Bates is a private, highly selective, residential college devoted to undergraduate study in the liberal arts. It has always embraced the ideals of academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, egalitarianism, social justice, and freedom. Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts, educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Bates engages the transformative power of people’s differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times.