Bowdoin College - Student Body

Student Body

Bowdoin is a selective liberal arts school, with an acceptance rate of 15% for the class of 2015. U.S. News and World Report classifies Bowdoin 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 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.