<p>I have been on other sites debating fulrbight scholar numbers and I am really surprised with BC’s amount. </p>
<p>BC has more fulrbights than all the ivy league schools except yale and columbia, more than JHU, duke, georgetown, notre dame and many others. </p>
<p>Considering Boston College isn’t quite academic caliber of the ivys or even the catholic heavyweights, Gtown and notre dame, how does BC account for so many of its students winning fulbright awards? Does BC have a very strong fellowship/internship connection which really boosts students chances for top awards or is this just a random chane that BC pulled so many off?</p>
<p>Also, MIT didn’t even make hiffington posts’ list…</p>
<p>You are the one using Fulbright numbers as a measure of “academic caliber”. You are the one positing that BC is of lower caliber than the Ivies, Georgetown and Notre Dame. Since this is your hypothesis, it strikes me that it is incumbent on you to defend your apparently incorrect conclusion and not up to us to convince you otherwise.</p>
<p>the question was whether BC’s numbers are random or whether BC staff does a good job at preparing students for such awards…if you are going to attempt to argue that BC is equal to an ivy then your response is not necessary because not many, if any, would concur with that.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to offend anyone but just think that BC somehow does a good job at encouraging students to apply and having the right ecs or whatever to actually go on and win so many awards.</p>
<p>It shows you how many applied, so it’s not like BC is able to encourage more than usual to apply…107 applied from Harvard, 73 from BC: 21 from BC received it, 20 from Harvard. Clearly not a numbers game. </p>
<p>Anyway, the mistake here is that in your mind, BC students are not as intelligent or successful or capable as students from ivies, Gtown, ND, etc. This probably stems from the USNWR rankings; in your mind, the top school has the best students, #2 the next best, and so on. As such, you are surprised that BC, which is ranked 31, has such successful students and your mind can’t process it. </p>
<p>Well, my friend, the mistake is your outlook on universities and rankings and the entire game that USNWR is playing. To argue that students from a school ranked a little bit above another are that much more intelligent and accomplished is simply stupid.</p>
<p>I am not arguing anything. You are the one who drew a line between Fulbright Scholars and “Academic Caliber”. Then you shared your surprise over BC’s performance given your perception of BC’s academic inferiority. </p>
<p>So either…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Your supposition that Fulbrights are a proxy for academic caliber is complete and utter horse manure or…</p></li>
<li><p>You are ignorant of the academic landscape and the quality of students and institutions occupying it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Which is it?</p>
<p>Extending your argument, the University of Michigan registers the highest “academic caliber” score in the land; some might argue against that conclusion. As far as preparation, Arizona State, with its 31.5% success rate, does the best job of schools in the top 10 (though it lags the University of Maryland’s stunning 39%). Looking over those statistics I’m left with the undeniable urge to ask: So what?</p>
<p>@NRG21B
I think BC is a great school and the professors are very highly regarded. One would just imagine that a school such as Upenn or columbia(avg sat score around 1450, endowment 6-7billion, so many professors who have won pulitzers, marshalls, rhodes, nobels, etc) would have a higher success rate with winning fulbrights than BC (avg sat score around 1350, endowment 1bill).</p>
<p>@vinceh
The fulbright program says that they choose students based off, “chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential.” Fulbright bases their choices off academic merit and so it seems a school which wins a lot of those has very academically strong students. Similarly, thye also factor in leadership potential and it seems a school like Harvard would have more resources and opportunities for leadership than BC. I didn’t just make up “academic cailber”, fulrbight bases a huge part of their judgement off students academic caliber. </p>
<p>Regarding your last point, u-mich has around 30,000 students so it’s no wonder that they can put together 29 really bright students who can win a fulbright. BC is only 9000 and has 21…BC clearly has a much higher rate</p>
<p>@knight2011
