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Revision as of 20:38, 6 November 2004 by Andrew Gray (talk | contribs) (Added Lorenzo Sweat to alumni, edited reference to Chamberlain)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Bowdoin College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine. Founded in 1794, Bowdoin is intimately connected with the American Civil War. Some have said the war began and ended in Brunswick, as Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin while her husband was teaching at Bowdoin, and Chamberlain was responsible for receiving the surrender of the Confererate army at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
In 1970, the institution stopped requiring SAT scores for admission. In 1971, the first coeducational class matriculated. Just a few years ago the school received national recognition for converting the long-standing fraternities system to "the social house system," under which incoming freshmen are automatically assigned a house affiliation.
Roughly 1600 students attend Bowdoin College, nestled in the pine trees of Maine. They study hard during the week and on the weekends enjoy supporting Bowdoin athletic teams, especially against rivals Bates College and Colby College. Activist groups are beginning to gain momentum in light of the rapidly changing world situation, and publications such as Ritalin, a controversial humor magazine; Naked, an opinion/literature mag; and the Disorient and the Patriot, respectively the liberal and conservative newspapers, are reflections of the ever-broadening student perspective. The Bowdoin Orient is the main student newspaper and is the largest one on campus; it claims to be the "oldest continuously published college weekly in the United States." Brunswick doesn't offer a bustling night life for students under 21, but the larger city of Portland is just a half hour away.
The Bowdoin Dining Services has a high reputation, and was rated the best college food service in the country by the Princeton Review in 2003.
Among several well-rated departments, Government, Economics, Biology and Environmental Studies stand out as excellent.
Alumni
- Ralph Owen Brewster, congressman
- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Civil War General (later President of the college)
- Kenneth Chenault, American Express CEO
- William Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton
- Melville Weston Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States of America
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist
- Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher
- Lawrence Lindsay, President George W. Bush's economic adviser.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
- George J. Mitchell, former Senate Democratic Leader
- Robert E. Peary, Arctic Explorer
- Franklin Pierce, President
- John Brown Russwurm, abolitionist
- Joan Benoit Samuelson, Olympic gold medalist
- Lorenzo De Medici Sweat, congressman