@bluebayou They do not list Penn as a peer school. They list peers and then comma, also penn as an example of ed schools.
@STEM2017 Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, my school isn’t using it. Not sure what the counselors are using to keep tabs on everything. It would be interesting to see the data but only for curiosity’s sake.
Not trying for establish my perceptions of BC on this thread. Other doing a great job. I’m Trying to discuss with factual data and not enecdotal data and opinions what the impact of ED will have on BC.
Only goal is to share factual data. Multiple people have shared opinions with non credible data or single school examples that BC is an easy admit relative to peer schools.
UVA happens to be a great example that @cavitee introduced as a school that was not even worthy of applying to but was nonetheless a backup to BC. They are both EA schools with very similar stats when looking at UVA OOS. With BC having a better yield. They are same cost for OOS additionally to all other similarities. So now @Pengphils feels there are no cross applicants and admits. A different completely set of 25,000 students with the same stats applying to 70k full need schools.
Somehow we can’t stay focused on the facts and keeping going to perceptions and single case outliers.
@lgs03 You aren’t sharing actual data though and when other people try to present you with data you are getting defensive and dismissive. The end result is we are all armchair experts and have no idea how ED will affect the admit stats (or more importantly and less cited on this thread - the enrolled stats, which is not 1470 SAT score, its 1390 and a 32 on SAT) because its complex and each school and their space in the competitive marketplace is different. Boston College’s 2 largest cross admits are Villanova and Northeastern, both schools with ED (NU set theirs up recently). Maybe by accepting students through ED instead of EA, they might yield more, higher-scoring students. Who knows? Georgetown is your top cross applicant but your 8th highest cross-admit, which means students who apply to BC and Georgetown and getting into BC arent getting into Georgetown in the same numbers. Maybe this helps and closes the gap. Who knows? It’s all just theory that none of us should be taking too seriously. Schools are all getting more applications than they have before, SAT scores are going up across the board (thanks new SAT test), every school looks like they should be climbing the rankings based on data right now. And its all silly because colleges, for the most part, shouldn’t be compared to one another using admit scores (especially when they arent the driving force for some colleges).
I never once said there were not cross applicants or admits, only that the yield of schools alone do not give any data in terms of cross admit choices between the two. That is now how numbers work, and you have provided no data on direct cross admit choices yet continue to assume things about them based on yield, which people then continue to point out does not work.
The reality is that this data is not reliably available, and arguing over this is incredibly silly. Why is it so important to you that, without data, you prove that UVA is chosen less than BC when directly “competing”? You (or anyone here) have no data on the geographical or financial considerations of the cross-admits pool that would strongly influence those choices, and that rate doesn’t even mean anything in terms of what school is “better” because, again, how someone chooses a school is (as it should be) about far more than rankings or what school is generally “better”.
“So UVa is not even worthy of applying to but nonetheless a backup to BC”. Is this for real?
Are you telling me that BC is so head and shoulders above UVa that our thinking of choosing UVa over BC makes no sense?
I’ve made no negative comments and started this post by confirming that in my daughter’s school we see students without the lofty scores posted on here get into BC. This was not a knock on BC just an opinion that some of the private schools seem to make concessions for what they perceive as likely full pay students whose parents are willing to pay.
Over the last 3 years, for BC 16 of 27 students were accepted but only 3 have attended. The average SAT was a 1420 and 3.77 UW GPA. For UVa, 25 of 60 accepted and 7 have attended. The average SAT was 1450 and UW GPA is a 3.98.
This is the micro (one school over 3 years) which you refer to but these are statistics. Not meant to deride only to inform, take it for what it’s worth
You shouldnt choose schools based on ranking alone or what other people would do or say.
One could make a compelling reason to attend either UVA or BC. Especially after a financial review.
The average person, not on cc, wouldn’t know either as better or worse.
The normal college applicant considers a school more or less desirable based on how exclusive it feels to a high school kid.
But that’s another lousy way to choose a school.
A kid from Virginia thinks uva is where all their friends go and in Massachusetts, BC is omnipresent. And in each state the parents remember 25 years ago and both schools where really good but not like now. And they pass on this impression too.
Academics. greek life or no, what’s the Service culture. Dorms. Sports. Activities clubs. Local attractions. Campus food. Campus safety. Recruiting to some degree. Research. Grad schools. Student to faculty ratio. Majors. Travel costs. And overall finances.
These all matter.
The rest of the standard fare whose better stuff and the stack ranks and the magazine rankings really doesn’t mean anything. It really doesn’t.
Reading some of the comments about peer schools made me curious to see what schools gave me similar chances of getting in (5 above and 5 below). These are from Niche and are probably based off of last year’s admissions data.
