For those who are terrified at the prospect of ChatGPT ushering in the Age of Non-Cognition among undergraduates, Bowdoin College offers a ray of hope. In January 2026, Bowdoin will begin offering COG 100 (Introduction to Thinking), a 3-credit intersession course for seniors.
Students in COG 100 will spend two weeks in a cabin in the deep woods of Baxter State Park, a massive forest covering 209,000 acres in north-central Maine. No cell-phone service or Wi-Fi is available at the site, rendering ChatGPT irrelevant.
Every morning, afternoon, and evening, students will write an original sentence of at least 15 words. Each sentence will be on a different topic, such as one’s favorite breakfast cereal, why God created Republicans, or innovative uses for tuna-flavored gravel. At the end of the course, students will complete a capstone project in which they write an entire paragraph proposing, and justifying, a new sport for the 2028 Olympics.
According to Safa Zaki, Bowdoin’s President, “we can’t claim that we’re educating America’s next generation of thought leaders if we don’t give students the opportunity to think in college. However, let me be clear: COG 100 will be an elective course. No students are required to think at Bowdoin. We don’t endorse deep-state coercion. But if an undergraduate here wants to give cognition a shot, we are ready to be supportive. We just don’t want to be pushy.”
Students who wish to take COG 100 must submit a short essay in which they discuss the reasons for their desire to enroll in the course and/or visit Baxter State Park. ChatGPT-assisted submissions will be accepted.