<p>“Money isn’t an issue because financial aid will take care of it.”</p>
<p>^^ You’d better have a back up plan. Many, many families do not receive even close to what they expected in financial aid. Until you have an acceptance and award offer in hand, I wouldn’t assume anything.</p>
<p>“Nearly everyone I knew hated the campus environment, social atmosphere,…”</p>
<p>Times change, D2s friends, who are seniors there now, have given us glowing reports about it.</p>
<p>I do have offers in hand. And I will be studying Political Science, well at least before law school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t make my decision on any perceived law school bump. Getting into law school has everything to do with your undergrad grades and LSAT, and little to do with where you attended undergrad. I suggest you go to whichever college most inspires you.</p>
<p>^ I wholeheartedly agree. My sister goes to bates and is actually interested in political science also. She likes the close interaction she gets with her professors, and in regards to financial aid, it was all a comprehensive fee and we actually ended up having to come up with about $1,000 only, for a school that costs over $50,000. :)</p>
<p>cobrat says:</p>
<p>“Boston College - Academically respectable(Not on Bates’ level) Jesuit University which has a strong sports/drinking/party school reputation among high school classmates, parents, and especially guidance counselors. A reason why most guidance counselors and some parents did not have much respect for the school…and it extended to the point that one GC strongly discouraged an older classmate with Ivy stats from applying there.” </p>
<p>That is a highly misleading critique of BC and cannot be taken seriously without hard facts to support it. Though I do not have the numbers at hand I believe the stats for incoming freshman at BC and Bates are virtually indistinquishable.</p>
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<p>I’m just recounting what the prevailing attitudes were among the classmates, parents, and guidance counselors were at my high school during the early-mid '90s. </p>
<p>While BC’s academic profile has risen a bit since my high school days, from what I’ve been hearing from several recent high school graduates…including a few who graduated this past May, BC still has a strong sports/drinking/party school reputation which turns off many topflight high school students and their parents. </p>
<p>Moreover, from what I heard from those kids…especially several who were graduates of private prep schools and topflight public schools like Bronx Science, all perceived Bates and peer LACs were a cut above BC academically. </p>
<p>This included one younger cousin who used BC as a random “out-of-the-blue” safety who is now in her first year at one of Bates’ peer LACs. Applying to that “safety” caused a lot of tension with her parents and some “what were u thinking” reactions from her prep school classmates.</p>
<p>cobrat - Excuse me, but you must live in a very small world if you think that Bates and its peers are a “cut above” BC academically. Show me the stats for incoming freshmen at Bates and compare them to BC’s.</p>
<p>By the way, for you and those who think BC just popped on the scene in the last decade or two, the academics there have always been strong and demanding – even when I was there forty years ago. My house had very academically minded people in it, one of whom was later awarded a MacArthur Genius grant.</p>
<p>As for hard drinking and partying, where have you been?! Virtually every name college has that going on.</p>
<p>Bates 1260-1410, but SAT optional so “real” numbers are obviousy lower;63% top 10% class, 27% accepted
BC 1250-1430, “real” numbers not optional, 79% top 10% class, 30% accepted</p>
<p>IMO top 10% numbers should be taken with a big grain of salt, reported by less than half the class in both cases, and not all classes are created equal.</p>
<p>You can look at this data a couple ways, but to me it seems like these schools are in the same general bracket selectivity-wise.</p>
<p>There is a lot of Bates ■■■■■■■■ in this thread. I wouldn’t even go as far as to say it is academically on the same level as Boston College. Academically, Bates is easier to get into, less respected, and lacks the traditional college atmosphere. I also have never heard of Boston College as a party school. </p>
<p>I think there may be a few Bates grads on this thread, because either they are ■■■■■■■■ or they are clueless.</p>
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<p>They should also be taken with a large barrel of salt because of the wide variability in the quality and rigor of high schools in the US. What may be top 10% at one place may be bottom 25% at another…even if we restrict the discussion to “good schools”. </p>
