An Inside View: Colby College

Colby College is a liberal arts college with just over 1800 students. Located in Waterville, Maine, Colby admissions is highly selective: for the Class of 2008, only 36% of applicants were accepted and median SAT scores were 680 verbal and 680 math.
Colby offers particularly strong programs in the hard sciences, English, economics, history and political science. Another area of strength are Colby's study abroad programs. In fact, our inside view is provided by Andrew, a junior with a double major in history and government, who is currently studying abroad in Australia. Here's what Andrew had to say about his experiences at Colby.

What were the three most important things you were searching for when you were looking at colleges?

I wanted a small liberal arts school in the northeast or Midwest, a school with
a great sense of community and a school with a good balance between work and
play.

Besides Colby, what other schools did you consider?

Hamilton, Carleton, Middlebury, Williams, Bowdoin, Bates, Kenyon

What convinced you that Colby was the right school for you?

When I visited, I just walked around and talked to students and it immediately seemed like the place for me. The one specific thing I remember is seeing a couple kids selling BUCK Fates shirts for the Bates-Colby football game that was coming up
the day after I visited. I thought it was pretty cool that even though Colby
was small, the kids still had some school spirit.

What has been your biggest surprise about Colby - something you didn't
know about or didn't expect until you actually started?

How diverse Colby is. Colby is about as white bread as you can get in terms of
race but its actually got a pretty good mix of jocks, hippies, artsy types,
preppies international students, kids from small towns, kids from cities, kids from in
and outside of new England.

How would you describe the typical Colby student?

As I said, its hard to pin down a typical Colby kids but you'd probably say an upper middle class white kid from suburban New England who drinks reasonably hard, likes the outdoors, and is moderately liberal but not too concerned about political activism. The school definitely has a stereotype of being full of rich New England preppies. While that is somewhat deserved, it is not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be. The one type of student I'd say should stay away from Colby is kids who aren't that into the outdoors and want a city full of activities, you definitely need to be willing to create some of your own fun when you're out in the Maine woods. Make sure you want a small school if you want to come here.

What's the academic workload like at Colby? What has been your favorite class so far?

Academic workload varies a lot from major to major and how much you want to put
into your work. In some majors you can slack off and still pull B's relatively
easily but in some of the harder ones like the sciences, economics, and government, you need to work hard and A's can be really tough to come by because Colby isn't big on grade inflation. Since I'm double majoring in humanities my workload's pretty
sporadic, I can go a couple weeks where I only am doing some reading and have a
pretty light schedule but then I'll suddenly have 3 papers due and I'll be
working my butt off for a week.

As for my favorite class, it was actually a cluster of two run by the integrated studies department. I took a philosophy and an American literature class at the same time that both focused on the first half of the 20th century. Both classes had the same 10 or so kids in them. The integrated studies department runs a few of these clusters every semester. They're designed for underclassmen and they all are limited to 16 kids and require that all 16 kids take all of the classes in the cluster. The students in the classes get pretty comfortable with each other since we spend so much time in class together, and that leads to some great discussions.

What was your freshman year dorm like? How are Colby dorms in general?

I lived in double which is what almost all freshmen end up in. I happened to get
put in one of the hillside dorms which is (at least in my opinion) the best
place to end up as a freshmen because the dorms are small - between 25-40
kids - and you end up getting to know everyone in your dorm real well. In
general, Colby dorms are decent. We have a system where every dorm is required to have kids from all four years. That's awesome when you're a freshman
because you get to meet upperclassmen but it stinks if you're an upperclassmen and get stuck in a dorm with all doubles and no suites. There are some on-campus apartments for seniors that are amazing but only about a quarter of seniors actually get into them.

How's the food? What's your favorite menu item?

Colby's food is really good. Right now, I'm studying abroad in Australia and living
in a residential college with absolutely terrible food so it's made me appreciate
how good the food at Colby really is! We have three dining halls that do a
pretty good job of mixing it up. I'd have to go with fajitas at Foss for my
favorite menu item.

What's Colby's social scene like? Where do people hang out and what do they do for fun on the weekends? Would someone who didn't drink or use drugs feel comfortable at Colby?

On campus you hang out in dorms (common rooms or just friends rooms) or in the
street, which is a big hallway underneath the library that connects both sides
of campus and has couches/chairs/tables to do group work or just hang out. Most partying takes place on the weekend, you'll drink a little bit with some friends in small parties in dorm rooms on campus then head up to either the senior apartments, a big party at an off-campus house or a school sponsored dance or concert or whatever. I know kids who don't drink who are perfectly happy with Colby and other kids who think the school is full of drunken idiots. If you're not comfortable with people around you drinking and being drunk you probably don't want to come here but you don't have to drink to have fun. The school does a pretty good job of bringing in speakers and concerts and stuff to keep us busy.

What's Waterville, Maine like? What's your favorite part of the town or
surrounding area? Your least favorite?

Waterville is a typical small New England mill town. Its a little depressed
because a lot of jobs have left the area but things have apparently been
getting better lately. There are few good restaurants around town and two movie
theaters (one that shows mainstream stuff and a one independent films). The best
part of town is campus (which is really beautiful) and the Maine woods that are
10 minutes off in every direction. The worst part is the strip of WalMart, fast
foods restaurants, and gas stations near the freeway exits.

How are the winters in Maine?

In my freshman year, it never got above freezing the entire month of January, and it was below zero for almost a week straight. My sophomore year, there was four feet of snow outside my dorm in late March and patches lasted until early May. The sun also sets about 4 p.m. during December and January. That having been said, the winters give us great skiing and snowboarding (Sugarloaf is an hour away) and it can be beautiful. You probably shouldn't come to Colby unless you can deal with the
cold. Colby students don't get too upset about the winters because they knew
what they were getting into when they came here and we find ways to deal with it. To give you an idea, my roommates and few of my friends threw a BBQ for the Super Bowl on a deck outside my dorm last year even though there was a foot of snow on the
ground and it was about 40 degrees out. We just piled up the snow into a bar
and used it to keep the beer and meat cold. And we had like 50-60 people at
this BBQ even though it was outside in the middle of winter. Colby kids can
handle it.

What advice would you give to high school students looking at colleges?
Is there anything else you'd like them to know specifically about Colby?

For general advice: visit the schools you think you like (if you can) and apply
based on how much you like a school, not based on how highly ranked a school is
or what is reputation is. My friends at home in California thought I was nuts
for going to Maine and none of them had ever heard of Colby. But in the
Northeast Colby is pretty well known and has a reputation as a good school. It's better to go to a school where you'll be happy socially then to go a school where you'll impress adults when you tell them where you're going.

As for Colby, I simply love the place. If you want a small liberal arts school
and can handle the winters, definitely consider applying.