Colby College


Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner Colby saw the institution renamed again to Colby University before settling on its current title, reflecting its liberal arts college curriculum, in 1899. Approximately 2,000 students from more than 60 countries are enrolled annually. The college offers 54 major fields of study and 30 minors.
Located in central Maine, the 714-acre Neo-Georgian campus sits atop Mayflower Hill and overlooks downtown Waterville and the Kennebec River Valley. Along with fellow Maine institutions Bates College and Bowdoin College, Colby competes in the New England Small College Athletic Conference and the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium.

History

19th century

On February 27, 1813, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, led by Baptists, adopted a petition to establish the Maine Literary and Theological Institution. It was moved to Waterville, Maine, and used 179 acres of land donated by citizens. In 1818, trustees assigned the institution to Jeremiah Chaplin and classes began in a vacant Waterville home. After Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820, the first Maine legislature affirmed the Massachusetts charter for the institution, but made significant changes. Students could no longer be denied admission based on religion, the institution was prohibited from applying a religious test when selecting board members, and the trustees now had the authority to grant degrees. The Maine Literary and Theological Institution was renamed Waterville College on February 5, 1821, and four years later, the theological department was discontinued. In 1828 the trustees decided to turn the somewhat informal preparatory department of the college into a separate school named Waterville Academy.
In 1833, Rufus Babcock became Colby's second president. That same year, students formed the nation's first college-based anti-slavery society. In 1845, the college's first Greek Society was formed, a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon, which was followed by chapters of Zeta Psi in 1850 and Delta Upsilon in 1852.
During the Civil War, many young men were called away from school to join the fight; from Waterville College, Richard C. Shannon, Henry C. Merriam, and Benjamin Butler. Twenty-seven Waterville College students perished in the war, and more than 100 men from the town. In the years following the war, as was the case at many American colleges, Waterville College was left with few students remaining to pay the bills and a depleted endowment. The college was on the verge of closing.
On August 9, 1865, prominent Baptist philanthropist Gardner Colby attended Waterville College's commencement dinner, and unbeknownst to anyone in attendance except college president James Tift Champlin, announced a matching $50,000 donation to the college; two years later the college was named after him. Trustees of the college voted to construct a library and chapel to honor the Colby men who died in the war, called the Memorial Hall; it was dedicated at the commencement of 1869. The college remained isolated from neighboring Bates College, and Bowdoin College due to its location in Waterville, coupled with socio-economic and political differences. At the 1871 commencement, a Martin Milmore sculpture based on the Lion of Lucerne was added as the centerpiece of the building.
In the fall of 1871, Colby University was the first all-male college in New England to accept female students. The national Sigma Kappa sorority was founded at Colby in 1874 by the college's first five female students. However the college resegregated them in 1890. One of the buildings is named after the first woman to attend, Mary Caffrey Low, who was the valedictorian of the class of 1875. In 1874, based on the success of its partnership with the Coburn Classical Institute, Colby created relationships with Hebron Academy and Houlton Academy. In 1893, the Higgins Classical Institute was also deeded to Colby – the last preparatory school that the university would acquire. Students published the first issue of The Colby Echo in 1877. On January 25, 1899, Colby president Nathaniel Butler Jr. '73, renamed the "university" Colby College.

20th century

In 1920, Colby celebrated its centennial, marking not the date of the original charter, but the date of its charter from the new State of Maine in 1820.
In June 1929, Franklin W. Johnson was appointed president of the college. That same year saw the public release of the Maine Higher Education Survey Report, which gave Colby's campus a less than desirable review. Criticisms included a cramped location on just 28 acres located between the Kennebec River and the Maine Central Railroad Company tracks through Waterville, an aging physical plant, proximity to the unpleasant odors of a pulp mill, and the soot of the railroad. Using the report as justification, President Johnson presented a proposal to the Trustees on June 14, 1929, to move the college to a more adequate location. The campaign to raise funds for the move was immediately complicated by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and competing offers for the college's contemplated location emerged. Most notably, William H. Gannett offered a site in Augusta, a financially attractive option for the college, but a troublesome prospect for the town of Waterville. Ultimately, a joint effort between Waterville citizens and the college raised more than $100,000 to purchase near the outskirts of the city on Mayflower Hill, and the deed was presented to the college on April 12, 1931.

Mayflower Hill

In 1937, according to master plans drawn up by Jens Fredrick Larson, construction broke ground on Lorimer Chapel, the first building on the new Mayflower Hill campus. In 1956, the Maine State Highway Commission diverted the proposed path of Interstate 95 to swing clear of the new campus to the west, and in 1961, Parade magazine called the 24-mile section of I-95 from Augusta to Waterville "America's finest example of a 'driver's road' for scenery, speed, and safety." The college began competing athletically with Bowdoin and Bates in the 1940s, and officially joined the two colleges in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium in 1965, after the University of Maine increased enrollment and moved to another athletic conference. The consortium became an athletic rivalry and academic exchange program.

21st century

was the President of Colby from 2000 to 2014. Major accomplishments included conducting the largest capital campaign in the history of Maine, which raised $376 million; a new strategic plan for the college; accepting a major gift for the Colby College Museum of Art – the Lunder Collection of American Art – and the construction of a new wing for the museum to house it in 2013; expansion onto the "Colby Green" with the construction of the Diamond Building in 2007 and the Davis Science Building in 2014. In 2014, a documentary was created depicting a wide range of student experiences, including academic climate, social gatherings, athletics, and graduate outlooks, called Colby Life. On July 1, 2014, David Greene took office as the new president of the college.

Academics

Students choose from courses in 54 major fields and have flexibility in designing independent study programs, electing special majors, and participating in internships and study-abroad programs. Colby emphasizes project-based learning. Colby's most popular majors, by 2021 graduates, were econometrics and quantitative economics ; political science and government ; computer science ; psychology ; environmental science ; biology and biological sciences ; and neuroscience. Volunteer programs and service learning take many students into the surrounding community. Colby employs 216 instructional faculty members, approximately 90% of whom hold a doctorate or other terminal degree.
More than two-thirds of Colby's students spend time studying off-campus before they graduate. The college recognizes credits earned at over 200 off-campus programs in more than 60 countries. Additionally, studies at four programs locations are recognized for inclusion in students calculated grade-point averages: the International Center for French Studies at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France; the St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium in Saint Petersburg, Russia; the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain; and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine.
Colby also participates in engineering dual-degree programs with the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. The programs vary in length and requirements. The Dartmouth College program, which is on a 2–1–1–1 schedule, is the more popular one.
20162017201820192020202120222023
Applicants9,83311,19012,31313,58413,92215,85716,89117,800
Admits1,8381,7681,6021,2951,3071,2791,2581,142
Admit rate18.7%15.8%13%9.5%9.4%8.1%7.4%6.4%
Median SAT1370142014901500N/A152015001510
Median ACT31323334N/A343434

For the class of 2027, Colby College admitted 6% of applicants, accepting 1,142 out of nearly 17,800 applicants. This represents a 12.3 percentage point decrease from the acceptance rate for the class of 2020, which was 18.7%, due in part to the college's decision to waive certain admissions requirements, such as the supplemental essay, and by increasing financial aid commitments.