<p>Hey everyone! I realize that high school seniors are currently in the process of completing college applications. Having been in the same boat a year ago, I can definitely relate. I’ve been at BU for about 3 weeks now and there are some things I definitely wish I knew about BU when I was considering which college to attend. Feel free to ask me anything you wish to know and hopefully I’ll be able to help.</p>
<p>Hi - I am thinking of applying. Can you tell me if you are glad you went? What do you wish you knew before hand?</p>
<p>You can ask me questions as well, especially if you are looking at Sargent or pre-med. I am currently a sophomore.</p>
<p>@missU2222 I’m definitely liking BU so far, however, there are times when I do feel regret for choosing BU…mostly due to the high tuition cost. Anything specific you want to know?</p>
<p>what are the students at BU generally like? nice, friendly, rich, preppy? Are many BU kids from the Northeast area? I am from the west coast and i am wondering if i will fit in? What is your major and how difficult are the classes at BU? What is the party scene like? i have heard its hard to party on campus bcuz of the guest policy? Do you ever go to MIT , HArvard or other schools to party? What is it like living in Boston? Do you get much time to explore the city? And finally, why did you choose BU and what other schools are were you looking at? I am planning on transferring for January 2014.</p>
<p>@chickenfried The students are BU are generally pretty friendly. Coming in as a freshman, I found it pretty easy to make friends as long as an effort was made. I can’t speak for sophomores, juniors, or seniors, but there is a sophomore transfer student on my floor and he seems to be doing just fine in terms of social life. Coming in to BU, I thought that there would be a lot of preppy, stuck up, rich kids, however that’s definitely not the case. There is a large number of kids here at BU on financial aid and many are definitely concerned with their finances. On the other hand, there are a lot of rich international students, however, not as many as I imagined there’d be. A majority of the people I’ve met here are either from the Northeast (New Jersey mostly), international, or from California, so you don’t need to worry about not fitting in…in fact, they even have receptions at the beginning of the year for students from different areas–my roommate went to a reception for people from California a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>I am a business major at SMG and so far the classes are at an easy/moderate level I think…however take that with a grain of salt because I’ve only been here for a few weeks so classes are bound to start getting harder. In fact, I’ve already heard many science and engineering majors complaining. It’s definitely manageable though if you do the work and read the required texts.</p>
<p>The party scene at BU is definitely not what I expected. Granted, I didn’t do too much research on that beforehand but my thought was that there would be many parties at BU…that’s definitely not the case. Many people tend to go to Northeastern, MIT, and Harvard for parties since the guest policy here is really strict. The parties are easy to get into if you’re a girl, not so much if you’re a guy (unless you’re with a group of girls). I didn’t realize how many people here would be into parties, but about half my floor goes and parties at the Northeastern/MIT frats every weekend.</p>
<p>Boston’s a great city filled with lots of things to do. Just like any other major city there’s many great restaurants, concerts, and places to visit…it’ll probably take me all four years to see it all! I’ve managed to explore the North End, Harvard Square, and Copley so far.</p>
<p>I narrowed down my last to choices to BU and Northeastern since they are both in Boston and well respected business schools. Ultimately, I chose BU after much consideration. I had talked to students at both schools and the students at BU just seemed much happier and well spoken, which I greatly admired. I’ve come to realize that not all students here are like that, but I’ve still encountered many that are. Ultimately, I think it comes down to which environment would be better for you and what you hope to get out of the school. Personally, I also really liked BU’s career center and study abroad. Sorry this was so long haha…if you need anything clarified just let me know.</p>
<p>Thanks so much that was very helpful. I think that if i get into BU as a transfer for January ( im pretty sure i will get in because my GPA is good) i am definitely going to attend. DO you know if most students stay on campus for 3 or 4 years? Do you have any idea what housing would be like for a sophomore or junior?</p>
<p>Which dorms are you in? Warren Towers?</p>
<p>Also, how’s the food? Do they still offer burritos daily (this is important since I’m big on burritos). </p>
<p>What are your courses for the semester?</p>
<p>Thanks for doing this thread! :)</p>
