Bowdoin College
Encyclopedia
Bowdoin College ˈboʊdɨn, founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college
located in the coastal Maine
town of Brunswick
, Maine
. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is widely considered as one of the Little Ivies
. The college enrolls approximately 1,700 students and has been coeducational since 1971. It offers 33 majors and 4 additional minors, and the student-faculty ratio is 9:1. Famous alumni include Joshua Chamberlain
, Henry W. Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
.
Brunswick is located on the shores of Casco Bay
and the Androscoggin River
, 12 miles north of Freeport, Maine, and 28 miles north of Portland
, Maine. In addition to its Brunswick campus, Bowdoin also owns a 118-acre (478,000 m²) coastal studies center on Orrs Island
and a 200-acre (809,000 m²) scientific field station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy
.
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. At the time of its founding, it was the easternmost college in the United States. It is thought that the Bowdoin seal, created in 1798 by Joseph Callender, was a sun because it was the first college in the United States to see the sunrise. In 1806, 13 Harvard graduates opted to accept a Bowdoin degree along with their diploma from Harvard.
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 Brigadier General
(and Brevet
Major 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
recipient who later served as governor of Maine
, adjutant-general 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: Major 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. President Ulysses S. Grant
, too, was given an honorary degree from the college in 1865.
In addition to Howard and Chamberlain, William Fessenden's sons, James Deering Fessenden
and Francis Fessenden
, were both brigadier generals, and seventeen Bowdoin alumni would receive brevets as brigadier generals, including Ellis Spear
(Class of 1858, who was Chamberlain's second-in-command at Gettysburg), Charles Hamlin (Class of 1857, son of Vice President
Hannibal Hamlin
), and General Howard's brother Charles (Class of 1859).
, who received his M.D. in 1868, who went on to become one of the co-founders of the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota. He was asked to join the two Mayo brother's private medical practice in 1892. In 1915, the remaining partners in the then private practice embraced the creation of the non-profit Mayo Clinic. While perhaps Bowdoin's better-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 led 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 in 1913 to honor MacMillan, who 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 has been christened the "Bowdoin seat" because of 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 phased out fraternities in the late 1990s, replacing them with a system of college-owned social houses.
On January 18, 2008, Bowdoin announced that it would be eliminating loans for all new and current students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants beginning with the 2008-2009 academic year. President Mills stated, "Some see a calling in such vital but often low paying fields such as teaching or social work. With significant debt at graduation, some students will undoubtedly be forced to make career or education choices not on the basis of their talents, interests, and promise in a particular field, but rather on their capacity to repay student loans. As an institution devoted to the common good, Bowdoin must consider the fairness of such a result."
In February 2009, following a $10 million donation by Subway Sandwiches co-founder and alumnus Peter Buck, the college completed a $250-million capital campaign. Additionally, the college has also recently completed major construction projects on the campus, including a significant renovation of the college's art museum and a new fitness center named after Peter Buck.
in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. In the 2011 edition of the rankings, Bowdoin ranks sixth. In the late 1990s it was ranked as high as fourth. In 2006, Newsweek
described Bowdoin as a "New Ivy
", one of a number of elite colleges and universities outside of the Ivy League
. Bowdoin is also part of the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission. Bowdoin was the first college to be named "School of the Year" by College Prowler
.
The Government & Legal Studies Department, whose prominent professors include Michael Franz, Allen Springer, Paul Franco
, Richard E. Morgan
, Chris Potholm and Jean M. Yarbrough, was ranked the top small college political science program in the world by researchers at the London School of Economics
in 2003. Government & Legal Studies was the most popular major for every graduating class between 2000 and 2009. Other departments are also strong, including economics, the natural sciences, and English.
In 2010, Bowdoin's art history program was ranked as the top program in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Course distribution requirements were abolished in the 1970s, but were reinstated by a faculty majority vote in 1981, as a result of an initiative by oral communication and film professor Barbara Kaster. She insisted that distribution requirements would ensure students a more well-rounded education in a diversity of fields and therefore present them with more career possibilities. The requirements of at least two courses in each of the categories of Natural Sciences/Mathematics
, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities
/Fine Arts, and Foreign Studies (including languages) took effect for the Class of 1987 and have been gradually amended since then. Current requirements require one course each in: Natural Sciences, Quantitive Reasoning, Visual and Performing Arts, International Perspectives and Exploring Social Differences. A small, writing intensive course, called a First Year Seminar, is also required.
In 2002, the faculty decided to change the grading system so that it incorporated plus and minus grades. Previously, only grades of A, B, C, D, and F, were given, without the "+" or "-" modifications.
Other prominent Bowdoin faculty include (or have included): Edville Gerhardt Abbott
, Charles Beitz
, John Bisbee
, Paul Chadbourne, Thomas Cornell
, Kristen R. Ghodsee
, Eddie Glaude
, Joseph E. Johnson
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
, Elliott Schwartz
, and Scott Sehon
.
In Fall 2010, Bowdoin's acceptance rate was the fifth lowest among liberal arts colleges ranked by U.S. News and World Report.
Although Bowdoin does not require the SAT
in admissions, all students must submit a score upon matriculation. The middle 50% SAT range for the verbal and math sections of the SAT
is 660-750 and 660-750, respectively — numbers of only those submitting scores during the admissions process. The middle 50% ACT range is 30–33.
The April 17, 2008, edition of The Economist noted Bowdoin in an article on university admissions: "So-called 'almost-Ivies' such as Bowdoin and Middlebury also saw record low admission rates this year (18% each). It is now as hard to get into Bowdoin, says the college's admissions director, as it was to get into Princeton in the 1970s."
Many students apply for financial aid, and around 85% of those who apply receive aid. Bowdoin is a need-blind and a no-loans institution. Students applying to the school are evaluated independently of their financial situations, the college meets 100% of demonstrated financial need, and the college replaces loans with grants for all students on financial aid to lift the burden of significant student debt upon graduation.
While a significant portion of the student body hails from New England
— including nearly 25% from Massachusetts and 10% from Maine — recent classes have drawn from an increasingly national and international pool. Although Bowdoin once had a reputation for homogeneity (both ethnically and socioeconomically), a diversity campaign has increased the percentage of students of color in recent classes to more than 31%. In fact, admission of minorities goes back at least as far as John Brown Russwurm
1826, Bowdoin's first African-American college graduate, and the third African-American graduate of any American college.
. Bowdoin has two major dining halls, one of which was renovated in the late 1990s, and every academic year begins with a lobster bake outside Farley Fieldhouse. The college was ranked #6 nationally for the "Dorms like Palaces" category by Princeton Review in 2011.
In 2010, Newsweek ranked Bowdoin the #6 "Most desirable small school in America". In April 2008, College Prowler
, a publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States and written by students, named Bowdoin College its "School of the Year" citing excellence in academics, safety and security, housing and dining.
Recalling his days at Bowdoin in a recent interview, Professor Richard E. Morgan
'59 described student life at the then-all-male school as "monastic," and noted that "the only things to do were either work or drink." (This is corroborated by the Official Preppy Handbook
, which in 1980 ranked Bowdoin the number two drinking school in the country, behind Dartmouth
.) These days, Morgan observed, the College offers a far broader array of recreational opportunities: "If we could have looked forward in time to Bowdoin's standard of living today, we would have been astounded."
