<p>BU Academy seems to be running a lot of advertisements on public radio, saying they are taking applications through January 31st. They bill themselves as a school of 150 with access to BU classes and facilities, pointing out that more than 20 languages are available. I have heard such ads for open houses and private school fairs, but not specifically to encourage applications to any other area school.</p>
<p>Indeed - WBUR, being part of BU, allocates some time to other BU related organizations, which BUA has been able to take advantage of recently. (And, before anyone asks - as far I know there isn't much of a connection otherwise between BUA and WBUR, although a BUA student was interviewed recently (Dec 19) along with some other local teens about college admissions and the economy. Those interested can google on over to BUA's website for details - probably WBUR too.)</p>
<p>Boston College High school ( Browser</a> Not Supported ) has a good reputation, but BU Academy is not much known. Hope it is as good as BC high.</p>
<p>BUA is not as well known as many schools because it is 1) very small (150 students) and 2) very new (founded in 1993). It is a school of considerable academic rigor, whose students do very well by such measures as SATs, National Merit Finalists, and matriculation to colleges. It is not as strong as many local prep schools in terms of sports - it is not a member of the ISL, for example.</p>
<p>I don't know about BUA, but BU is the best!
OK, I'm a little biased. My family is a BU family. But still- if BU wasn't a great school we wouldn't be BU people, now would we?!</p>
<p>From talking to many parents and students with very high academic ability, BUA is highly regarded but none of them every considered applying to BC High.........</p>
<p>BC High is an all-boys, Catholic high school.</p>
<p>Our family's experience at BUA(one year) is that all of the teachers are very good and several of the teachers are superb. Though we chose BUA for its science/math classes -- the humanity classes really helped my son to flourish in an area that had not always been a strength. We appreciated the way in which it opened up areas that had not been big interests for our son such as art. My son has never been sports oriented but the gym teacher is great in presenting a variety of kinds of physical activity --- and access to BU's boating, rock climbing etc. has been a big advantage. Each semester students can take a short course(its just 1 a semester) with homework but no grades with topics like Public Speaking, Introduction to Philosophy or Computer Programming. Each semester there are about four short courses to choose from and a student can choose study hall instead.</p>
<p>Although there is not the range of extra curricular activities that you would find in a larger school, kids are very into the activities that are available. </p>
<p>The biggest downside -- homework is quite intense --- we had hoped for more homework than my son had in his previous school --- but somewhere in-between that and what BUA demands I think would be preferable. So I would make sure your son or daughter WANTS to make that commitment.</p>
<p>Socially, there seems to be a fair amount of group togetherness -- there are a fair number of social activities for a school its size.</p>
<p>Well put, GreenwoodMom! I'll also note that kids mix across classes a great deal at BUA. And, everyone is welcome to try just about any extracurricular activity.</p>
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<p>Sorry about the prior ".................." message. I have been having a problem posting and I was conducting a "test" post.</p>
<p>I agree that the teachers at BUA, both former and those retained, are very good. While I cannot claim to know all of them, those to which we have been exposed have been excellent. Specifically, the math depatment head comes to mind. In fact, the teaching faculty and the students are really the best things about BUA. The adminsitration, well that's another story ;)</p>
<p>I'd like to comment about the radio advertising by BUA for admissions. I believe the first instance I heard advertising was this summer (August?) on BUR. I assume the radio advertising on BUR was done quite heavily, as I heard it a few times as did many other families. This was heard even before the market crash, so one might assume that the school was having admissions issues earlier in 08. We also saw a BUA marketing solicitation with brochures attached hanging in a private athletic-type club a few motnhs ago! I was told that these posters were also spotted in other places too. I've never seen this before: an independent school openly advertising admissions. I don't think this helps.</p>
<p>No. There have not been admissions issues. Basically, WBUR provides a certain amount of very modestly priced airtime to BU affiliates, and this was the first year (recently - can't speak to more than maybe the last 3 years) BUA had managed to take advantage of it. I've certainly heard fairly heavy ads for other local schools (mostly Lexington Christian) on BUR from time to time as well.
