<p>I applied to a whole lot of schools, with Boston college being my safety. But now it seems that Boston College might be the place i'm gonna have to go lol (had quite a few rejections and $$ problems)...</p>
<p>Should I be disappointed??? I don't know what to think. Boston College is nothing of the caliber of other schools I applied to, but I hear it's a good school... how good is it? Also, what are its stregnths??</p>
<p>Seems like I've said this a dozen times in the past few days: BC doesn't have just an excellent location, it has THE location. Beautiful compact campus, super-safe neighborhood, easiest access imaginable to mass transit and the center of Boston.</p>
<p>Excellent academics in a wide variety of fields. Perfect size: not too big, not too small. Jesuit orientatian gives college a coherent feel without being at all restricting. </p>
<p>And it's on its way up up up. They just switched to the ACC this year, putting their sports teams (which were already terrific in basketball, football, and hockey) on arguably the most prominent college athletics stage in the country. Plus, they just bought a large and beautiful parcel of land across the street from the main campus, so expanding their facilities will be really easy in the next few years. It's one of those few places like Stanford and Northwestern that has everything in place--sports, size, near a nice big city, safe neighborhood, beautiful, etc. (though nobody would say it's equal academically to them--yet).</p>
<p>Excellent academics? I don't believe so. Above average academics, I can tolerate. Just what fields does BC stand head and shoulders above the rest in? I cannot think of any....</p>
<p>Please enlighten us and tell us why. Or perhaps we just have very different definitions of the word excellent.</p>
<p>Philosophy, English, theology, nursing to name a few. And I don't recall saying they were "head and shoulders" above any of the tip top schools. But if you think BC isn't really really good, then you're putting way too much stock in the ridiculous US News peer assessment rankings.</p>
<p>Yup. We have very different definitions of the word excellent. Kinda what I thought but just wanted to confirm.</p>
<p>Jeez, sorry if being in the top 2 or 3 % of colleges in the country doesn't qualify as "excellent."</p>
<p>Only one girl at my competative catholic school who applied to BC got in and she's going to Georgetown, everyone else, even those who considered it a safety were rejected or waitlisted, (girls with 4.2 and above) so I'd be feeling good about even getting in.</p>
<p>As far as US News goes -- I'm sorry that just because its a wildly popular school with a very nice campus and good sports teams makes people think that its such an amazing school. Its a great place to go to college, no doubt, but it definitely benefits from its Catholic affiliation, location, big-time sports, and not much more. Its unquestionably not rated so highly because of its academic offerings. If it had crappy sports teams and was located in Fitchburg, MA it really wouldn't have nearly the same appeal.</p>
<p>Not sure what your mean by "...not much nearly the appeal (sic)." And hypotheticals like that are a little ridiculous, because that isn't the case. You could sap any college of several factors it has in its favor and it wouldn't be as attractive. Try putting NYU in Buffalo. But if you dig up BC and transport it to Worcester, I'm saying, yes, it would still be a wonderful place. Holy Cross does very nicely there with (relatively) crappy athletics, and I doubt if anybody thinks the Holy Cross faculty better than BC's.</p>
<p>Also, I don't think the Catholic aspect of BC helps it any in the rankings. I'd imagine there are a lot of people who participate in the peer assessment rankings who dismiss religion as unenlightened B.S., and rank it lower than it deserves because of that.</p>
<p>I really don't care about religious affiliation, social life, or campus quality. The only thing I care about is quality of education and academics... afterall, that is the point of college
From what I'm hearing, it seems that Boston College has a great physical appeal, but would only be categorized as "above average/ mediocre" academic-wise. </p>
<p>Does everyone agree with this??</p>
<p>In 2004 it had 2 of the 32 Rhodes Scholars in the country, if that means anything. I can't imagine what scale you'd be using where BC would end up as above average/mediocre. When I was there quite a while ago, a Cornell grad was in one of my advanced English classes. At one point he told the whole class that he was amazed at what a deep level the course was being taught. He'd taken English courses at Cornell, and had never seen anything like what he saw in that class. That's one paltry example, but at least it's true.</p>
<p>Also, check out philosophers like Gadamer, Lonergan, and Kreeft, and see if they bothered to hang out at BC.</p>
<p>Personal anecdotes are so lame and unrepresentative. You know that.</p>
<p>And how many Rhodes Scholars did BC produce in the last 50, or 100 years, other than the year you cited? I'm just gonna guess that that the answer is very close to ZERO.</p>
<p>this guy (the OP) is going there, it isn't like he's going to uc riverside (sorry to anyone i offended with that comment, it's a fine school) once he graduates he'll have a huge range of connections and a very nice name impressive to put on his resume,</p>
<p>You don't read very closely. I said in post #2 that nobody would say that BC is on par with the likes of Stanford and Northwestern, then you went off about it not being head and shoulders above the rest. Then in #11 I admit that the Cornell anecdote was "one paltry example" and you go off on that.</p>
<p>If you don't mind me asking, what are YOU using as evidence? And who are the philosophers who've been at Northwestern who are so much better than the lineup BC has had over the years?</p>
<p>wow, why do so many people hate Boston College?!?</p>
<p>Nice comeback. Clever and to the point. You answered my relevant questions about who's got a better philosophy lineup, and explained where you're getting your info.</p>
<p>Just reinforcing the inherent weakness of personal ancecdotes. Why do you bother to throw out "paltry examples" anyway as you now appear to grasp how meaningless they are?</p>
<p>As far as BC's "excellent academics" go, feel free to define them however you wish.</p>
<p>Well, my one paltry example is one more than I've heard from you two. Once again, what ARE you guys using as a basis for your views? Are you afraid to say? And by the way, post #13 appears to be praising BC.</p>
<p>I've got more anecdotes if you want them. Like how I went to grad school at Indiana after BC, and had other grad students who'd gone to excellent colleges coming to me to help them write papers. Like how I ended up getting an M.A. at U of Toronto (one of the top philosophy programs in the world), and the faculty there was very impressed with BC, and had had some of its top recent Ph.D. graduates go there to teach. John Kerry bothered to graduate from BC law, even though all you hear about is Yale. Tim Russert could probably send his son anywhere, yet he's at BC. Ok, I'm ahead in anecdotes, 5-0.</p>
<p>How does quote thingy go again about protesting too much?</p>
<p><sarcasm>My friend goes to Cornell and he told me he took a summer school class at BC and got an A++++ and he thought BC was a joke. He told me that BC suxs! So are we even on the anecdote scale now?</sarcasm></p>
<p>Get real. BC is a popular school with a great D-1 sports program and nice campus. Which gives it the illusion of being a top school. Not much more to it than that.</p>