Since abolishing Greek fraternities in the late 1990s, Bowdoin has switched to a system in which entering students are assigned a "college house" affiliation correlating with their first-year dormitory. While six houses were originally established, following the construction of two new dorms, two were added effective in the fall of 2007, bringing the total to eight: Ladd (affiliated with Osher Hall), Baxter (West), Quinby (Appleton), MacMillan (Coleman), Howell (Hyde), Helmreich (Maine), Reed (Moore), and Burnett (Winthrop). The college houses are physical buildings around campus which host parties and other events throughout the year. Those students who choose not to live in their affiliated house retain their affiliation and are considered members throughout their Bowdoin career. Before the fraternity system was abolished in the 1990s, all the Bowdoin fraternities were co-educational (except for one unrecognized sorority and two unrecognized all-male fraternities).
Bowdoin's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, which was founded in 1825, is the nation's sixth oldest. Among those who have been inducted to the Maine Alpha chapter as undergraduates include Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1825), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1825), Robert E. Peary (1877), Owen Brewster
(1909), Harold Hitz Burton
(1909), Paul Douglas
(1913), Alfred Kinsey
(1916), Thomas R. Pickering
(1953), and Lawrence B. Lindsey
(1976).
s for American Students" by the Institute of International Education.
In 2003, the Wall Street Journal ranked Bowdoin among the top twenty colleges and universities in the United States based on the percentage of the school's alumni who attend a "top-five" graduate program in business, law, or medicine.
According to payscale.com, alumni of Bowdoin College have a mid-career median salary of $106,000, making it the 29th highest among colleges and universities in the United States.
Historically, Bowdoin is known for the strength of its alumni in many different fields and professions. In Maine, the First Congressional District
has been christened the "Bowdoin seat" because of 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.
, is the oldest continuously published college weekly in the United States. The Orient was named the second best tabloid-sized college weekly at a Collegiate Associated Press conference in March 2007. Additionally, the school's literary magazine, The Quill
, has been published since 1897. The College's radio station, WBOR
, has been in operation since 1951. In 1999, The Bowdoin Cable Network was formed, producing a weekly newscast and several student created shows per semester.
"The Longfellows" are the newer of the two all male groups. They trace their roots to the historic class of 1825 at Bowdoin, which graduated Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 2011, they won their quarterfinal of the International Collegiate Championship of A Cappella, advancing them to the semifinals, as they only all-male group. The same year, they were in the final round of selection to be on NBCs "The Sing Off." In 2010, they sang the national anthem at a Celtics-Wizards game, and have preformed all over Maine and the Northeast.
The Meddiebempsters are the oldest of Bowdoin's six a cappella
groups and the third-oldest a cappella group in the nation. Founded in the spring of 1937, the Meddies gained notoriety when they performed in USO
shows after World War II
. In 1948, the Meddiebempsters performed for the First Family
and were then invited to take a USO tour of Europe for the first time. The tour's enormous success resulted in a full performance calendar for the 1948-1949 academic year. The Department of Defense
invited them back every summer from 1948 to 1955 and the group appeared on the Tex and Jinx Show.
and Joshua Chamberlain
amongst its former members, though these individuals originally belonged to the Athenian Society (the second society of the two historic groups). These literary and intellectual societies were the dominant groups on campus before they declined in popularity after the rise of Greek fraternities
.
, the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum
, and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
. Notable Buildings include Massachusetts Hall
, Hubbard Hall, the Parker Cleaveland House
and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House
.
The Bowdoin College Polar Bears (the college mascot) competes in the NCAA
Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference
(NESCAC), which also includes Amherst
, Conn College
, Hamilton, Middlebury
, Trinity
, Tufts
, Wesleyan
, Williams
, and Maine rivals Bates
and Colby
in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin
Consortium (CBB). The College's official colors are white and black.
Bowdoin offers thirty varsity teams, including men's teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field, and women's teams in field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and rugby.
Men's ice hockey
is the most popular spectator sport, with hundreds of students turning out for games against arch-rival Colby
. In 2004, Bowdoin became the second college in the United States to elevate the women's rugby team to varsity status. While technically still varsity, the women's rugby team competes in New England Rugby Football Union, rather than NESCAC. The sailing team, which competes in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is co-ed and was considered in 2006 to be one of the top 20 sailing teams in the nation by Sailing World magazine. There are also intercollegiate and club teams in men's and women's fencing, men's and women's rowing, men's rugby
, water polo, men's volleyball and men's and women's Ultimate
.
Recent NESCAC champions include men's ice hockey (2011, albeit officially forfeited), men's tennis (2008), women's volleyball (2011) men's cross country (2001, 2002), women's basketball (2001–2007, 2009), women's ice hockey (2002, 2004) and women's field hockey (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011); recent NCAA tournament appearances include women's basketball (Elite Eight, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007; Final Four, 2004), women's field hockey (Final Four, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010) men's rugby (sweet 16, 2001), women's ice hockey (Final Four, 2002, 2003; Elite Eight, 2004, 2005), men's soccer (Final Four, 2010) and women's lacrosse (Final Four, 2011.)
Women's basketball and field hockey have been Bowdoin's most successful teams. The women's basketball team are 8-time NESCAC champions, holding an astonishing 7-year streak. The field hockey team are three-time NCAA National Champions; winning the title in 2007 (defeating Middlebury College
), 2008 (defeating Tufts University
) and 2010 (defeating Messiah College
). Head coach Nicky Pearson has been NESCAC coach of the year a record 7 times; no other coach in any NESCAC sport has won the award more than twice. In 2007, 2008 and 2010, Pearson was also honored as the NCAA's Division III coach of the year.
2011 also saw Bowdoin's 4th NCAA National Championship, with a win in the Men's Tennis doubles. Field Hockey holds the other 3 NCAA titles.
In addition to several outdoor athletic fields (Pickard fields & Whittier field), the College's athletic facilities include:
Between 2002 and 2008, Bowdoin College decreased its CO2 emissions by 40%. It achieved that reduction by switching from #6 to #2 oil in its heating plant, reducing the campus set heating point from 72 to 68 degrees, and by adhering to its own Green Design Standards in renovations. In addition, Bowdoin runs a single stream recycling program, and its dining services department has begun composting food waste and unbleached paper napkins. Bowdoin received an overall grade of "B" for its sustainability efforts on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009 published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. In addition to various student run organizations, including Sustainable Bowdoin and the Bowdoin Organic Garden, the college's dining service regularly uses local products and annually invites local farmers to campus to discuss how local food products are incorporated into the daily menu for students.
In 2003, Bowdoin made a commitment to achieve LEED-certification for all new campus buildings. The college has since completed construction on Osher and West residency halls, the Peter Buck Center for Health & Fitness, and the Sidney J. Watson Arena, all of which have attained LEED or Silver LEED certification. The new dorms partially use collected rain water as part of an advanced flushing system, while the new ice arena uses one of the most efficient dehumidification and refrigeration systems out of any Division III collegiate arena.
In 2009, the college announced a detailed plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020 as a result of campus-wide conservation efforts and specific initiatives in its implementation plan. The plan includes the construction of a solar thermal system, part of the "Thorne Solar Hot Water Project"; cogeneration in the central heating plant (for which Bowdoin received $400,000 in federal grants); lighting upgrades to all campus buildings; and modern monitoring systems of energy usage on campus.
Bowdoin graduates have led all three branches of the federal government, including both houses of Congress. Franklin Pierce
(1826) was America's fourteenth President
; Melville Weston Fuller (1853) served as Chief Justice of the United States
; Thomas Brackett Reed
(1860) was twice elected Speaker of the House of Representatives
; and Wallace H. White, Jr.
