<p>How is the reputation of BU in Boston?
I know because there are so many other great schools close by, it is overshadowded. Is this true? What is the perception of the school?</p>
<p>It is overshadowed because you have Harvard and MIT, two of the most prestigious schools in the world directly across the river. MIT's frats are actually at BU. Look, I went to Yale and can tell you that you only hear about prestige when you're at one of those schools and then only from the bleeps who need to believe they're the best. I think, for example, it's a requirement that anyone giving a speech at Harvard must say what a privilege it is to address the brightest students in the world. It's total BS but it's amazing how much that place needs its ego stroked. (And Yale is no better.) MIT is a lot easier to take because it's a culture of work.</p>
<p>The perception of the school in town has changed and is changing again as President Brown puts his stamp on the school. BU has always had a mixed reputation. It's been at the absolute forefront of doing the right thing, as in being a leader in having actual black leadership, but it's never grabbed credit - the way my alma mater would have. Martin Luther King loved BU and that says a lot. </p>
<p>All the major Boston schools have been improving their programs and their reputations. I'm counting BU, BC and Northeastern, which has largely transformed itself from being a local, mostly commuter school. BC gets the most press because it is the local athletic power and because it is somewhat more local - only 20% of BU students come from MA. I think most people consider those two schools somewhat similar in overall quality and both are clearly on the rise.</p>
<p>John Silber built BU into a national research university. It is not at the top tier in research dollars but it's moving up. President Brown, who was the MIT provost, is changing the school quietly but dramatically. Until recently, BU did little with alumni and fund raising. They did not try to endow chairs and that has clearly become a priority. Silber had his own views about how kids should live and learn, and BU is retaining some and discarding others. Examples of change include that Silber wouldn't allow cable in the dorms because he didn't want kids to watch TV (all rooms now are wired) and a guest policy from the dark ages (also essentially gone).</p>
<p>Thank you for the very detailed post</p>
<p>Its nice how it is changing but what is the general perception now? Is it the same as nearby Emerson, Northeastern?</p>
<p>BU is above emerson & northeastern</p>
<p>Emerson has nice programs in certain areas but it isn't a university and no one compares it like that. (It's not as single purpose as Berklee, but . . .) Northeastern has improved a lot. It's built a campus, though much of it is next to the sketchy part of the city. Northeastern, for local students, would be a 2nd choice to BU or BC, pretty much in every case unless you have a specific reason to go there. </p>
<p>BTW, no one mentions Tufts. It has some well-regarded programs and gets press for those, especially in government / IR, but it's pretty much a non-factor in terms of local reputation. That's partly because it's not really in the city. Remember, Boston has a lot more schools - and something like 150,000 college students here - including Wheelock, Simmons, Emmanuel, Mass Art, Wentworth (tech school), Suffolk (local but building a real campus downtown). Those are off the top of my head, just the ones within a mile or two of BU.</p>
<p>Lerg, don't really know what you mean by Tufts not being mentioned ever, that's really strange. It's mentioned in the Boston Globe daily and its PR team has made it one of the most well-known schools in the New England area after the Ivy League schools. I guess in your Boston, Wellesley and Brandeis don't get talked about either?</p>
<p>In the Boston metro area I think it goes like this:</p>
<p>Harvard/MIT
Tufts
Wellesley
Brandeis
BU/BC
Emerson
Babson/Bentley
Northeastern
Suffolk</p>
<p>Wentworth/Simmons/Wheelock <-- not even including these as I've never heard them mentioned, except maybe when you pass by them on the T and ask, "Wheelock? What?"</p>
<p>Mass Art and the SMFA are viewed pretty equally as art schools.</p>
<p>If you're looking to rank schools, then you'd include all the local area schools but that's not what I was doing; I was talking about how they're generally perceived or talked about. Tufts is not on many radar screens, though many people belong to the Tufts Health Plan. Brandeis even less, unless there's an article about Jimmy Carter refusing to debate Alan Dershowitz there. </p>
