A liberal arts education at Bowdoin is not about being small and safe; it is about having the support to take surprising risks. That means caring more about the questions than giving the right answers, discovering you are good at something you did not think was your strength and making connections where none appear to exist. Bowdoin's curriculum, combined with a 215-year tradition of serving the common good, offers a bold blueprint for liberal education designed to inspire students to become world citizens with acute sensitivity to the social and natural world. Its interdisciplinary focus encourages students to make connections among subjects, discover disciplines that excite their imaginations, and develop keen skills for addressing the challenges of a changing world. Bowdoin students achieve at the highest levels but also lead balanced lives. Bowdoin is also a leader in the study and teaching of the environment, with a decades-long interdisciplinary approach, a dedication to placing the environment at the center of intellectual and social life, and a commitment to place-based research and teaching that train students to rigorously research, analyze, and communicate complex environmental problems across multiple angles: science, history, human behavior, the influence of politics and religion, the role of art, and the realities of economics and laws, among others. The only highly selective liberal arts college with immediate access to the North Atlantic Ocean, Bowdoin is also situated close to the rivers, estuaries, forests, and other features that make up the complex ecosystem of Maine. Ongoing research takes place on the Bowdoin campus, at the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy (home to some of the longest running ornithological studies in the world), at the 118-acre Coastal Studies Center and Bowdoin Marine Laboratory on Orr's Island, and on 130 nearby acres acquired by the College at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. Visitors frequently comment on the beauty of the Bowdoin campus, the friendliness they experience at Bowdoin, and how happy everyone seems. This impression is supported by high retention, graduation, and alumni giving rates. The connection to place is vitally important to the educational, social, service, and recreational opportunities at Bowdoin. Maine is much more than the College's physical location.A Bowdoin education is best summed up by "The Offer of the College": 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. --Adapted from the original "Offer of the College" by William DeWitt Hyde, President of Bowdoin College, 1885-1917.

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