D was deferred from ED I school and considering BU ED II. Need to make decision ASAP. Concerned about the effect of grade deflation on the psyche of student body, lack of school spirit (are hockey games empty or rocking?), difficulty in making friends (non-social campus). A tour guide in 2012 told me grade deflation was real and depressing when I privately asked the question. DH is a BU grad so we are very familiar with the campus and area, and it was not a typical college experience for him. Asking a 2017 grad these questions tonight but thought I would post here for additional comments. Business school building was impressive to D, but I personally think she would be a better fit in the other schools that she got in so far-Clemson, Indiana, Penn St. TIA
What does your D think about her fit at these 3 excellent schools vs BU? She can achieve all of her goals from any of those schools. IU Kelley (if sheâs a direct admit) is (arguably) better for business than BU too (poets and quants ranks Kelley higher than BU, not that we should 100% rely on rankings, but itâs one data point).
I agree that BU offers a âdifferentâ college experience. Hockey games are rocking. Is your D introverted or extroverted? Iâm not sure about the grade deflation issueâŠreport back after you talk to the 2017 grad!
I think for business, grade deflation might not be a challenge like it would be for pre-med. I went to BU for grad school and also spend time there often for sporting events. The area of the campus is different, but pretty social in my opinion. My daughter is at Northeastern as she liked the campus there far better than BU.
School spirit is a vague term. At Penn State it revolves around football and Greek life. They are paying their football coach $7 million/year plus bonuses which I think is disgraceful. At IU Greek life is dominant. What type of environment is your daughter looking for?
D loves PSU, but has not seen IU or Clemson-going in April for a visit. Yes, she was direct admit to Kelley w/Hutton HC and merit scholarship. Merit $ at Clemson also, and just applied to their HC. Deferred from BC. Has 2 sisters that live in Boston and loves it there-wants to end up there but definitely concerned about getting there from the other schools. I would not let her look at rankings while looking for schools and applying-so just showed her USNWR business school rankings and P&Q after her deferral so she is happy about Kelley. She is in the middle of intro/extroverted and would love to do recreational dance on campus. She does seem do be drawn to bigger lively campuses (football/greek). But she loved the Questrom building, the BU beach, and Boston when we toured ourselves. (DH and I were scratching our heads wondering how one could love PSU and BU?) Older Dâs friend said she joined a sorority at BU to meet people as she wasnât otherwise meeting anyone except at the gym. Thanks for all the replies!
Is it maybe the area is social so it takes the place of a social campus? i.e. Celtics, Red Sox, concerts, bars, the Common, etc.
I believe that ED should only be used if one college is a students absolute top choice and it appears affordable per the net price calculator.
It sounds to me that BU is not the absolute top choice, in fact you think it may not be the best fit at all, so Iâd have your D apply to BU RD rather than EDII.
So daughter loves Penn State and you are unsure about BU? Clearly you are suggesting she apply based on your perception.
All the excellent schools you applied to have big time sports and most importantly a campus.
BU does not.
So I am not sure how you can entertain EDing to BU unless you say she hates the other type of school. But since she loved PSU, this isnât the case.
If you apply to BU it should be RD. Yes itâs a tough in but so what. You have three great options already and arguably all are just as good (for the average student) and by rank IU is really good.
Plus she was deferred, not rejected from her ED school. While for the psyche, the student should treat deferral as a rejection, she may still get in. My daughter was deferred at Miami and got in with the same merit as those accepted. UGA deferred a ton last year who got in.
Unless Iâm missing something, at least on paper, applying ED to BU is a big mistake.
Guess whatâED is not required. Itâs a tactic for the benefit of the school and yes it holds advantages.l for the student.
But your daughter loves PSU and itâs a wonderful school. Sheâll likely then love IU and ClemsonâŠ.
So y chance throwing all that love away for a school with no campus ??
Thank you all, D decided against flipping her BU RD app to ED II. Seems âeveryoneâ at her school is saying there is no chance getting into a reach without doing ED. I do see it is a clear advantage in many cases based on the number of the class being filled by ED with a higher acceptance rate. Not to mention it benefits the collegeâs yield. I wonder how long it will be before some selective colleges fill almost all the class with ED with the # of ED applicants rising. I know Dâs ED school, BC, kept the number of ED I admits to 800 like last year. The lunch table pressure for ED was through the roof yesterday which set D off. (Doesnât help that BFF applied to 20 schools, all in the top USNW rankings right down the line. Then told D that she thought better of applying to PSU as a safety b/c she wouldnât go there in a million yrs basically. Oy Vey.)
Why apply ED2 to a school she has all these doubts about? She has other good choices. This doesnât make sense. Is alleged prestige THAT important? She absolutely should not apply for a BINDING decision at a school she has so many doubts about.
Penn yesterday said they expected to fill 51% through ED. So itâs already happening.
In general she wants an acceptance to BU. We all want them. But the cost to you in binding makes it not worth it. You made the right choice.
Ps and thereâs a good chance your daughterâs bff will be miserable. The top 20 has so many types of schools. She hasnât found her fit.
PSU is a fine school and your daughter should live her path, not another personsâŠI know itâs hard with peer pressure.
Good luck.