<p>I couldn't give a rat's ass about prestige because the truth is it matters very little for your future life. If you go to Harvard, you'll get more slack at the start and you'll find it easier to start over but in the real world it's about how you do and what you do. Like I said, I'm an Ivy League grad and at my class reunions, you find that some people are big successes and some of those were wealthy to begin with, while others are middle of the road professionals living their lives as accountants, executives, doctors, lawyers, etc. Are they materially any better for their Ivy League degree? A few are, but most CEO's and successful people come from anywhere not a specific place. There is way, way too much fascination with the idea of a "ticket geting punched." Life doesn't really work that way and I've seen plenty of Harvard grads fail downwards and sideways while a kid from a commuter school becomes the boss. You make your life. </p>
<p>Someone might say "oh, I want to go to Tufts because . . . fill in the blank with the campus, the feeling, the programs" and I'll say great. If someone says, "I want to go to Tufts because it's more prestigious than BC," I'd say you're an idiot and need to get your priorities straight before it's too late. You go to Wellesley because it's a woman's school, because you love the campus - and you don't mind being in the very, very suburbs. You go to Brandeis because you want a significantly Jewish environment and you believe it's more intellectual (which may or may not be true) - and you can stand 4 years on the outskirts of Waltham. You may go to those schools or Tufts because they've smaller than BU - and BC is in between - or because you just think you'll like it there. You may want to go to Tufts because you really, really love their IR program or something like that. You wouldn't go there for engineering (especially biomedical) or music or hospitality or a bunch of other things that other schools, like BU, do much better. </p>
<p>BTW, there may actually be a reason to go to the Museum School instead of Mass Art; you get more attention from potential collectors and galleries in school. Not as much as if you go to RISD.</p>
<p>It all depends on what type of program/major you are looking at. Of course Harvard and MIT are in a league of their own, but for the most part it depends. For example, in business, BC and Bentley have the upper hand. But BU has a different, more rounded approach to its business program. If you want a co-op then Northeastern is best. Medical school won't recruit business students. Gotta lookat it like that.</p>
<p>lolabelle, thanks for the list. thats exactly what I wanted.</p>
<p>I went to Harvard and I think the list is more like this:
Harvard/MIT
Wellesley (if you're a female)
Tufts/Brandeis/BU/BC
Emerson
Babson/Bentley
Northeastern
Suffolk</p>
<p>To be fair, Porsche went to Harvard over awhile ago, if I remember your posts correctly. Things have dramatically changed over the past few years and I think your list is outdated.</p>
<p>Lists like this are very subjective...</p>
<p>Tufts and Brandeis may be hard to get into but I really don't feel like they're on my radar at all, and I'm from Massachusetts. I never heard of Tufts at all till I was looking at Boston area schools last year. Of course, everyone has different perceptions... but I feel like BC and BU are thought of as (yes, preppy and annoying by locals, but) the best schools in Boston after MIT and Harvard.</p>
<p>And I personally wouldn't ever put Northeastern below Babson and Bentley or Emerson, since for my major, engineering, in the Boston area, it's ranked only below Harvard and MIT. These are small and specialized colleges and I don't think they even belong on the same lists as large universities because they can't really be compared properly.</p>
<p>I agree with hopeful about northeastern. It has been moving up a lot and it is a full university.</p>
<p>Thank you Hopeful for seconding my point about Tufts and Brandeis. They aren't normally in the conversation about schools and Tufts, in particular, is largely invisible in the public awareness. Doesn't mean they're not good schools. I also agree about Northeastern. It used to be considered a commuter school with a weird co-op program but now it's a real alternative.</p>
<p>Wow, that's kind of ridiculous. I've grown up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire my whole life, and Tufts and Wellesley are seen as extremely prestigious alternatives to Harvard and MIT. BU and BC are definitely seen as good schools, but not extremely elite. Northeastern is still a weird school; maybe they have a good engineering program (who knows) but for their liberal arts school, most of the kids I know who go there weren't in the top of their classes in high school, whereas all the kids who go to Tufts and Wellesley were all at least top 10%.</p>
<p>As alternatives to the Ivies, Wellesley, yes, but Tufts is in the upper portion of a great mass of schools and how you slice that up is a matter of personal opinion. No one is saying Tufts is Northeastern.</p>