<p>D went to a very challenging HS, then to BC. She was challenged by her classes and professors, loved the classes she took (with rare exception) and had a widely varied group of friends. She never told us that she thought it was like HS, or that it was easy, or that she wasn't engaged by her studies. She really enjoyed her whole experience, and she likes to be challenged. She definitely would have told us if she thought it wasn't "good enough" for her intellectually!</p>
<p>Calling BC students "doers" and "practical thinkers" sounds like a euphemism for plebeianism. I will agree with Reddune that the party scene is alive and well. Also, while there are more intellectual offerings than it may seem, they are not big events on campus and usually have a small showing.</p>
<p>Tell me you're joking eaglet...if you are deciding on a school based on how the grammar is in a forum on a website...then I don't even know what to say to you.</p>
<p>I graduated from BC. Some classes, professors, and majors were known to be harder than others. The tough courses were there if you wanted them. If you wanted easier courses you could find a few of them, too.</p>
<p>The students I knew were extremely bright (and many have gone on to amazing careers in business, law, politics, and education), but they didn't put on the usual phony intellectual facade like the students at some other Boston-area schools that I saw. You're not going to see many of the espresso-and-a-cigarette-let's-overthrow-the-world types there.</p>
<p>I find the weirdest aspect of this thread to be that xzews didn't transfer after the first, second, third, or fourth semester there. To react so passively to a miserable situation leads me to question everything about him.</p>
<p>Seriously, the best advice I can give to you all is visit. I'll be attending the first eagle day next weekend (likewise for Reed) so I can compare the vibes I get for myself. I mean, if I can't trust my own gut vibe, what can I trust, right?</p>
<p>"Calling BC students "doers" and "practical thinkers" sounds like a euphemism for plebeianism"</p>
<p>I guess me and John Dewey will have to disagree with you ClassicGuitar. With the price of a four-year education costing as much, if not more, than a moderate size home (with a 30-year mortgage) students demand more return for their investment. Learning dead-facts for the sake of dead-facts does not make you anymore enlightened or happy as a person. You have to know the relevancy of what you are learning and their importance to the greater world. By your qualification of doers and practical thinkers as "plebeianism," then students from MIT, CalTech, and Carnegie Mellon are all drones who don't know their A from their B, their Mallow's Faust from their Goethe's Faust. And Lord know you don't ask about your nurse's competency in T.S. Eliot when you are screaming in pain. Neither will you care about how fluent your stock broker is in Dante's Cantos when he just screwed your retirement. </p>
<p>One of the pros of BC is that the getting a practical education doesn't necessarily exclude you from a comprehensive liberal art one. The fact that nearly half of all CSOM students major outside of CSOM is a sign of curiosity outside of the almighty dollar.</p>
<p>“[Intellectual events] are not big events on campus and usually have a small showing.”</p>
<p>Depend on the event and depend on the issue. BC’s series on medical ethics had good showing; the Honors Program monthly discussions draw in decent size of engaging professors and students; the lecture by David Mccullough was booked and very crowded; the lecture by a French Nietzschean was a borefest and had only grad students (I slept through the last half—couldn’t understand his technical terms and thick accent). Also I think you are overestimating (by underestimating the BC crowd at lectures) the crowds at other institutions and their level of intellectual curiosity respective to our own. Habermas lecture a few years back at Harvard was a snore fest for those who didn't already like Habermas or John Rawl, only 15-20 undergrad showed up. A lecture I attended at Tufts about the existence of God (Daniel Dennett was on the panel) and the whole place was full of grad students. You could barely find someone who didn’t look like they lived through the flower generation.</p>
<p>Point taken.</p>
<p>I just have one piece of advice for any of the accepted students and/or parents out there who are checking out this site: while it can be very informative (and even entertaining) at times, please take everything you read with a BLOCK (as opposed to just a grain) of salt. While many current students (including myself) post here, so do people that don't even go to BC. Therefore, the "I've heard..." or "My friend that goes to BC says..." sayings are opinions and hearsay that may not accurately depict the truth.</p>
<p>SO, my best piece of advice is to VISIT campus. Go on a campus tour (maybe I will be your tour guide!), take a day visit with a student, go to the dining hall, and observe and talk to current students. It's the best way to see what life at BC is all about.</p>
<p>That being said, if I may insert my two cents...</p>
<p>Based upon my personal experience, many BC students are very intelligent - or better said, "wicked smart." Maybe it's because I'm in the honors program, but I have felt EXTREMELY challenged by my peers - in a good way. They are bright students who push me to succeed. And I agree with whomever said that BC students are "doers" ... according to my perception, that means that they are always in the library studying, and when they're not there, they are working out in the plex, and when they are not there they are planning their club or organization's next meeting because they are the president, or when not doing that they are packing the football stadium on game day... you get the picture. Don't expect to come to this school, go to class, and sit in your room! (and yes, that is a GOOD thing)</p>
<p>"Don't expect to come to this school, go to class, and sit in your room! (and yes, that is a GOOD thing)"</p>
<p>Exactly xc...if you want your college experience to just go to class and go back to the dorm to study clearly BC is not for you.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Maybe it's because I'm in the honors program
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is exactly why.</p>
<p>Hey, I'm currently deciding whether or not to attend BC</p>
<p>I have a general question for anyone who knows - how is the workload specifically for CSOM? I saw someone say some classes require much more work than others - does this include CSOM? Is it a challenging business program?</p>
<p>xzews, I have a couple questions for you as well:</p>
<ol>
<li>What was your major at BC?</li>
<li>How old are you right now?</li>
<li>How was your GPA at BC relative to your peers?</li>
<li>What is your profession right now?</li>
<li>What is your starting/current salary?</li>
<li>Do you feel BC has helped you advance in your career- do you feel you've gained an advantage over those who attended lower ranked schools?</li>
</ol>
<p>I appreciate any info you can give me - although I will admit your original post is very disheartening for someone like me who really wants to go to BC</p>
