@lookingforward OP is not Jewish.
Oops, @collegemom9. Thanks. Can I blame it on the new format, lol? 
@lookingforward I won’t stop you
Here’s what BC posts on its website about its mission:
“As a Jesuit, Catholic University, Boston College is rooted in a world view that calls us to learn, to search for truth, and to live in service to others. To fulfill that mission, we welcome and embrace the contributions of a diverse student body from many faith traditions.”
I’m surprised at the posters who say they don’t see any priests or Catholic presence on campus. There is that great big church with a cross on it on every picture of BC. There are more than 100 Jesuits at BC teaching, in administration, as students; the president of the college is a Jesuit.
^The most famous picture of BC is Gasson Hall, not a church. There is a clock on the bell tower. It’s a regular campus building. (There is a church for a local parish abutting campus, St.Ignatius, but I don’t think it technically belongs to BC.)
No telling how many kids at BC are “practicing Catholics” or “lapsed Catholics”. All we know is that about 70% checked the Catholic box on the application. That’s all BC has to report.
It is possible that more kids checked that box, than there are actually students with any Catholic affiliation just in hopes of getting an edge to get accepted. We cannot possibly positively ascertain that. But 70% checked that box. 70% are not actively practicing Catholics, ie going to mass every Sunday. But they checked that box
Yes. That’s a lot of kids checking the Catholic box. It’s a consideration.
I know a number of non Catholics who have gone to BC. By non Catholic, I mean that they identified as being of another religion, whether practicing or not. Most went to Catholic schools though they were adamantly not Catholic.
I live in an area that is heavily Jewish. I do not know one single Jewish student, practicing or not, who applied to BC, let alone go there My Jewish neighbors have kids at Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette, but not at BC.
I well know a non Catholic graduate from the Midwest who was awarded one of the few full awards that BC gives. From a practicing Protestant family with no Catholic connection. I suspect the geographical and that she was NOT Catholic was part of why she got the award. Great person, good stats and academic resume but she did not hold a candle to Catholic kids I knew who were her peers , and I knew many many of them who applied that year.
If you take an effort to peruse BC’s website, you’ll find the statement regarding their strategic plans such as this one “To thrive in the coming decades, Boston College must remain true to its intellectual and religious roots and seek to be the world’s leading Jesuit, Catholic university. These ambitious goals distinguish Boston College from its peers in higher education worldwide and reflect its desire to work for the transformation of the world.”
Frankly speaking, an authenticly liberal-minded person will open himself to those unique opportunities at BC with alacrity rather than complain why BC has not relinquished its religious identity for the sake of “diversity”, such as the case in many mainstream universities including BU, Vanderbilt, and the Ivies. Diversity exists on the basis of respect for each other’s differences.
Well, BC is easier to get into than Vanderbilt or Ivies. I appreciate BC staying their vision for the school. I like when a school knows what it wants to be.
If I’m being very frank, I also wonder about meeting boyfriends or girlfriends. I don’t think our D could marry a practicing Catholic. Nor do I think a practicing Catholic would want to date our D as she wouldn’t agree to raise her children Catholic. Of course, college is not about finding a mate but, if one is honest, many people do find their husbands and wives during undergrad. I have to wonder if that would make dating harder for a non-Catholic.
My twins will be BC sophomores in the fall. We all attended the mass at orientation and I remember telling DH if our priest was this funny/entertaining we would have attended mass more often (we both went to Catholic grammar school but not high school). Our kids went to public school for all grades. One has gone to Sunday service and another just once. They both had a busy freshman year, they went to 48 Hours weekend trip, one had a work study job, sports games, quite a bit of homework ?. Beautiful campus near a great city but I am biased.
Your D just might marry a practicing Catholic or someone Jewish, someone Muslim, or agnostic or non practicing any religion. She might marry someone of a race other than hers, from another country or not. She might marry someone of her own gender or not. There really is no telling.
I’m going to be going to the wedding of a non practicing Catholic BC grad next weekend who is marrying a practicing Muslim. I don’t think that anyone could have predicted that.
You don’t necessarily marry your college classmate either though some of us do. Most of us do not. Most grads marry at least several years after graduating from college anyways.
My kids are pretty much practicing Catholics in that they identify as Catholic and go to mass at various times, some more than others. They do not screen dates or friends in terms of religion. Not at all. They have dated more non Catholics than Catholics. I don’t think any current SOs are Catholic, though I am not sure. I don’t screen that way either.
I know number of Jewish families that wanted to make sure there is an active Hillel and whatever critical mass of Jewish students at their kids’ colleges. I do not know of any Jewish families here who have kids at BC though their kids do mingle with Catholic kids freely, including dating. I think BC has about 2% Jewish students. They have even fewer Muslim Students and those of religions other than Christian based.
