Welcome New Bates Students!

Congratulations New Bobcats!

The First-Year Experience Team welcomes our newest students to the Bates community. Bates College is proud to be a national leader in first-year experience programs.

For New Students Arriving in Fall 2026

Arrival day for new students is Thursday, August 27, 2026. Important dates and the preliminary Orientation schedule may be found here.

The Garnet Gateway will open in late May. All forms that entering students need to complete before arriving on campus are contained in the gateway. Garnet Gateway access information can be located in an entering student’s secure admission portal. To get to Garnet Gateway you can go to the Bates Quad and click on “Log in to Garnet Gateway.”

Please stay keep up-to-date with your personal and Bates inboxes, and follow the official Class of 2023 Instagram for more information.

National recognition for Bates’ ‘exemplary’…

Bates has once again been recognized by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for its deep level of commitment to community engagement, an honor the college first achieved in 2008 and again in 2015. Recently Bates was also lauded by ACE and Carnegie for its success in providing paths for graduates to earn competitive wages.

Mohammed M. Obaid Shwani ’24 selected as Schwarzman Scholar

Mohammed M. Obaid Shwani ’24 has been a world traveler and an award winner since he was a teenager. In 2016, he first came to the United States after being named an Iraqi Young Leader through a State Department program, then traveled to Bosnia to attend United World College on a scholarship before landing in Maine for college.