Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. This New England Small College Athletic Conference School sits on 813 acres of pure Maine scenery, and the college maintains 600 acres of nature preserve, aka “Bates-Morse Mountain.”
There is more to love about Bates besides natural beauty. The college is part of the “Maine Big Three” and offers about three dozen majors and two dozen minors. Their acceptance rate has been dropping recently, with last year’s acceptance rate hovering at 13%.
That number is low. So low, you might ask yourself, “Can I even get into Bates?” It’s a good question and one that we want to help you answer by breaking down the ins and outs of how to get into Bates College.
What does Bates look for?
Bates uses a holistic review process and examines candidates on multiple factors. They publish the importance of these factors as part of their Common Data set.
Pay close attention to the columns labeled very important and important. These are how you will be evaluated. Some of these factors you cannot change. For example, alumnae/relation or which state you live in, but for many factors, you can work to shine in. And you should when applying to competitive schools.
Rigor, Class Rank, and GPA
When it comes to applying to college, you need to have solid academics, and Bates asses this in a couple of different ways. The first step is to make sure you meet their requirements. They require 18 credits and recommend 23 credits over the following categories:
You really should push yourself to complete the recommended credits. But that is not all. They are looking for “academic rigor,” which means taking these classes at the highest level available. This can vary from high school to high school, but it might mean taking classes at the Honors, IB, or AP level or through a dual enrollment program. If your school doesn’t offer these options, you may want to see if you can take classes at a local college or through a summer program.
Then there is class rank. Not all schools report class rank. If yours doesn’t, don’t freak out. Even if your school doesn’t rank its students, you can still use this data. 55.2% of admitted Bates students were in the top 10% of their graduating class. That’s the majority of admitted students. Even if your school doesn’t rank, does this sound like you? Do you believe that you are around that top 10%? If that is too hard to estimate, 88.6% were in the top quarter, and 99% were in the top half. You should try to be at least in that “top quarter.” And yes, part of how you do that is pushing yourself to take accelerated and honors classes.
Now, if you simply google “Bates Admitted student GPA,” you will find a lot of blogs throwing around 3.88 (unweighted); however, we don’t use that number. Why? Well, tracking GPA is an inexact science. Some high schools just grade harder than others, and colleges know that. Bates doesn’t actually track admitted student GPA data because while individual GPAs are essential, the mean or average isn’t a significant data point. 3.88 might be right, but it depends so much on your school and transcript that it’s not helpful. Honestly, just do your best and push for the highest GPA you can at your school.
Testing
Okay, so testing is only “considered,” and for many students, that isn’t even true (more on that in a minute,) but it’s a good data point, especially for those submitting scores so we are going to talk about it. Bates has been test-optional since 1984, an early adopter to a trend that has taken off since 2020. Because of this, many students don’t submit scores. Last year, only 25% of applicants submitted SAT scores, and only 14% submitted ACT scores. Usually, we would say, “But we don’t know how many of the remaining 61% actually got in!!!” But honestly, we aren’t worried about that at Bates. They have been so committed to being test-optional that we aren’t concerned. We feel comfortable allowing our students to apply test-optional.
However, if you plan to submit scores, let’s break down the numbers:
For the class of 2027, the middle 50% of accepted students had between a 700-740 on the SAT: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and a 690-760 on SAT Math. Similarly, the middle 50% of ACT takers fell between 32 and 34 on their composite. If you plan to submit scores, they should be inline or, ideally, higher than these ranges.
Talent/Ability and Character/Personal Qualities
When students see these words in the “very important” column, sometimes they are confused. There isn’t a spot on the Common App where you can list traits specifically. So, how does Bates assess these? Well, mainly, it is through a bunch of other very important means, including essays, extracurriculars, recommendations, etc. Outside of recommendations, which, unfortunately, are really in the hands of your teachers and counselors (like after you choose the best ones to ask, that’s the end of the control), let’s talk about the other places you can show off your talents and character.
Extracurriculars
Extracurriculars are important at Bates (and all highly competitive schools!). They want students who commit to activities outside class and explore their passions. This is an opportunity to show commitment, leadership, and other great qualities. Our biggest piece of advice here is to follow your passions as far as you can. For example, joining the poetry club and going for an hour a week is okay. Joining the board of that club is good. Finding local poetry readings and submitting your poems to be published in a literary mag? Great. We would always rather a student who dedicates themselves to a couple of extracurriculars than one who does an hour here and an hour there. Show your commitment.
Bates is also proud of students with exciting passions and off-beat activities. They published a list for the Class of 2026 of incoming student activities that impressed them. It included:
Has completed a wildlife technician program in New York.
Is a Celtic harpist who built their harp themselves by hand.
Used the downtime of the pandemic to memorize all of the national flags of the world.
Has a part-time job in oyster farming.
Introduced an Indigenous land acknowledgment for their school.
Can solve a Rubix cube in 30 seconds.
Created a podcast about Richard Nixon and Watergate and interviewed a former Nixon staffer.
Works election poll sites in her California town.
Played bass in a punk band called Phlegm.
Has an assistant screenwriter credit on a holiday film streaming on Amazon Prime.
This is what we mean about following your passions. If your passions include being the president of the debate team, that’s great. But if it's knowing a lot about Nixon, that is also cool.
Essays
Colleges want to see that you can write, but more than that, essays are a chance to show off your positive qualities and talk about your experiences. We have many guides on how to write a great Common App essay, but if you don’t know where to start, we recommend reading this one.
However, if you need a crash course, good Common App essays do two things:
Showcase positive attributes/qualities about the writer.
Tell a good story.
Great Common App essays do both of these things and also do these in a creative way. This creativity can come from the writing style or the essay's form. Try to push yourself creatively.
But it’s not just the Common App essay. Every piece of writing that you sent to Bates should really also have all of these qualities. Bates doesn’t have a supplement, so we often encourage students to send an introductory email to the admissions office and even have a blog about how to do it.
Consider Applying Early
If you are serious about going to Bates, it may be worth it to apply early. For the Class of 2026, the early decision acceptance rate was 47%…. Which is crazy, given the overall acceptance rate was 13.7%. This means that if you crunch the numbers (which we did, because we’re #WomenInStem) during regular decision, the acceptance rate was only 10%. That is, to use a technical term, low.
Not many students apply ED to Bates (for C26, under 700 students did), which is why their ED rate is so high. So, if you want to go to Bates, applying early will significantly help your chances. You still need excellent grades, good extracurriculars, and solid recs, but it will be much easier to stand out from the pack.
We just threw a lot of info at you, and we get that. But we thought it was essential to break down what Bates is looking for in a candidate. If all this makes you hyperventilate, let us help!
Need help with applications? It’s what we do! Reach out here.