Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 14:18     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Bowdoin is a great school, and I personally think it's right there with WASP. That said, its acceptance rate is slightly skewed by the facts that it has a larger percentage of international applicants (~36%) who are admitted at an extremely low rate (under 2%). This is due to the fact that Bowdoin is one of the very few schools that is need blind for internationals.


Amherst and Bowdoin (maybe CMC and Carleton too?) are the only elite SLACs that I know of that filled out the international application and acceptance rate fields in their most recent CDS. No reason to believe that all their peer schools that didn’t supply this information aren’t also benefitting from the same degree of “selectivity prestige” due to a flood of basically hopeless foreign applications. By the way, this is also true (to a somewhat lesser extent) for many of the top 20 universities as well. So if you’re a US applicant, the odds are not really as dire as they appear.

FTR, I don't have a dog in this fight. I agree that all selective schools benefit from some selectivity prestige due to hopeless international applications. But I suspect that Bowdoin's and Amherst's admission rates are pushed down even a little lower (maybe 1-2%) that their peers due to their need-blind-for-internationals policy, which is likely to lead to an even greater portion of international applications. Only 9 schools are need-blind for internationals, and Bowdoin and Amherst are two of them. Again, not a knock on Bowdoin or Amherst. To the points being made above, admission rate by itself isn't dispositive of selectivity.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 14:09     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:I have a 2nd year at Bates and he is loving it. Has really enjoys his classes and the outdoor club. Has a nice group of friends who are smart and interested in learning but also happy to get out and about. Skied something like 35 days last year and joined a club sport. The campus is small but beautiful and the all you can eat meal plan (with great food!) is awesome. highly recommend a close look.

Did you ED? How did you decide on Bates in particular?
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 14:06     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into


Okay, by this metric alone, Colby is harder to get into than Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. I think you also need to also take other factors into account, like who is applying and the strength of the incoming class.



Colby has one of the highest ED admit rates among selective LACS. Anyone in the know understands they should apply early if it's a top pick. A small school that fills many of its seats early will end up with a low RD admit rate. Plus it's a free application with no supplements, which results in a large number of applicants RD.

Thank you!

+1 This thread is helpful
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 14:05     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into


Okay, by this metric alone, Colby is harder to get into than Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. I think you also need to also take other factors into account, like who is applying and the strength of the incoming class.



Colby has one of the highest ED admit rates among selective LACS. Anyone in the know understands they should apply early if it's a top pick. A small school that fills many of its seats early will end up with a low RD admit rate. Plus it's a free application with no supplements, which results in a large number of applicants RD.

Thank you!
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 12:50     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into


Okay, by this metric alone, Colby is harder to get into than Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. I think you also need to also take other factors into account, like who is applying and the strength of the incoming class.



Colby has one of the highest ED admit rates among selective LACS. Anyone in the know understands they should apply early if it's a top pick. A small school that fills many of its seats early will end up with a low RD admit rate. Plus it's a free application with no supplements, which results in a large number of applicants RD.


That's my point--looking at acceptance rate alone is not sufficient to determine relative selectivity.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 12:24     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into


Okay, by this metric alone, Colby is harder to get into than Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. I think you also need to also take other factors into account, like who is applying and the strength of the incoming class.



Colby has one of the highest ED admit rates among selective LACS. Anyone in the know understands they should apply early if it's a top pick. A small school that fills many of its seats early will end up with a low RD admit rate. Plus it's a free application with no supplements, which results in a large number of applicants RD.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 12:13     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Bowdoin is a great school, and I personally think it's right there with WASP. That said, its acceptance rate is slightly skewed by the facts that it has a larger percentage of international applicants (~36%) who are admitted at an extremely low rate (under 2%). This is due to the fact that Bowdoin is one of the very few schools that is need blind for internationals.


Amherst and Bowdoin (maybe CMC and Carleton too?) are the only elite SLACs that I know of that filled out the international application and acceptance rate fields in their most recent CDS. No reason to believe that all their peer schools that didn’t supply this information aren’t also benefitting from the same degree of “selectivity prestige” due to a flood of basically hopeless foreign applications. By the way, this is also true (to a somewhat lesser extent) for many of the top 20 universities as well. So if you’re a US applicant, the odds are not really as dire as they appear.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 12:06     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into


Okay, by this metric alone, Colby is harder to get into than Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. I think you also need to also take other factors into account, like who is applying and the strength of the incoming class.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 11:56     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


This is really misleading. Bowdoin is as hard to get into now as Swarthmore or Pomona. Middlebury admits more than 70% of their class ED, and the ED acceptance rate is more than 30%. Bowdoin admits a little more than 50% of their class ED, and the ED acceptance rate is about 17%. RD acceptance rates between the schools show similar differences. Also, Bowdoin has no “February admit” yield management shenanigans to muddle the statistics. As for the test scores, only 28% of Middlebury matriculants submitted SAT scores, while 37% of Bowdoin matriculants did, with a similar disparity for ACT submitters.

All this info is available in the CDS; if you care about these differences look them up there and don’t take what people blithely opine on DCUM seriously.

Bowdoin is a great school, and I personally think it's right there with WASP. That said, its acceptance rate is slightly skewed by the facts that it has a larger percentage of international applicants (~36%) who are admitted at an extremely low rate (under 2%). This is due to the fact that Bowdoin is one of the very few schools that is need blind for internationals.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 11:40     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


Higher acceptance rate = easier to get into
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 11:39     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.


This is really misleading. Bowdoin is as hard to get into now as Swarthmore or Pomona. Middlebury admits more than 70% of their class ED, and the ED acceptance rate is more than 30%. Bowdoin admits a little more than 50% of their class ED, and the ED acceptance rate is about 17%. RD acceptance rates between the schools show similar differences. Also, Bowdoin has no “February admit” yield management shenanigans to muddle the statistics. As for the test scores, only 28% of Middlebury matriculants submitted SAT scores, while 37% of Bowdoin matriculants did, with a similar disparity for ACT submitters.

All this info is available in the CDS; if you care about these differences look them up there and don’t take what people blithely opine on DCUM seriously.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 11:08     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.

Thank you!
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 09:53     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.



+1 Bowdoin roughly cut in half their ED admits, now admit more RD than Midd does.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2025 09:37     Subject: Tell me about the Maine private schools
Middlebury is not much easier to get into than Bowdoin. The stats of their incoming classes are quite similar, with the slight edge to Bowdoin. Midd has a higher acceptance rate because they have an additional 200 seats to fill per class.

Because Midd fills such a large percentage of their class in the ED rounds, I'd say in RD, Middlebury is the tougher admit.
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2025 20:41     Subject: Re:Tell me about the Maine private schools
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Is there skiing near any of them?


Colby is near Sugarloaf. Tour guide said he skied there five days a week in the winter.


Define "near"...We lived in Augusta (20 minutes to Colby) and the loaf is about 90 minutes away.

Bates practices at Lost Valley, a great little ski area about 15 minutes from campus. Bowdoin is about 90 minutes to Sunday River, Colby is 90 to Sugarloaf/Saddleback. Real skiers would of course go to Middlebury but all the Maine schools are close enough. Facilities wise Colby just finished huge athletic upgrades and has by far the best current athletic facilities. Bowdoin is about to start construction on theirs, their campus overall is the best. Bates is quirky. All are among the most selective of the NESCACs just below Williams/Midd/Amherst


Middlebury is much easier to get into than Bowdoin.

How do Middlebury and Colgate compare to the Maine schools? I am wondering if I can get the Maine SLAC vibe a few hours closer to DC