I think you’re going to go through life pretty sad and feeling inadequate if you keep measuring the length of your worth based on US News rankings and the opinions of status hounds. Putting aside the possibility that the other schools’ students are overrated and Fulbright has seen through their smokescreen (:-p), perhaps you’ve answered your own question in your posting of 1:35PM today, in that BC students meet the criteria of academic + leadership at a better rate per student than the other “higher rated” schools. Just my take. </p>
<p>I personally find the “my school’s shinier than your school” stuff here on CC to be more comical than useful. The most successful person I know personally (friend of my parents) went to one of the smaller SUNY schools, and if money and fame are your measure then he wins. On the other hand, my uncle went to Harvard, and he’s an idiot. </p>
<p>Bottom line: Who knows why BC has a higher perentage of Fulbright scholars, but maybe it’s just because the Fulbright criteria maps best with typical BC students than with other schools, and no amount of analysis and number crunching will capture the intangible parts of what makes that so…</p>
<p>Dear All : Please allow me the chance to offer some thoughts on the success that Boston College has enjoyed in the Fulbright Scholarship program. First, let’s remind everyone of what is involved :
Armed with this background, I will offer some thoughts in subsequent posts on the details.</p>
<p>Dear All : So, armed with the previous background, can we offer ideas as to Boston College’s success? </p>
<p>First, Boston College has a huge number of opportunities for undergraduate research. This includes providing BS/BA students with the chance to be published along with a PhD candidate or staff academic advisor. Such advanced research options has been an area that I have often discussed; this sets Boston College apart from many undergraduate institutions. While Boston College does not enjoy exclusive domain over undergraduate research, the options are wider and deeper than most other Top 20 schools in this Fulbright List. This provides a major differentiator for Boston College.</p>
<p>Second, the “Men and Women for Others” Jesuit tradition can lead to additional Teacher Exchange options that might not otherwise be seen.</p>
<p>Third, and more speculative, Boston College’s processes for Fulbright applications might simply be more polished than other schools in this listing to some extent.</p>
<p>Those are three possible hypotheses; other ideas are welcomed.</p>
<p>This is a spillover from a long and somewhat nasty “Discussion” in the Villanova forum entitled" Fordham vs. Villanova". In it, Knight 2011 and other Villanova supporters not only argued ad nausum as to the academic superiority of Villanova over Fordham, but go as far to argue the academic equivalency if not superiority of Villanova over BC, Case Western, Holy Cross and even Georgetown. </p>
<p>In it, among every possible factoid used in the argument was the number of Fulbright scholars won as another measure of achievement. As this was one area than VU did not have an advantage, questions arose as to why</p>
<p>@duke of earl: I didn’t mention us news rankings at all</p>
<p>@ramray: no one mentioned VU or fordham. Go back to arguing how fordham is the best catholic school in the country. </p>
<p>The questions arose not because of vu’s numbers or holy cross’s numbers. It arose because anyone reading the list would see that BC is ranked around #4 on huffington posts list of most fulrbights. Many would not consider BC to be ranked #4 in the country…most would have it def. top 40, top 30 or even top 20 but not #4. So, I am simply wondering how BC does so well at the fulrbight game beating schools such as MIT and Harvard. </p>
<p>@scottj:
thanks for a well thought out and pertinent response.</p>
<p>Wrong knight 2011, I never stated, implied or hinted Fordham was the best Catholic school in the country, in fact that was closer to the position taken by you and your Villanova cohorts on the CC Villanova forums. I invite anyone reading this to go to that thread and judge for themselves if your statement has any truth to it.</p>
<p>i would like to refrain from dragging the deplorable fordham vs VU thread to another one, but will simply state that I never mentioned VU was the top catholic school and I think it definitely rides the backseat to gtown and ND. I simply posted statistics to indicate that VU, holy cross, fordham, and BC are generally regarded as peer schools. Upon comparing the number of fulbrihgts at VU and fordham I was intrigued to find BC near the top of the list and was interested in how BC performed so well.</p>