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FactsSlang
- Af-Am - The Af-Am refers to a house on campus where the Africana studies department is located. This house also offers social space, a kitchen, a library, and several residential rooms for students. The Af-Am is known for its substance free parties.
- BOC - Abbreviated name of the Bowdoin Outing Club.
- Bowdoin Bubble - A common mentality at BowdoinCollege in which students become very consumed with life at Bowdoin and a bit oblivious to the outside world.
- Brunswick - No, this doesn’t refer to the town in this instance; it refers to the Brunswick Apartments, a popular place for upperclassmen to live.
- Cody’s - The ice cream store off campus that most of the student body ventures to in order to escape the sometimes monotonous on-campus life.
- Common Hour - Between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Fridays, Bowdoin brings speakers to campus that often draw big crowds.
- CPC - The CareerPlanningCenter, located in Moulton Union to the right of the Residential Life Office.
- Crack House - A popular off-campus place to party where several members of the lacrosse team reside. It is a run-down house, but it still attracts a steady following of Bowdoin students.
- C-Store - The abbreviated name for the convenience store located on the first floor of the Smith Union.
- Druck - The abbreviated name for Druckenmiller Science Hall.
- Dudley - Dudley Coe is the campus health center where students can have routine check-ups, or see a doctor or nurse if something is wrong. The health center also distributes contraceptives.
- Farley - When someone says they are going to “Farley,” they could be saying they are going to the field house, the soccer fields, the baseball diamond, the softball field, or the football field.
- Hatch - The abbreviated name for Hatch Science Library.
- OLC - The abbreviated name for the Outdoor Leadership Center where the Bowdoin Outing Club is located.
- Pre-O - The pre-orientation program that students can partake in before their freshman orientation.
- Proctor - Four proctors live in each first-year residence hall, and one proctor lives in each social house. Proctors work for Residential Life in assisting with first-year orientation and help keep the first-year class safe.
- SafetySchool - The phrase “safety school” is commonly yelled out at sporting events to imply superiority in not just athleticism but intelligence (kicking them where it hurts).
- So Pro - The abbreviation for Social Probation.
- SU - The Smith Union, the main student center on campus. The campus mail center, bookstore, Express Store, and Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill are found here.
- The Orient - The weekly college newspaper.
- The Quad - The Quad is a grassy area between Appleton, Hubbard, Maine, Massachusetts, Searles, and Winthrop halls and the WalkerArt Museum.
- The Stacks - The stacks are in Hubbard Hall, which is attached to the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
- The Tower - Shortened name for ColesTower.
- The VAC - The VAC is the VisualArtsCenter, where the art and visual arts departments are located. This is the building with the hole through it.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
- Campus is not as dry as the administration would like it to be.
- How smart and capable everyone else is.
- How to ask for help when you are in trouble.
- How to choose classes and professors wisely.
- How to decorate a dorm room.
- How to do laundry.
- How to dress for different temperatures.
- How to live with other people.
- How to live without a car.
- How to manage time wisely.
- How to not overextend myself.
- How to play drinking games.
- How to stay healthy without mom and dad watching over you.
- It seems like everyone is a fan of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.
- Pre-O trips are great!
Tips to Succeed
- Do what ultimately makes you happy. Don’t do what you think your advisor, coach, or parents want you to do.
- Eat healthy, drink responsibly.
- Get a consistent amount of sleep—aim for eight hours.
- Get involved, but don’t over-commit yourself.
- Go to office hours.
- Keep your head up, and stay optimistic.
- Stay active. Play club, varsity, and IM sports—they're great ways to meet friends.
- Take classes based on which professors people say are amazing—they almost always are.
- Use the Writing Project and Quantitative Skills Office.
Urban Legends
- No one knows whether this is true or not, but Bowdoin students choose to believe in its validity. The legend is that the Ivy League invited Bowdoin to join their prestigious athletic conference because, at the time, we were competitive rivals with DartmouthCollege (a member of the Ivy League), and it only seemed fitting for us to become a member. Bowdoin, though, was significantly smaller than other Ivy League institutions and was only an undergraduate college. If the College were to accept this honorary invitation, it would need to increase the size of the student body and create graduate schools. Bowdoin did not want to stray away from its mission to foster the development of undergraduate students, and they knew they did not have the resources to expand, so they rejected the invitation. From that day on, every spring the student body celebrates Bowdoin’s superiority over the Ivy League for one week by drinking extensively because we turned down the prestigious Ivies’ invitation to join them.
- Sixty percent of Bowdoin students marry another Bowdoin student. This legend has recently been disproved.
Traditions
- Chapel Bells - After two years of renovation, Bowdoin started the chimes again on September 20, 2004, at 8 a.m. and they ring every fifteen minutes.
- Ivies - The tradition is to start drinking on Wednesday in classes and continue through the weekend to celebrate the Ivy changing back to green on the Bricks with the coming of spring. It’s also a celebration of Bowdoin’s mythic rejection to join the Ivy League.
- Lobster Run - Every fall before classes, the students meet at Farley Fields to enjoy a lobster feast with all the trimmings. To end every year’s festivities, students participate in a 5K run around the athletic fields to celebrate the start of classes and consumption of a lot of good food with the finish line having several students dressed as lobsters congratulate you on your participation.
- Polar Bear - Bowdoin’s pride and joy is their mascot, the polar bear. The polar bear makes its appearance at athletic events to rally school support against its competition.
School Spirit
Students who attend Bowdoin believe in their school, its mission, its reputation, the faculty, the president, the architecture, the town, and the Polar Bear. Most of the students who attend this college wanted to be here and did not come here because it was their safety school. Students are proud of the work they do, the majors they choose, the sports they play, the social houses they live in, the activities they put on the résumés, and the stories they share with interviewers at graduate schools and companies. Whether you are a biology, chemistry, government, history, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, or visual arts major, you are proud of the work and time you spent on all your classes and are proud to say you earned a BA at BowdoinCollege. Bowdoin hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sandals, gym pants, and rings are commonly worn around campus. The students want people to know they attend this fine school in Brunswick. School spirit, when it comes to talking with prospective students, is intense. Students love sharing their experiences with “pre-Froshes.” Students also find pride in educating alumni about what Bowdoin is like now and learning the differences between the school they attended and the school we attend now. Spirit at Bowdoin for athletic teams is strong when it comes to games against rivals. Students turn out in droves for games against Bates, Colby, Middlebury, and other league rivals, but when sports teams are just playing regulation games against non-league teams, students appear apathetic and uninterested. Students are very proud of how the varsity teams perform and rank on national polls, but teams like tennis attract a very small fan base. Bowdoin Student Government holds barbecues at games and plans bus service to away games against rivals.
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