A Bates liberal arts education aspires to be truly transformational. Supported by a dedicated faculty, Bates students learn to explore broadly and deeply, to cross disciplines, and to question rigorously. Students are challenged to think judiciously and argue honestly, engage with ideas and individuals respectfully, and develop the confidence to grow. 

At Bates, students and faculty form a community of scholars who share a thirst for learning, drawing on the methods of the sciences, the patterns of logic and language, the study of societies, and expression in the arts. A Bates education takes an holistic approach to education by providing breadth and depth across the curriculum, by teaching essential skills such as critical thinking, empathy, and collaboration, and by fostering skills for personal growth and well-being.

The rigorous academic curriculum is experienced through our many majors, minors, and concentrations. We provide students with a growing number of advising pathways, abundant student-faculty research opportunities, an arts scene, and a broad range opportunities for community engagement.

Majors

A holistic liberal arts education values breadth of knowledge as well as depth or focus of study in a particular set of areas. To that end, students are required to declare a major focus of study no later than March 1^st of their sophomore year. While the faculty believes that each student should be familiar with many fields of liberal learning, it also holds that a student must choose a field of special concentration — a major — to gain the advantages that come from studying one academic subject more extensively. This major field occupies a significant percentage of the student’s college work and may be related to an intended career following graduation. Students may declare one or two majors. Completion of more than one major requires fulfillment of all major requirements in each major. Majors are typically 10 to 16 courses.

Majors marked with an asterisk (*) represent majors that are interdisciplinary in nature. These programs are administered by a committee of faculty from within the program and from other academic units within the College.

** Students who choose to participate in the Engineering Combined Plan complete a portion of their education at Bates and a portion at one of our partner institutions: Case Western University, Columbia University, Dartmouth University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or Washington University in St. Louis.

Digital and Computational Studies was approved as a new major by the Bates faculty on March 3, 2025, available to the Class of 2027 and all subsequent classes.