BC is the #1 college choice here for our Northern NJ day/prep school. My daughter’s BS favors BU and Northeastern (or Tufts, Harvard, MIT etc. for those with the stats) over BC, but Boston location is a huge draw both for New England and mid-Atlantic students and for international students who grow comfortable with the city while they are at BSs in that vicinity. Public and prep/day students also flock to Boston. Parents may not realize how much more competitive BU, BC, Northeastern, are now. What I wonder is are these schools more competitive today due primarily to their location or have the schools themselves also upped their game? Northeastern seems to have made some great changes to their programs. BU and Northeastern are not need blind which may also account for some of BC’s extra appeal.
suzy - Well, the fact that BC has undergraduate nursing and business – don’t forget school of education – could also be a reason for its broad appeal. And, its humanities (that includes sciences) intensive core is, I’d wager, the intellectual match of many of its more highly esteemed (on CC) competitors.
Also, let’s remember that ALL colleges were easier to get into “back in the day”.
I agree with you, @leanid - I like the school and its offerings. I was making a point as to why its not as favored here on college confidential. The OP mentioned “lukewarm reception here on CC”, so I was explaining a possible reason for that.
Compared with NYU, a college in a major city with a similar ranking as BC, BC seems a little more preppy and therefore appeals to prep school kids in NE. NYC however in recent years in particular attract applicants from all around the world.
This thread has a very odd discussion for something that seems very obvious to me - Northeast prep school kids like a preppy school with good academics in their region - this isn’t something that exhibits that BC is a better school. Most kids going to school in Boston very much dislike BC for its snobbiness and the “uniform” that you see on campus (black north face and uggs). While this is a bit overexaggerated, it makes perfect sense that top prep schools would find it appealing.
I don’t think offerings and curriculum have any sort of big advantages - Tufts will match it’s LAC and core type, and at least one of the other schools in Boston will beat it in most subjects. I think the clear difference is the type of student it attracts, a type concentrated in Northeastern prep schools.
PS: Yes, there’s some sweeping brushes used here for simplicity, but overall, they hold up well from my experience.
All I would say is that getting into BC from Andover is not necessarily as much of a safety anymore. Interest in BC from Andover has come up quite a bit, and now the average GPA/SAT accepted to BC are quite impressive. Northeastern/BU are generally considered safety school from Andover.
For the same reason as I mentioned in my earlier post, Tufts also has many matriculations from NE boarding schools. Again, not a surprise. 
I don’t know this particular little world as well as others here probably do, but here’s the middle 50% of the three schools:
NU: 1940 - 2200
BC: 1910 - 2180
BU: 1790 - 2080
I know Northeastern heavily weights SAT, BU de-emphasizes it and focuses more on GPA, and BC is the median probably of the three in terms of weight on scores. All that considered, admissions standards for all three are very similar. You get students who get rejected from one and accepted to the other in both directions for every combination of the schools.
I suspect that the reason BC is a safety is the amount of applications they get from said schools is higher, and BC wants some high school and geographical diversity. BU and NU may be able to be more safeties for these students since they are less applied to, but nationally that does not hold up.
I was only speaking for Andover, not nationally, and yes I do agree with your point. Essentially, my point was that just looking at Andover(not even other prep schools) BC seems to be tougher to get into every year in comparison to BU and NU, which have been pretty consistent in their acceptance of Andover students over the past 7 years.
I think all three are pretty “regional” in the sense that they don’t appeal that much to students outside NE and mid Atlantic region. Since this thread is about BC to top BS, maybe @OP can provide their numbers for NUand BU for a direct comparison
Barring the Ivies and a handful of other schools like MIT, Stanford, I think all colleges and universities are a little regional. That said, schools like Tufts, BC, NU and BU are a draw for kids around the country and internationally, much more so than a decade or generation ago. Many students want an urban or close to an urban location. Factor in those who also want a distinct campus, which knocks out schools like NYU, BU, and GWU, and BC is an attractive option, especially for certain private school kids who might favor a school that has a preppy vibe and falls into the more moderate range of the political spectrum.
Here’s an interesting tool on geographical representation at BC. On the right, you can choose a year to display and see the move to more national appeal in recent years.
https://htmldbprod.bc.edu/prd/f?p=400:110:::NO:::
From my own experience watching many years of the application process at my kids’ BS, I’d rank the Boston area schools’ competitiveness in admissions from most to least as follows:
Tufts
NU (slight edge in the past few years over BC)
BC
BU
NU and BC can no longer be viewed as safeties accept for the top tier applicants.
