<p>ahh that is so amazing! thanks miragemage!!!</p>
<p>Question:
My son is a high school junior and is thinking about BC.
Does any one know what the status of the 10 year master plan is?
The BC web site shows lots of planned construction/destruction etc but no time line. When will this work start or has it alread started?
I’m a little worried about the campus looking like a construction zone if he ends up going there.
Any info about what buildings are being replaced or built new and when?
thanks</p>
<p>a HS junior is well-positioned to benefit from a lot of the ‘construction.’ Some of the old, classic (gothic) liberal arts buildings will be refurbished by next year. Moreover, the new dorm should be up in about 3 years so BC will be able to offer four years of housing to everyone.</p>
<p>BC’s very ambitious 10-year master plan does include a lot of new construction, but the construction schedule for many of the projects have necessarily been pushed back due to current economic conditions. The 7 -year $1.5 billion “Light the World” capital campaign was launched in October 2008 – just as the Great Recession arrived – so it’s likely to require some extra time to raise the money and/or some modifications to the IMP to reduce costs may be needed. </p>
<p>This article describes what specific construction projects will take place over the next 3 - 4 years (mostly renovations of some existing buildings and building of a new dorm):</p>
<p>[The</a> Boston College Chronicle - Boston College](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/topstories/stokes051210.html]The”>http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/topstories/stokes051210.html)</p>
<p>CollegeConfName wrote:</p>
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<p>For your son’s sake, please make sure he looks beyond small inconveniences like this. There is so much to BC that will make your son thrilled to be a student there. No amount of construction could ever make a dent in the great college experience BC offers.</p>
<p>Also note that the construction on the “Brighton” campus is a few blocks away and would be not noticeable by the majority of students.</p>
<p>CollegeConfName, as you can see from the link I posted, the only major construction that will be occurring during the next four years on the main campus is the new dorm – which will be located at the far east end of lower campus. Thus any “construction zone” will be very limited and at best, a “small inconvenience” as jpm50 noted. Certainly no reason to cross BC off your son’s list if it meets his other criteria for college selection (size, location, academics, etc.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies and info about the master plan. Great news
Now all “we” have to do is get admitted!</p>
<p>what is a good writing class to take freshman year? i got a 5 on AP english language so i dont have to take writing seminar i think.</p>
<p>With a 5 on AP Lang or Lit, you will have fulfilled your Eng Core requirements and will not have to take any writing/English if you do not want to. However, if you wish to try one, check out the professors on PEPS on the UGBC website.</p>
<p>My opinion, from personal experience and regret, is that if you got a 5 on AP Lang, don’t take a writing seminar. I took it with a professor with great PEPs and it was an ok class but definitely not what I needed to be doing.</p>
<p>^OTOH, I know a couple of premeds who took the Frosh Writing course anyway for the A and to balance their science-laden schedule.</p>
<p>should we by trying to take classes for easy As? i mean what’s the point of taking the hardest classes? is writing seminar an easy A? bluebayou makes it sound that way.</p>
<p>Writing seminar involves a ton of work, but an A is achievable. Throughout the semester you’re required to write 4 papers on a wide range of styles including personal and persuasive papers. You are also required to have at least 2 or 3 edited versions of your paper before finally turning in the final version. The class is one of the easier classes you can take to get an A, but it’s certainly no cakewalk and you’ll be spending a copious amount of time writing/editing your papers.</p>
<p>Also as a side note, I would like to advise not knocking out all of your core classes at once. It’s easy to say, “I want to be done with the core classes so I can concentrate on my major classes in junior and senior year.” While this may be true, think about it this way: Do you want all 5 of your classes be bio/chem/physics/finance/math/etc. related where you’ll spend most of your time on those subjects and those subjects alone? I personally like to have a variety of courses, so I spaced out the “easier” classes. I completed my fine arts core in the fall semester and am planning to complete my cultural diversity requirement sometime in the coming school year.</p>
<p>miragemage’s advice about spreading out your core classes in order to better balance your work loads is very sound and will certainly make your life easier. Another thing to consider: many of your upper level courses will have 1 or more pre-reqs – some of which may only be offered in either the fall or spring semester – so you could get into scheduling problems if you take all your core classes first and then try to squeeze all your major requirements into the last 2 years. Plan ahead!</p>
<p>natural:</p>
<p>Like all subjects, English/Writing depends on your background and personal interests. For pure science geeks, writing a 2 page paper might be extremely painful, but for a humanities-lit types, a 3-4 page paper could be a breeze. And of course, like all colleges, some profs are “easier” than others…</p>
<p>To add to miramage’s point: you probably should NOT take all core courses just for the sake of finishing them. Some/many majors have prereqs, and highly recommend ‘pre-major’ courses be completed during Frosh and Soph year. Such programs-majors are well covered in the Orientation guide, however. Moreover, you might want to save a Core requirement (or two) for senior year when you can use your registration seniority to get into the really popular classes!</p>
<p>I agree with what has already been said. Use freshmen year to get some core classes out of the way- you will most likely take writing, lit, and maybe a math class. I think it would be good to maybe take 3 core classes then 1 or 2 classes for your major or perspective major. Take classes that you really are interested in if you aren’t completely sure about a major, you have until second semester of sophomore year. Some majors have tracks and sequences of classes that you need to be aware of.
And if you are going to be a science major it might be nice to leave some of the core classes for later to balance out your schedule when you are getting into higher-level intense classes.
About easy classes, I don’t think any class can really be considered an ‘easy A’. They will all require you to do some work. It’s different for everyone. For some, having to take calculus is torture and they will celebrate when it’s over, but for others it can be a breeze. For the Writing seminar, some of them are taught by grad students and they seem to be pretty laid-back, but the teacher I had was a pretty hard grader. It wasn’t easy, but I feel like I learned a lot about writing. I think it’s better to take a hard class that is interesting to you that take one that is easy but completely boring. You will do better if you’re interested in what you’re learning.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell me if dorms are air conditioned or will I need a fan? How about matresses do uYou suggest a memory foam topper or something else. Thanks</p>
<p>You will definitely need a fan for your room. (You can share with your roommate.) Also, BC prohibits the use of memory foam toppers due to fire regulations.</p>
<p>Freshman dorms do not have AC. I’d suggest getting a window fan over anything else.</p>