(1899) and George J. Mitchell
(1954) both served as Majority Leader of the United States Senate
.
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
located in the coastal Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
town of Brunswick
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is widely considered as one of the Little Ivies
Little Ivies
Little Ivies is a colloquialism referring to a group of small, selective American liberal arts colleges; however, it does not denote any official organization....
. The college enrolls approximately 1,700 students and has been coeducational since 1971. It offers 33 majors and 4 additional minors, and the student-faculty ratio is 9:1. Famous alumni include Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , born as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army...
, Henry W. Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
.
Brunswick is located on the shores of Casco Bay
Casco Bay
Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...
and the Androscoggin River
Androscoggin River
The Androscoggin River is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is long and joins the Kennebec River at Merrymeeting Bay in Maine before its water empties into the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic Ocean. Its drainage basin is in area...
, 12 miles north of Freeport, Maine, and 28 miles north of Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, Maine. In addition to its Brunswick campus, Bowdoin also owns a 118-acre (478,000 m²) coastal studies center on Orrs Island
Orr's Island (Maine)
Orr's Island is an island in Casco Bay and the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The island is within the town of Harpswell, Maine, U...
and a 200-acre (809,000 m²) scientific field station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...
.
Founding and 19th Century
Bowdoin College was chartered in 1794 by Governor Samuel AdamsSamuel Adams
Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American...
of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a district, and was named for former Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin
James Bowdoin
James Bowdoin II was an American political and intellectual leader from Boston, Massachusetts during the American Revolution. He served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court in the colonial era and was president of the state's constitutional convention...
, whose son James Bowdoin III
James Bowdoin III
James Bowdoin III was an American philanthropist and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. He has born to James Bowdoin in Boston, and graduated from Harvard University in 1771. James then studied law at Oxford and traveled widely in Europe until 1775. When he got the news of the Battle of...
was an early benefactor. At the time of its founding, it was the easternmost college in the United States. It is thought that the Bowdoin seal, created in 1798 by Joseph Callender, was a sun because it was the first college in the United States to see the sunrise. In 1806, 13 Harvard graduates opted to accept a Bowdoin degree along with their diploma from Harvard.
Bowdoin came into its own in the 1820s, a decade in which Maine became an independent state as a result of the Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
and the college graduated a number of its most famous alumni, including future United States President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
, class of 1824, and writers Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, both of whom graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1825.
Bowdoin's connections to the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
have prompted some to quip that the war "began and ended" in Brunswick. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, "the little lady who started this big war," started writing her influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
in Bowdoin's Appleton Hall while her husband was teaching at the College, and Brigadier General
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
(and Brevet
Brevet (military)
In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...
Major General
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
) Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , born as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army...
, a Bowdoin alumnus and professor, was responsible for receiving the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
at Appomattox Court House
Appomattox Court House
The Appomattox Courthouse is the current courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill - home of the original Old Appomattox Court House...
in 1865. Chamberlain, a Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
recipient who later served as governor of Maine
Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the chief executive of the State of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive....
, adjutant-general of Maine, and president of Bowdoin, distinguished himself at Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
, where he led the 20th Maine in its valiant defense of Little Round Top
Little Round Top
Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left flank on July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg....
.
There are other Civil War connections as well: Major General Oliver Otis Howard, class of 1850, led the Freedmen's Bureau after the war and later founded Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
; Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, class of 1837, was responsible for the formation of the famous 54th Massachusetts; and William P. Fessenden
William P. Fessenden
William Pitt Fessenden was an American politician from the U.S. state of Maine.Fessenden was a Whig and member of the Fessenden political family...
1823 and Hugh McCulloch
Hugh McCulloch
Hugh McCulloch was an American statesman who served two non-consecutive terms as U.S. Treasury Secretary, serving under three presidents.-Biography:...
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
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
held an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from Bowdoin, which he received while United States Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
in 1858. President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, too, was given an honorary degree from the college in 1865.
In addition to Howard and Chamberlain, William Fessenden's sons, James Deering Fessenden
James Deering Fessenden
James Deering Fessenden was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the state of Maine who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Primarily a staff officer and operations planner until the latter stages of the war, he commanded an infantry brigade in the Western...
and Francis Fessenden
Francis Fessenden
Francis Fessenden was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the state of Maine who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
, were both brigadier generals, and seventeen Bowdoin alumni would receive brevets as brigadier generals, including Ellis Spear
Ellis Spear
Ellis Spear was an officer in the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who rose to the rank of general during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
(Class of 1858, who was Chamberlain's second-in-command at Gettysburg), Charles Hamlin (Class of 1857, son of Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin was the 15th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War...
), and General Howard's brother Charles (Class of 1859).
Twentieth century
Although Bowdoin's Medical School of Maine closed its doors in 1921, the College is currently known for its particularly strong programs in the natural sciences. One illustrious alumnus was Dr. Augustus StinchfieldAugustus Stinchfield
Augustus W. Stinchfield was one of the founders, along with Drs. Charles Horace Mayo, William James Mayo, Christopher Graham, E...
, who received his M.D. in 1868, who went on to become one of the co-founders of the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
in Rochester, Minnesota. He was asked to join the two Mayo brother's private medical practice in 1892. In 1915, the remaining partners in the then private practice embraced the creation of the non-profit Mayo Clinic. While perhaps Bowdoin's better-known alumnus in the sciences is the controversial entomologist-turned-sexologist Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Charles Kinsey was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, as well as producing the Kinsey Reports and the 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
Donald B. MacMillan
Donald Baxter MacMillan was an American explorer, sailor, researcher and lecturer who made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career...
, class of 1898. Peary led the first successful expedition to the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
in 1908, and MacMillan, a member of Peary's crew, became famous in his own right as he explored Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, Baffin Island
Baffin Island
Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut is the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000...
and Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
in the schooner Bowdoin between 1908 and 1954. Bowdoin's Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
The Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum is a museum located in Hubbard Hall at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Named after Arctic explorers and Bowdoin College graduates Robert E. Peary and Donald B...
honors the two explorers, and the College's mascot, the Polar Bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
, was chosen in 1913 to honor MacMillan, who donated a particularly large specimen to his alma mater in 1917.
Following in the footsteps of President Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
and House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed
Thomas Brackett Reed
Thomas Brackett Reed, , occasionally ridiculed as Czar Reed, was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1889–1891 and from 1895–1899...
, 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.
Wallace H. White, Jr.
Wallace Humphrey White, Jr. was a prominent American politician and Republican leader in United States Congress from 1916 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state of Maine and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S...
, class of 1899, served as Senate Minority Leader from 1944–1947 and Senate Majority Leader from 1947–1949; George J. Mitchell
George J. Mitchell
George John Mitchell, Jr., is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the Obama administration. A Democrat, Mitchell was a United States Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995...
, 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
William Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under Democratic President Bill Clinton.-Early life and education:...
, class of 1962, spent twenty-five years in the House and Senate before being appointed Secretary of Defense in the Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
Administration. Maine's First Congressional District has been christened the "Bowdoin seat" because of 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
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
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 phased out fraternities in the late 1990s, replacing them with a system of college-owned social houses.
Recent developments
In 2001, Barry Mills, class of 1972, was appointed as the fifth alumnus president of the College.On January 18, 2008, Bowdoin announced that it would be eliminating loans for all new and current students receiving financial aid, replacing those loans with grants beginning with the 2008-2009 academic year. President Mills stated, "Some see a calling in such vital but often low paying fields such as teaching or social work. With significant debt at graduation, some students will undoubtedly be forced to make career or education choices not on the basis of their talents, interests, and promise in a particular field, but rather on their capacity to repay student loans. As an institution devoted to the common good, Bowdoin must consider the fairness of such a result."
