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Bowdoin College Complete Information Guide

23 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
7% Acceptance Rate

Find out more about how Bowdoin College ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.

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* Rankings

Where Does Bowdoin College Rank?

#65 Best Colleges in Nation
#1 Best Colleges in ME
Bowdoin College ranking badge

2026 College Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Bowdoin College was awarded 23 badges in the 2026 rankings.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Bowdoin as #65 out of 3,449 colleges and universities in the country on its 2026 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation.

Bowdoin is also ranked #1 on the Best Colleges in Maine list.

See all of the rankings for Bowdoin College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Bowdoin College?

7% Acceptance Rate
7% Of Accepted Are Women
31% Submit SAT Scores

Getting Accepted

With an acceptance rate of 7%, Bowdoin is one of the most selective schools in the country. Good grades and high test scores alone may not be enough to get you into the school, so do your best to submit a stellar application.

SAT and ACT Scores

About 31% of students accepted to Bowdoin submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 730 and 770. Math scores were between 740 and 780.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Bowdoin College  ( 730 to 770 )
200
800
SAT Math Scores for Bowdoin College  ( 740 to 780 )
200
800

Bowdoin received ACT scores from 17% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 33 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for Bowdoin College  ( 33 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about Bowdoin College admissions.

Instructors at Bowdoin College

9 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% Full Time Teachers

Faculty Accessibility

At Bowdoin, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 9 to 1. That’s much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunities to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Full-Time Faculty Share

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Bowdoin College is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Bowdoin College

98% Freshmen Retention
96% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 98% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Bowdoin College enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That’s certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  98 out of 100
0
100

Academic Completion

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at Bowdoin for first-time, full-time students is 96%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  96 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Bowdoin College.

Diversity Profile of Bowdoin College

1,846 Undergraduate Students
40.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
51.6% Percent Women

In the current academic year, there are 1,846 undergraduates at Bowdoin.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at Bowdoin College.

What Does Bowdoin College Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
8% Take Out Loans
$25,012 Total Student Loans

The average net price of Bowdoin is $16,772. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.### Net Price by Income Group for Bowdoin

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$3,275 $3,464 $6,764 $20,899 $42,867

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid. Note that the net price is typically less than the published price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Bowdoin, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Borrowing and Loans

It’s not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Bowdoin, approximately 8% of students took out student loans averaging $6,253 a year. That adds up to $25,012 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 1.3%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you’ll be able to pay back your student loans. Get more details about paying for Bowdoin College.

How Much Money Do Bowdoin College Graduates Make?

$82,735 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost

Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor’s degree recipients from Bowdoin College make around $82,735 per year during the early years of their employment. That’s great news for Bowdoin College students since it is 68% more than the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year.

See which majors at Bowdoin College make the most money.

Location of Bowdoin College

Maine State
1,846 Undergraduate Students
Town Campus Setting

Bowdoin College is an private not-for-profit institution situated in Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick is a good match for students who enjoy small-town life. Get more details about the location of Bowdoin College.

Location of Bowdoin College

Contact information for Bowdoin College can be found below.

Contact Details
Address: 255 Maine Street, Brunswick, ME 04011
Phone: 2077253000
Website: www.bowdoin.edu/
Facebook: facebook.com/Bowdoin
Twitter: twitter.com/bowdoincollege

Bowdoin College Majors

16 Majors With Completions
1,332 Undergraduate Degrees

In the most recent reporting year, students from 16 majors graduated from Bowdoin College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Completions Average Salary of Graduates
Multi-Disciplinary Studies 666 NA
Economics 75 $61,127
Political Science & Government 73 $51,934
Mathematics 51 NA
Area Studies 50 $46,244
General Biology 43 $44,658
Computer Science 40 NA
Neurobiology & Neurosciences 37 NA
General English Literature 28 NA
History 27 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Bowdoin College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Similar InstitutionsInterested in comparing Bowdoin? Match them up using College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare colleges on the features that matter most to you.

Data Sources and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

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