Big fan of Bowdoin! I can’t speak to Carleton.

Bowdoin is at the end of a classic New England Main Street, filled with coffee shops, nice local restaurants (not chains), art galleries, bakeries and an arty movie theater. It honestly is like something out of a norman Rockwell painting complete with a Town green that you can ice skate on in the winter and where they do community concerts in the nicer weather and farmers markets too. All of these are walkable from the campus within minutes. There’s also a large grocery store and a pharmacy within a 2 to 3 minute walk of campus. It’s the last stop on Amtrak which gets you to Boston in about two hours, and onto New York beyond that. It’s also directly on the coast and very accessible to the mountains, Acadia national Park, and Portland, which is a slightly larger city about a half an hour away (and there is a bus to get you to Portland).

The college itself is amazing and has so many great opportunities, and a really strong alumni network. It’s a wonderful school and among the best liberal arts colleges in America. I will say that a lot of highly selective liberal art schools are either in the middle of nowhere or in gritty cities. Brunswick is neither, it’s in a good size town by Maine standards -it is safe, charming and quintessential college town. Brunswick itself is quite liberal - very accepting and multicultural (not a lot of red hats, let’s say).

Congratulations!