What's going on with Bates College?

[Anonymous]

I liked Bates a lot when we visited. It has a great vibe. My DD is applying. However … Bates and Colby are the lowest-ranking LACs that don’t give merit aid, and Colby has a much higher endowment. Thus, Bates is very incentivized to take full-pay kids in ED, even if they have fairly unexceptional stats. I’m hard-pressed to see how Bates is worth the money compared to schools like Macalester, Conn, Trinity, Skidmore, Kenyon, Denison, Union, F&M, etc., that offer $30k or more per year in merit aid. I certainly would advise my own kid to follow the money if choosing between those schools or Bates or Colby full price.

I think Bates should strongly consider offering merit aid to shore up its student quality. Even $15k a year could be enough to get a top-stats kid to choose Bates over, say, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Vassar, or Midd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

OP, you didn't ask a genuine question, you made a vague and unsupported allegation. In other words, troll.

So dramatic
Endowment issues: https://www.sunjournal.com/2025/03/07/academic-standing-not-sustainable-without-larger-endowment-bates-college-warns/
Faculty retention issues:
https://thebatesstudent.com/27138/news/faculty-satisfaction-dips-27-in-six-years-according-to-coache-survey/#:~:text=Faculty%20satisfaction%20dips%2027%25%20in,COACHE%20survey%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
https://thebatesstudent.com/22116/news/__trashed-3/#:~:text=Economics%20Department%20Cancels%20Senior%20Thesis%20Amid%20Faculty%20Turnover%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
It gets tiring hearing people here essentially admit that they don’t know what they’re talking about and haven’t researched a topic, so therefore it automatically means someone is lying or has no source. It’s not our jobs to spoon feed you the minimum research needed to talk on the topic.

[Anonymous]

This appeared in the Sun Journal article posted above:

“'Academically, we are ranked among the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the country. But financially, we’re barely top 50. That is not sustainable,' Garry Jenkins, the college president, said . . . ."

Has the president of Bates fudged a bit?

[Anonymous]

The two main racial incidents got substantial publicity.

The black football coach was given a mold infested house for he & his family to live in; Bates College was well aware that the house was infested with mold.

The other highly publicized racial incident involved the treatment of a black Bates student by Bates College campus security.

Bates College supporters are among the most dishonest on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We took it off the list after learning about how be many Econ professors left a few years back, google and you’ll see.

Econ professors?

Gee, I wonder why. Good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Bates College has faced several significant issues, including a major racial discrimination lawsuit by former football coach Malik Hall (settled in 2024), investigations into campus safety officer conduct, and student protests over sexual assault reporting; more recently, the entire Brooks Quimby Debate Council resigned in early 2024 due to alleged toxic leadership by their advisor, leading to internal reviews and media attention on campus culture and equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of the Maine 3, Bates gets my#2 vote. Colby, with its opaque admissions process, appears to be run more like a for profit enterprise.

Visited Bates and it felt very welcoming. Their admissions office was top notch.

We know that there is an incessantly annoying Colby booster/Middlebury hater floating around but it wasn’t necessary to take a cheap shot at Colby in your response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

OP, you didn't ask a genuine question, you made a vague and unsupported allegation. In other words, troll.

I did ask a question based off of real issues to the college. What’s troll behavior is clogging a thread with useless tantrums instead of just getting off of it.

People are annoyed because there aren’t any actual “issues” contrary to your allusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked Bates a lot when we visited. It has a great vibe. My DD is applying. However … Bates and Colby are the lowest-ranking LACs that don’t give merit aid, and Colby has a much higher endowment. Thus, Bates is very incentivized to take full-pay kids in ED, even if they have fairly unexceptional stats. I’m hard-pressed to see how Bates is worth the money compared to schools like Macalester, Conn, Trinity, Skidmore, Kenyon, Denison, Union, F&M, etc., that offer $30k or more per year in merit aid. I certainly would advise my own kid to follow the money if choosing between those schools or Bates or Colby full price.

I think Bates should strongly consider offering merit aid to shore up its student quality. Even $15k a year could be enough to get a top-stats kid to choose Bates over, say, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Vassar, or Midd.

This is a fair comment and worth discussing. I tend to agree with your thinking and Bates might benefit from offering a moderate amount of merit aid. It’s a great school, two kids from my D’s school are currently there and both are thriving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

OP, you didn't ask a genuine question, you made a vague and unsupported allegation. In other words, troll.

I did ask a question based off of real issues to the college. What’s troll behavior is clogging a thread with useless tantrums instead of just getting off of it.

People are annoyed because there aren’t any actual “issues” contrary to your allusions.

