<p>Perfect weather, gorgeous buildings, Boston at your doorstep - what’s not to like? Plenty</p>
<p>I have been to at least 7 admitted days now and I have to say that Boston College’s lackluster day was an eye opener. I guess they don’t care who attends in the fall, because I was so completely underwhelmed that I wished I had never booked a flight to attend. No street long parade of students cheering us as we arrived (Villanova), no balloon arches or festive decorations (Bucknell), no plethora of information (Cornell), no Tshirt (Vanderbilt), no student led small group for lunch (michigan)- just to name a few. We were on our own - and it didn’t impress my admitted daughter one bit. We arrived to see 4 students stand at the entrance to Conte Forum, okay maybe it was a Sunday morning, but a little enthousiasm would have been appreciated. Inside, we sat wherever we wanted, Villanaova had us sit by admitted colleges - nice. Heard 2 speakers for an hour and then we were told to pick an academic lecture, and follow the map. Outside there were hundreds of confused parents following each other, up the steepest staircase, outside of Hillside Cafe. The rest of the day, we followed a schedule that provided a student panel of 4 students (Northwestern’s had 8) with no representative from the lynch school of education. We attended the activity fair which had no representatives at some tables, kinda embarassing. This fair showed a student lack of enthusiasm, compared to Vanderbilt’s plethora of clubs surrounding a banquet room.</p>
<p>Props for having plenty of water throughout the day. The lunch served was good, but with no protein and no fruit, it was again - underwhelming. Boston College seems uninterested in trying to compete with top school like Vanderbilt. I saw little to impress new students on Eagle Day With such poor attention to detail, it is reflective of an apathetic administrative attitude. And with my D deciding between 5 schools, who wants that? </p>
<p>If you are thinking of going to Eagle Day on the 22nd, just expect very little student and administrative attention. You will love the buildings, you will love Boston, you will be offered plenty to drink. But you will be given a very distinct - take it or leave it - attitude.</p>
<p>Perhaps you weren’t a fan, but I’m sorry that BC gave you such a poor experience. We’re working on improving admitted eagle days - the student admissions program was given an extended role on these Admitted Eagle Days, and bumps in the road are bound to happen. Your comment on the “take it or leave it attitude” is not well founded, as I can assure that the Admissions department wants every student in attendance to enroll.</p>
<p>Oh, and as for your comment on the stairs - you can’t come to BC without dealing with the Million Dollar Stairs.</p>
<p>Admissions was present on Sunday and the schedule invited attendees to visit. So, we actually walked into Devlin Hall, another beautiful building, and talked to an admissions staff member. There was that same disinterested attitude that we had sensed all day. Maybe there was too much excitement with the Marathon, I really don’t know what it was. But the conversation was brief and I got the impression it was a bother; we walked out feeling disappointed.</p>
<p>Will my daughter attend? No, I highly, highly, doubt she will enroll at BC. It just wasn’t as welcoming compared to her 4 other choices. I still believe BC is a good school, just not for her.</p>
<p>I sure hope your D doesn’t make her decision based on how much effort went into the “close-the-sale” program. That seems to be sort of like buying a house based on whether the real estate agent holding the open house had baked chocolate chip cookies or buying a car based on whether the car salesman seemed happy to see you.</p>
<p>There are a number of comments on here and other websites that acknowledge that the BC administration is a bit, shall we say, aloof or, more directly, a PITA (along I guess with the BCPD). My guess is that the effort that went into Admitted Eagle Day is more a reflection of that than anyting else.</p>
<p>I will be attending the Admitted Eagle Day with my D next Sunday - when I believe the weather will not be nearly as accommodating as it was yesterday. Maybe they’ll see your post and take some of your thoughts to heart. Maybe they’ll roll out some t-shirts!? Based on what I’ve read here and there, however, my guess is that sort of change is slow in coming.</p>
<p>^ I completely agree. I wholeheartedly hope your daughter doesn’t make her decision based upon receiving balloons and t-shirts. (Or protein and fruit with her lunch.)</p>
<p>That is probably true, but not for the reasons that you might think.</p>
<p>But yes, it was a ‘holiday’ weekend, since school was closed on Monday, which is a state holiday (Patriot’s Day). Some/many students and faculty drove home or took a long weekend somewhere.</p>
<p>OTOH, should you decide on BC I can assure you that Orientation is phenomenal and the Admin are extremely open and welcoming. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, BC saves The Show for the summer.</p>