I certainly see advertisements for independent schools all the time - many schools advertise in Boston Magazine, the Globe, the various town papers, and even via Google. Given that BUA is still a very new school ,quite small and not widely known, I think marketing in this way makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>That certainly is one school of thought. I can attest that in previous years, BUA has not advertised, to my knowledge. I think this is an accurate statement. If I think of the independent High Schools in the area to which BUA "type" students may apply, none of them advertise as far as I know: Commonwealth, Milton, Roxbury Latin, Winsor, Andover. I feel, as a parent, it does not bode well for the school. Imagine seeing a marketing solicitation for an expensive, highly lauded private school hanging in an athletic club? These schools need to thrive on their reputation. I was simply responding to a statement/query made by another poster. Everyone will arrive at their own conclusion. In the past, BUA did fine without advertising. What's changed? I have my opinion and you have yours.</p>
<p>I made an estimate of the number of graduates probably living (graduated in the last 50 years, assuming relatively stable class size) for the schools MB1000 mentions, along with their founding years:
Commonwealth, founded 1957, 1900 grads
Milton, founded 1798 8,500 grads
Roxbury Latin, founded 1645, 2100 grads
Winsor, founded 1886, 1900 grads
Andover, founded 1778, 16,000 grads
BUA - founded 1993, 230 grads. Is it really so surprising that BUA is less widely known?
Would it not be reasonable that BUA would do more advertising than the other schools?
Check out a recent BSO program - you'll find both BUA and Commonwealth ads.</p>
<p>MB1000-I would like to give some background to your comments.
I have a child who graduated from BUA a few years ago. While he was a freshman, there were a series of full page ads for BUA that were placed in The New York Times. The ads explored the school philosophy and curriculum and also contained interviews with some students. The ads were actually placed by the BU administration to give publicity to BU and highlight its affiliation with this innovative school. The ads had the added benefit of getting word out about this new school to a readership far beyond the Boston area.<br>
The current advertising you write about is not because of enrollment concerns, far from it. A couple of years ago, BUA began seeking ways to incorporate talented public school students from the surrounding community into the applicant pool. This includes a population of families who may not have access to information about BUA, resources to afford a private education or guidance counselors that can advocate for these students. You are witnessing outreach, not scrambling for students. The other part of this effort that has recently been implemented is the LEAD summer program. This is a five week tuition free program for talented middle school students from Boston public schools held at BUA. This is a planned effort, that I as an alum parent am very proud of.</p>
<p>BUA is a wonderful school. The Math courses are truly wonderful but 9th and 10th grade science are slightly lacking. Once 11th grade comes around there is a biology course at the university which is mandatory for everyone. It is taught by a university professor but only BUA kids are in the class making it a great transition to BU. </p>
<p>Source: Went to an open house last year.</p>
<p>BU Academy accepts virtually no upperclass student even though they encourage families to appy anyway. For the class of Fall 2011 there were 8 applicants and all 8 were rejected. The reason is they feel that students need to arrive very equipped to thrive. Fair enough but I wish we hadn’t been so enthusiastically courted beforehand, the outcome was a surprise. Another thing to be aware of is that BUA asks their students to leave if they think the child is not up to their exacting standards. It seems unkind to make this a practice (a rare event I can see).</p>
<p>My family attended an event at BU recently and I had the chance to check out the BUA literature. I have to say, I found it impressive, and if they had a boarding option, we’d be quite interested.</p>
<p>Actually, the rate at which students leave BUA is very close to the rate common at nearly all private schools. It is true that only a few upperclass students are accepted - they need to be ready to jump into university courses right away, and that’s not always easy. From my very limited knowledge (random bits picked up over the years as a BUA parent), the acceptance rate varies hugely for upperclass students from year to year.</p>