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Typical MA post - how can you tell me a Bowdoin alum how the school feels (you know the person who has an actual Bowdoin degree and intimately knows the place)? It's certainly not a Maine school and any born and raised Mainer (like a lot of the housekeeping and dining staff) will tell you that. Bowdoin is aligned with MA. In my opinion, it feels Boston, but you can argue with that if you choose.
Bowdoin also pushed really hard for the Brunswick Amtrak Station to connect Bowdoin not with Portland, but primarily with Boston. Sometimes you have to think of these elite colleges like corporations - they have a core identity (MA) and multiple sub core ones (being an affluent coastal Maine perspective - long second home to MA and rich Northeasterners). Revenue generation and building lasting relationships are key ways to reinforce these identities to keep the College going in perpetuity (see Bowdoin's astronomical endowment growth - it can thank Boston and Yale-connections for that).
you have so much MA resentment for what looks like no reason. What is the story, really?
No one will tell you Bowdoin is a Metro Boston School. We're from Boston and know Bowdoinites and are telling you this. Not sure why you feel your opinion is inherently more valid.
It's not FFC/New Haven and the rest of New England is just one big Boston thing. Bowdoin is in Maine. Most Boston folks dont know of it. It is not reciprocal.
you have so much MA resentment for what looks like no reason. What is the story, really?
No one will tell you Bowdoin is a Metro Boston School. We're from Boston and know Bowdoinites and are telling you this. Not sure why you feel your opinion is inherently more valid.
It's not FFC/New Haven and the rest of New England is just one big Boston thing. Bowdoin is in Maine. Most Boston folks dont know of it. It is not reciprocal.
lol No I don't life is too short for that kind of energy - just linked Bowdoin with MA not Maine. How is that resentment? Well off Bostonians helped fund my college education. MA is a fine place. I just prefer to live in CT and noticed a pattern on CD of MA-based folks (not you) talking about CT without any perspective from those of us who live in CT or in this case Maine.
"We're from Boston" - where is the perspective from Maine? They will surely tell you that. Also - when are you moving back to Mass?
Last edited by norcal2k19; 11-23-2021 at 10:52 AM..
For the Boston educational and financial elites (not regulars), Bowdoin is certainly above Tufts (the other NESCAC member) and at parity or just a tad below Amherst and Williams (all four are excellent schools - so this is a very high-class kind of talk). Boston College is not even in the conversation given that it was not congregationalist. Wellesley is depending on the student. Bowdoin didn't position itself as the school for the common person (whether this is a good thing idk - Bowdoin still has a diversity, equity, and inclusion problem). Bowdoin is very much a luxury product. The expectation is that you go to an Ivy and top-tier "brand name" for grad school - not sure if it's that way for Trinity. There are really deep Bowdoin-Harvard connections going back decades (Geoffrey Canada, Ken Chenault for example). A Bowdoin alum also founded Howard University in DC.
I really like Trinity - they rolled out the red carpet for me when I visiting in high school (was staying with this guy from the Bronx and Hockey bro). Visiting Hartford was the first time traveling out of state by myself so I guess life really does come full circle lol. It's just that Bowdoin swooped me up and gave me a full ride. Socially, I wanted to be in NYC, but knew the Bowdoin education would pay off (and it certainly has - very proud of it. it's an excellent super well-funded school and has gained additional stature in the last 10 years). New Haven feels like a good middle ground to get the best of all worlds.
Tufts has a T stop, a hospital downtown, and provides medical insurance to many Bostonians. Its impact on Boston is much greater overall. It's a school whose students influence MBTA and Boston policy. In the top tier circle of things maybe Bowdoin is around but I've never met any-but you bump into Tufts people all the time. It's a university in the urban core.
Trinity is a wealthier student body (fact) and more finance-driven school than Bowdoin, with more of a "prep" reputation. Bowdoin is known to be more intellectual, smaller, and out of the way. Trinity has a smaller endowment though. But it's traditionally for the Tucker Carlsons of the world.
Tufts has a T stop, a hospital downtown, and provides medical insurance to many Bostonians. Its impact on Boston is much greater overall. It's a school whose students influence MBTA and Boston policy. In the top tier circle of things maybe Bowdoin is around but I've never met any-but you bump into Tufts people all the time. It's a university in the urban core.
Trinity is a wealthier student body (fact) and more finance-driven school than Bowdoin, with more of a "prep" reputation. Bowdoin is known to be more intellectual, smaller, and out of the way. Trinity has a smaller endowment though. But it's traditionally for the Tucker Carlsons of the world.
>>> It's a school whose students influence MBTA and Boston policy. In the top tier circle of things maybe Bowdoin is around but I've never met any-but you bump into Tufts people all the time. It's a university in the urban core.
Yeah - my focus here is specifically on undergraduate education, which is not Tufts' focus. We know it's a great mid-sized research university whose strongest schools are the Medical School and Fletcher School (international relations).
you have so much MA resentment for what looks like no reason. What is the story, really?
No one will tell you Bowdoin is a Metro Boston School. We're from Boston and know Bowdoinites and are telling you this. Not sure why you feel your opinion is inherently more valid.
It's not FFC/New Haven and the rest of New England is just one big Boston thing. Bowdoin is in Maine. Most Boston folks dont know of it. It is not reciprocal.
Maybe they were put off by there being so many more MA students at Bowdoin than CT ones? I agree, though: regardless of where the students come from Bowdoin is very much a Maine school.
Maybe they were put off by there being so many more MA students at Bowdoin than CT ones? I agree, though: regardless of where the students come from Bowdoin is very much a Maine school.
lol No I don't life is too short for that kind of energy - just linked Bowdoin with MA not Maine. How is that resentment? Well off Bostonians helped fund my college education. MA is a fine place. I just prefer to live in CT and noticed a pattern on CD if MA-based folks (not you) talking about CT without any perspective from those of us who live in CT or in this case Maine.
"We're from Boston" - where is the perspective from Maine? They will surely tell you that. Also - when are you moving back to Mass?
"typical MA comment" is something you've said like 5 times the past few months. It seems like everyone here has ties or some understanding in regards to CT or Maine. We've lived in the region nearly our entire lives
What is your MA perspective? I'm not moving back to MA unless my salary increases like 60%.
"typical MA comment" is something you've said like 5 times the past few months. It seems like everyone here has ties or some understanding in regards to CT or Maine. We've lived in the region nearly our entire lives
What is your MA perspective? I'm not moving back to MA unless my salary increases like 60%.
Yes - do I need to link back to a previous comment of yours that mentioned that Boston and MA folks can sometimes be neurotic about the state and New England? Claiming to be experts on something when someone is associated with the place/institution and then diminishing their "lived" experience is par for the course. Wouldn't you hate that if someone claimed to be an expert on Boston and never lived there? (sorry visits and anecdotals through friends carry less weight - they aren't primary sources) You're proving this to be true. There's nothing wrong with a good debate. MA (read: Boston folks on CD) just sometimes go overboard with it. To be clear, I don't hate MA and that will be my last time writing that.
Also - we can start a thread on what outsiders think of MA. I want to keep the integrity of this topic for the OP and not deviate from that.
Also - we can start a thread on what outsiders think of MA. I want to keep the integrity of this topic for the OP and not deviate from that.
Little late for that…
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