<p>I recently spoke to my sister's boyfriend, who is a BC grad, and he discouraged me from applying to BC. He told me that BC is an expensive, overrated private school for white rich kids with a sense of superiority; that it is academically weak; that it's not a serious school; that it's one of those schools Ivy league rejects settle for; and that its popularity comes mainly from its well-known football team. This guy might have succeeded in discouraging me from applying to BC if it weren't because I suspect he is bitter at his alma mater because his career did not go as well as he had hoped. Frankly, I don't believe a word he told me, except maybe for the part about BC being a school that caters mostly to rich people.</p>
<p>What's your perception of BC? Do you believe my sister's boyfriend accurately described that school?</p>
<p>I have heard the same things that he said from other sources, but it is good to keep an open mind. Define what you are looking for, visit, and see whether or not it matches. It is a suburban, private, church-affiliated school, so people will say things like that. Yet, admission is very competitive and it has a good track record in grad school admissions, Fulbrights, etc. It is what it is. Obviously, some people will prefer MIT, Michigan State, Reed, NYU, or another school with a very different atmosphere. Maybe it didn't work for him, but it will for you.</p>
<p>I am a current BC student and I really dislike it, the description above is almost completely accurate. Everyone here is really nice, but it is overrated, boring, extremely superficial, I am applying to Vandy and ND for transfer we shall see how things go...if you've got any other questions i'll be sure to check the thread...</p>
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He told me that BC is an expensive, overrated private school for white rich kids with a sense of superiority...
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<p>I have heard this from other sources, including BC students. However...</p>
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...but it is good to keep an open mind. Define what you are looking for, visit, and see whether or not it matches.
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<p>The BC students that I have known seem to have done fine for themselves, and it's certainly reasonably well-regarded around here (I live in metro Boston).</p>
<p>Everyone I have heard from, both past and present students, have had nothing but great things to say about their education and overall college experience.</p>
<p>I wouldn't rely too much on what others think, especially when you would be the one attending the school. My advice is to see it for yourself.</p>
<p>i really liked the campus of BC. i think it probably has a bigger social scene than its ranking would imply, but i don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing... you could say the same thing about vanderbilt, northwestern, princeton</p>
<p>I am a recent BC grad. I was in the honors program and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. I am now in a doctoral program. BC was an amazing experience, in fact, my little sister is starting next year. I had wonderful friends, challenging professors, and fabulous classes. I also had the best social life you can imagine!
BC is for people who want the best of both worlds. You will be in class with brilliant kids, but they are not kids who hold collective meditations on the meaning of the parable of the cave (Plato's Republic, required freshman reading) on a Saturday night. We know how to turn off and on.
BC is a school where you love it or you leave (and almost everyone loves it). If you can't buy into the rah-rah, go Eagles school spirit thing, you will be miserable. Also, if you cannot get over the fact that you got rejected from Yale, I don't care where you are, you will be miserable. </p>
<p>Also, I would really like to reject the spoiled rich kid rumor...85% of the student body is actively engaged in community service (and I mean real service, not fraternity style "philanthropy") and over 65% receive financial aid. </p>
<p>The bottom line is you need to go to the campus and talk to kids. It is an amazing school, but it may not be the school for you. You need to be happy where you go and not make that decision based on hearsay.</p>
<p>DHRBC07, I showed my sister's bf this thread and he made a comment about your answer. He questioned your claim that "You will be in class with brilliant kids" and suggested that while there are brilliant students at all schools, he never got the impression that BC had a high concentration of brilliant students. He quipped that if I didn't believe him I could take a look at BC's admission criteria. (Perhaps gallagpl could share his/her thoughts on this.)</p>
<p>Look Goldfssh, I think you need to go to campus and do a day visit. Go to class, see what you think. If you are not impressed, it's not the school for you, but I am just telling you my experience. Perhaps it varies by major or the classes you take. I don't know.
