College profile
Bates College
ME · Private nonprofit · Small city · 8,937 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- Almost everyone who starts here finishes. 90% graduate within six years — the standard federal measure. Nationally about a third of students who start a bachelor's never finish one, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision: the debt stays, the credential doesn't.
- The 6× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$83,532/yr. There's no income cutoff for need-based aid — whether you qualify depends on the gap between a school's price and your family's finances, so at a price like this even six-figure incomes often show need. Families who receive aid average ~$29,351/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~6× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
Highly selectiveHighly selective reach for nearly every applicant.
Best for
- Strong academic profiles — students here cluster in the top test and GPA tiers (bands above)
- Students focused on Social Sciences (the school's signature program)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1400, or ACT below 31, or unweighted GPA below ~3.80 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
- With selective universities, build a balanced college list of Reaches, Targets, and Safeties ⓘ
- High cost — full price is ~$83,532/yr without aid, and aid-receiving families still average ~$29,351/yr — verify the major's earnings track record before committing
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
14% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 8% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Bates College actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Bates College's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$361K ahead at full price +$578K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Bates College
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Bates College actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Bates College's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Economics. | $110,880 |
| Political Science and Government. | $80,714 |
| Psychology, General. | $65,926 |
| English Language and Literature, General. | $62,082 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
Alternatives to Bates College
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Get your child's odds at Bates College →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Bates College?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
95 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Bates College on it. Between them they printed 248 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Bates College, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
and 84 more
Published, but not ranked — these schools name Bates College on a list of where their graduates enrolled whose class years we cannot read ("Since 2023", or no class year printed), so their totals are shown rather than divided: St Andrew'S School (8, Since 2023).
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
11 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Bates College on it. Between them they printed 37 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Bates College, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
and 1 more
All 104 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantBates College is a private nonprofit four-year college in ME. It admitted 13% of applicants (8,937 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1400–1510, ACT 31–33. 14% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 8% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $29,351 a year on average with aid, $83,532 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $69,498 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $577,576 ahead with aid, $360,852 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Economics ($110,880); Political Science and Government ($80,714); Psychology, General ($65,926).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 2% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 41% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Bates College: 95, 248 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Northfield Mount Hermon (3.2 per class year, 13 over 4 class years, the past four years); Waynflete School (2.8 per class year, 14 over 5 class years, Five-Year Matriculation (2021–2025)); Pingree School (2.0 per class year, 10 over 5 class years, 2021–2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/bates-college.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Bates College: 11, 37 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Middlesex School (5.0 per class year, 5 over 1 class year, Class of 2026, counted column "accepted"); National Cathedral School (2.7 per class year, 8 over 3 class years, 2023-2025); The Chapin School (1.4 per class year, 7 over 5 class years, 2022-2026, counted column "Admitted"). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/bates-college.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/bates-college.json