It was a Friday night in Lewiston, and, naturally, there wasn’t anything to do. Back home in Texas, I was used to restaurants and venues that were open after 8 p.m., and I was looking for something to occupy myself with–at least until midnight. 

I’m not sure who had the idea first, but two friends and I thought, why not visit Bowdoin? It would be interesting to see how our “rivals” lived. I also have an amateur interest in architectural criticism (and criticism of all kinds), so I was curious to see how our two campuses compared. And maybe just a small part of me was wondering if there’s something Bowdoin has that we are missing. 

After an eerie drive along backroads to Brunswick, we arrived at the Bowdoin campus and started walking. The first thing I noticed were the trees. Bowdoin’s quad was littered with tall, skinny pines, which felt a little sparse compared to the trees at Bates. I preferred the Bates trees, but my friend liked Bowdoin’s more. In terms of architecture, it’s unsurprising that the two campuses bear a lot of similarities, including the fact that neither are well-lit at night, so I wasn’t able to see as much of it as I wanted. Bowdoin seemed to incorporate a lot of modern updates to the exteriors of their historical buildings, which isn’t really my thing, but it could be for some people. Point to Bates.

After a few minutes of wandering a mostly empty quad, we approached the south end of campus, where we found a plethora of Bowdoin students converging. We quickly realized we had stumbled across the Bowdoin dining hall, which for some reason was still open at midnight. After a bit of Googling, I found out that their dining hall is open on weekend nights until 1 a.m., and it seemed to be quite popular. We thought our night had ended there, but figured we’d try and get in anyways. My friend tapped his Bates ID (hidden in his phone) onto the scanner, and it declined. He repeated this two more times until he mumbled something about how “it doesn’t work anymore.” Some staff asked if we were alumni, and, of course, we said yes. We were in. 

Upon entering the dining hall, we were met with a dazzling array of multicolored lights projected onto the ceiling. There was a long line formed to grab food from the only bar that was open, serving snacks like grilled cheese, quesadilla, and soft pretzels. For research, I had to try all of them. The grilled cheese and quesadilla tasted more or less the same as Bates’, which was interesting. However, I’ve never had a soft pretzel in Commons, and to be honest, it was really good. Point to Bowdoin. 

We entered the dining area and sat down in one of the wooden booths on the fringes of the room. Within the first 5 minutes, my friends began recognizing people from their high school senior class—which, I’m assuming, is because they both went to prep school. As the minutes passed, it started to feel like a ton of people were staring at us. Was it that obvious we didn’t go here, or do Bowdoin students just know each other that well? I felt unsettled. Maybe this was a snap judgment, but I had been observing and talking with Bowdoin students in their natural habitat for over an hour now, and they seemed even more preppy than Bates students. High bar.

I was enjoying the food, but we decided to make an early exit given these uncomfortable factors. As we arrived back in Lewiston, and I climbed into my bed, I felt more at home than ever. Late-night weekend dining was the only clear bonus Bowdoin had, at least from my observations, but it seems like Bates is working towards a similar program with their recent extension of the Bobcat Den and Curb Cat operating hours. Regardless, I had found a way to occupy my Friday night, and I went to sleep feeling assured that I had picked the right school.