She loved both BU and PSU. She was worried about the BU grade deflation based on a tour my older Dâs took, also a friendâs comment that she had to join a sorority to make friends. She also is concerned about the prominence of greek life at PSU, and not having direct entry to her major. How can you not be âconcern-freeâ with any college? Wondering how she will fit in at them, be successful, how far away to go, etc. Maybe having 2 older sibs that are out of college adds to this-she knows what can go wrong because she witnessed it. One sib hated her school and successfully transferred, the other loved her school but had insomnia and anxiety for a good portion. D wants to minimize issues she saw first hand by picking the right school. Hence-addressing concerns ahead of time.
D also knows transferring is a great option if things donât work out, but would like to avoid it. They are a tie in her mind (no idea how disparate schools can be liked equally but they are). Also Dâs 2 sisters live down the road from BU, she is very close to them, and she absolutely loves Boston and wants to end up there. She has spent much time in the Kenmore area so she feels at home there. Add the ED push from her friends and you have what bubbled up last night. Thanks again for all your insight.
What did u learn from the 2017 grad?
Good question. Long story-Counting a transfer, this is our 4th go-around in the application process-which makes me an expert on absolutely nothing. However, D2 taught me a lot about college fit and our relationship in general because she is and always has been the opposite of me. As a retired scientist, my personality aligned completely during the college search w/D1, a good bit w/D3, and nothing w/D2. I would tend to call out Meyers-Briggs tests as bogus however when the kids took them through Naviance, I have to say they were accurate descriptions which I should have relied upon more in a search than my data-dump approach. At a minimum, I see it now as a useful tool that I am paying more attention to for personality fit for D3âs college search. Even though all 3 kids had the exact GPA, ACT, and course rigor (activities were different)-their personalities fit at completely different schools, I now see. Case in point- D2 applied to 3 schools. Got in all 3 w/scholarships and honors. She picked the closest one in NYC for the business opportunities. This school was a disaster for her as was the business major. Core curriculum locked her down (her dean told her âthis isnât about you, XXXâ when D asked to take a particular class to see if she wanted to switch majors. Additionally, the campus was dead esp. on weekends, and the touted diversity was only found in the commuter students who didnât engage w/the residential students. (DH and I also pegged the school wrong.)
She transferred to StateU and flourished-loved the activity and diversity of thought and people, complete independence, and had hundreds of choices in electives and easily switched majors. Plus you could color your hair any color, pierce anything, wear anything and no one would look askance. But she is where she needs to be and StateU helped get her there in spite of me. D1 flourished in a very locked down curriculum, little diversity, tradition-laden, service heavy school-which aligns completely with her personality. As a type A she had anxiety in HS that grew to insomnia in college. She told me she would have developed that anywhere (she still over-exerts herself in her job). Therapy has helped. She also is where she needs to be right now and her college was instrumental in getting her there. D3 is a mix of her sibs (also a Meyers-Briggs mix of the two haha)-has the unfortunate internal pressure to get only Aâs, thrives in really social environments, loves individual praise from teachers, likes a really active campus where she can make connections with students and teachers, loves cheering on a team, and prefers a structured curriculum and life. Has liked nothing smaller than Villanova. Will be interesting to see her pick.
I am the proud parent of a BU grad. This kid absolutely loved everything about BU. Boston IS the campusâŠ.so much to offer. Kd wanted an urban environment, and BU checked off all of his boxes.
Clemson, Indiana are in cities but not a big city like Boston. Penn State is in the middle of farmland. What does your kid want?
If they want a BIG urban campus, BU fits that better than these others.
That being saidâŠapplying RD is the right thing to do if you donât want a binding commitment sooner than May 1.
I was worried about a non urban environment for my daughter at Clemson because she is used to be able to pop over to NYC easily (sheâs been home for a week and has already been), but she likes campus life. My 20 year old was just accepted at BUâs DPT program with merit, Iâm concerned about affordable housing (she decided NYU was a no even though sheâd love to live there).
My 2 older kids currently live in Brighton in apts. and prices are similar to Kenmore. Allston is a bit cheaper for BU kids. D3 pays 1500/mo incl parking for a basement studio, one of the cheapest we found. D1 and fiance share a 1BR $1650 no parking. Parking spots run $175-200/mo. D1 was paying $1600 for a spacious studio, but the building had a fire (NOTE: there was no fire escape, luckily I had sent each kid in an apt an escape ladder. That is how D1 and fiance escaped this fire. PSA: PLEASE SEND YOUR KIDS IN APTS BACK TO SCHOOL WITH A LADDER.) At any rate, we had to help D1 when she was in grad school in Boston with rent.
If youâre still deciding, wanted to weigh in on the campus. My son LOVES being in the city! He was attracted to the energy and loves the feeling of independence when he hops on the T to go to his next class (free BU shuttle bus too). Thereâs a big emphasis on trying out different clubs, attending the hockey games, etc. Weâre from a nice but somewhat sleepy town so he really wanted to feel he was off and running in this next stage of his life. Good luck with the decisionâŠhopefully your daughter will get a similar feeling of good energy with her choice!
Coming back to say she put down her UD deposit and is so excited to start her program 2 days after graduation. She found someone in her sorority at UDel going to BU for DPT, theyâre having coffee this week. My daughter wonât be bringing her car, sheâs pretty familiar with public transportation and likes it. She really wants to spend only $1000 a month and is willing to live with several others, we will see.
The OPâs daughter decided not to apply ED2 to BU so closing the thread.