My stats: ACT 32, GPA 3.8, WGPA 4.9, 12 AP classes, Competitive Public High School (93% of my class of 900 will attend college)
BTW - from Texas, Christian but not Catholic, so location and Jesuit school weren’t factors for me
1 Carnegie Mellon
2 UC Berkley
3 Michigan
4 UVA
5 William & Mary
[QUOTE=""]
Boston College
7 Case Western
8 USC
9 UCLA
10 Emory
11 UNC
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Wake Forest, Tulane, Northeastern, NYU and UT show to be considerably easier to get in to.
@T2-hpeful2023
Hi. Looking over your list of 16 college, for whatever its worth, BASED UPON YOUR STATS ONLY, here’s my comments. Note, your geography might be a BIG hook for Northeast schools and could be a difference.
1 Carnegie Mellon - NOPE BIG STRETCH
2 UC Berkley - NOPE BIG STRETCH
3 Michigan - STRETCH
4 UVA - STRETCH
5 William & Mary - MAYBE TO YES
[QUOTE=""]
Boston College -STRETCH (SORRY)
7 Case Western - MAYBE TO YES
8 USC - STRETCH
9 UCLA - REALLY BIG STRETCH
10 Emory - BIG STRETCH
11 UNC - MAYBE TO YES.
12 Wake Forest- STRETCH
13.Tulane- MAYBE TO YES
14.Northeastern- BIG STRETCH
15.UT- YES.
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@Cavitee @SatchelSF We all seem to have views of BC admittance driven by our own personal experiences. I will add mine. My son attended an excellent private school in the SF Bay area (avg. SAT = 1400). Every year, about 6 - 8 students apply to BC, with about 65% gaining admission. Typically, only one student will elect to attend. In some years, two students. For students attending (the ones I know), BC represented a “high likely” or “high match” rather than a “reach”. The students who attended BC typically took a shot at 2 - 3 top 25 schools, but did not gain admission. The students who turned down BC either went to top 25 schools, a leading New England LAC, or to a UC school. I would have a hard time saying that the qualifications of most of the students who attended BC were much below those who gained admission to top 25 schools. The BC attendees just didn’t get those acceptances. And I did not see any of the anomalies that SatchelSF referenced - that is low GPA and low score wealthy kids getting the nod in EA. The students who were accepted were qualified, and some strong students rejected. The stats of enrolled students at BC are very strong, and certainly position many of those students on the same tier as those in any top 25 school. But looking back, I am not sure that many students from my son’s school would have applied ED to BC. They would have used that card elsewhere. But that could be entirely different in another region (say the northeast) or at a catholic school.
As to UVA, while the stats of enrolled students are broadly similar (UVA OOS vs. BC), I would say from my experience that UVA is more difficult to get into (OOS) and carries a relatively higher national reputation due to its position as a top 4 Public University together with UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Michigan). Experience at my son’s school (students I know + Naviance) bears this out. My son applied to BC, UVA and Michigan, gaining acceptance into BC and Michigan early but was rejected EA by UVA. If he had been forced to make a choice between Michigan and BC, he would have chosen BC for reasons related to community, size, the benefits of attending a private vs. public school, as well as undergraduate academics. If you are a Michigan or Virginia resident, these schools are great options. But if you are paying full tuition as an OOS student, I think you get a lot more for your money by attending an academically equivalent private school. But as privatebanker notes above, there are a whole range of factors that come into this decision - and private vs. public (and the ramifications which fall from that) are only part of it.
The good news is that I just enrolled in #6 :>)
Excellent choice T20. Welcome to Chestnut Hill.
It’s likely common for a student in the top 75 percent of BC admitted data or coming with lower stats from a feeder “school “ to have BCas “safety “ with the EA option. With ED looming next year will students pass it over for other ED schools. ? Many from feeder schools have posted on this thread they feel they will as they have had easier admission for some time. There seem to be dichotomous views on ease of admittance to BC. My “ defiance “ on others views on this was other schools were constantly bought in as comparisons that were one offs or posted with inconsistencies of facts. Sadly when looking at many college lists for top applicants there are to many reach schools with no well thought path to which is best for them.
When we were going through our process west coast schools were crossed of the list. As parents we were not comfortable with the geographic distance from NY. My child did not like open campus schools so they were crossed off the list. Other schools just felt to big or small from both a student number point of view or physical size of campus. Other schools just did not have a good vibe. School spirit with attended sports was a factor. So we did not have many schools we just threw in applications. Schools that are considered academic peers were not just applied to because of perceived prestige. So I have trouble relating to having 10-15 applications to the top 50 as there is fit factor, coupled with random admission chances. So we applied to 5 top 40 schools that my child and wife were comfortable with after visiting. We applied to 5 other safeties we visited that were likely high merit schools. After attending BC my child has an extensive friend group. Many of the schools mentioned were not even remotely considered as landing spots for these students. Most also had geographic limits and fit factors. Not because of prestige factor but just fit as I have discussed our process went. So be we did not apply to NYU , UPenn, BU or NE because of any perceived prestige issues. We just felt more comfortable with a closed campus. Did not apply to Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, u Chicago , Case western, UCLA , ND , or USC becaus they were just too far from us.