<p>My Two cents:
As a senior at BC I felt I should contribute to this little discussion. First, as with any school, BC is not for everyone...however I think that everyone can find their own niche at BC. As stated earlier, with 9,000 undergrads it is hard not to find others like you. In regards to the academic quality of the University, I have nothing but great things to say. Yes, of course I took some classes that were not the best....but that is going to happen at any school. I have also taken several classes that have truly changed my life and the way in which I percieve the world. I am definitely NOT someone who believes that "BC is the greatest school in the world". The school has it flaws...for sure. But what school does not. Those current students that question the intellectual atmosphere of BC are just not looking in the right places...there are constantly speakers, panel discussions, film screenings, and every other type of intellectual activity to attend. For example, this past thursday Charlie Wilson spoke, Monday former South African president and Nobel recipient President de Klerk is speaking, and on tuesday Spike Lee is giving a talk. The list goes on....As I said before, I recognize BC's faults and in looking back on it I am not sure that BC was the best school for me. However, BC has given me a great education, surrounded me with brilliant and inspiring students, granted me many outstanding opportunities, and provided me with a decent amount of fun (by the way never discount the importance of fun as part of college...I say this as I am sitting in my room on a saturday night ....I am sick though). Anyways, my best advice is to visit BC and see for yourself...and most importantly get off this ridiculous website (though it is helpful) and enjoy your senior year while you can.... Peace.</p>
<p>Can any of you current BC students chime in about what it is like for transfer students to become acclimated andmeet people, get adjusted, etc? do you know any transfers yourself, and did they experience any difficulties overall? Are they having the same positive experiences as you?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I appreciate any info you can give me - although I will admit your original post is very disheartening for someone like me who really wants to go to BC
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Please don't let my post discourage you from attending BC. If you really want to go to BC, you'll most likely fit in at BC. And if you are worried about the academics, you can always take graduate level electives or perhaps honors courses, and you are also allowed to take a sixth course per semester provided that your GPA meets a certain standard. As I said before, I am on the minority here, and unless your personality type is similar to mine (which I believe is unlikely, given that you really want to go to a school known for being a party school), don't worry, you should be fine at BC.</p>
<p>As for your questions, I am not too familiar with CSOM, as I was enrolled in A&S. It's hard to tell exactly how my GPA compared to that of my peers, since I normally don't inquire about such personal matters, but I can tell you that I knew people who reported GPAs in the 3.0 range and people who apparently had GPAs north of 3.8. To give you an idea as to how good or bad those GPAs are, I believe that most students at BC with GPAs higher than 3.5 graduate with honors (I was one of those students). My current profession is unrelated to the subject I studied in college, and my starting salary, three years ago, was below average for my line of work. Your last question is interesting, because one of the main reasons I settled for BC is because I reasoned that a degree from a highly ranked school qualified me for a competitive salary. It turns out that some of my friends who went to average state schools and graduated with mediocre GPAs, now earn more money than I earn. To be more specific, I do not feel that I gained an advantage over those who attended lower ranked schools. And just to be clear, I blame my current situation on my own personal shortcomings, not on BC (though it would have been nice if there had been a comparatively meaningful return to my investment).</p>
<p>Dear Sunshadow, </p>
<p>I did not transfer to BC, so I don't know how it feels. But here is an article two years ago from the NY Times talking about transferring (Not necessarily to just BC, but the transferred students from school was mentioned repeatedly; the excerpts are all about BC transferred students):</p>
<p>"IT is tough enough to be new on campus -- outsider to daily rhythms and local lingo -- without having to do it more than once. Freshmen are expected to be na</p>
<p>I'd like to address the question of graduating with honors at BC. The way the honors system is set up is that Summa Cum Laude goes to the top 3.5% of the graduating class in each school. Magna Cum Laude goes to 3.51-15% of the graduating class. Cum Laude goes to 15.1%-30% of the graduation class. So yes, about a third of each class graduates with honors. This is fairly standardized across all universities.</p>
<p>And for the record, I am not going to waste my breath contradicting xnews, I will just pity him or her that he or she is so self-impressed that he or she could not identify his/her own weaknesses and marvel in the talents and strengths of his/her classmates.</p>
<p>xzews, what was your major and what is your current profession? (you never really said)</p>
<p>you never really said, so maybe the area of study for those kids at state schools and your area of study is the reason for the difference in salaries</p>
<p>
[quote]
And Lord knows you don't ask about your nurse's competency in T.S. Eliot when you are screaming in pain. Neither will you care about how fluent your stock broker is in Dante's Cantos when he just screwed your retirement.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>hahahahahahaha</p>
<p>Reddune: That was incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to post that. I am hoping that the transfer support group mentioned in the article still exists, and that BC has recognized the need to address transfers as a special group (assuming my D gets in :). Thanks again.</p>
<p>
[quote]
xzews, what was your major and what is your current profession? (you never really said)</p>
<p>you never really said, so maybe the area of study for those kids at state schools and your area of study is the reason for the difference in salaries
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I do not think the subject my friends studied at their state schools has anything to do with their current salaries, since they also ended up doing jobs that have nothing to do with their majors. You'd imagine that a BC grad who majored in physics, who graduated with honors would have done well in terms of starting salary, but instead I ended up earning less, and still earn less, than my friends who went to average/below average state schools, majored in unchallenging subjects, and ended up with GPAs lower than 3.0. They don't earn a lot of money, they just earn more money than I earn in IT. Some people still think that academic performance translates into career success.</p>