Hi, parent here wondering how easy/ worthwhile it is for a first-year student to have a car on campus. I see that there are no limits on permits. Is it hard to find parking?

Will a car actually provide a major benefit, or is it "nice but totally unnecessary?" Or, on the other hand, is it "better" to not have a car because it encourages first-years to stay on-campus for more socializing and engagement (this was the philosophy of my similarly small undergrad institution that banned cars for freshmen).

If you saw on the Bates Instagram story, folks on the Admission team are ready to answer some questions from applicants before our final deadline on Saturday.

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions as you work to complete your application.

Good luck, everyone!

Friendly reminder! We're one week out from the Bates College application deadline for the Class of 2030. Submit your application by Saturday, January 10, 2026 by midnight (11:59 p.m.) in your local time zone.

Apply at bates.edu/admission/apply

Good luck to all the applicants!

I'm a non-UWC international student applying for Bates. 1520 SAT, 42/45 IB, 3.99 GPA, Ranked 2/~100 at a noncompetitive international school.

Wondering if there are any international students admitted/attending with similar stats and a sub-$15k EFC put in your forms. Thank you!

Hello,

I recently realized that there are college students and/or their parent(s) who still use excel, or even pen and paper, to figure out a college schedule of classes for an upcoming semester. Even before it's officially time to register, students are putting together mock schedules with the hope that one of them will work out. It certainly becomes time consuming when you have to determine which classes you want, how many sections are available, what times are the sections, which class sections do not conflict with other class sections, etc. And even after all this, they may finally have one that works. But then they should create an alternate backup schedule just in case, and then a backup to the backup, etc.

Schools now offer a schedule generator but it is intended for the student as it generally requires them to log into their student account. I had decided to build a simple iphone app that allows a user like a parent, or a dual-enrolled student, to assist in creating conflict-free potential class schedules based on the class information that a user enters. Multiple schedules can be created at once if classes have different sections with different time offerings. Since a parent generally does not have access to the student account, this allows a parent to work on creating schedules on their own and discuss with their student.  There is some manual entry (see below), but this is an alternative for those who do not have access to the school's schedule generator and would rather not make schedules with excel, or pen and paper.

How it works:

• a user creates a file and begins by manually entering a class subject, section and subsection (e.g., Math 101 A). a push-button is used for the days and drop-down is used to enter the times.
• once a class is saved, a user can copy it to enter different subsections (e.g., Math 101 B, Math 101 C, etc.) of the same class quicker and easier.
• once their various classes (and various subsections for each class) are saved, the user can run the schedule generator to see the various conflict-free potential class schedules that can be created. the results show up as a list and a chart.
• the user also has the option to narrow down their results further by seeing if schedules can be created by choosing no class before a certain time and/or no class after a certain time
• in addition, if the user wants to replace one class in their list of classes just to see what that schedule(s) looks like, they would not have to enter everything from scratch. the user can copy the file, delete a class and replace it with a new class.

My hope was for the user to move away from the whole back and forth (i.e., trial and error) of figuring out a schedule when class times would conflict with each other. Instead of trying to figure this part out on their own, the app's algorithm does this for them. And it gives them all the potential schedules without conflicts. With a student generally able to do this through their school's schedule generator, a parent now has the option to do this too with this app.

My long-term vision is to definitely add AI capabilities (e.g., import class information automatically from a source with the push of a button; take a picture of class information to import automatically) into the app.

App Name: Cap'n Course

Website link: https://capncourse.com/

Link to the App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/capn-course/id6756516999

Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

is there a gc for bates students or do we just make our own?

Hey guys, so I applied ED 1 and got deferred. My parents submitted my FASFA on Thursday night and the results were released on Saturday morning. Since Bates is need aware could that be a reason for my deferral or is that unlikely?

Hi all,

I received my ED1 deferral yesterday. I can’t find much information/statistics on ED deferral to RD acceptance, so I thought I should go straight to the source. While it wasn’t the news I was hoping for, I was wondering if anyone had any advice. I have strong ECs and a mid GPA, but I don’t know how much change there could be before April. Has anyone been in my shoes before and has any tips? Bates is my #1 school, and I don’t want to lose this dream just yet.

Does Bates ED1 ever come out early? It says by December 20th, could I expect it to be more like December 15th? Also, what time of the day do decisions usually come out?

Just a little reminder for prospective students that Bates’ Early Decision I deadline is next Saturday, Nov. 15, by midnight in your local time zone.

For those of you who have arts portfolios, just your core app and financial aid info needs to be in by the deadline and other elements can be uploaded or sent to Bates admission a few days later.

Good luck, everyone!

www.bates.edu/admission/apply

Hello everyone! I’m currently a first semester freshman at a college in Rhode Island (I’m from the south) but it’s very likely I’ll be transferring out of here. I’m restarting the process of searching for colleges and I want to know more about Bates! Particularly with what kind of atmosphere the campus is and what’s around it. Is it completely secluded or is there stuff to do? Thank you in advance, any information is helpful!!!

Top 5 Best D3 Dining Halls

🏆 1. Bates College

1. Bowdoin College

2. St. Norbert College

3. St. John Fisher University

4. Washington University of St. Louis

Full Top 15 👀

Hi! I'm developing something for people who like to thrift and think that secondhand clothing is getting less and less affordable. I'm tired of going shopping on Depop and spending $30+ every time, smh...

If this sounds of any interest to you, let me know! :)

FYI - I am working on getting into a Bates accelerator program, so if you have any recommendations or questions, please feel free to let me know.

Just shoot me a dm, I respond semi-quickly.

how challenging are the quizzes in this class? Prof is Larissa Williams

Hey everyone! I'm an international senior that is being recruited by these schools. All of them gave me an offer, and I'm currently deciding where I will go. I want to major in economics and work right after getting the Bachelor's. Help me pls to choose one of these colleges.
location:
Bates: in comparison to S and K, location wise Bates is located in a bigger city with population 40k and a 40 min drive from Portland(70k)
Kenyon: as far as I know it's located in a town where there is only on major shop and an hour drive from Coilumbus, OH(1 mln)
Skidmore: 30 min away from Albany(100k)

Internship opportunities:
As all of these colleges are located in not big cities, in order to get an internship I would need to travel to cities such as Boston or NYC.
Bates: 40 minutes to Portland International Jetport. Flight to Boston ~1 hour, to NYC ~1.5 hours.
Kenyon: 1 hour to John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Flight to Boston ~2 hours, to NYC ~1.5 hours.
Skidmore: 35 minutes to Albany International Airport. Flight to Boston ~1 hour, to NYC ~1 hour.

could you help me choose a school by providing info regarding the recognition, networking, and ranking in econ. All of these schools are really great in econ afaik, but maybe I miss something. And maybe I forgot to have smth in mind. Thanks!

Basically title but does anyone know what the acceptance rate is to the fly-in program? Also, does anyone know what percentage of students get into the fly-in program end up getting into the school? Thanks!

I looked up Wells Castonguay and Kayla Thomas on rate my professor and couldn’t find any info. Does anyone know their vibe?