Boston College vs Boston University

I am a rising senior, wondering which college would be better for a Pre-Med track. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews which I expect, but I would like a better idea of the pros and cons of the two. I am a hardworking student with good grades, but, I’m concerned with the rumors about grade deflation at either school.

SO many kids go to BU for the sciences and it is so large that I am worried it may be harder to do as well and stand out since there are so many students going for the same thing and they apparently try to weed out the students, whereas in BC I might stand out a little better among the smaller pool and get more one on one time with my science professors.

HOWEVER I read somewhere that BC, though it is a prestigious and challenging school, has a “god awful” science department. Which would be a better fit for me to excel and challenge myself positively and continue onto a decent med-school, possibly even a top tier med school like Harvard or Yale.

These two schools couldn’t be more different, unless you’ve got a thing for Comm Ave. what other schools are you considering, and based on which criteria?

I visited BU, BC, and Northeastern, and I disliked Northeastern for whatever reason I just wasn’t attracted to it. I fell in love with BU, I loved everything about it. And then I fell in love with BC, I thought it was beautiful and I am not looking for too specific of a campus because I like having things accessible to me and BC isn’t a crazy ways away from the city, I hear they have access to a 15 minute ride!
I do not know Boston well at all, I am from New York, but that is what I’ve taken from certain things I’ve read on college confidential and other resources

Outside of Boston, I’m considering schools like University of Maryland, University of Chicago, University of Pittsburgh, Penn State Honors, Drexel Honors, and Emory. I don’t want to get crazy specific but I achieve very high grades, 4.0 GPA, and I go to a specialized high school that is #2 in New York and #13 in the nation (not to sound pretentious I work insanely hard) so I just like to think that I’m pretty qualified for top tier schools and I like a school like BU that can prepare me for Medical School, a good science program with a pre-med track, and also a lot of school spirit so I can be involved

If you are set on medical school, I would look into programs with guaranteed medical school admission, like the Brown or Rice programs.

http://theperfectmed.com/programs.html

Of the schools I visited, being all except for U Chicago and Emory, I liked these two the most and that’s why I’ve been trying to figure which is better for me.
My classes are all honors or higher (AP) so they are weighted but I’ve never gotten to an unweighted scale. My SAT is a little lower, being a 1400/1600 on the new SAT so that is why I haven’t considered ivy leagues such as Harvard.
Tulane also isn’t an option because of its location, and I’ve just never really been interested in it on top of that,

I considered accelerated programs with guaranteed med school programs but i decided a traditional route was best for me rather than rushing the process.

I’m scheduled to take the ACT in a few weeks so I’ll be getting that grade soon.
Everything is weighted, and I notice some schools want your unweighted GPA’s or something of that nature but I’m not even sure that specialized high schools do it that way I’m unsure, and I’ve never seen my unweighted grade anywhere

BC is a better academic school with a suburban campus with Gothic buildings, a big athletic department and enthusiastic school spirit. It tends to be more preppy and wealthy and is much harder to get into.

BU is a larger university with a sprawling urban campus in the middle of Boston along the river. It feels more like NYU than a proper university, and it tends to have a focus on the sciences. It is much easier to get into than BC.

A typical school between BU and BC is Northeastern, which is in between these two schools in terms of selectivity, style, focus and reputation.

All three are the same cost though, so you may want to consider any aid or scholarships you get. These are all very expensive schools.

quote is much easier to get into than BC.

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No, both BU and BC have acceptance rates of about 34%

You can calculate your own weighted GPA pretty easily. Just google the scale. Normally, A= 4.0, A- = 3.75, etc…

@snarlatron No, BU has the CGS option which is fairly easy to get into. The average admitted student stats for BC are much higher than at BU.

@TomSrOfBoston I am familiar with BUs CGS; I didn’t think that their figures were merged with the CAS any more than Harvard would merge HES into their undergrad numbers. In any case there are only about a thousand kids in CGS in BU’s undergrad population of 18K. The published acceptance rates for BU and BC are about the same.