I spent my four years as an admissions employee, and I don't know what your sister's bf means by their admissions standards. The average SAT is now above 2000 (I think it is around 2060). Yes, it is lower than Harvard's average SAT. However, we have a good share of valedictorians, class presidents, academic all-stars etc. </p>
<p>It seems like you have already made up your mind to not like BC, thankfully our admissions pool is so rich that you won't be missed.</p>
<p>I live in the Boston area, and our fairly rigorous HS has a large number of applicants (and attendees) at BC. My impression is that the kids who end up going there tend to be the very good, but not insanely overqualified kids, who are more comfortable staying in the area. Perhaps a little more traditional than ecclectic.</p>
<p>Don't know quite how to say it - v. good is the B+ to middling A honors students versus the kids who are perfect in all their APs. In other words, by any other standards than CC, some great students.</p>
<p>Don't have a good sense of the atmosphere. Seems like a visit, or discussion with current students is the right way to go. My d. was not that interested in local schools (the dilemma of Boston), so we didn't do much digging on BC</p>
<p>It terms of reputation/academics, I would say BC is on par with Brandeis, Tufts, Wake Forest and William and Mary. It is definitely an excellent university.</p>
<p>Alexandre, OneMom,
The other schools I had in mind are Harvard, Brown, Duke, Berkeley and Yale. Those are my dream schools but they are long shots, so I had BC in mind as a more realistic alternative. (At least that's the impression I have.)</p>
<p>How does BC rank in terms of academics and reputation next to those schools?</p>
<p>I live next to BC. (literally; it's a 10 minute walk) I did not apply there, because living next to my house does not quite have a big appeal to me, but I can most definitely say that if you don't have much in the way of school pride, you'll probably be miserable there. Even a lot of the high school students in the area get dressed up in yellow and maroon for BC games.</p>
<p>I used to work with two BC students at an ice cream shop. One of them is from California and one of them is from Oregon. One of them is on financial aid and the other one isn't. One of them does athletics (although she's not on a scholarship, it was weird, she was just a walk-on member) and the other one doesn't. They both love the school.</p>
<p>I've heard similar. My friends there told me the academics aren't very challenging (one blacks out 3+ nights a week and got a 3.7), and that the kids are more studious then intelligent. However, my friends all tell me they have learned alot, and that BC opens up alot of oppurtunties. It also has a great social life (unlike many top LACs and univesities). I think chief complaints tend to be that it is a snobby, preppy school for Ivy rejects (all my friends there are, infact, Ivy rejects, except one who turned down Brown for BC). But alot of non-Ivy schools are. I got to Bard and probably a third of the students here got rejects from Ivys and top LACs. I spent a weekend at BC with my friends a month ago, and loved it. So, I think its all personal preference.</p>
<p>I would say that BC is on a par with Berkeley, but has more of a social status about it. It is, of course, a step below the others, but still a very respectable school. If you want prestige, school spirit, and sports, how about substituting Dartmouth and Cornell for Harvard and Yale? I know- you don't like the locations. But, they might grow on you. How about looking at Northwestern and USC? U Michigan?</p>
<p>I live near Boston, BC has a very desirable reputation here. Their admission rate is small and getting smaller every year, so I strongly question the idea that middle-ish students get in. Maybe that's because every Catholic boy in Eastern Mass wants to go to BC, so 3/4 of them end up being rejected. Maybe its easier to get in if you're from somewhere else.</p>
<p>My friend's daughter goes there and loves it, and she has a sky-high GPA. She does fit the mold of white, suburban, Catholic and not poverty-stricken.</p>
<p>A huge part of how much you like your college has to do with the friends you have. If you're alone on Friday nights, you're going to hate your school no matter how great the academics are. If your attempts at romance are a disaster, you're probably going to hate your school, even if it is an Ivy. (Although I should add that MY attempts at romance WERE a disaster--too bad Alexandre wasn't there to show me how it's done--I'm still glad I went to BC.)</p>
<p>I graduated from BC a while back, before it had its surge in popularity. I took the easiest classes I could find, studied my butt off, and still ended up with a 3.0. I later went to several very good grad schools, and found the classes much easier than at BC.</p>
<p>As for its academic reputation, the US News "peer assessment score" will give you a good idea of its peer institutions...Tufts, Brandeis, NYU, Wake Forest, Willam and Mary, Case Western Reserve.</p>
<p>And gallagpl, if BC is too superficial for you, I'm not sure Vanderbilt is the answer.... Though I must admit that BC does have a distinctively East Coast flavor, and if you are uncomfortable with the NY, NJ, and New England style of friendship, it is possible the Southern hospitality thing might fly for you.</p>