Bates College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine. The school is known for its excellent academics, internationally distinguished debate team, competitive athletics, and its history. The college was founded in 1855, as the college course catalog states, " by people who felt strongly about human freedom and civil rights. Bates is among the oldest coeducational colleges in the nation and from its beginning the college admitted students without regard to race, religion, national origin or sex."
From its creation, the college has never had fraternities and sororities. College activities are open to all its students. These long-held values of Bates pervade every aspect of the college, and are what makes it unique. Walk on the campus and talk to the students, the faculty, and the staff. talk to the people who make up what Bates is today. In these conversations, the values and ideals upon which the school was founded become obvious. There is a warmth in the interaction, a "friendliness" that over the years remains a characteristic of the typical Batesie.
I asked a friend about his college selection process, and his response often echoes what other students say of Bates:
I loved Bates from the first time I set foot on the campus. There is something about the college, the feel of the quad, the people who inhabit this place, that makes Bates so inviting that makes Bates "friendly". In the summer before my senior year of high school, I visited about fifteen schools in several different regions of the country. In pursuit of a good education, and following my heart, I decided to apply Early Decision, I liked this obvious reasons for wanting to attend Bates, which were advertised in the viewbook, but I also liked the excellent facilities, the small size that allows one to get to know a lot of different people well, and also gives everyone the opportunity to make a difference, I also liked the cohesiveness of Bates, which can be seen in the absence of fraternities and sororities thus helping to remove social barriers and in the committed and accessible faculty.
Bates has much to offer its students. In addition to its human resources of faculty and staff, Bates continues to be committed to providing the latest equipment and finest facilities for its students. The new $35 million Dining Commons is under construction. Pettengill Hall opened in the fall of 1999. This five-storey building is the home of the social science departments with classrooms, offices, and an atrium overlooking Lake Andrews or, as the students call it, "the puddle". There are lots of opportunities for research with faculty. In a 2003 senior survey, more than twenty-five percent of respondents reported that they participated in a faculty member's research project.
The Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area is 574 acres of salt marsh and rocky forested terrain adjacent to one of the last undisturbed barrier beaches where Bates students and faculty can study geology, botany, and zoology. In addition, the college owns eighty acres of freshwater habitat just north of the conservation area.
From electron microscopes to the Olin Arts Center, from the Davis Fitness Center to having the entire campus hooked up to a computer network and being Internet ready, Bates provides an environment in which students enjoy the benefits of attending a large university, while getting the personal educational experience of a small college.
Bates has much to offer its students. In addition to its human resources of faculty and staff, Bates continues to be committed to providing the latest equipment and finest facilities for its students. The new $35 million Dining Commons is under construction. Pettengill Hall opened in the fall of 1999. This five-storey building is the home of the social science departments with classrooms, offices, and an atrium overlooking Lake Andrews or, as the students call it, "the puddle". There are lots of opportunities for research with faculty. In a 2003 senior survey, more than twenty-five percent of respondents reported that they participated in a faculty member's research project.
The Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area is 574 acres of salt marsh and rocky forested terrain adjacent to one of the last undisturbed barrier beaches where Bates students and faculty can study geology, botany, and zoology. In addition, the college owns eighty acres of freshwater habitat just north of the conservation area.
From electron microscopes to the Olin Arts Center, from the Davis Fitness Center to having the entire campus hooked up to a computer network and being Internet ready, Bates provides an environment in which students enjoy the benefits of attending a large university, while getting the personal educational experience of a small college.