City: Waterville, ME

Category: Relocation

Telephone: (207) 872-3000

Address: Mayflower Hill

Description: The campus of Colby is huge—714 acres—and it’s well apart from the rest of Waterville, its own brick kingdom of fine Georgian buildings. Coed since 1871, the school began life as a Baptist institution in 1813, and it is highly regarded for its liberal arts curriculum. There are 53 majors from which to choose—the top four being economics, biology, English, and government—and the school has become nationally recognized for its research- and project-based undergraduate programs. About a third of its applicants are accepted. The campus of Colby was moved here from downtown Waterville in the 1950s, and it now consists of about 62 structures with an arboretum and bird sanctuary around them. In fact, most of the campus is considered a Maine Wildlife Management Area. There are 1,870 students wandering among all that wildlife going to classes with a 10:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Tuition and board cost about $49,000.

City: Waterville, ME

Category: Shopping

Telephone: (207) 861-8138

Address: 177 Main Street

Description: Although Waterville is a solid two-hour drive north, plenty of Portland’s filmmakers and film lovers make the trek every year to enjoy one of the state’s finest film festivals. The Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) was founded in 1998 by the nonprofit group Friends of Art and Film in Central Maine. Every July the festival screens more than 80 domestic and international films in 10 days at two locations in Waterville, and many of the screenings are accompanied by discussions with directors, actors, writers, musicians, and producers. MIFF also bestows its Mid-Life Achievement Award (past winners have included Peter Fonda and Sissy Spacek) and honors Maine student filmmakers with the Maine Student Film and Video Festival, a one-day event during the MIFF festivities. A full-festival pass costs $150, a partial-festival pass costs $75, and individual admission to most screenings costs $8.