In February 2009, following a $10 million donation by Subway Sandwiches co-founder and alumnus Peter Buck, the college completed a $250-million capital campaign. Additionally, the college has also recently completed major construction projects on the campus, including a significant renovation of the college's art museum and a new fitness center named after Peter Buck.
Academics
Bowdoin is consistently ranked among the top ten liberal arts collegesLiberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. In the 2011 edition of the rankings, Bowdoin ranks sixth. In the late 1990s it was ranked as high as fourth. In 2006, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
described Bowdoin as a "New Ivy
Little Ivies
Little Ivies is a colloquialism referring to a group of small, selective American liberal arts colleges; however, it does not denote any official organization....
", one of a number of elite colleges and universities outside of the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
. Bowdoin is also part of the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission. Bowdoin was the first college to be named "School of the Year" by College Prowler
College Prowler
College Prowler is an American publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States.The company creates guidebooks written by current college students, for prospective college students, giving an insider's view...
.
The Government & Legal Studies Department, whose prominent professors include Michael Franz, Allen Springer, Paul Franco
Paul Franco
Paul N. Franco is a professor of government at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and a leading authority on the British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott....
, Richard E. Morgan
Richard E. Morgan
Richard E. "Dick" Morgan is a conservative author, contributing editor of City Journal, and the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Government at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. His areas of academic interest include the history, law and politics of the First Amendment.Morgan holds an A.B....
, Chris Potholm and Jean M. Yarbrough, was ranked the top small college political science program in the world by researchers at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
in 2003. Government & Legal Studies was the most popular major for every graduating class between 2000 and 2009. Other departments are also strong, including economics, the natural sciences, and English.
In 2010, Bowdoin's art history program was ranked as the top program in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Course distribution requirements were abolished in the 1970s, but were reinstated by a faculty majority vote in 1981, as a result of an initiative by oral communication and film professor Barbara Kaster. She insisted that distribution requirements would ensure students a more well-rounded education in a diversity of fields and therefore present them with more career possibilities. The requirements of at least two courses in each of the categories of Natural Sciences/Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
/Fine Arts, and Foreign Studies (including languages) took effect for the Class of 1987 and have been gradually amended since then. Current requirements require one course each in: Natural Sciences, Quantitive Reasoning, Visual and Performing Arts, International Perspectives and Exploring Social Differences. A small, writing intensive course, called a First Year Seminar, is also required.
In 2002, the faculty decided to change the grading system so that it incorporated plus and minus grades. Previously, only grades of A, B, C, D, and F, were given, without the "+" or "-" modifications.
Other prominent Bowdoin faculty include (or have included): Edville Gerhardt Abbott
Edville Gerhardt Abbott
Edville Gerhardt Abbott was an American orthopædic surgeon. He was born in Hancock, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College.He was well-known through his mechanical so-called "Abbott's method" of treatment of lateral curvature of the spine. In 1913 he demonstrated his method in England and on the...
, Charles Beitz
Charles Beitz
Charles R. Beitz is an American political scientist. He is a Professor of Politics at Princeton University specializing in Political Theory. His philosophical and teaching interests focus on international political theory, democratic theory, the theory of human rights and legal theory.Beitz...
, John Bisbee
John Bisbee
John Bisbee is an American sculptor living and working in Maine. He is an art professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Bisbee received his B.F.A. from Alfred University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo...
, Paul Chadbourne, Thomas Cornell
Thomas Cornell
Thomas C. Cornell , an American politician and businessman. During the American Civil War, he was commissioned as a major in the New York Militia...
, Kristen R. Ghodsee
Kristen R. Ghodsee
Kristen Ghodsee is an American ethnographer and the John S. Osterweis Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. She is known primarily for her ethnographic work on post-communist Bulgaria as well as being a key player in the field of postsocialist gender studies...
, Eddie Glaude
Eddie Glaude
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., was born in Moss Point, Mississippi. He is the chair of the Center for African-American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University. Glaude is a 1989 graduate of Morehouse College where he was the Student...
, Joseph E. Johnson
Joseph E. Johnson
Joseph Esrey Johnson was an American government official who served with both the United States Department of State and the United Nations....
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, Elliott Schwartz
Elliott Schwartz
Elliott Schwartz is an American composer. A graduate of Columbia University, He was Beckwith Professor Emeritus of music at Bowdoin College joining the faculty in 1964. In 2006, the Library of Congress acquired his papers to make them part of their permanent collection...
, and Scott Sehon
Scott Sehon
Scott Robert Sehon is an American philosopher and a professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College. His primary work is in the field of philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of action, and the free will debate...
.
Student body
Bowdoin is one of the most selective liberal arts colleges in the country, with an acceptance rate of 15% for the class of 2015. Bowdoin is classified by U.S. News and World Report as "most selective". Of enrolling students, 89% are in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. According to the Princeton Review, the average GPA of enrolling high school students is 3.8.In Fall 2010, Bowdoin's acceptance rate was the fifth lowest among liberal arts colleges ranked by U.S. News and World Report.
Although Bowdoin does not require the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
in admissions, all students must submit a score upon matriculation. The middle 50% SAT range for the verbal and math sections of the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
is 660-750 and 660-750, respectively — numbers of only those submitting scores during the admissions process. The middle 50% ACT range is 30–33.
The April 17, 2008, edition of The Economist noted Bowdoin in an article on university admissions: "So-called 'almost-Ivies' such as Bowdoin and Middlebury also saw record low admission rates this year (18% each). It is now as hard to get into Bowdoin, says the college's admissions director, as it was to get into Princeton in the 1970s."
Many students apply for financial aid, and around 85% of those who apply receive aid. Bowdoin is a need-blind and a no-loans institution. Students applying to the school are evaluated independently of their financial situations, the college meets 100% of demonstrated financial need, and the college replaces loans with grants for all students on financial aid to lift the burden of significant student debt upon graduation.
While a significant portion of the student body hails from New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
— including nearly 25% from Massachusetts and 10% from Maine — recent classes have drawn from an increasingly national and international pool. Although Bowdoin once had a reputation for homogeneity (both ethnically and socioeconomically), a diversity campaign has increased the percentage of students of color in recent classes to more than 31%. In fact, admission of minorities goes back at least as far as John Brown Russwurm
John Brown Russwurm
John Brown Russwurm was an American abolitionist from Jamaica, known for his newspaper, Freedom's Journal. He moved from the United States to govern the Maryland section of an African American colony in Liberia, dying there in 1851....
1826, Bowdoin's first African-American college graduate, and the third African-American graduate of any American college.
Student life
Bowdoin's dining services has been ranked #1 among all universities and colleges nationally by Princeton Review in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2011. The college's dining services have been featured on numerous national news organizations including the The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Bowdoin has two major dining halls, one of which was renovated in the late 1990s, and every academic year begins with a lobster bake outside Farley Fieldhouse. The college was ranked #6 nationally for the "Dorms like Palaces" category by Princeton Review in 2011.
In 2010, Newsweek ranked Bowdoin the #6 "Most desirable small school in America". In April 2008, College Prowler
College Prowler
College Prowler is an American publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States.The company creates guidebooks written by current college students, for prospective college students, giving an insider's view...
, a publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States and written by students, named Bowdoin College its "School of the Year" citing excellence in academics, safety and security, housing and dining.
