page_title: Bates College
section_title: Academics
hierarchical_section_title: Bates College / Academics
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to Coram Library
context_page_description: Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. It is equidistant from the state capital, Augusta, to the north, and the cultural hub Portland to the south. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals 813 acres with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains 600 acres of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay. With an annual enrollment of approximately 1,800 students, it is the smallest college in its athletic conference. As a result of its small student body, Bates retains selective admission rates and little to no transfer percentages. The nominal cost of attendance is considered very high with tuition frequently among the most expensive in the United States.
  The college was founded on March 16, 1855, by abolitionist statesman Oren Burbank Cheney and textile tycoon Benjamin Bates. Established as the Maine State Seminary, the college became the first coeducational college in New England and went on to confer the first female undergraduate degree in the area.
context_section_description: Bates College is a private baccalaureate liberal arts college that offers 36 departmental and interdisciplinary program majors and 25 secondary concentrations, and confers Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees. Bates College enrolls 1,792 students, 200 of whom study abroad each semester. The academic year is broken up into three terms, primary, secondary, and short term, also known as the 4–4–1 academic calendar. This includes two semesters, plus a Short Term consisting of five weeks in the Spring, in which only one class is taken and in-depth coursework is commonplace. Two Short Terms are required for graduation, with a maximum of three.
  The largest social science academic department at Bates College is its Economics department, followed by Psychology, Politics, and History. The largest natural science academic department is the Biology department, followed by Mathematics, Physics, and Geology. Bates offers a Liberal Arts-Engineering Dual Degree Program with Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering, Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Washington University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. The program consists of three years at Bates and a followed two years at the school of engineering resulting in a degree from Bates and the school of engineering.
caption: Entrance to the college's inaugural library, Coram Library.
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