Don't Come Here If You Like Fun

Introduction
I chose Bates because I thought a small....very small... liberal arts college would be the best thing for me. Bates has only 1700 students, so it's about as small as they come. The academics that are offered are mostly very good, however the size of the school severely limits the range of courses that can be offered. Despite being as expensive as Harvard (39 grand a year, increasing an average of about 2-3000 per year), Bates has almost no endowment due to the fact that its graduates traditionally go into work in the social services, priesthood, and other mostly low-income occupations. Basically, if you want to be where the action is, or if you want to be on track for a high paying job without necessarily having to go to grad school, then avoid Bates.

Campus Life and Social Life
Again, Bates has only 1,700 students. This wouldn't be terrible if Bates was in or near a big city, but it's not. Lewiston is as much of a dump as you've heard it is. Social life at Bates is characterized by boredom, frustration, and repetition. My friends and I end up at the same parties just about every weekend, and always leave dissapointed with their lame-ness. The sports teams are mostly terrible, the President is even on record having stated that athletics was not important to Bates. Therefore, school spirit is almost non-existent. Bates' one saving grace in this area is the proliferation of small clubs that are available. It's a great place for outdoor activity (rock climbing, skiing, ect.), however this is limited by EXTREME cold 4 or 5 months out of the year. Academics
Again, what programs are offered are excellent. In particular, the history and psychology majors are fairly popular. And again, the small population limits the number of courses that can be offered. There is also little outside the mainstream in terms of courses of study. If you want to learn any foreign language other than French or Spanish, for example, this is not the place. However, one BENEFIT of being small is the level of personal attention that you can receive from your advisors and professors. Very few professors even have TA's, none of whom ever actually teach the course.

Student Body
The student body at Bates is divided into 2 very distinct groups. The shortest possible definition for these would be to call them the "hippies" and the "preppies". That pretty much says it all. Either you're the type to avoid shoes, showers, and meat, and enjoy pressing your opinions on others, or you very closely resemble the bad guys from the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies. These two groups co-exist on campus only because of the fact that any Batesie who ventures off into the town of Lewiston does so at his own risk.

In Closing...
If you go to Bates, you will no doubt form a very close, although small, group of friends, and will no doubt get a lot out of the academic offerings, and, if you're driven, will go on with much success in your career. However, there are many, many schools at which you could accomplish these same goals more effectively, for less money, and with a lot more personal enjoyment along the way.