Recalling his days at Bowdoin in a recent interview, Professor Richard E. Morgan
Richard E. Morgan
Richard E. "Dick" Morgan is a conservative author, contributing editor of City Journal, and the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Government at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. His areas of academic interest include the history, law and politics of the First Amendment.Morgan holds an A.B....
'59 described student life at the then-all-male school as "monastic," and noted that "the only things to do were either work or drink." (This is corroborated by the Official Preppy Handbook
Official Preppy Handbook
The Official Preppy Handbook is a tongue-in-cheek humor reference guide written by Jonathan Roberts, Carol McD. Wallace, Mason Wiley, and Lisa Birnbach. It discusses an aspect of North American culture described as prepdom...
, which in 1980 ranked Bowdoin the number two drinking school in the country, behind Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
.) These days, Morgan observed, the College offers a far broader array of recreational opportunities: "If we could have looked forward in time to Bowdoin's standard of living today, we would have been astounded."
Since abolishing Greek fraternities in the late 1990s, Bowdoin has switched to a system in which entering students are assigned a "college house" affiliation correlating with their first-year dormitory. While six houses were originally established, following the construction of two new dorms, two were added effective in the fall of 2007, bringing the total to eight: Ladd (affiliated with Osher Hall), Baxter (West), Quinby (Appleton), MacMillan (Coleman), Howell (Hyde), Helmreich (Maine), Reed (Moore), and Burnett (Winthrop). The college houses are physical buildings around campus which host parties and other events throughout the year. Those students who choose not to live in their affiliated house retain their affiliation and are considered members throughout their Bowdoin career. Before the fraternity system was abolished in the 1990s, all the Bowdoin fraternities were co-educational (except for one unrecognized sorority and two unrecognized all-male fraternities).
Bowdoin's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, which was founded in 1825, is the nation's sixth oldest. Among those who have been inducted to the Maine Alpha chapter as undergraduates include Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
(1825), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
(1825), Robert E. Peary (1877), Owen Brewster
Owen Brewster
Ralph Owen Brewster was an American politician from Maine. Brewster, a Republican, was solidly conservative...
(1909), Harold Hitz Burton
Harold Hitz Burton
Harold Hitz Burton was an American politician and lawyer.He served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was known as a dispassionate jurist who prized equal justice under the law.-Biography:He...
(1909), Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas
Paul Howard Douglas was an liberal American politician and University of Chicago economist. A war hero, he was elected as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois from in the 1948 landslide, serving until his defeat in 1966...
(1913), Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Charles Kinsey was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, as well as producing the Kinsey Reports and the Kinsey...
(1916), Thomas R. Pickering
Thomas R. Pickering
Thomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering , is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.-Early life:...
(1953), and Lawrence B. Lindsey
Lawrence B. Lindsey
Lawrence B. Lindsey was director of the National Economic Council , and the assistant to the president on economic policy for the U.S. President George W. Bush. He played a leading role in formulating President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut plan, convincing candidate Bush that he needed an...
(1976).
Postgraduate placement
In 2006, Bowdoin was named a "Top Producer of Fulbright AwardFulbright Award
The Fulbright Award is a scholarship awarded as part of the Fulbright Program to foster international research and collaboration. The program also awards a fellowship to Ph.D.'s to lecture and teach in foreign universities...
s for American Students" by the Institute of International Education.
In 2003, the Wall Street Journal ranked Bowdoin among the top twenty colleges and universities in the United States based on the percentage of the school's alumni who attend a "top-five" graduate program in business, law, or medicine.
According to payscale.com, alumni of Bowdoin College have a mid-career median salary of $106,000, making it the 29th highest among colleges and universities in the United States.
Historically, Bowdoin is known for the strength of its alumni in many different fields and professions. In Maine, the First Congressional District
Maine's 1st congressional district
Maine's 1st congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Maine. The geographically smaller of the two congressional districts in the state, the district covers the southern coastal area of the state. The district consists of all of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc,...
has been christened the "Bowdoin seat" because of 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.
Media and Publications
Bowdoin's student newspaper, The Bowdoin OrientThe Bowdoin Orient
The Bowdoin Orient is the student newspaper of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Established in 1871, the Orient is the oldest continuously-published college weekly in the United States.-Circulation and Distribution:...
, is the oldest continuously published college weekly in the United States. The Orient was named the second best tabloid-sized college weekly at a Collegiate Associated Press conference in March 2007. Additionally, the school's literary magazine, The Quill
The Quill (Bowdoin)
The Quill is Bowdoin College's oldest and only literary magazine. It is the second oldest continuously functioning club on the Bowdoin campus, second only to the Bowdoin Orient.-History:...
, has been published since 1897. The College's radio station, WBOR
WBOR
WBOR is a radio station licensed to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, USA. The station broadcasts from the basement of the Dudley Coe Health Center on the Bowdoin College campus. Programming includes indie rock, classical, electronic music, blues, jazz, metal, talk, news, sports, political,...
, has been in operation since 1951. In 1999, The Bowdoin Cable Network was formed, producing a weekly newscast and several student created shows per semester.
A Cappella
There are six a capella groups on campus. The Meddiebempsters and the Longfellows are all-male, Miscellania and Bella Mafia are all-female, and BOKA and Ursus Verses are co-ed."The Longfellows" are the newer of the two all male groups. They trace their roots to the historic class of 1825 at Bowdoin, which graduated Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 2011, they won their quarterfinal of the International Collegiate Championship of A Cappella, advancing them to the semifinals, as they only all-male group. The same year, they were in the final round of selection to be on NBCs "The Sing Off." In 2010, they sang the national anthem at a Celtics-Wizards game, and have preformed all over Maine and the Northeast.
The Meddiebempsters are the oldest of Bowdoin's six a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
groups and the third-oldest a cappella group in the nation. Founded in the spring of 1937, the Meddies gained notoriety when they performed in USO
United Service Organizations
The United Service Organizations Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military, with programs in 160 centers worldwide. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of Defense , and has provided support and...
shows after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1948, the Meddiebempsters performed for the First Family
First Family of the United States
The First Family of the United States is the unofficial title for the family of the President of the United States, who is both head of state and head of government of the United States. Members of the First Family consist of the President, the First Lady of the United States, and any of their...
and were then invited to take a USO tour of Europe for the first time. The tour's enormous success resulted in a full performance calendar for the 1948-1949 academic year. The Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
invited them back every summer from 1948 to 1955 and the group appeared on the Tex and Jinx Show.
Other
The largest student group on campus is the Outing Club, which leads canoeing, kayaking, rafting, camping and backpacking trips throughout Maine. One of the school's two historic rival literary societies, the Peucinian Society, has recently been revitalized from its previous form. The Peucinian Society was founded in 1805, making it one of the oldest literary and intellectual societies in the country. This organization counts such people as Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
and Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , born as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army...
amongst its former members, though these individuals originally belonged to the Athenian Society (the second society of the two historic groups). These literary and intellectual societies were the dominant groups on campus before they declined in popularity after the rise of Greek fraternities
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
.
Campus
Museums on Bowdoin's campus include the Bowdoin College Museum of ArtBowdoin College Museum of Art
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is an art museum located in Brunswick, Maine. Included on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is located in a building on the campus of Bowdoin College designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White.-History:The museum's collection...
, the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum
Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum
The Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum was the home of American Civil War general, Bowdoin College president, and Maine Governor Joshua L. Chamberlain for over 50 years...
, and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
The Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum is a museum located in Hubbard Hall at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Named after Arctic explorers and Bowdoin College graduates Robert E. Peary and Donald B...