<p>Everyone who ended up going to BC from my high school in my graduating class tended to be well-within the top 30-50% and were doing it because they wanted respectable academics along with the perceived huge sports/party/drinking scene. Many Eagles fans in that group. </p>
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<p>Not at my LAC nor at others like Bates, Vassar, etc. </p>
<p>Granted, the students at my LAC had their own vices…but they tended to take the form of pot smoking, students trying to outdo each other on “Who’s more politically left/progressive than thou”, and campus activism/launching campus-wide protests on a variety of political/other topics not too far removed from what UC Berkeley was during the '60s. Heard it mellowed somewhat on the political one-ups-manship/protest angle since I graduated, though. </p>
<p>Partying like what I saw go on at BC when I visited my friends on campus was certainly not part of my undergrad’s campus culture nor that of Bates or Vassar. </p>
<p>In short, it is really a discussion of student, parental, and GC perceptions and the matter of degree/fit for each individual student. For instance, the high school classmates who went to BC would have hated the much more mellower party scene without big sports/heavy drinking/big school spirit as a visible part of the campus culture and the widespread culture of having intellectual/academic discussions outside of class. On the other hand, high school classmates who attended LACs…including my own are not likely to be happy with the big sports/party/drinking culture present on the BC campus and how most students tend to have little/no patience with discussion of academic/intellectual topics outside of class.</p>
<p>Actually, I have found there to be more partying at Bates when I visited. </p>
<p>I went out with Bates students when I was younger and visiting the campus. We definitely partied hard and were pretty reckless. Bates has more of a small-town college feel. Students usually go to house parties at night, which get pretty crazy. It had a very big party atmosphere, but the partying seemed to be the same thing every weekend. House parties with the same group of people. During the day, the students slept off their hangovers (there isn’t much else to do around). We hit up a diner for lunch, then regrouped and repeated the same party that we did the night before. It was fun, but I couldn’t take more than a week of that.</p>
<p>And at no point in my weekend on campus did anyone discuss policitics, academics, or any intellectual topics. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, but for some reason some on here think that is what law students do 100% of the time.</p>
<p>just want to correct kwu who foolishly said BC has frats. there is no greek life at BC as it is a jesuit institution. </p>
<p>to the op: there is really no comparison between these schools. BC is far and away the best choice.</p>
<p>You resurrect an old thread to call me a fool?</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.bcheights.com/news/students-seek-to-form-frat-chapter-1.1285904]http://www.bcheights.com/news/students-seek-to-form-frat-chapter[/url”>http://www.bcheights.com/news/students-seek-to-form-frat-chapter-1.1285904]http://www.bcheights.com/news/students-seek-to-form-frat-chapter[/url</a>]</p>
<p>The College itself may refuse to recognize the presence of fraternities and sororities on-campus, but that doesn’t change the structure and the mentality of social life at a school like BC.</p>
<p>“BC is Jesuit. Therefore, there is no Greek life at BC.” What?</p>
<p>Jesuits themselves, and those who benefit from the spiritual guidance and intellectual instruction of the Jesuits, are called upon to be “men for others,” “for the greater glory of God.” This central tenet of the Society of Jesus places the emphasis on social justice.</p>
<p>Many fraternities and sororities do good work in service of their communities. If anything, a Jesuit-affiliated institution like BC ought to recognize the positive and relevant aspects of such organizations as they pertain its institutional mission, and even encourage the formation of such organizations.</p>
<p>Academically, Bates and BC appear to be in the same range, with Bates ranked at USNWR #21 LAC’s and BC #31 Nat. Universities, with both having the same range of acceptance rates and SAT/ACT scores.</p>
<p>Bates seems to be in better shape with lower student/teacher ratios and more smaller classes.</p>
<p>So does the student want a 1,700 undergraduate student population in Maine or a 9,000 student population in Boston? - this would appear to be the main difference.</p>
<p>Agreed. Small town in Maine or live in a big city in Massachusetts. Very different atmospheres, but both offer great academics. Just preference.</p>