can look forward to graduating with no loans.

Admissions Data (2010):

Enrollment (2010):

  • Total Enrollment: 1,762
  • Gender Breakdown: 49% Male / 51% Female
  • 100% Full-time

Costs (2011 - 12):

  • Tuition and Fees: $42,816
  • Books: $820 (why so much?)
  • Room and Board: $11,654
  • Other Expenses: $1,250
  • Total Cost: $56,540

Bowdoin Financial Aid (2009 - 10):

  • Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 44%
  • Bowdoin Scholarships (Cappex.com)
  • Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of Aid
    • Grants: 44%
    • Loans: 6%
  • Average Amount of Aid
    • Grants: $30,433
    • Loans: $5,205

Most Popular Majors:

Anthropology, Biology, Economics, English, History, Political Science

Graduation and Retention Rates:

  • First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 94%
  • 4-Year Graduation Rate: 90%
  • 6-Year Graduation Rate: 93%

Data Source:

National Center for Educational Statistics

Bowdoin and the Common Application

Bowdoin College uses the Common Application. These articles can help guide you:

Admissions Information for Other Top Liberal Arts Colleges:

Bowdoin College Mission Statement:

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.

Two guiding ideas suffuse Bowdoin's mission. The first, from the College of the 18th and 19th centuries, defines education in terms of a social vision. "Literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good, and not for the private advantage of those who resort to them. . . but that their mental powers may be cultivated and improved for the benefit of society" (President Joseph McKeen's inaugural address, 1802); "To lose yourself in generous enthusiasms and cooperate with others for common ends: this is the offer of the College" (President William DeWitt Hyde, 1903). The second idea stresses the formation of a complete individual for a world in flux: there is an intrinsic value in a liberal arts education of breadth and depth, beyond the acquisition of specific knowledge, that will enable a thinking person, "to be at home in all lands and all ages" (President Hyde).

from http://www.bowdoin.edu/communications/publications/mission.shtml

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