. Notable Buildings include Massachusetts Hall
Massachusetts Hall, Bowdoin College
Massachusetts Hall is a building on the Bowdoin College campus, in Brunswick, Maine.Part of the building was used as a laboratory and classroom by Parker Cleaveland.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.-External links:...
, Hubbard Hall, the Parker Cleaveland House
Parker Cleaveland House
The Parker Cleaveland House in Brunswick, Maine, was the home, from 1806-1858, of Parker Cleaveland, a mineralogist and a professor at nearby Bowdoin College....
and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Brunswick, Maine)
Harriet Beecher Stowe House is an historic home at 63 Federal Street in Brunswick, Maine.Originally known as the Stonemore House, it was rented by author Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband while he taught at nearby Bowdoin College. It was here between 1850 and 1852 that the author wrote Uncle...
.
Athletics
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference
New England Small College Athletic Conference
The New England Small College Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference, consisting of eleven highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities located in New England and New York...
(NESCAC), which also includes Amherst
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, Conn College
Connecticut College
Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women...
, Hamilton, Middlebury
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, Trinity
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
, Tufts
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, Wesleyan
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, Williams
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
, and Maine rivals Bates
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
and Colby
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin
Colby-Bates-Bowdoin
The Colby-Bates-Bowdoin is an athletic conference in Maine containing three NCAA Division III and NESCAC schools, Colby College, Bates College, and Bowdoin College. These colleges have competed against each other in athletic contests since the 1870s. Bates, Colby and Bowdoin have one of the top...
Consortium (CBB). The College's official colors are white and black.
Bowdoin offers thirty varsity teams, including men's teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field, and women's teams in field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and rugby.
Men's ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
is the most popular spectator sport, with hundreds of students turning out for games against arch-rival Colby
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
. In 2004, Bowdoin became the second college in the United States to elevate the women's rugby team to varsity status. While technically still varsity, the women's rugby team competes in New England Rugby Football Union, rather than NESCAC. The sailing team, which competes in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is co-ed and was considered in 2006 to be one of the top 20 sailing teams in the nation by Sailing World magazine. There are also intercollegiate and club teams in men's and women's fencing, men's and women's rowing, men's rugby
Bowdoin College Men's Rugby
Bowdoin College Men's RugbyFounded in 1969, the Bowdoin Rugby Football Club has been a unique element in the Bowdoin community for over 30 years...
, water polo, men's volleyball and men's and women's Ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
.
Recent NESCAC champions include men's ice hockey (2011, albeit officially forfeited), men's tennis (2008), women's volleyball (2011) men's cross country (2001, 2002), women's basketball (2001–2007, 2009), women's ice hockey (2002, 2004) and women's field hockey (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011); recent NCAA tournament appearances include women's basketball (Elite Eight, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007; Final Four, 2004), women's field hockey (Final Four, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010) men's rugby (sweet 16, 2001), women's ice hockey (Final Four, 2002, 2003; Elite Eight, 2004, 2005), men's soccer (Final Four, 2010) and women's lacrosse (Final Four, 2011.)
Women's basketball and field hockey have been Bowdoin's most successful teams. The women's basketball team are 8-time NESCAC champions, holding an astonishing 7-year streak. The field hockey team are three-time NCAA National Champions; winning the title in 2007 (defeating Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
), 2008 (defeating Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
) and 2010 (defeating Messiah College
Messiah College
Messiah College is a private Christian college of the liberal arts and applied arts and sciences located in Grantham, Pennsylvania, near the capital city of Harrisburg...
). Head coach Nicky Pearson has been NESCAC coach of the year a record 7 times; no other coach in any NESCAC sport has won the award more than twice. In 2007, 2008 and 2010, Pearson was also honored as the NCAA's Division III coach of the year.
2011 also saw Bowdoin's 4th NCAA National Championship, with a win in the Men's Tennis doubles. Field Hockey holds the other 3 NCAA titles.
Facilities
Bowdoin's athletic facilities combine modern buildings with old traditions, and have been historically used as training grounds for Olympic athletes.In addition to several outdoor athletic fields (Pickard fields & Whittier field), the College's athletic facilities include:
- Sidney J. Watson Arena, one of the most modern ice hockey arenas of Division III hockey, with a 2,300 spectator capacity and LEED certification.
- Buck Center for Health and Fitness, a $15.2 million dollar LEED-certified facility with a 40-foot climbing wall and spaces for meditation, yoga, and tai chi classes.
- Hubbard Grandstand and Whittier FieldWhittier FieldWhittier Field is the outdoor stadium of Bowdoin College. Located in Brunswick, Maine, it is the field for Bowdoin football, Bowdoin outdoor track and field, and the Maine Distance Festival.-Whittier Athletic Field:...
, a 9,000 spectator football field and additional six-lane all weather track renovated in 2005 by NikeNike, Inc.Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
corporation. - Leroy Greason Pool, which can accommodate up to 16 lanes of lap swimming.
- Lubin Family Squash Center, which features seven squash courts with moveable sidewalls.
- boathouses for sailing and rowing, several basketball courts, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, and several new athletic fields including a new astroturf field.
Sustainability
According to its Environmental Mission Statement, Bowdoin College "shall seek to encourage conservation, recycling, and other sustainable practices in its daily decision making processes, and shall take into account, in the operations of the College, all appropriate economic, environmental, and social concerns."Between 2002 and 2008, Bowdoin College decreased its CO2 emissions by 40%. It achieved that reduction by switching from #6 to #2 oil in its heating plant, reducing the campus set heating point from 72 to 68 degrees, and by adhering to its own Green Design Standards in renovations. In addition, Bowdoin runs a single stream recycling program, and its dining services department has begun composting food waste and unbleached paper napkins. Bowdoin received an overall grade of "B" for its sustainability efforts on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009 published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. In addition to various student run organizations, including Sustainable Bowdoin and the Bowdoin Organic Garden, the college's dining service regularly uses local products and annually invites local farmers to campus to discuss how local food products are incorporated into the daily menu for students.
In 2003, Bowdoin made a commitment to achieve LEED-certification for all new campus buildings. The college has since completed construction on Osher and West residency halls, the Peter Buck Center for Health & Fitness, and the Sidney J. Watson Arena, all of which have attained LEED or Silver LEED certification. The new dorms partially use collected rain water as part of an advanced flushing system, while the new ice arena uses one of the most efficient dehumidification and refrigeration systems out of any Division III collegiate arena.
In 2009, the college announced a detailed plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020 as a result of campus-wide conservation efforts and specific initiatives in its implementation plan. The plan includes the construction of a solar thermal system, part of the "Thorne Solar Hot Water Project"; cogeneration in the central heating plant (for which Bowdoin received $400,000 in federal grants); lighting upgrades to all campus buildings; and modern monitoring systems of energy usage on campus.
Bowdoin alumni
Selected notable Bowdoin graduates include:- William Pitt Fessenden (1823), U.S. Senator, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury
- Franklin PierceFranklin PierceFranklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
(1824), U.S. President - Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
(1825), poet - Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
(1825), novelist, author of The Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an... - John Parker Hale (1827), Congressman, U.S. Senator, Minister to Spain, Free Soil Presidential candidate 1852
- Oliver Otis Howard (1850), Civil War hero and founder of Howard UniversityHoward UniversityHoward University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1852), Civil War hero and governor of Maine
- Melville FullerMelville FullerMelville Weston Fuller was the eighth Chief Justice of the United States between 1888 and 1910.-Early life and education:...
