Bowdoin College supplemental essays
Bowdoin College asks for three supplemental essays in 2026-27, plus more depending on your college or program. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
Early Decision closes November 15, 2026, Early Decision II closes January 5, 2027 and Regular Decision closes January 5, 2027. The prompts carry these limits: 140 characters, max 250 words. Every Bowdoin College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 15, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 5, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 5, 2027 |
Checked against www.bowdoin.edu/admissions/apply/index.html. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required · 140 characters
How did you first learn about Bowdoin?
NOT published anywhere on Bowdoin's own website: this short answer lives inside the Bowdoin-specific 'Questions' section of the Common Application. Corroborated by two independent publishers (College Essay Guy 2026/2027, updated 08/03/2026, lists it as Bowdoin supplemental prompt #1; CollegeVine 2025-2026 lists it and calls it 'the only required prompt'). Treat the required status as third-party until someone opens the live Common App.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional · max 250 words
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?
Bowdoin titles this 'Bowdoin Supplemental Essay (from The Offer of the College)' and states 'This optional essay (max 250 words) is available in the Bowdoin Supplement.' In the live Common App the applicant first SELECTS one line of The Offer, then writes the reflection; College Essay Guy renders the selection step as '(Select an option.)' and the reflection instruction as 'The Offer represents Bowdoin's values. Please reflect on the line you selected and how it has meaning to you. (250 words)'. Bowdoin's own site phrases the question as the final line quoted here.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional · max 250 words
Bowdoin believes that its broadly diverse and inclusive campus community prepares graduates to be contributing and useful citizens of the world. Every graduate of this institution should be confident in their preparation to be able to navigate through differences and in all sorts of situations. A Bowdoin education does not guarantee these skills, but it does impart a set of tools necessary to bravely enter unfamiliar conditions with the confidence to deal effectively with ambiguity. 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.
Bowdoin titles this the 'Navigating through Differences Essay' and states 'This optional essay (max 250 words) is available in the Bowdoin Supplement.'
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (homeschooled applicants only) · Not stated
Homeschool applicants must submit either a graded paper or lab assignment -or- standardized test scores in addition to their other application materials.
Graded-paper requirement, quoted verbatim from Bowdoin's required-materials section. Applies only to homeschooled applicants, and is an either/or with standardized test scores.
Your Bowdoin College checklist
Three supplements, one of them required. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 15, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplement 1Required140 characters
- Supplement 2Optionalmax 250 words
- Supplement 3Optionalmax 250 words
- One program-specific promptOnly if you apply to the college or program it names. All printed in full above.
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
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Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against Bowdoin College’s own prompts is on the Bowdoin College essay review page.
Getting into Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College admits 7.1% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1470-1550 on the SAT and 33-35 on the ACT.
About 1 in 14 applicants are admitted, at a college of 1,873 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1470 | 1520 | 1550 |
| SAT reading and writing | 730 | 750 | 770 |
| SAT math | 740 | 770 | 780 |
| ACT composite | 33 | 34 | 35 |
What SAT score do you need for Bowdoin College?
A 1550 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1520 at their midpoint, and a 1470 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 33, 34 and 35. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Bowdoin College?
- Bowdoin College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1470-1550 on the SAT: a 1470 sits at the 25th percentile, 1520 at the median and 1550 at the 75th. A score at or above 1550 is a clear strength in the application; below 1470 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Bowdoin College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Bowdoin College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 33-35 on the ACT, with a composite of 34 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 33. Reported by Bowdoin College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Bowdoin College?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Bowdoin College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Bowdoin College admits 7.1% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Bowdoin College?
- Bowdoin College admits 7.1% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 14 applicants. At that rate no set of numbers makes admission likely, a perfect one included, because the college turns away far more qualified applicants than it takes. Strong grades and scores get the application read; the essays, the recommendations and what you have actually done decide it from there.
What Bowdoin College costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Bowdoin College essay questions, answered
- Does Bowdoin College have supplemental essays?
- Yes. Bowdoin College asks for three supplemental essays in 2026-27, plus more depending on your college or program. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 140 characters, max 250 words.
- How many essays do you write for Bowdoin College in 2026-27?
- Three supplements, plus the Common App personal statement. Some applicants write more, depending on the college or program.
Schools with similar admit rates
Bowdoin College admits 7.1% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Johns Hopkins University (6.4%), Colby College (7.1%), Pomona College (7.1%), Swarthmore College (7.5%), Northwestern University (7.7%), Rice University (8.0%).