@doschicos I agree with for the most part except 1) I don’t think BC/BU has the same kind of appeal to students from other regions and foreign countries as NYU. NYC is simply better known than Boston in the national/international scale. 2) I don’t think NU has ever been more desirable or competitive to get in than BU? It’s still considered more widely a “second tier” school than BU -no offense intended…
I agree @panpacific re: NYU’s appeal based on location.
I disagree with NU vs. BU. That used to be the case back in the day, however, recent acceptance rate statistics agree with me. NU administration has done a commendable job of revamping its image through campus improvements and infrastructure, aggressive use of merit scholarships, and selling their coop program as a way to gather job experience in the recent poor economy. I’d say it has a slight edge over BC and BU in the past few years and is seen as a dynamic place to be. Check admissions rates online and see @PengsPhils’ post #27 for test scores for quantitative data. I think many in the Boston area who knew the schools’ perceived reps from 20-30 years ago might not be aware of the shift amongst the schools.
No offense taken. I have no skin in the game at any of these schools. 
I don’t have a stake in any of these colleges either. But from what I have read, NU is gaining popularity a little too fast by gaming the ranking system aggressively. While I believe the UNWR ranking has some impact almost on all colleges in terms how they operate, which is not necessarily always a bad thing, it’s a hard case to make that a college can become a much stronger institution within a short period of time. Here’s the news piec about NU and the ranking: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/
While I do have skin in the game here, I do think there’s some important things to note:
Much of this “gaming” was done by either very valid considerations (like the graduation rate change) or, well, becoming a better school.
The changes are incredibly visible in the school - it’s not just a rankings change, it’s an entire change of the school. The student to faculty ratio shrunk. Tons of new facilities have been built in the past 15 years. They quickly raised the quality of students and offered more scholarships and financial aid. They are hiring and have hired tons of new and amazing faculty.
All of these changes may affect the rankings, but the sure as heck affect the students and the school too. I’ve seen that first hand consistently.
Yes, a few things are more in the line of gaming (spring admit), but Northeastern is far from alone there - that isn’t really news.
To me, that article (incredibly linked to by CC) is really showing how many changes Northeastern went through recently. If all of those don’t make it a better school, I don’t know what does.
Northeastern is not the first school to do this by any means. Would you also say that USC and UChicago are not schools that are deserving of their rank?
I know this is a long and tired argument here, and I am currently attending Northeastern, but I really think that the negativity around the rise is mostly undeserved.
Regardless of your opinion there, the end result of all this is that is has become more competitive and desirable (or at least equal) to BU and BC nationally. I personally chose NU over both of them. Whether or not you see it as fair or valid does not change the general population opinion. Especially when it comes to its competitiveness in admissions, where Northeastern is objectively the most competitive looking at statistics.
I’m not super-familiar with NU, although I know that it’s a very desirable choice at our BS. A friend is a private college counselor and is regularly touring schools to keep up to date. I recall talking to her about 2 years ago about a recent set of visits and I asked which schools had been the biggest surprises, positive and negative. NU was the positive one. She felt it was almost unrecognizable from her last visit, which had been at least 5 years before that. My sense, through anecdotes such as this, is that the change is real.
@PengsPhils : You are a lot up closer to NU so I have to trust that you have a better sense about where the school is at than I do. Regarding “statistics” however, the “ultimate statistic” doesn’t support that NU is perceived a better school than BU as in 2016 UNWR still ranks BU at #30 and NU at #47 - not exactly a “virtual tie”.
(Assuming you meant BC not BU)
I do agree there - BC is still perceived slightly better, who still beats the other two there. NU is in line with BU though.
However, your post mentioned selectivity/competitiveness, and those statistics are the ones I was referring to.
I have observed NU up close for 20 years. The school has changed itself from a University of Phoenix in the 1980’s to one of the top Boston area universities. (MIT and Harvard excluded)
Just outside of the official campus used to be a dangerous place to travel. The campus was ugly and unappealing. The buildings were old and dated. At that time, NU was ranked about 150.
All changed. I think today they directly compete with BU for students that want to live in Boston and attend a great school. And if you focus is an engineering degree, they compete very well against WPI.
Personally, I think BU has a superior law program and of course NU doesn’t have a med school like BU.
BC is BC. The students at BC believe they could have gotten into Harvard but they “chose” BC over Harvard.
Oops . . . thought I’d wandered over to the college boards!
~O)