Best Colleges in Maine of 2023

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick that was founded in 1794 - which makes it 26 years older than the state itself. It has a student population of just over 1,800 and 189 faculty members. The 215-acre campus is home to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum; the Schiller Coastal Studies Center is eight miles away on Orr's Island. The college offers 35 majors, 40 minors, and special areas of study in topics like arctic studies, coastal studies, and legal studies. All students take a first-year writing seminar along with a full-credit course in each of five foundational areas, including international perspectives and visual and performing arts. The student-to-faculty ratio is 8:1, and 71% of classes have fewer than 20 students. Housing options include residence halls, college houses, and apartments. The varsity sports teams, the Polar Bears, compete in NCAA Division III.

Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville. Founded in 1813, its 714-acre campus overlooks the Kennebec River Valley. Its 2,000+ students hail from 45+ states and 63 countries, making for a diverse and multicultural community. Colby offers 57 majors and 36 minors for its undergraduates, including pre-med, dual-degree engineering programs with Dartmouth and Columbia, and the option to design your own major. Colby was the first college to pioneer a 4-1-4 academic calendar, where students typically take four classes in the spring and fall as well as pursue one intensive academic or career experience during the month of January. DavisConnects guarantees every Colby student access to a global experience, research experience, and internship regardless of personal networks or financial circumstances. Colby recently became the steward of two islands off the coast of Maine, Allen and Benner islands. They meet 100% of each admitted student's demonstrated financial needs without including loans in financial aid packages. It's also worth noting that they have 29 residence halls on campus including apartment-style residences in downtown Waterville, and Colby College is a NCAA Division III school that competes in the NESCAC.

Located in downtown Lewiston on a 109-acre, tree-shaded campus, Bates College also includes the 600-acre Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and a coastal freshwater habitat in Shortridge. Bates offers 36 program majors to its 2,000 undergraduate students but also provides the opportunity to design their own major, and the college offers a dual-degree engineering program. There is a student-to-teacher ratio of 10:1 and all faculty members hold the highest degree in their respective fields. Sixty percent of students study abroad. A first-year seminar allows students to dig into a specialized topic, such as coastal hazards or religion and civil rights. More than 100 students each summer receive research or creative fellowships. On-campus housing is provided in nine residential halls and a residential village. Bates has 31 varsity sports teams, the Bobcats, and nine club teams, including sailing, rugby, and water polo. Varsity teams compete as part of NCAA Division III.

The University of Maine is a public land-grant research institution in Orono and is the flagship university of the University of Maine system. It enrolls approximately 11,500 students and is the largest institution of higher education in the state. UM is a Carnegie R1 top-tier research university, a designation held by only 3.7% of the colleges and universities in the United States. UM offers 90+ undergraduate degree programs, which are housed in five colleges. There are more than 100 graduate-level programs grounded in research and taught by world-class faculty. UM graduates 89% of the state's Doctors of Philosophy and Education. Graduate programs in neuroscience are a particular focus of the institution. UM provides on-campus housing in 19 residence halls, which include traditional dormitories, suite-style living, graduate housing, and themed community options. The UM varsity teams, the Black Bears, are Maine's only NCAA Division I athletics program.

The University of New England is a private research institution with campuses in Portland and Biddeford as well as a satellite campus in Tangier, Morocco. UNE offers a range of programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to its 7,000+ students and is the top supplier of health care professionals in Maine. It has Maine's only medical college and physician assistant program, as well as northern New England's only dental college, making it a national leader in interprofessional health care education. UNE has more than 40 undergraduate- and 32 graduate-level programs in six colleges. The average class size is 21, and there is a student-to-teacher ratio of 13:1. NInety-two percent of undergraduates participate in a clinical rotation, fieldwork, or internship. There are 10 residence halls available with traditional rooms and suites. UNE's varsity sports teams, the Nor'easters, are members of NCAA Division III.

College of the Atlantic is a private liberal arts college in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island. It has roughly 350+ students with a full-time faculty of 35. The campus is 37 acres in Frenchman Bay and also includes two organic farms, two off-shore research stations, and a protected area. The school has one self-designed major in human ecology at the bachelor's and master's degree levels that explores the relationships between humans and their natural, cultural, and built environments. Each student can determine how to address this concept and can choose their own courses after they complete a small core of degree requirements. All first-year students live on campus, as do many returning students, in townhouses, cottages, a carriage house, and other housing complexes, which are some of the most sustainable in all of New England. In 2004, COA made a multiyear commitment to be powered entirely by renewable energy in 10 years.

University of Maine at Farmington is a public liberal arts institution that is part of the UM system, located in rural western Maine near Sugarloaf and Sunday River. Its campus is well-suited to students who enjoy being outdoors as it is near excellent sites for skiing, hiking, kayaking, and more. With 1,600 full-time students, its programs are primarily geared toward teacher education, human services, and arts and sciences. The school also offers undergraduates the opportunity to develop their own interdisciplinary majors. Master's programs are available in six areas of education and psychology, including special education, counseling psychology with an emphasis on creative arts, and mathematics education. Almost all students receive financial aid, and tuition for Maine residents is $9,216 a year. All veterans or active-duty military receive the Maine rate. Housing is available in a number of residence halls and themed communities. The UMaine Farmington Beavers compete in NCAA Division III.

Maine Maritime Academy is a public college in coastal Castine that offers engineering, management, science, and transportation courses. Its 950 students can major in logistics management, marine biology, marine systems engineering, and other topics that relate to marine life. The school offers experiential learning opportunities to equip students with practical skills. Facilities include research vessels, marine science labs, power plant and navigation simulators, a 1,200 hp diesel engine, and more. All 60+ faculty come from diverse academic and industrial positions. Students spend international sea-time aboard the academy's training ship, schooner, or commercial vessels. MMA is a residential campus that requires students to live on campus in one of two residential buildings. It is one of only two institutions in the United States that fields a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit. MMA's athletic teams are the Mariners, and they participate in NCAA Division III in 15 sports.

St. Joseph's College of Maine, located on Sebago Lake in Standish, is the only Catholic college in Maine. It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1912 as a women's college but today is coeducational. The college has roughly 1,000 residential students, with another 2,500 who attend the school's well-regarded online learning programs. Online graduate programs include programs in education, health sciences, nursing, and theology. The college is currently constructing a state-of-the-art center for nursing innovation, which will include five simulation laboratories. More than 40 majors are available for undergraduates in the areas of business, education, health, the humanities, social science, nursing, science, and theology. All programs have a basis in the liberal arts. St. Joseph's has nine residence halls both traditional and townhouse quads, pod-style living, and suites. The school's varsity sports teams are the Monks, and they compete in NCAA Division III.

The University of Southern Maine is a public institution with campuses in the cities of Portland - Maine's largest city - and Lewiston, with a residential campus in the town of Gorham, 11 miles from Portland. USM has roughly 6,700 undergraduate students and 1,500 graduate students, and there is a student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1. USM offers 53 majors and 74 minors to undergraduates, and graduate students can choose from 11 programs, including a doctorate in public policy through the institution's Muskie School of Public Service. There is also a doctor of psychology program in school psychology. Offered master's-level programs are predominantly in education. USM offers research opportunities to faculty and students in partnership with businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and communities, including the Maine-Greenland Collaboration, an interdisciplinary research program investigating challenges facing coastal communities. Most students live in six residential halls on the Gorham campus. The school fields 22 varsity teams, the Huskies, at the NCAA Division III level.