<p>@chickenfried I’m not 100% sure about housing as I’m only a freshman, but from what I understand, most students stay on campus their freshman and sophomore year and some start to move off campus junior and senior year. The statistic on collegeboard was that 60% live on campus…not sure if this is true because I’ve never paid much attention. Housing is guaranteed all four years though and some of the on campus housing is gorgeous (Stuvi). From what I understand, guys have a better chance of getting their first choice of housing due to the guy-girl ratio. My brother is currently a junior and he is living in the apartment style housing in South Campus. His sophomore year he lived in Hojo (575 Commonwealth Ave)…from what I understand a lot of students live there their sophomore year.</p>
<p>@aznrobot9 I currently live in Warren and I haven’t seen burritos in the Warren dining hall daily…but there’s always Chipotle. I’m currently taking Business Ethics, Calculus, Micro, Career Management, and a writing course.</p>
<p>How do you like SMG? I am really interested in SMG and would like to know what you think of your classes so far.</p>
<p>What were your scores and stats as an applicant?</p>
<p>Do you like living in warren? Are RAs strict?</p>
<p>@ hi123182</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your response! And yeah there’s chipotle… guess I’ll have to stick with that. </p>
<p>Have you joined any student organizations? And are you by chance going to do any community service at BU?</p>
<p>@ajaxm13 When I was touring as a prospective student, one of the main draws of SMG for me was the atmosphere of the place. I loved the professional vibe inherent throughout the building–everyone just seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going. Currently I’m only taking one SMG course this semester (business ethics) which is what all freshmen are required to take, so I don’t have much to base my opinion on. Personally I’m not a huge fan of this class, mainly due to the subject, however, there’s no doubt that the Professor knows what she’s talking about. SMG courses also focus a lot of teamwork, which is one of the reasons I chose SMG. A majority of the classes consist of a lecture section (with 200+ students) and a smaller discussion section (with around 20-30 students). The large number of students means that if help is needed, then you personally will need to seek the Professor out during their office hours. Coming from a small town, I wasn’t exactly used to Professors not knowing everyone, however, I expected this when I chose BU, so I guess it’ll depend on if you want that smaller college/class experience or not. That being said, my roommate is taking a language course and the class only has about 14 students in it, so there are smaller class sizes at BU, just not for the main requirement courses like ethics, calc, micro, etc.</p>
<p>As an applicant, my GPA was 3.6 unweighted and I had an SAT score of 2010. I was involved with a few activities as well but had no prominent leadership positions.</p>
<p>Yes I love living at Warren–it’s central to everything and close to SMG as well. It also has common rooms, which West does not have. Overall I think the RAs are pretty lenient and willing to look the other way as long as you don’t do anything outright stupid in front of them. Personally my RA is pretty chill but I think it really depends on who you get.</p>
<p>@aznrobot9 Yep! So far I’ve signed up for the finance and investment club, marketing, adclub, and I plan to get involved with community service as well.</p>
<p>^ How many APs/honors did you take? </p>
<p>And what else have you experienced out of student life?</p>
<p>Also, any small pet peeves or annoyances that you’ve encountered at BU? Any cons? Or are there only positive things about BU haha.</p>
<p>Again, sorry for all these questions! Thank you so much for answering. I really appreciate it :D</p>
<p>Is it very difficult to register for the classes you need to be in at BU? Do not find that their is a lot of “red-tape” in the administration? Also what has your academic advising been like as of thus far? Do you have a good advisor and if it difficult to book and appointment to visit him or her? </p>
<p>would you say the student body is more liberal or conservative? Ive heard its more liberal but Boston is very conservative from what ive heard and seen when i was there.</p>
<p>@aznrobot9 I took 5 AP courses and mostly honors throughout high school. As for student life, I’d say I’ve done all the basic things so far…been to a party, went to a few events BU student activities hosted (R-rated hypnotist, Jay Pharaoh, bingo night), floor events, club meetings, explored a bit of Boston. There’s definitely plenty more that I’ll have to experience, but BU does a pretty good job in terms of welcoming students during the first week. There were plenty of events to go to so I never got too bored. </p>