Prestige(for my child that’s based on being around other high achievers ) fit and cost were all factors. All were balanced equally. In selecting schools to apply too. Nor do I mention many of what for our high school were as safety universities but are well ranked top 50 schools. In my humble opinion that would not be proper etiquette.
@lgs03 Was BC your kid’s#1 choice? Would she have applied ED if it was available or would she have used the ED card on a more difficult admit school?
@suzyQ7
BC was not first choice. The forbidden fruit is always more desirable. Stats were 1560 Sat 4…0 unweighted 15 AP with all 4 or 5.
Captain, volunteer work blah blah
Most importantly a great person with high work ethic and character. Truth be told for my wife after BC junior year visit she was sold.
From our high school BC is a high likely with her stats but not 100 percent. No school wants to waste admits.
So at the time she would not have used the ED card for BC. Now she hopes to have baby eagles in the future.
In retrospect we may have wasted our time with the ED card as I sincerely believe these top schools have too many qualified applicants for too few spots. There is a large randomness in the process for the non hooked.
So I’m happy BC did not have ED as it most often make sdmittance more competitive and random. Will it do that for BC is yet to be determined.
The discussion on UVA prompted me to just share that my son with a 36 ACT was denied from UVA but accepted at BC. Given the choice between the two, however, he would have taken BC over UVA. He is OOS for UVA.
@lgs03 So your kid is like many high stats EA kids that BC will need to woo either as ED or RD. My bet is that BCs accepted students stats will go down because alot of high stats kids that wanted to get an early non-committal acceptance won’t apply RD if they get in to their first choice EA or ED or SCEA.They will probably get a lot of slightly “lower stats” ED kids for which BC is their reach School and a boatload of ED2 (assuming BC is still on kids radar after getting the negative results with the ED card at their lottery school) and a larger number of RD apps than they have now.
So their enrolled student numbers will probably stay the same. But the benefit is a better yield and less apps to read.
Edited to add - in your kids situation, if she was not ready to pull the trigger on ED2 at BC (pretending they had it when she applied) she would have had to go to the RD pool which is going to be alot smaller now since they will end up filling a large portion of the class ED (assuming they eventually get to the Tufts model, who takes 50% of the class ED). it’s entirely possible that lower stats students can be accepted ED/ED2 while you’re high stats kid could be rejected RD just because of the number of spots available for a girl interested in X major. So RD becomes more of a lottery 
@suzyQ7 That is the right question, of course, as we frame this discussion. @lgs03 We went through the top 50 list with our son evaluating each school together and determining where to spend time (and $$) in the evaluation and application process. Son said “no ivies”, too pretentious. Son said “no inner cities”, want a safe campus. Son said “I want school spirit, sports in addition to academic excellence”. Son said, “I like a strong sense of community”, which translated into a number of applications to Catholic schools. While geography was initially a factor, ultimately seeing a few schools in other regions made him realize that just because a school is in a region/city does not mean it is “of that region/city”. Plus he liked the concept of meeting new and different kids (we are from CA). As no ED options seemed right at the time, son went all in on EA, applying to as many high quality EA schools as possible to try to secure some early options as he sorted things out. As you correctly state, peers are merely an external general reference point as every applicant divines what is right for them. And you don’t blindly apply to a purported “peer school” just because it is viewed as a peer school (by somebody?). Ultimately, the EA path led to enough quality opportunities that many “safeties” and “lesser matches” were dropped for the RD round.
But would my son have applied ED to BC? I don’t think so…but it would have been a difficult decision (as he liked the school) in weighing a potential “bird in hand” vs. other opportunities. So as I have posted above, my experience has been that most kids in my son’s high school who applied EA to BC would probably have used the ED card on another school. But that could differ greatly by region or if applying from a Catholic high school.
@suzyQ7
My guess is BC admistration has a different view. That there are enough students like mine that due to the randomness of the process will think twice now that BC is an ED school. So they will ED with high stats because it’s the first year and it will progressively get harder to gain admittance. BC has a huge alumni base that likely has a percentage of overachievers that will ED as that’s the “family school” and now can’t be taken lightly . ED 2 may even continue to have very high caliber applicants as they look to assure admission after higher reach school deferrals or rejections. BC is acknowledges their application are likely to go down but many more very selective schools have significantly less applications per available seat. I think initially this will help students that do have BC as their first choice. So my guess is admit rate will go down significanly and ranking will rise. It’s worked for most everybody else.
If it works too well it enters the randomness process which is the downside for the qualified applicants that it’s trully their first choice. If BC can balance that I believe it may be a good thing.
[QUOTE=""]
We went through the top 50 list with our son evaluating each school together and determining where to spend time (and $$) in the evaluation and application process. Son said "no ivies", too pretentious. Son said "no inner cities", want a safe campus. Son said "I want school spirit, sports in addition to academic excellence". Son said, "I like a strong sense of community", which translated into a number of applications to Catholic schools.<<
[/QUOTE]
DAADDD???
(kidding)