A quick perusal of the matriculation numbers at ten of the leading schools in the nation reveals that BC is a very desirable place in which to pursue higher education.
On average BC ranks about 10th among the dozens of colleges most popular among this segment of the boarding school population. Rather remarkable, I’d say, given the lukewarm reception BC usually gets on this website.
Any thoughts on what accounts for this surprising phenomenon?
The individual numbers for each school based on three or more years of matriculation:
BC isnt well received because of its reputation. Students there are seen as arrogant. Although this most likely is not true (College stereotypes tend to be false), Also, ESPECIALLY FOR PREP SCHOOL KIDS, aid is virtually nonexistent. There are much better schools than Boston College that give financial support. To be frank, it’s not good enough for what you pay. Their stats say they meet need but many times they will give over 20k loans and call it “aid” when you really just have to pay it and more later.
BC promises to “cover 100% of demonstrated need” from what I have read. Are you saying these “much better schools” do not impose any loans on their incoming matriculants?
“To be frank, it’s not good enough for what you pay.” - You may think so, but apparently there are many people who think it IS good enough, as BC has been getting very high numbers of applicants for many years now – and has had no trouble filling its freshman class each year.
As for arrogance, that is found everywhere (usually in small doses), but I am glad you appreciate that in BC’s case it may be a rather undeserved “reputation”.
One reason is that BC is significantly larger than the New England LACS and also bigger than the Ivies, that are popular with kids from these boarding schools. So just by virtue of those numbers, they admit and enroll more.
What I like about BC is that out of all the Boston area colleges (not counting Harvard and MIT) they have the strongest networking alumni association. Some people will hate on BC but BC alumni love BC.
I would venture to guess that BC is a strong safety school for many prep school kids.
Yes, larger than LACS, of course, since it’s a fully-fledged university, but smaller than a good number of other universities which are its real competitors.
So, are all these GLADCHEMMS matriculants the academic slouches of their schools, or might BC be doing something worthwhile – not to say ‘better’ than those colleges against which it is winning the enrollment battle – that makes it more attractive than the others? Is BC actually providing a comparably high quality education and opportunities that were previously only the domain of the ‘better colleges’?
BC is an expensive private college in Boston area, which most of GLADCHEMMS are reasonably close to. It is a comfortable match for many of the above average students from these schools. I can’t think of a good reason why it shouldn’t be a popular choice for prep school graduates in NE.
But you probably want to double check your numbers. For example, BC is not the #3 college for Andover. According to the school profile (http://www.andover.edu/Academics/CollegeCounseling/Documents/PhillipsAcademySchoolProfile2015-2016.pdf), based on 3 year matriculation data, BC is the 7th or the 8th. In addition to a few top ivies, UChicago and Georgetown enroll more students than BC. And Andover is in the same metro as BC is, so it’s naturally get more applicants from there.
Ha, ha. I used it to illustrate the surprising popularity BC enjoys at ‘some’ of the leading secondary schools in the country. I expect the ‘hidden gems’ schools give it the same regard.
panpacific - you are correct, BC is 7th on Andover’s 3-year matriculation list (still, pretty impressive). Sorry, I was looking only at 2015 (1 year). The others are multi-year however.
I can’t speak specifically to BC, but over the years, I’ve heard a lot of prep school kids (not just GLADCHEMMS) say that they had a “been there, done that” feeling about small schools in the middle of nowhere and were keen to have a different experience for college. BC is bigger than any BS and in a great college town, yet it still has a strong community and lots of spirit. Seems a logical fit to me.
@leanid, I’d be curious to see the breakdown between urban and rural schools in your mix to see if that supports this hypothesis at all. I’ve been surprised to see how many of DS’ friends only applied to city schools. Boston, Philadelphia, DC, NYC – all had huge appeal as destinations.
BC is a good school, in a great location, with a fairly cohesive community, and the scale to let in 30% of it’s applicants. It also has a very strong undergraduate business school which appeals to many students. It’s been a very popular safety school for a long time, especially in the Boston area where the alumni community is extremely robust and supportive. You see a similar thing for Villanova in the Philly area but there aren’t as many elite prep schools.
Be careful how you word it. It begs the question to say that BC is ipso facto a “safety” for the “elite prep schools” in the region, when it happens to be a ‘match’ or a ‘reach’ for many of those students applying to it.
Depemding on what your definition of safety is. Technically, no school is a safety unless it practices open enrollment or purely stats based admission. I don’t think anyone has said BC is a safety for ALL, but it’s probably a safety for students from top BS with decent stats and who are ready to be full paying. Then, a safety can always become a reject if the school starts protecting yield…
Many top kids from prep schools and public schools are rejected from BC. Also, BC is need blind, so full pay is not factored into acceptance, but is factored into which students choose to attend.
I’m not sure why this comes as a surprise, particularly for the prep schools within NE. Many of my townie friends from the LPS applied to BC as well. Most students tend to choose colleges fairly close to home. Not everyone from BS has the “HYPMS or bust” mentality as @ChoatieMom can attest to.
That’s not as surprising as the fact that despite its very real attractiveness to students from top schools it is usually regarded as an afterthought on this very website, usually along the lines of ‘…well, yes, it’s a good college, too…’
This website favors either small liberal arts colleges (prestigious and no-prestigious) or very large prestigious public & private universities. At 9000 undergrads, BC is neither. BC also has the less respected majors of Nursing and Business which are not very respected top majors on CC.
Plus, many parents remember BCs easier admissions from back in the day and don’t have that long seeded respect for it. Students applying (and getting frequently rejected from there) today give it more respect since its hard to get into.