Is Bowdoin College ivy league? Ranking and Acceptance Rate

Do you want to know vital information about Bowdoin College, have you been willing to know if the school is ivy league? Don’t worry, we will be giving an answer to the question,  its acceptance rate, ranking, and admission requirements in this article.

Established in 1794, Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college located in the  New England town of Brunswick, Maine.

The institution has an enrollment of 1,951 (fall 2021), its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 215 acres. Check if Amherst is Ivy League.

The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth College, and the University of Maine. And it utilizes a semester-based academic calendar.

The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. Moreover, Bowdoin College Brunswick campus, it also owns a 118-acre (47.75 ha) coastal studies center on Orr’s Island and a 200-acre scientific field station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy.

Bowdoin College has more than 100 student organizations and one of the largest and most active groups is the Outing Club, which offers around 150 excursions every year.

Freshmen are required to live on campus and are assigned to a college house that provides residential social activities.

Notable alumni include Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, author Nathaniel Hawthorne, activist and educator Geoffrey Canada, former U.S. President Franklin Pierce and investigative correspondent at NBC News Cynthia McFadden.

Is Bowdoin College Ivy League?

No, Bowdoin College is not an Ivy League school, but it has been educating students for about 228 years.

While it’s not one of the original eight in that famed athletic conference, it’s still a school whose reputation reaches far beyond its region and throughout many disciplines.

Many people don’t realize that the Ivy League really did start as an athletic association.

The term itself came from a sportswriter who, in the mid-1930s, referred to the cluster of eastern schools as “ivy” colleges, possibly evoking the ivy-planting tradition practiced by many colleges at that time.

In 1954, the term became the official name for the NCAA Division I athletic conference, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia.

But the traction that the “Ivy League” designation brings to bear in any educational context makes many people use it as a universal term for excellence.

The confusion deepens when terms like “Ivy Plus” emerge, referring to the practice of associating non-Ivy League, though traditionally excellent, schools with Ivy League schools, either for alumni events, cooperative research, or academic conferences.

Schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago are typically called “Ivy Plus.”

Lists of “alternate Ivies” proliferate annually. Students can investigate the “Little Ivies,” the “Public Ivies,” the “HBUC Ivies,” the “Southern Ivies,” the “West Coast Ivies.”

Greene’s Guides now publishes an entire work devoted to The Hidden Ivies, a guide to over fifty colleges reported to be as rigorous, prestigious, and effective as any Ivy League school.

Since acceptance rates at Ivy League institutions sit at all-time lows, the tremendous resource the nation has in its bright, motivated youth will be squandered if that group of eight remains the only goal for exceptional students.

The best school for any brilliant student is the one that fits their academic and career goals, and the Ivy League doesn’t always offer the correct answer.

Bowdoin College Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Bowdoin College is 9%. This rate demonstrates that Bowdoin College admissions are extremely selective.

Half the applicants who were accepted into Bowdoin College have an SAT score between 1320 and 1520 or an ACT score of 31 and 34.

However, one quarter of admitted applicants achieved scores above these ranges and one quarter scored below these ranges.

Bowdoin College Ranking

Bowdoin College’s ranking demonstrates that it does not even need the Ivy League comparison to prove its value. It is often listed in the top three liberal arts schools and the top three small colleges in America.

Bowdoin College ranks among the top 10 for undergraduate teaching and for value. A survey of college administrators placed Bowdoin College among the top 25 schools nationally for first-year experience, acknowledging Bowdoin’s programs designed to help new students acclimate to college life with ease.

The Class of 2025’s admissions cycle marked the lowest rate of acceptance in the school’s history, and 60% of students accepted Bowdoin’s offer of admission, the highest rate of student acceptance Bowdoin has seen.

Bowdoin College has a reputation as a selective institution; CBS ranks it among the top 20 hardest schools to get into.

Bowdoin College Requirements

A hundred years ago, Bowdoin College was known for educating the elite of Maine. But 71% of the Class of 2025 hails from outside New England, and 17% represent the first generation of their families to attend college.

Bowdoin evaluates applications on a need-blind basis; the school assists all accepted students, providing financial aid packages.

Student aid at Bowdoin College consists of grants and scholarships, as the school gave up loans in hopes that students would choose careers based on their passions and their desire to serve the common good, rather than on their ability to repay student loans.

While many schools have adopted a test-optional policy for the SAT and ACT in the wake of the pandemic, the SAT has been optional since 1970 at Bowdoin.

Knowing that Bowdoin College admissions do not see the SAT as the best indicator of success at Bowdoin College, applicants should only include their SAT scores if they bring exceptional benefit to their overall application.

Bowdoin College’s process prioritizes high school records above all other features of the student portfolio.

While the school does not require a particular course of study in high school, most admitted Bowdoin college students take four years each of English, mathematics, social science, and foreign language, along with three to four years of laboratory sciences.

Besides a high GPA and consistent coursework in the liberal arts, students hoping to attend Bowdoin College should enroll for the highest level of academic coursework available through their high school.

Participating in AP, International Baccalaureate, or other advanced coursework can enhance a student’s transcript.

Conclusion

That was all on Is Bowdoin College ivy league ranking, acceptance rate, and admission requirements.

We hope you got an answer to the question and other vital information about the school in this article. If your response is yes, we are glad you did.  

Last Updated on July 15, 2023 by Admin