Bowdoin College

No one knows whether this is true or not, but Bowdoin students choose to believe in its validity. The legend is that the Ivy League invited Bowdoin to join their prestigious athletic conference because, at the time, we were competitive rivals with Dartmouth College (a member of the Ivy League), and it only seemed fitting for us to become a member. Bowdoin, though, was significantly smaller than other Ivy League institutions and was only an undergraduate college. If the College were to accept this honorary invitation, it would need to increase the size of the student body and create graduate schools. Bowdoin did not want to stray away from its mission to foster the development of undergraduate students, and they knew they did not have the resources to expand, so they rejected the invitation. From that day on, every spring the student body celebrates Bowdoin's superiority over the Ivy League for one week by drinking extensively because we turned down the prestigious Ivies' invitation to join them.

Sixty percent of Bowdoin students marry another Bowdoin student. This legend has recently been disproved.

Playboy ranked Bowdoin's male student body within the top five of all colleges and universities in the country.