CGS is an integral full time part of BU. HES is like BU’s MET college, a part time evening program.

Snarl, acceptance percentage alone doesn’t determine difficulty of entrance.

Decades ago, BC was struggling financially and their science departments lagged a bit. But it has prospered financially in the last 40 years & they have devoted a lot of time & money to upgrading science faculty & facilities, so the sciences are now very good. They don’t have engineering, but for everything else they are fine.

Both are fine schools. Of course I agree with @moooop that acceptance percentage is only one piece of info in determining difficulty of entrance. When you look at entering class averages (BC ACT = 32, BU = 31, BC GPA = 3.9, BU GPA = 3.6) the difficulty tips to BC. I would still disagree with post #10, however, that it is “much easier” to get into BU than BC, unless you are talking about CGS, a very particular program.

If the acceptance rates are roughly the same but BC’s average GPA and test scores of admits are higher, then I think it would be fair to say that it’s a bit tougher to get into BC.

That said, I do not think that admissions difficulty has a great deal to do with overall academic quality at a school – it’s a piece of that pie, but not a large one, IMO. More important are things like class sizes, availability of profs, that the profs have terminal degrees, % of full-time faculty that teach classes, research opportunities, and research or teaching awards.

I think the overall quality of education at these two schools is probably going to be about the same – maybe a very slight edge to BC. Average class sizes are likely going to be smaller at BC and they may have fewer sections led by TAs, but more research goes on at BU. If I were choosing between these two, I would base my decision on environment (campus and surroundings), cost, and the academic programs I was interested in.

I would agree that BU is slightly easier to get into–but that’s a relative statement. Easier than BC, yes. Easy to get into? No. It’s just a matter of different focus from admissions–BU values academic rigor and is more likely to forgive mistakes on a transcript if there’s a strong upward trend/recovery in challenging courses. BC also values academic rigor, but their pool of applicants is more competitive and thus they are less likely to forgive slips; hence why BU’s GPA average is 3.6 and BC’s is 3.8. If you have a 3.6 you still have a shot at BU–but most 3.6 kids are wasting an application fee on BC. BC also values test scores more than BU does–you can absolutely get into BU with lower test scores if your grades/rigor make up for it. And, yes, BU has CGS and BC has no such equivalent.

But both schools offer quality academics that are roughly on par. BC has an edge on BU in some areas, and vice versa. I wouldn’t go to BC and major in journalism… And, yes, BU I think has a slight edge on the sciences because of their research focus and resources. I don’t know if BC has grade deflation but, yes, BU does… though the degree to which it effects students varies. It’s worse in some majors, and a hardworking, diligent student can still pull very good grades at BU regardless.

OP, you seem to have strong stats so you have a decent shot to get into these schools. However with the Medical School goal I’d be concerned about a couple of things. One – you will need a lot of money for medical school. Maybe you should focus on schools that won’t cost you so much for undergrad, maybe a state school in New York (where you’d probably get scholarship money too), or something less pricey elsehwhere. If money is no obstacle, then you can ignore that aspect, just tossing it out there in case it is.

Second, your number one priority in undergrad will be taking your medical school prerequisites and doing extremely well in your classes to maintain a high GPA. Again, not suggesting you’d have any trouble with that at any school, but generally speaking if you choose a school that is very selective, you’ll be competing with a LOT of people who are just as smart, and many of them just as competitive as you. You might want to make things a little easier on yourself and go someplace not quite as competitive as long as it still has a strong science program.

I know someone who just graduated from B.C. with the intention of medical school. This person sounded much like you, stellar highschool grades, strong scores, many APs etc. He found the competition at B.C. intense, had a decent GPA but not what he was used to in highschool.

Bottom line, he will not be attending medical school this year, although he is planning to get some clincal experience and re-work his application for next year. Anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few options where you can be sure of knocking it out of the park with your GPA.

Good luck!