There are multiple with links you can follow. If you want to be ignorant, stay so, just stop wasting others’ time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took it off the list after learning about how be many Econ professors left a few years back, google and you’ll see.

Econ professors?

Gee, I wonder why. Good riddance.

It seems weird. Of the four who left, three now work for Amazon and one works for FDIC. Not a single one of them remained in academia. Bates may have issues filtering for candidates who want to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

OP, you didn't ask a genuine question, you made a vague and unsupported allegation. In other words, troll.

So dramatic
Endowment issues: https://www.sunjournal.com/2025/03/07/academic-standing-not-sustainable-without-larger-endowment-bates-college-warns/
Faculty retention issues:
https://thebatesstudent.com/27138/news/faculty-satisfaction-dips-27-in-six-years-according-to-coache-survey/#:~:text=Faculty%20satisfaction%20dips%2027%25%20in,COACHE%20survey%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
https://thebatesstudent.com/22116/news/__trashed-3/#:~:text=Economics%20Department%20Cancels%20Senior%20Thesis%20Amid%20Faculty%20Turnover%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
It gets tiring hearing people here essentially admit that they don’t know what they’re talking about and haven’t researched a topic, so therefore it automatically means someone is lying or has no source. It’s not our jobs to spoon feed you the minimum research needed to talk on the topic.

You just linked a bunch of “nothing burgers”

The endowment article just says that the incoming president says they they need to increase their endowment to hold their position. Completely normal and something that new Presidents consistently do.

The economics commentary is over 5 years old. The department is completely staffed.

Faculty whining about administrators is an age old thing…more nothing.

Do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I liked Bates a lot when we visited. It has a great vibe. My DD is applying. However … Bates and Colby are the lowest-ranking LACs that don’t give merit aid, and Colby has a much higher endowment. Thus, Bates is very incentivized to take full-pay kids in ED, even if they have fairly unexceptional stats. I’m hard-pressed to see how Bates is worth the money compared to schools like Macalester, Conn, Trinity, Skidmore, Kenyon, Denison, Union, F&M, etc., that offer $30k or more per year in merit aid. I certainly would advise my own kid to follow the money if choosing between those schools or Bates or Colby full price.

I think Bates should strongly consider offering merit aid to shore up its student quality. Even $15k a year could be enough to get a top-stats kid to choose Bates over, say, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Vassar, or Midd.

And guess what - there are a lot of people who are full pay who deep down kind of like it that way. They don't want to send their kids to schools full of kids on tons of aid. Not a priority. As long as there is a critical mass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

OP, you didn't ask a genuine question, you made a vague and unsupported allegation. In other words, troll.

So dramatic
Endowment issues: https://www.sunjournal.com/2025/03/07/academic-standing-not-sustainable-without-larger-endowment-bates-college-warns/
Faculty retention issues:
https://thebatesstudent.com/27138/news/faculty-satisfaction-dips-27-in-six-years-according-to-coache-survey/#:~:text=Faculty%20satisfaction%20dips%2027%25%20in,COACHE%20survey%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
https://thebatesstudent.com/22116/news/__trashed-3/#:~:text=Economics%20Department%20Cancels%20Senior%20Thesis%20Amid%20Faculty%20Turnover%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bates%20Student
It gets tiring hearing people here essentially admit that they don’t know what they’re talking about and haven’t researched a topic, so therefore it automatically means someone is lying or has no source. It’s not our jobs to spoon feed you the minimum research needed to talk on the topic.

You just linked a bunch of “nothing burgers”

The endowment article just says that the incoming president says they they need to increase their endowment to hold their position. Completely normal and something that new Presidents consistently do.

The economics commentary is over 5 years old. The department is completely staffed.

Faculty whining about administrators is an age old thing…more nothing.

Do better.

You sound intentionally dishonest. Their endowment is 1/2-1/5 peers, that means they offer less for their students.

Agree about the economics department, strange moment.

Faculty are often much more trustworthy than people’s whose jobs are to make the institution look good. It’s important faculty actually want to stay at their institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - it's definitely the same troll, bringing up the same old incidents (econ departures, firing the football coach) that barely deserved notice when they occurred and are completely irrelevant today.

It is true that the endowment is low compared to peer schools; presumably the newish president who has some background in finance is positioned to address that.

https://www.bates.edu/president/welcoming-garry-w-jenkins/garry-w-jenkins/

You’re rushing to complain about two different people. I’m OP, I don’t even know about whatever stupid sports incident happened and don’t really care since it has nothing to do with my question.

Not OP and not a Bates hating troll. I brought up the Econ department departures.