Ask a BU Freshman

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston University
61

<p>torii92, my guess would be you should try somewhere like Atlanta or New Orleans for that type of stuff.</p>

62

<p>^^
Wow how did you get a full ride?</p>

<p>Night scene, its Boston… you can definately find virtually anything fun to do from partying to not.</p>

63

<p>boston does have a tendency to close down by midnight, and the t stops running at 1:30, which can sometimes be a pain. otherwise, the city is awesome.</p>

64

<p>Can you please rank the dorms freshmen are mostly likely to live in (#1 being the best) and tell why they are ranked the way that they are? Thanks!</p>

65

<p>Can you evaluate on College of General Studies?</p>

66

<p>Vintage09, as a freshman you should really be looking at one of the large dorms. Unless you suffer from social anxiety or something, those would be your best choice.</p>

<p>The 2 major ones are Warren and West. If you’re in CAS, COM, ENG, SAR, SMG or SED, choose Warren; if you’re in CGS, CFA, SHA or an athlete then choose West. Other than the distance to your classes, there are no major differences. Both of them have large dining halls, double rooms and occasional singles. I live in Warren and it’s a love-hate relationship - I like how convenient it is and it’s so easy to meet people, but on the other hand it’s totally true that ‘Warren never sleeps,’ so it’s hard to enjoy soem quiet alone time. I can imagine that the same applies to West, too.</p>

<p>The 3rd most popular freshman dorm would be The Towers, which is smaller than Warren, also has a dining hall and half of it is renovated. Both freshmen and sophomores live there. Everyone I know who lives there likes it, so if you’re not into big crazy freshman dorms, The Towers would be a good choice.</p>

<p>Some freshman choose to live in the Hojo, which has private bathrooms, but most of the rooms are triples and there’s no dining hall.</p>

<p>I know a couple of freshmen who live in Shelton, which is a suite-style dorm. You can ocassionally find freshmen in pretty much all the dorms (except for StuVi I and II) and the brownstones, but that really depends.</p>

67

<p>My child will major in an area of applied math/statistics. He is very talented. BU is on our list of colleges to apply to but I am concerned about the quality of the education my kid will get at a large impersonal school like BU versus a smaller liberal art college. </p>

<p>With such as large school as BU, in the freshman year, what size math classes and what sort of attention will my child get from professors? </p>

<p>I know there will be TAs but will my child be able to form a professional working relationship with professors, or will they be one of a few hundred nameless faces at such a large school? </p>

<p>The small schools admissions staff consciously give you the strong feeling that ‘we’ll take care of your child - he/she will get alot of attention here’. </p>

<p>At BU I get no such feeling - even the admissions tour was impersonal - definitely because of the huge crowd.</p>

<p>Anyone on this board with freshmen experience and expects to major in math? Please give us honest feedback.</p>

68

<p>I’m not majoring in math (I’m in the 7-year med program), but I can tell you that BU is definitely large, but it’s only “impersonal” if you make it that way. From my experience so far this year, I’ve found that professors are almost always available if you remember their office hours or plan ahead and make an appointment.<br>
One thing I can say for certain is that the professors are not going to be holding your son’s hand and “taking care” of him. They’re not going to come to you–you have to go to them. However, if he actively participates during class and goes to office hours, there’s no need to worry about being a “nameless face.” </p>

<p>Hope this helps! </p>

<p>P.S. I’m only a freshman, but I personally like the independence that BU offers. My parents keep reminding me that once I’m out of school, my future employers aren’t going to be interested at all about taking care of me. I see it as a good head start. =]</p>

69

<p>Would you recommend Warren Towers?
And I’m going as undecided, but I’m curious to know what are some of BU’s strongest majors?</p>

70

<p>xhomefryy: Yes, I would recommend Warren. As I mentioned in my last post, you will love it and hate it (a little) at the same time. You’ll make tons of friends and have a lot of fun. The dining hall is super convenient. You’re smack right in the middle of campus, so all your classes are withing 3-10 minutes walking distance. The main disadvantage is that the rooms are quite small so if you or your roomate have a lot of stuff, it will feel quite crowded. Also people in Warren never sleep, which gets annoying when you want some peace and quiet. But that depends on your floormates - my floor is considered exceptionally loud lol. Get earplugs or good headphones. All in all, Warren offers the perfect freshman experience and imho you haven’t really experienced BU unless you have lived in Warren.</p>

71

<p>lesmislove - Thank you for that thoughtful answer. My kid is the type to seek out the help of his HS teachers to ensure he is completely on track - so he should do well in BU environment - as you are doing. Thank you again.</p>

72

<p>I’m a highschool senior and BU is my first choice school. I was just wondering if BU offers creative writing classes or a creative writing major/minor, and if you knew anyone who takes them, what they’re like? I know they have it as a graduate program, but i wasn’t sure about undergrad.</p>

73

<p>Thanks Hanita</p>

<p>Does anyone know if early d accepted people get special preference for dorming and such? like do we get to choose which warren tower (a,b,c) or get lower floors (i heard the elevators sucked)?</p>

<p>And, the BU acceptance email said they would ask for a final transcript. Slacking as long as it’s not D/F is fine right?</p>

74

<p>^So basically “Can we slack off now and still get preferential housing treatment?”</p>

<p>Nice.</p>

75

<p>Don’t slack off. They can change your financial package if they see you doing that.</p>

<p>And I don’t think you can get a preference in housing either, at least I haven’t heard of anything like that.</p>

76

<p>about creative writing courses: BU does offer creative writing courses; however, everyone has to go through the writing program their freshman year (WR 100 first semester and WR 150 second semester.) </p>

<p>Here’s the course catalog search engine for this year: <a href=“https://www.bu.edu/phpbin/course-search/index.php[/url]”>https://www.bu.edu/phpbin/course-search/index.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

77

<p>You don’t get preferential housing as ED. </p>

<p>As for Warren, it doesn’t matter where you get (ie towers/floor) really. The elevator sucking issue isn’t really true. I live in C-tower, which is mentioned to have unreliable elevators in Backdoor BU. I was super excited for that when I learned that I’d be on a very high floor. However, the elevators have only been down once for about an hour. Fire drills mean you have to walk downstairs but it’s not anything too severe. I sometimes take the stairs up anyways for random exercise. Floors are all fairly social. I particularly love mine, but I’m sure everyone else feels their own is the best. I suppose it’s kind of loud, but I am able to get quiet time too. I actually love Warren. I mean, obviously you don’t get spacious rooms, but I wouldn’t trade this experience as a freshman ever. I’ve met some of my best friends on my floor, and being able to hang out in the common room, catch nightly dinners with them, or go off and explore the city has been some of the highlights so far.</p>

78

<p>Is your floor completely random? There’s no way to indicate a preference for like…a higher up floor by any chance? :stuck_out_tongue:
And what about those poor people in the middle of B-Tower? Don’t they have like no view at all except of a big building?</p>

79

<p>I did not apply before December 1. Can I still get pretty good FA (mainly merit aid)?</p>

<p>Also, how is the pre-med advising? Do you know any BMEs? How hard is it to get into the 7 year BS/MD program once you’re in BU? Or can you only get in by applying when you’re a prospective applicant?</p>

80

<p>Moxess, tell me about it haha! I live in B tower and all I see is the C tower. Which sucks compared to the killer view of the city that my friend has from his 18th floor room in the A tower!</p>

<p>The view from my room: <a href=“http://c0069902.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/05eddd402c70058364d81dedb4acd564_1120940.jpg[/url]”>http://c0069902.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/05eddd402c70058364d81dedb4acd564_1120940.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;