Harvard is Harvard, MIT too. I even get Tufts but who and what is NEU?
I have said it before and I will say it again- BC is a BRAND. BC has more panache. BC has more of an an identity. BC has an xfactor that NEU simply does not. The BC alum network is huge, loyal, committed, loud and proud - there is TREMENDOUS school spirit…Overall, BC hits all the buckets of a varied and full college experience -very solid academics, a beautiful social campus, school spirit, access to a major metro area, and sports I mean…How can any student go to 4 years of college and not go to a home football game? EVER… YIKES!!!
The College Game day hosting on campus was off the charts!!! The BC campus was totally and completely unified and electric when BC hosted Clemson on national television last year- Let me repeat- National television PRIME TIME! The Eagle Walk before game time- a memory that will last a lifetime! Sorry NUE fans, you can keep your over hyped coop program, sketchy acceptance rate- ill take the BC Brand…now, how do we just get rid of Adazzio?
BC is durable & stubborn. It has carved out a distinctive niche in the most competitive college town in the world. People who are intimidated by it, who wish they had gone there, who wish those glorious towers they see poking up above the horizon from the Greenline T were theirs, feel compelled to attack it because they can’t BC.
Why are the BC posters on here so defensive? College choice is personal. Both of these schools have pros and cons. Students seems very happy at both schools so why trash one over the other? For example, not everyone cares about national prime time college football occurring in your backyard. Likewise, not all students want to break up their college years with coops but both are available depending on what’s important to you.
The lack of diversity at BC can be a huge turnoff to some. It definitely was to me. When I asked the student panel how it is to be a student on campus who is not Catholic the response was “Oh you don’t need to be religious at all here”. They weren’t talking about being a different religion as it just didn’t even occur to them that you wouldn’t be Catholic, just that maybe you didn’t go to church regularly. As much as I wanted to love BC, as a Jew, I just couldn’t get on board with it. I also found the cafeteria super depressing lol.
@collegemomof3. You can definitely question on religious diversity. But the student ?? these days are so accepting in general. It’s nice to see.
As an aside to anyone reading this someone I know personally was accepted and attends now- wrote his essay about leaving the church, not being confirmed on purpose and why. It was no problem to them or since for him.
But ethnic diversity is a a different story. I disagree with @collegemomof3. It’s a big focus now. Over 30 percent of the class this year was African/American Hispanic Native American and Asian (AHANA). And that does not include a pretty large international contingent as well. I’ve been really happily surprised how much so. Picking up my d this week it was like the United Nations of kids coming out of the dorm to go home. I asked her about it and she said the most active and largest student activity group on campus is the AHANA diversity group.
The Cafeteria on upper isn’t great. The big new one on lower with the fire places and pannnis is awesome.
I do believe we make snap judgements on places after one or two superficial visits that aren’t reality. And those views are also shaped by long held stereotypes. I always considered t BC was super preppy. It’s remarkably not in 2019. Those days are gone but those embedded belief systems still shape our views.
OP. They are both wonderful options and both will be academically challenging and rewarding. BC is bit more intense it would appear from feedback from family attending and a parental view. But both will be rewarding.
But they are different experiences. Choose the one that fits your budget, goals and dreams.
@collegemom9 As a current BC student, BC is no more or no less diverse than any other top tier college in New England. So, given that, please define for me and everyone who reads this thread, how you came to that very uniformed opinion and conclusion about BC’s alleged lack of diversity? Surely, it wasn’t based upon any religious symbolism because none exists on campus except for the church on the outskirts of lower campus. Frankly, I have to remind myself this is a religious institution. No religious symbols or crucifies anywhere to be found. And to somehow hold a bunch of well meaning and enthusiastic 19-21 year old students as insensitive because they in-artfully answered your question, is sad and very revealing about your tolerance issue(s).The Cafeteria super depressing? … I guess if my parents were planning a vacation for me that would matter, but happily they took other issues into account… Sorry you “couldn’t get on board?”
@collegemom9 Northeastern has not required a writing supplement for some time. An optional additional info field was added to the common app to give space for applicants if they wanted, but people took it as a required essay so they cut the section.
Maybe it’s just me but that exact attitude is what stopped me from applying to BC. Reminds me of Vonnegut and Hoosiers. I want to be judged on my own merits, not the name of a place I went to for 4 years. Northeastern and co-op foster independence and work ethic and gives tons of amazing and varied opportunities to choose from to make yourself into whatever you want to be. It’s okay if Northeastern doesn’t fit you, but it fits many obviously as people choose it over BC and Tufts quite regularly for various reasons (and the reverse).
OP has plenty of info here - I don’t think these silly debates are adding any information at this point. We don’t need to be turning our personal preferences into objective laws.
@privatebanker Not my point at all. And you are not seeing the most offensive aspects that I was responding to, because the mods already edited them out.
There is no doubt that over half of the students are Catholic. BC makes no claim otherwise. That being said, in my D’s year, one of the student panelist was Atheist and he gave a wonderful answer to a similar question: BC is extremely welcoming to folks of faith or no faith. What attracted him to BC was the focus on a liberal arts education and community service, something he had been involved in since middle school.
Of course, that’s the issue with Student Panels and tour guides. You never know what you’ll get, so you need to take them with a grain of salt so to speak. (How many STEM prospies get turned off of a college by the tour guide who is artsy and can’t stop speaking about what they know – the arts program. Of course, the opposite is also true…)
My D was a BC volunteer tour guide, and she said they didn’t have much training per se, and were told to just answer questions as honestly as the could from their own perspective. My point is that is that they weren’t given any canned or recommended answers. I’m sure that’s true of many other colleges too, but there are better ways to answer the question that you asked, college mom.