I was accepted to BC regular decision as Class of 2020 and I’m having the hardest time deciding between Emory and Boston College. I was initially leaning towards Boston College but the diversity factor is huge. I’m an international student (Asian) who has attended international schools all my life so I’m very used to a diverse environment where everyone hangs out regardless of ethnicity.
My friend who goes to BC told me that there is the tendency for white/caucasian students to stick together, asians with asians and etc. Is this true? Is it extremely hard to break through that social bubble? Are people reluctant to go out of their ethnic bubbles to make friends? Am I going to have a hard time fitting in.
I graduated last year, and am Asian American. I definitely agree with your friend, homogenous circles are definitely apparent on campus. But I personally don’t think it’s not hard “to break through that social bubble”. People are nice, and they will not be deterred from befriending you just because you’re not the same ethnicity as them. Ultimately, what would be standing in your way of having a diverse group of friends would be a mentality of thinking “He/she doesn’t want to hang out with me because I’m Asian”. If you’re the extroverted/open type that isn’t afraid to go up to someone and start making small talk, you’ll be fine. Try to find common interests and values. Everyone likes making new connections.
Culture clubs and organizations are big at BC, especially the Asian ones. For a large majority of Asians at BC as well as other ethnicities, culture clubs become a large part of their college experience, and dare I say college identity. If you get more involved in these culture organizations, you’ll find yourself spending hours and hours planning events and figuring out logistics and what-not, and you’ll be with them A LOT. It makes sense that the ones you hang out and interact with the most become your closest friends, then the ones you would want to be roommates with, and socialize/party/eat/study with. They usually hang out in rather large groups, and it looks really apparent on campus because of their numbers haha. For simplicity’s sake, I would break down the people in these groups into two groups: one group being the people that are comfortable with the social life they have in their cultural club involvement and don’t really branch out, and the other group being people that are also involved in additional activities and thus having a more diverse group of friends…as for having these different circles of friends you make “merge” together…that’s hard to say and depends on each person’s situation.
I have a little sister that is involved in a cultural organization at her school, and she puts A LOT of time into their events–and will be rooming with several other board members (who are of the same race). I would say this is a regular occurrence at any major university.
So I would say…if you end up coming to BC, if you want to avoid that “bubble”, then you need to be involved in other activities, whether it is charity, community service, religion, major/vocation clubs, music, etc. You can meet a much more ethnically diverse group of people that share similar interests, and from my personal experience, the main obstacle would be to be committed and stay involved in such clubs when you’re a freshman.
Hope that gives you something to mull over and let me know if you have any follow up questions. Good luck in your decision!
No problem at all! Glad that it can help reassure you.
Hm…activities. You’ve probably read up on a lot of BC reviews, but the school’s notorious for having an admission process for certain organizations and clubs. People joke/complain that at BC, you can get rejected from wanting to do community service, which is true for certain programs. I remember freshman year, being overzealous as I was, I applied to 10+ organizations/clubs that required applications and mini essays, some even resumes. In September and October I was getting interviewed by upperclassmen, both individual and group interviews, which now I look back on, was a pretty amusing experience. For those who can’t get into any clubs and orgs that require applications/interviews and feel like failures: sure first be bummed about it, then use that frustration to pick yourself up and look for other opportunities! There’s plenty of activities that don’t require applications. Like I said in my previous post, the biggest factor in staying involved on campus is your own motivation and commitment. After classes and lectures and eating dinner and resting in your dorm before that evening club meeting, you just want to netflix/sleep/be lazy, certainly not venture back out for a measly 1-hour club meeting. Sometimes, because you were “accepted” into an organization you feel motivated to regularly attend those meetings and be involved…maybe…that’s why so many clubs require applications…hm…that’s a good point…haha
As for internship opportunities, it’s there, but no one’s going to serve it on a plate for you. I had the opportunities to do research at BC with professors, as well as have jobs (TA, work study) on campus. But again, it requires persistence and motivation. There’s lots of socials with companies and job fairs, but they typically cater more to juniors and seniors. I remember going to the job fair freshmen year and the recruiters being like “Oh you’re a freshmen…well we don’t really have opportunities for your year but…you can look at our brochures! Here’s a free shirt and a pen…and a tote!”
I find that people who usually complain about the lack of internships is because they don’t have the initiative to LOOK (aka networking with recruiters/employers at the events companies hold on campus (so.important. this is how you can jump to the interview stages) talking to professors (office hours), scanning through the mess of emails bombarded in your school email each day, and going through the career center job search portal (EagleLink) (you can find some pretty funky positions there too haha). It takes effort. And a lot of time. I never want to go through that again. Hahaha…but really. Definitely CSOM gets most of the opps (CSOM-er here), but I know of plenty of other MCAS people who were go-getters and got just as “prestigious” jobs because they were determined.
Anyways, Emory is an excellent school and you have two great schools to choose from! If weather’s a big factor for you, I would take that into consideration. I’m originally from the east coast, and I get affected by weather easily. Boston winters (especially January-March) is dreary and depressing and drab in my own opinion, which explains why I’m not in Boston after graduating haha. Atlanta weather sounds glorious to me. -
Unfortunately, you will experience such self-segreatroin at every college; its just a matter of degree. For example, even at a Univ of California campus where Asians are the majority, the cliques will speak in their local language, so they self-segregate even further (within race).
BC is an extremely welcoming community, and personally I feel that Boston is a better City for an International (weather notwithstanding). With hundreds of colleges, Boston has thousands of international students in the 'hood.
While Atlanta is wonderful, it can still be rather provincial (as is Boston, but in a different way).