I don’t think you’re going to figure out how many ‘practicing’ Catholics there are at BC or any other school for that matter because the term means different things to different people. I would caution about painting Catholics with such a broad brush, as the group is not as nearly monolithic as your posts suggest.
Fwiw, the BC info session I attended had a student panel of 4. 2 Catholic, 2 Christian, 1 Jewish student. Who knows if they were deliberately chosen to showcase religious diversity or if it was more random. Tour guide was fond of giving ‘fun facts’. Most were about Doug Flutie, though one fact was that BC has more Jesuits per square foot than anywhere except the Vatican.
Point is you can probably find as much or as little Catholicism as you want there, just depends on how you look for it.
My friend really wants her children to marry Jews (and practicing ones). One went to Brandeis (no significant other), the other to a SUNY with a large Hillel where his is an active member. His girlfriend is a nice girl from Long Island, but alas, she’s Catholic.
@homerdog Out of the 2mm students applying to college each year saying any school with the profile of the average BC admitted student ( especially Xing out the sports factors) is easier to get into than the ivies or vandy is slicing the paper pretty thin. And not sure the CSOM numbers would be much different at all. Not that it really matters that much and not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand.
Funny thing happened on the waitlist thread. A patient waitlist poster finally let us know they had received their final rejection notice from BC. But they weren’t devastated or unhappy because they had gotten into Emory and Brown. So it’s not universally easier in all cases it appears.
And who knows what the future will bring.
In the end if a student doesn’t wish to attend BC because of any reason that’s perfectly fair and reasonable. Religious affiliation is certainly a plausible reason. The fact is that that concern isn’t a universal truth for all students and families.
It’s a nice place with nice people and focused students. It s a great place but isn’t everyone’s cup of tea it appears and that’s certainly OK too.
@privatebanker Agree with what you’re trying to say , but realistically the Ivies most with admit rates south of 9% are significantly harder to get into than BC at 27%. The BC info session noted that the acceptance rate was within a point or 2 of each other for the various BC schools so CSOM is not going to approach IVY selectivity. I did see the WL post you refer to. I believe that was the transfer WL thread which is a different ball of wax then freshman admissions, but sure there are bound to be kids getting denied at BC who get accepted to Ivies or other ‘higher’ ranked schools.
I think BC is arguably an “easier” admit than any of the Ivies but that’s not to say it’s an easy admit by any means. It’s a competitive school and once in awhile strange things happen like a kid getting into an Ivy over a “lesser” ranked school. I think the bottom line is that BC is great choice for many kids and a not so great choice for others. Which is really the case with any school no matter how good. There’s no reason to think that just because someone says it’s not the right school for them they are somehow putting down the school. Everyone needs to make their own choices based on facts, figures and, yes, feelings.
I just mentioned BC vs Vandy etc because one poster suggested it was in the same category when discussing how BC is doubling down on being Jesuit and then he listed other schools that are secular. If one is interested in learning more about BC, one can’t substitute those other schools as secular options necessarily. From our midwestern high school, BC was a pretty safe bet for a certain cohort of kids. Most of those kids did not get into Vanderbilt or an Ivy.
I’m asking about BC for D21 because I think it’s a more likely admit for her than Vandy (where I’m sure she would like to go). BC has so many things on her checklist and a bonus would be that she would be close to her brother at Bowdoin and we could fly them both in and out of Boston. Right now, there are no other NE schools that she’s considering where Boston would be her airport. Also, as I think I may have mentioned above, she has two friends from ballet who will be at BC this fall and S19’s best friend will be going there as well so that’s also a plus for BC for her. We will plan on her visiting at some point this school year. She can spend time with those kids and get their take as well. I think I’m trying to make it fit because she’s really liked Boston when we’ve visited and I really like the idea of our kids being near each other!
The notion that pre-enrollment statistics (test scores, admission rate, GPA, etc…) indicate how well a college does its job is fallacious. Education is meant to transform students so they can go out into the world and make a positive impact on their communities. Hence, student outcomes, not pre-enrollment statistics, carry more weight in college decision.
If you look into USNews 2019 highest 4-year graduation rates, you’ll see that Catholic universities stay on top of the list. A quick check on niche.com shows that their students are more competitive in the job market and earn higher incomes than their counterparts. Specifically, if you search for “Upenn career plans survey undergraduate class of 2018” and compare their statistics with those of BC, you’ll see that BC students really have an edge.
I wasn’t saying the Ivy League schools or vandy are not more difficult to get into - my point is simply the margin of difference is microscopically thin. The average bc admit would not be a surprise admission to Cornell Dartmouth penn Columbia or vandy. H and y are a different kettle of fish. The usually Ivy League admit and vandy admit didn’t get into those schools either.