<p>Pet peeves…hmm. BU is definitely not perfect haha. The price of BU would definitely be a big con for me. In terms of smaller annoyances, I can’t really pinpoint anything exactly right now but there are definitely some. The large class sizes for lectures are a bit of a hassle…I knew the classes would be huge before I chose BU but I guess it didn’t really sink it how large they’d be until I arrived and experienced it myself. This really isn’t that big of a con unless you really want the personal, smaller class size experience. The smaller discussion sections help make the classes seem smaller and you can always go to office hours, so there are ways around it. The skewed girl to guy ratio is a bit of a con for me as well (I’m a girl)…but overall, BUs been pretty great so far. SMG’s Undergraduate Program Office and Career Center are amazing. Haha…sorry I couldn’t give a more specific and detailed answer but I can’t exactly pinpoint those little annoyances, even though I know they exist.</p>
<p>@chickenfried Nope. Registering for classes is not difficult at all. As an SMG student I only got to pick one class this semester…the rest were required freshmen classes. It’s very easy to just go online and register and they help a lot during orientation. I had to drop a course this semester and it was so simple. I just went online to the student link, clicked drop, and then chose another course. In terms of red-tape…I haven’t had many encounters yet with the BU administration so I can’t comment, however, I have heard many students complaining about the red-tape at BU so I’m assuming there is a lot. I think this is true for many colleges though, so I wouldn’t be too concerned.</p>
<p>I actually have not had the chance to visit my academic advisor yet as I haven’t needed to yet, but it seems to me that it would be quite easy to book an appointment to visit. In SMG there’s a freshman advisor who advises all the freshmen, however, I would say there isn’t exactly a set advisor since students can set up an appointment with whoever they wish to see/whoever is available out of all the advisors. There’s an advisor that specializes in study abroad, internal transfers, etc etc, so whatever your issue is you can go see whoever best fits your needs. The first few weeks they’ve had open walk-in hours so SMG students could just walk in at any time and talk with the advisors, so I’d say it’s pretty easy. They also are constantly sending e-mails to encourage you to come visit. My friend who’s in CAS went to see his advisor the other day, just to vent his worries and got his entire four years of classes planned for him to help best fit his needs.</p>
<p>From my experience and from what I’ve heard, I’d say the student body is pretty liberal. Boston overall as a city is pretty liberal as well. However, from my experience, Boston as a city is definitely not as liberal as BU.</p>
<p>thanks for all the information, it is very helpful! I am just wondering are you from the New England area? If not was the New England area/ vibe a shock for you? I am from the Pacific Northwest but i did go to a boarding school in New England and it was definitely different more me but not in a bad way. what have you liked/ enjoyed the most about BU so far?</p>
<p>Do you mind sharing your academic record as an applicant? Sat scores? And GPA?</p>
<p>@hi123182
Skewed girl to guy ratio? As in there are more females than males?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for answering! I really hope that I’m not asking too much since you’re probably busy with college work. </p>
<p>Have a great year at BU! </p>
<p>@ ajaxm13
If you scroll up, she already posts her high school stats. </p>
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<p>40 percent male 60 percent female at BU, this is a very common trend for many universities especially schools like BU.</p>
<p>@chickenfried Yep! I’m from New England…in fact, I’m from a town 90 minutes outside of Boston so the transition to BU was pretty smooth for me. The thing I like most about BU so far would definitely have to be the variety of options that are available here in terms of student activities. I feel like there’s a club here for everyone and if not, there’s always the option of starting one! The events that BU puts on are also pretty cool in my opinion–I loved telling my friends at other colleges that I got to Karmin and Jay Pharaoh during welcome week.</p>
<p>@aznrobot9 No problem at all! I had so many questions when I was applying haha. Yep, like chickenfriend mentioned, its around 60 percent female and 40 percent male at BU (actually, I think it might be 70/30, but don’t quote me on that). That really sucks for girls, but it’s great for the guys! Personally, I’m in SMG so the guy-girl ratio is pretty balanced (around 50-50 I’d say), but for BU as a whole it’s pretty skewed. Sometimes is really noticeable (like when I’m in an elevator full of girls and 1 guy) and other times I barely notice it at all…but walking down the street you’ll definitely see more girls than guys…it’s actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be coming in the BU (but I was imagining it to be really bad).</p>