<p>I’m interested in applying to BU and BC but I’m not sure which one to try. I’ve read that BC is more competitive than BU but I don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>I’m interested in playing soccer, starting either in D3, D2, or D1 and eventually by Senior year, will hopefully make D1. I am also interested in taking premed majors, especially Neuro and Biochem. Another major I would love is International Relations (Both medicine and Government&Politics interest me).</p>
<p>Academics is my biggest concern, then athletics. Which of the two undergraduate schools are better for me?</p>
<p>Boston College is much more competitive and much more prestigious. If academics is your concern, I would aim for Boston College</p>
<p>I would suggest visiting both schools and see where you feel you’d fit better and which has better programs for you. They are both good schools, but very different settings. Also athletics are either D1, D2, or D3 – you don’t progress from one to the other within the same sport. What’s your sport, talk to your HS coach and see what they suggest for your future athletics. Good Luck over the next year!</p>
<p>I don’t understand what you mean by “I’m interested in playing soccer, starting either in D3, D2, or D1 and eventually by Senior year, will hopefully make D1”. Are you planning on changing schools to go from DIII to DI?</p>
<p>Both BU and BC are D1 sports schools. BC has nationally ranked players for soccer and BU is probably hard to get into as well. If you aren’t on a regionally ranked club team, you should consider a D3 school, or play club soccer at a D1 school.</p>
<p>Swimrat7, does that mean that BC is a “better” premed school?</p>
<p>Freecycle, really, you dont progress over the years? In other words, if I join D3 Freshman year, I’m stuck in D3 throughout Undergraduate?</p>
<p>Fishymom, I mean that if there is a school with D1 and at least either D2 or D3, then I would be more than happy to start off at D2 or D3 and over time work my way up to D1…if that’s possible at all.</p>
<p>I think a simple explanation for D1-D3 school is this: </p>
<p>D1: Highly competitive in sports, offers a ton of scholarships, and compete for tv ratings.
D2: Competitive, offers some scholarship, little tv ratings.
D3: Not as competitive, no scholarship, no tv rating.</p>
<p>A school CAN ONLY join one of the three divisions. No school has all three divisions. BC and BU, for example, are D1 and they only have D1.</p>
<p>Freecycle, I’ll be sure to look at that link.</p>
<p>Reddune, thankyou for the explanation, that is pretty helpful. I didn’t know a school could join only one division.</p>
<p>iamxero: while i don’t really know much about BU’s premed program, I do know that BC has an 80% placement rate of students getting into medical schools. the national average is ~43%. In my opinion, its hard to find much better. I got into both BU and BC and upon doing A LOT of research I found that BC is comparable to ivies and BU, an amazing school nonetheless, just isn’t at that status.</p>
<p>Both would be great choices though.</p>
<p>Swimrat7, how difficult is it to get accepted to BC premed?</p>
<p>^^Intended major does not matter for the Liberal Arts college – it only matters if you are applying to the Biz school, or nursing or education. However, I would strongly disagree with Swimrat7: few schools are comparable to the Ivies in professional school placement. And that occurs for several reasons, including 1) Ivy kids by definition have extremely high test scores; since such students can and do test well, they do better – on average – on the mcat/lsat, one of the key criteria for admissions. 2) Pedigree matters some for med school. The highest number of med/law students at Harvard Med and Harvard Law originate from Harvard College. A lot of Harvard med is populated with students from highly selective colleges. </p>
<p>Any schools “placement” rate into med/law school is a bogus statistic. For example, many colleges (like BC) have a Committee from which one needs to get approval/recommendation. Without a recommendation, the med application is doomed. Thus, such schools effectively screen out weaker students. Voila: better “placement” numbers. OTOH, the national average includes podunk public Uni which has no such committee – anyone with a C/D average can apply; obviously, such placement numbers aren’t too good…</p>
<p>Bluebayou, isn’t Swimrat7’s statistics based on the people who APPLIED to medical school successfully and then got rejected? I’m not sure I understand why you think the statistics are incorrect. I think you’re trying to say that the colleges manipulate the percentage, but it is out of those people who get their med app accepted where med school picks who gets in and who doesn’t. I’m not sure though…</p>
<p>Yes, you are correct. Colleges can and do manipulate their numbers by discouraging those with low stats from applying (i.e., reducing the denominator). Also, raw numbers don’t say if a college is counting admissions to allopathic med schools, osteopathic med schools, foreign-offshore med schools, etc., in the numerator.</p>
<p>That being said, I’ve heard good things about BC’s premed advising program, which is important. But then BU has a med school on campus, so its advising should be excellent as well.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the most successful applicants to professional schools need GREAT numbers (gpa+test scores), & then letters of recs and ECs.</p>
<p>“A lot of Harvard med is populated with students from highly selective colleges.”</p>
<p>bluebayou are you insinuating that BC isn’t highly selective? it has a 26% acceptance rate and is universally accepted as one of the most selective schools in the nation. I understand your skepticism around statistics. most share your view, however i am simply relaying information that i was told and what i think is useful for choosing a college. BC’s departments are elite. Whether you personally think that they compare to ivies is your own opinion. there is no denying that they are elite however as the average SAT score at BC is close to 2100. that is elite. BU doesn’t match that. that’s the only point that i am trying to convey</p>
<p>good point, swimrat7… I should have clarified ‘top ~20 colleges’, i.e., top med schools (such as H) are populated with students from highly-highly selective colleges. </p>
<p>And yes, I concur that BC is a harder admit than BU. Although for “premed” I’m not sure that one’s academics are noticeably superior to the other. (It would depend more on the student’s interests and what they want out of a collegiate experience, IMO.)</p>