@darnwaitlist Q0: as long as your son receives a C average or better, he will be directly admitted into questrom! Q1: Yes after your first year you will start up again with january london freshman and the september freshman! Q2: nothing during the summer of your sophomore year, once you do London you are a regular sophomore student. I think the only real downsides for me were housing, they basically place you wherever they have room for you. I got lucky and ended up in a really nice suite with 3 other january freshman, but i know other people didn’t get so lucky. The other downside is really just having to wait a semester. It does kind of suck at the time but what I always say is that its only 3 months out of the rest of your life for a BU degree and an amazing experience at an incredible university. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
@julialaman Hi! No one shoud have any trouble switching over to the school they want after CGS unless they got below a C average. You are automatically put into the school you want otherwise. You will also be taking classes over the gap semester as well as electives in your desired major during your 2 years in CGS to keep you on track. You will be assigned an advisor who helps make sure you are taking the right classes in order to graduate on time. Worst case scenario, you have to take a summer class or 2 to graduate on time. I was in CGS for two years (obviously) and I actually have the option of graduating a semester early. I know a ton of people in many different majors who were in CGS and they are all on track to graduate in 4 years.
@darnwaitlist Also, BU does guarantee housing to all spring students!
@laurrodes Thank you for all your answers - especially about the housing. Seems like a lot of upsides with the downsides being the late start and the fact that when you move into your dorm in January a lot of the other students will already know each other which could be challenging for a new student. Thank you for sharing the pros and cons.
@laurrodes Please help! I have some questions about Myles! I don’t want to put these questions under the wrong forum though. I remember you from lots of other posts on here and you are always so kind and helpful! So I thought I’d reach out and was wondering if there was a way to message you separately? Thank you so much!
@laurrodes Thanks for the pro’s cons. Planning to take my son to the April 7th Open house/event.
any thoughts on this article? so freaking confusing.
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Boston-University-College-of-General-studies-looked-down-upon-if-half-the-entering-freshmen-are-CGS
I am puzzled as to how a 3.75 uw GPA w/ a 27 ACT, killer essay, 6+ years of Royal Conservatory of Music study in Piano with First Class Honors every year, 4 years of French including Honors level with awards every year at the state level, coupled with great EC’s, such as private Japanese intensive language study, backed up w/ good rec’s and close to 200 service hours does not meet muster for CAS direct admittance?! H.S. course work included mixture of A.P. and Honors. Instead of CAS, the CGS Boston - London was offered. How on earth do her stats hurt BU? Just because she didn’t have a 30 ACT? I am stupified. Can someone enlighten me?
@darnwaitlist That is not an article. It is one individual’s rant. The title is completely wrong. There are 600 CGS freshmen (200 in the fall) out of 3300 total freshmen. Enrolment in CGS has been manipulated to increase the stats and rankings with the creation of the January/London option.
@TomSrOfBoston thanks! I know others mentioned they had to overload in freshman and sophomore year to get into the college of choice - so clearly there is some distinction drawn by BU between folks who got into college of choice vs. CGS. I am trying to get this straight before I throw my son across the country (@CA) to make sure this is the right thing. Also, I don’t want him to have to spend 6 years to get a Bachelor’s. What would be the intent of BU to even bother to set this up - i.e. CGS and then to college of choice. Why not just let them into the college of choice if they are going to end up their anyway - just does not make sense. Why make it any harder than it needs to be.
@darnwaitlist that article is full of misinformation. First of all, there are no CGS math courses so I am not sure what they are talking about there. Also, I have never met someone who had to redo a class taken in CGS. CGS is as much a part of the BU community as any other college so all of the other colleges accept CGS classes, it’s not like your transferring universities where some classes might not get accepted. None of my CGS classmates will be graduating in 5 or 6 years, only 4.
@laurrodes Thanks - must be some disgruntled student from the past. Can you elaborate “no CGS math courses” please - do you mean there are no math courses during the first 2 years? I sincerely hope that’s not what you meant. Again appreciate you taking time off your busy schedule to help us out.
@laurrodes Here’s a link and I was wondering if you can help clarify.
http://www.bu.edu/cgsnow/academics/pathways/academic-pathways-january-boston-london-program/questrom/
Required electives – QST SM 131 and QST FE 101
Grade of B- or better must be earned in both courses. These are required courses at Questrom and must be taken at Boston University. A student may take QST SM 131 and QST FE 101 a maximum of twice in attempting to earn the required grade for continuation. A ‘W’ in either course counts as one attempt. If a student repeats a gateway course, the average of the two grades for the course must be a B- (2.7).
If you do not earn a B- in either QST SM 131 or QST FE 101, you must retake that course in one of the following two semesters (including summer semester)
Would you know how the teachers for these courses are - B- appears to be steep?
@darnwaitlist The CGS curriculum does not include any math classes. You take separate math classes dependent on your own major. For example, I am in COM and have never taken a math class at BU but my friends who are econ majors have obviously taken a bunch. As far as that course goes, those are Questrom courses, not CGS courses. Your son would have to take those courses and earn a B- if he was accepted regularly into Questrom as as well. I have a lot of friends in Questrom and most of them earned the required B- the first time, but there were some people who took a second time, but those were typically the less motivated students.
@laurrodes Would you be willing to share any info on Myles? I think you said you lived there, but I could be mistaken. 
Thanks so much!
@darnwaitlist also if your son has any AP credits, it will help with the amount of classes he will have to take and give more room in his schedule.
@hopeful129 I lived in Myles my freshman and sophomore year! Freshman year I was placed into a 6 person suite with my direct roommate being in january london and my suitemate also in january london. Our room was huge, way bigger than my friends in west or warren and we had our own bathroom, not communal so I loved all those aspects of it. I had a love/hate relationship with living in East. Myles is pretty far in East and I like East campus way better than West. A lot of cute restaurants around, access to a major T station (kenmore) and right next to bay state rd which is beautiful but it was also really far from all of my CGS classes. My sophomore year I lived in a 3 person suite with a direct roommate and a single attatched and the 3 of us shared a bathroom and that was really nice too and I had an unreal view of the Charles. I never lived in the new dorms in Myles but my friend does now and I have visited her a lot and the rooms are brand new and very beautiful. I think it’s a really good choice for anyone looking for a more quiet atmosphere in East but with really nice dorms.
@laurrodes My son did not get any scholarship - this means about $80k/year. Are there any creative ways to reduce this if he ends up joining? thanks again for replying to the questions. I did speak with CGS folks, Questrom folks and dean’s office this morning - some of those requirements as you say are also for QSB direct admits as well. They said they could not do anything about scholarships
@darnwaitlist Actually I have reduced my cost about $40,000 by going part time all of my senior year. I finished all of the classes I needed to graduate early (with the help of classes I took during the gap semester as well as AP credits that transferred over) and only have 3 1/2 classes left to take for the 2018-2019 academic year. I petitioned to go part time for all of senior year (as opposed to graduating early because I don’t want to miss out) and it was approved which saves a large chunk of money. I know this may not be plausible with every major but it is definitely something to look into if your son has a lot of transfer credits or would be willing to overload.
@laurrodes Thanks so much, that is helpful!