Key Bates Facts
The Basics
Bates is a small liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine. We are proud to offer a rigorous and highly personalized education that centers on deep and sustained interactions among students, faculty, and community. We are engaging the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.
2,000 degree-seeking students call Bates home
22% of students are from underrepresented groups
We have a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio
Bates offers 36 majors and 25 minors
51-49 gender balance in the student body
100% of tenured faculty possess the highest degree in their field
Distinctive Features
Bates helps students identify and cultivate their interests and strengths and acquire the knowledge, experiences and relationships necessary to pursue their aspirations with imagination and integrity.
Over four years, a class of Bates students performs 82,000 hours of community-engaged work through volunteering, academic coursework, fellowships, and paid work in the local community.
The Mount David Summit is Bates’ annual celebration of student research, creative work, and senior thesis projects.
Purposeful Work at Bates is about helping students align who they are with what they do.
In 2017-18, Bates was the No. 1 producer of Fulbright Student award recipients among liberal arts colleges with a college-record 23 Fulbright fellows.
Our academic calendar features two semesters and one Short Term, a special period of focused study in the spring.
Every senior completes a thesis or a capstone project.
History and Values
Since our founding by abolitionists in 1855, we have welcomed men and women from diverse racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds. We were the first co-educational college in New England, and some of our earliest students were former slaves. We continue to live that promise of inclusiveness.
NCAA Division III Athletics
Bates belongs to the New England Small College Athletic Conference, whose members believe that athletics should operate in harmony with the educational mission of their institutions.
New England Small College Athletic Conference
31 varsity sports
143 All-American Honors, 2011-12 to 2015-16
Maine!
Lewiston is a red-brick post-industrial city of 60,000. With a welcoming fusion culture that includes historic French Canadian and Somali immigrant communities, we are proud to call it our home.