(1853), Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court - Thomas Brackett ReedThomas Brackett ReedThomas Brackett Reed, , occasionally ridiculed as Czar Reed, was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1889–1891 and from 1895–1899...
(1860), U.S. Speaker of the House - Dr. Augustus StinchfieldAugustus StinchfieldAugustus W. Stinchfield was one of the founders, along with Drs. Charles Horace Mayo, William James Mayo, Christopher Graham, E...
(1868), Mayo Clinic co-founder - Admiral Robert PearyRobert PearyRobert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
(1877), Arctic explorer - Alfred KinseyAlfred KinseyAlfred Charles Kinsey was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, as well as producing the Kinsey Reports and the Kinsey...
(1916), sex researcher - Fred TootellFred TootellFrederick Delmont "Fred" Tootell was an American athlete who competed mainly in the hammer throw. He competed for the United States in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France in the hammer throw where he won the gold medal.-Athletic career:Though he attended medical school at Tufts...
(1923), Olympic gold medalist - Andrew HaldaneAndrew HaldaneAndrew Allison Haldane , known as Andy and nicknamed "Ack-Ack", was an officer in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific theatre during World War II. He was shot and killed during the Battle of Peleliu. Haldane is "one of the most revered figures in the history of the U.S...
(1941), an officer in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific theatre during World War II. He was shot and killed during the Battle of Peleliu. - Richard Hooker (1945), M*A*S*H creator
- Peter BuckPeter Buck (restaurateur)Peter Buck is a physicist, restaurateur, and philanthropist. He co-founded the Subway fastfood restaurant chain.-Education:A native of South Portland, Maine, Buck graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 1952. He then earned master’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Columbia...
(1952), co-founder of the SubwaySubway (restaurant)Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
sandwich chain - Thomas R. PickeringThomas R. PickeringThomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering , is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.-Early life:...
(1953), U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Russia, Israel, et al. - George Mitchell (1954), U.S. Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland and for Middle East Peace, Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, and lead investigator for Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's 2007 steroid report - Erland Thorsteison (1959), Chemist and Inventor
- William CohenWilliam CohenWilliam Sebastian Cohen is an author and American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as Secretary of Defense under Democratic President Bill Clinton.-Early life and education:...
(1962), U.S. Senator, Secretary of Defense - Kenneth ChenaultKenneth ChenaultKenneth Irvine Chenault is an American business executive. He has been the CEO and Chairman of American Express since 2001. He is the third African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 company.-Early life, education, and legal career:...
(1973), CEO of American Express - Christopher HillChristopher R. HillChristopher Robert Hill is an American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.On July 1, 2010, Hill was chosen to be the dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver...
(1974), Assistant Secretary of State, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, South Korea, et al. - Geoffrey CanadaGeoffrey CanadaGeoffrey Canada is an African American social activist and educator. Since 1990, Canada has been president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization which states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem...
(1974), author and activist, CEO of Harlem Children's Zone - Edwin M. LeeEdwin M. LeeEdwin Mah Lee is the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco, California. He was appointed by the Board of Supervisors on January 11, 2011 to serve out the remainder of former mayor Gavin Newsom's term, after Newsom resigned to take office as Lieutenant Governor of California. At the time of his appointment...
(1974), Mayor of San Francisco - Stanley DruckenmillerStanley DruckenmillerStanley Freeman Druckenmiller is an American hedge fund manager, he is the former Chairman and President of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients...
(1975), investor, hedge fund manager, former head of Dreyfus fund and Quantum fund - Cynthia McFaddenCynthia McFaddenCynthia McFadden is an anchor and correspondent for ABC News who currently co-anchors Nightline and Primetime.-Education:...
(1978), ABC News anchor - Joan Benoit Samuelson (1979), Olympic gold medalist
- James Staley (1979), Head of Investment Banking at JPMorgan Chase
- Reed HastingsReed HastingsWilmot Reed Hastings, Jr. is an entrepreneur and education philanthropist. He is the CEO of Netflix, and on the boards of Microsoft, Facebook, and numerous non-profit organizations.- Early life and education :...
(1983), Netflix founder and CEO - Paul AdelsteinPaul AdelsteinPaul Adelstein is an American television and film actor, best known for the role of Agent Paul Kellerman in the television series, Prison Break, and his current role as pediatrician Cooper Freedman in the series Private Practice....
(1991), actor, best known for his roles in Prison Break (2005–07) and Private Practice (2007–present)
Bowdoin graduates have led all three branches of the federal government, including both houses of Congress. Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
(1826) was America's fourteenth President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
; Melville Weston Fuller (1853) served as Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
; Thomas Brackett Reed
Thomas Brackett Reed
Thomas Brackett Reed, , occasionally ridiculed as Czar Reed, was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1889–1891 and from 1895–1899...
(1860) was twice elected Speaker of the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
; and Wallace H. White, Jr.
Wallace H. White, Jr.
Wallace Humphrey White, Jr. was a prominent American politician and Republican leader in United States Congress from 1916 until 1949. White was from the U.S. state of Maine and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S...
(1899) and George J. Mitchell
George J. Mitchell
George John Mitchell, Jr., is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the Obama administration. A Democrat, Mitchell was a United States Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995...
(1954) both served as Majority Leader of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
.
Bowdoin in literature and film
- FanshaweFanshawe (novel)Fanshawe is a novel written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was his first published work, which he published anonymously in 1828.-Background:...
(1828) — This Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
novel, published only three years after his graduation from Bowdoin, is set at a small college which bears a striking resemblance to his alma mater. - "Morituri Salutamus" (1875) — Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
wrote this poem for his 50th Bowdoin reunion, and recited it on that occasion. One famous passage recalls the College: "O ye familiar scenes,—ye groves of pine / That once were mine and are no longer mine, — / Thou river, widening through the meadows green / To the vast sea, so near and yet unseen, — / Ye halls, in whose seclusion and repose / Phantoms of fame, like exhalations, rose / And vanished,—we who are about to die / Salute you; earth and air and sea and sky / And the Imperial Sun that scatters down / His sovereign splendors upon grove and town." - Broken ArrowBroken Arrow (1950 film)Broken Arrow is a western Technicolor film released in 1950. It was directed by Delmer Daves and starred James Stewart and Jeff Chandler. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, and won a Golden Globe award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. It made history as the first...
(1950) — This Golden Globe AwardGolden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
-winning film starring James StewartJames Stewart (actor)James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
featured Oliver Otis Howard, class of 1850 as a prominent character. - M*A*S*H (1968, 1970) — In both the book and filmMASH (film)MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...
, the character Hawkeye Pierce is said to have played football at Androscoggin College, a fictional school based on the alma mater of author Richard Hooker, Bowdoin class of 1945. - The Killer AngelsThe Killer AngelsThe Killer Angels is a historical novel by Michael Shaara that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. The book tells the story of four days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War: June 30, 1863, as the troops of both the Union and the Confederacy move into battle around...
(1975) — This historical novel by Michael ShaaraMichael ShaaraMichael Shaara was an American writer of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. He was born to Italian immigrant parents in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, and served as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne division...
, which won the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for fiction, focuses in large part on the role played by Bowdoin graduate and professor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at the Battle of GettysburgBattle of GettysburgThe Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
. - Glory (1989) — Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, class of 1837 is a character in this film about the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
- Gettysburg (1993) — In this movie based on The Killer AngelsThe Killer AngelsThe Killer Angels is a historical novel by Michael Shaara that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. The book tells the story of four days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War: June 30, 1863, as the troops of both the Union and the Confederacy move into battle around...
