Bowdoin is a highly-selective liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. The Bowdoin “Offer,” which you’ll read as part of our supplement breakdown, is part mission statement, part poem, and articulates the college’s expectations, priorities, and vision for their institution and the students who attend — and they are big. Founded in 1794 and home to 1,800 students, Bowdoin’s high expectations have led to it being one of the most highly-respected small colleges in the world. They see out students of “uncommon promise, and uncommon character,” and the acceptance rate, a mere 7.7%, reflects that.
Based in the small town of Brunswick, Maine, Bowdoin has close ties to the community and offers a curriculum that is both rigid in its liberal arts foundations and flexible in how students go about fulfilling requirements. Bowdoin doesn’t put much stock in standardized tests as a measure of student achievement or potential, and did away with standardized testing requirements more than 50 years ago. Students can choose to report their test scores, but they aren’t required nor even encouraged. 46% of the students in the class of 2026 did not submit their scores when they applied.
If the idea of a small community of brilliant minds excites you, send us an email. We help students get into their dream schools
Bowdoin has three supplemental questions, but one is really a multiple-choice question, so it doesn’t truly count (in our estimation, at least).
Generations of students have found connection and meaning in Bowdoin’s “The Offer of the College,” written in 1906 by Bowdoin President William DeWitt Hyde.
To be at home in all lands and all ages;
to count Nature a familiar acquaintance,
and Art an intimate friend;
to gain a standard for the appreciation of others' work
and the criticism of your own;
to carry the keys of the world's library in your pocket,
and feel its resources behind you in whatever task you undertake;
to make hosts of friends...who are to be leaders in all walks of life;
to lose yourself in generous enthusiasms and cooperate with others for common ends –
this is the offer of the college for the best four years of your life.
Which line from The Offer resonates most with you?
This is the multiple-choice question, and you’ll need to select (literally, click the bubble), the line — or sometimes two-line section — that resonates from the list of options Bowdoin breaks The Offer down into.
Before you make your choice, look at the next prompt. You will need to write about why you selected this line, so you shouldn’t pick one on a whim or because you think it will sound the most impressive. Read The Offers a few times and select the one that, after really considering it, you genuinely connect with on the deepest level. This is somewhere where earnestness really pays off.
The Offer represents Bowdoin’s values. Please reflect on the line you selected and how it has meaning to you (250 words)
When you went to select a line in the question above, there was no “right” answer, but there is a right answer for you. It should truly connect with you and your life story, because now you need to write about it.
As you approach this prompt, you aren’t going to write, “I chose X line because…” You need to show them why you picked it. To do this, you’ll tell a story that illustrates how and why the line carries meaning for you. For example, if you selected “To be at home in all lands and ages,” you could write about moving frequently when you were growing up, and needing to learn how to adjust to new places and new faces quickly while also not becoming jaded, living in anticipation of the next move.
Whatever your story may be, tell it as a story — not simply an explanation. Bowdoin expects students to be able to communicate their values and priorities, and this is a perfect place for you to illustrate that you’re in tune with yourself, your wants and needs, and your prospective future.
If you wish, you may share anything about the unique experiences and perspectives that you would bring with you to the Bowdoin campus and community or an experience you have had that required you to navigate across or through difference. (250 words)
While this supplement is “optional,” it really isn’t. Of course you have something from your experiences and perspectives that you want to share. You will need to be sure not to be redundant with your previous answer, though. It’s easy to fall into a habit of writing about adjacent things, but that creates a one-note application. Even if you are a piano virtuoso or a star athlete or the world’s biggest science geek, you need to show more of yourself than simply that one side.
So, here, we need you to dig deep again — but into an entirely different part of yourself. Similar to the previous story, you’re going to tell a story, immersing the reader in your lived experience, and showing, not telling, how you have navigated “across or through difference.” For example, while our hypothetical applicant wrote about moving a lot as a kid before, here she may write about something like having a speech difference and needing to work really hard to learn how to be understood. All of us face challenges and obstacles in our lives, and this is a great way to write about something without wallowing in it or making the supplement a “woe is my” situation. Instead, you can point out something you faced or had to adjust to, and then really highlight how you got through it and to the other side.
Additional Supplements
Bowdoin also offers students the opportunity to do an optional video response or to submit an optional arts supplement. If those are things you are thinking of doing, we can help.
Bowdoin is a top liberal arts college, and students who’ve previously been directed to Dartmouth or Brown are routinely being encouraged to apply to — and then choosing — Bowdoin for a top-tier education in a unique setting and tight-knit community.
If you’re planning on applying to Bowdoin, send us an email. We know what it takes to get in.