<p>D and I visited BC this past week, although not for Eagle Day. The NCAA Hockey Championship parade was quite underwhelming. The “Take it or leave it” attitude does seem to emanate from the Financial Aid office as well. Fantastic Campus, I must say.</p>
<p>I’ll admit that the parade was a bit underwhelming; however, did you not notice the amount of student support there for the team? And it was obvious that the whole campus was excited. And the speeches were very nice, in my opinion. It was just the parade aspect that was a little off.</p>
<p>That being said, when I got my FA last year from all the schools, I got the same attitude from all the schools I was accepted to, so it’s hardly a BC phenomenon</p>
<p>"The lunch served was good, but with no protein and no fruit, it was again - underwhelming. "</p>
<p>I actually laughed out loud in class while i was reading this^.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I didn’t know Colleges were trying to recruit students like Alabama is trying to recruit the new rivals top 100 5 star defensive ends.</p>
<p>Fruits and protein? Really?</p>
<p>I might be biased here cuz i just sent in my deposit about 30 minutes ago, and then came on here looking for roommate questions and then reading This.</p>
<p>But… if you’ll be basing the next four years of someones life because the lunch didn’t encompass all aspects of the FDA approved food pyramid…</p>
<p>Yup, but I personally found that in several other colleges as well. Unless one brings something unique to the table, one receives the standard table fare to eat (less fruit and protein, of course!).</p>
<p>@bluebayou As for Financial Aid at BC it has nothing to do with bringing unique something to the table. I was told Doug Flutie has to pay his way though if his parent’s EFC is at a certain level. Strictly need based!!</p>
<p>sorry, but all Financial Aid officers can make “professional judgements”, which is a fancy term for allowing/disallowing items in the financial aid application. As long as they have a good reason, and are consistent, they can do make adjustments to the ‘definition’ of need. Alternatively, the college keeps the definition of need the same, but changes a loan to a grant to match a no-loan college. Happens all the time :)</p>
<p>If you search back through the cc archives, there are thousands of examples of need-only schools, including Ivies, upping the ‘need’ when a competitor’s financial award is shown. A couple of years ago, a student posted on cc that BC upped his award after he showed them one from an Ivy. BC did not match it, but found some more “need” and increased his grant a few $k. </p>
<p>btw: BC is a D1 college which means that Doug and any other football (or hockey) star can earn an athletic scholarship, regardless of any need.</p>
<p>I have to respectfully disagree with the OP, snajean.
As an accepted student deciding between several schools, I did not find BC’s accepted eagle day underwhelming at all. On the contrary, it was the deciding factor that influenced my decision to enroll. While I do agree that the administration can be difficult to deal with, I do not find them any worse than at other colleges.
In my opinion, the overall environment of the school is far more important than a T-shirt or a balloon arch. I found that the warm and helpful environment of BC was displayed through the numerous student volunteers who were willing to share their experiences at BC, give directions, or go out of their way to walk families to their destinations. Additionally, all of the Professors with whom I spoke were eager to answer any questions I had about their programs. They were clearly enthusiastic about their subject areas and personally invested in the success of their students.
I sincerely hope that any accepted students who were planning to attend the accepted students day this Sunday will keep the many positive experiences shared in this forum by both current and accepted students in mind and not be swayed by the bad experiences of a few.</p>
<p>You may have experienced a less than phenomenal welcome but one factor to this might be that Honors Day was held just the day before, which I attended. The event for me was very informative and I was pleasantly surprised at the high level of student participation. I have not visited the school before and this welcome day had quite a favorable impact. On the other hand, I found Fordham’s welcome day less than average. </p>
<p>Well, we are schlepping across the continent to see BC again and shall give a full report on Eagle Day II. Of all the universities where my son has been accepted the two that have rolled out the Red Carpet, which they did manage to take out of the dry cleaner’s, were UC San Diego and its Triton Day (just marvelous on so many levels) and Fordham for absolutely everything from its frequent invites to local admit day events to help with FA. I have been utterly impressed with their attentiveness and obvious wooing. I’m not suggesting by any means that BC should take up any of these strategies; just reporting the circumstances.</p>