, there is at least one reference to character Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as having had an academic career at Bowdoin, which he put aside to lead the 20th Maine. - The Man Without a FaceThe Man Without a FaceThe Man Without a Face is a 1993 drama film starring and directed by Mel Gibson. The film is based on Isabelle Holland's 1972 novel of the same name. Gibson's directorial debut received respectful reviews from most critics.-Plot:...
(1993) — Parts of this movie were filmed on campus. - The Cider House RulesThe Cider House RulesThe Cider House Rules is a 1985 novel by John Irving. It is Irving's sixth published novel, and has been adapted into a film of the same name and a stage play by Peter Parnell.-Plot:...
(1994) — In this John IrvingJohn IrvingJohn Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
novel and its 1999 film adaptationThe Cider House Rules (film)The Cider House Rules is a 1999 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on John Irving's novel of the same name. The film won two Academy Awards, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with four other nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards...
, a Bowdoin-educated doctor forges a Bowdoin diploma for a young protégé. - The SopranosThe SopranosThe Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
(1999) — In an episode entitled "College," Tony SopranoTony SopranoAnthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
and his daughter MeadowMeadow SopranoMeadow Mariangela Soprano , played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos.-Character:Meadow is the first-born child of Tony and Carmela Soprano...
visit ColbyColby CollegeColby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
, where Tony kills a former associate, and Bowdoin, where he reads an inscription paraphrasing Hawthorne's warning that "no man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." Tony's daughter is ultimately rejected from Bowdoin and ends up attending ColumbiaColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. The episode was not filmed on Bowdoin's campus, but was filmed at Drew UniversityDrew UniversityDrew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
in New Jersey. - Where the Heart IsWhere the Heart Is (2000 film)Where the Heart Is is a 2000 drama/romance film directed by Matt Williams and produced by Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean, Patricia Whitcher and Matt Williams. Filmed in Austin, Texas, and Waco, Texas at Baylor University. The movie stars Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd...
(2000) — The main character in this movie falls in love with a Bowdoin man. The film, which has a scene "at Bowdoin," is based on a novel of the same nameWhere the Heart Is (novel)Where the Heart Is is a 1995 novel by Billie Letts. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in December 1998. A 2000 film of the same name was directed by Matt Williams, starring Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd and Stockard Channing....
. - Gods and GeneralsGods and Generals (film)Gods and Generals is a 2003 American film based on the novel Gods and Generals by Jeffrey Shaara. It depicts events that take place prior to those shown in the 1993 film Gettysburg, which was based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Shaara's father, Michael...
(2003) — This film, based on a historical novel of the same name, is a prequel to Gettysburg. - Kinsey (2004) — Biopic about sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, class of 1916, includes a scene in which his father opposes his decision to transfer to Bowdoin.
- The Aviator (2004) — 1909 Bowdoin grad and U.S. Senator Owen Brewster plays a major role in this Howard HughesHoward HughesHoward Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
biopic. - Grey's AnatomyGrey's AnatomyGrey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
(2008) — Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd is canonically a Bowdoin grad. - Catamount, A North Country Thriller (2008) — A thriller that takes place in the North Country of New Hampshire. Two fly fishermen who fall victim to a rogue mountain lion were roommates at Bowdoin. The novel was written by Rick Davidson, class of 1969.
- Mad MenMad MenMad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
(2009) — In the season three episode entitled "Wee Small Hours," a Bowdoin t-shirt is worn by character Suzanne Farrell, even though the episode is set several years before Bowdoin began accepting women. - The Good Wife (2009) — In the first scene of an episode entitled "Crash" a character introduces a new assistant, listing "Bowdoin 2005, summa cum laude" among her credentials.
- TinkersTinkers (novel)Tinkers is the first novel by American author Paul Harding. The novel tells the tale of George Washington Crosby, a clock repairman, who, on his deathbed, recounts his life story and his father's struggles with epilepsy to his family...
(2009)— In this Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning novel by Paul HardingPaul Harding (author)Paul Harding is an American musician and author, best known for his debut novel Tinkers which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2010 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers. Harding was drummer for the band Cold Water Flat from approximately the founding in 1990 to 1997. Harding...
, one of the characters, Gilbert, is a semi-legendary literary figured that graduated from Bowdoin and is rumored to been one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classmates. - TenureTenure (film)Tenure is a 2009 American comedy film written and directed by Mike Million and starring Luke Wilson, David Koechner and Gretchen Mol. The film was produced by Paul Schiff and released by Blowtorch Entertainment as their first original production....
(2009) — In the first scene, Luke WilsonLuke WilsonLuke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:...
's character (Charlie Thurber) mentions that he was first rejected tenure at Bowdoin College.
Presidents of Bowdoin
- Joseph McKeenJoseph McKeenJoseph McKeen was the first president of Bowdoin College of Brunswick, Maine.-Life and career:McKeen was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, a town that his father and grandfather, John and James, who had come from the north of Ireland in 1718 to escape religious and political oppression, had...
(1802–07) - Jesse AppletonJesse AppletonJesse Appleton , son of Francis Appleton and Elizabeth Hubbard, was the second president of Bowdoin College and the father of First Lady Jane Pierce.-Life and career:...
(1809–19) - William AllenWilliam Allen (biographer)William Allen was a biographer, scholar and academic.-Biography:He was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1784. He graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1802 and after a few years of work became assistant librarian at Harvard. He became Pastor of Pittsfield 1810; and...
(1820–39) - Leonard WoodsLeonard Woods (college president)Leonard Woods was the fourth president of Bowdoin College.-Life and career:Born in Newbury, Massachusetts, Woods attended Phillips Andover Academy before graduating from Union College in 1827 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and membership in The Kappa Alpha Society...
(1839–66) - Samuel Harris (1867–71)
- Joshua ChamberlainJoshua ChamberlainJoshua Lawrence Chamberlain , born as Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army...
(1871–83) - William DeWitt HydeWilliam DeWitt HydeWilliam DeWitt Hyde was an American college president, born at Winchendon, Mass. He graduated from Harvard University in 1879 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1882. Ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1883, he was a pastor at Newark, N...
(1885–1917) - Kenneth C.M. SillsKenneth C.M. SillsKenneth Charles Morton Sills was the eighth president of Bowdoin College and the third to be an alumnus.-Life and career:...
(1918–52) - James S. ColesJames S. ColesJames Stacy Coles was the ninth president of Bowdoin College.-Life and career:After having graduated from Columbia University in 1936, Coles earned a PHD in chemistry at Columbia and taught at several educational institutions including Middlebury College and Brown University before becoming...
(1952–67) - Roger Howell, Jr.Roger Howell, Jr.Roger Howell, Jr. was the tenth president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the fourth to be an alumnus of the college.-Life and career:...
(1969–78) - Willard F. EntemanWillard F. EntemanWillard Finley Enteman was the eleventh president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.-Career:Enteman graduated from the Hotchkiss School in 1955 before attending Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After having graduated in 1959, he attended Harvard Business School, where he...
(1978–80) - A. LeRoy GreasonA. LeRoy GreasonArthur LeRoy Greason, Jr. was the twelfth president of Bowdoin College.-Life and career:A native of Newport, Rhode Island, Greason graduated from Wesleyan University in 1944 as both a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the president of student government...
(1981–90) - Robert Hazard EdwardsRobert Hazard EdwardsRobert Hazard Edwards is an American educator who was the seventh president of Carleton College and the thirteenth president of Bowdoin College.-Education and early career:...
(1990–2000) - Barry Mills (2001–present)