<p>Cornell Dartmouth and Harvard rejected me, so I’m going to BC next year. I’m very excited and I loved the campus when I visited, but one of my good friends is going to Harvard and another is going to Cornell, and so some times I feel like I’m just going to BC because I wasn’t good enough for the Ivies. </p>
<p>I know BC is a great school and I feel it’s underrated, especially by the US News Rankings, but I had my heart set on Cornell for a long time. I’m not really upset, but every now and then I feel kind of dissapointed in myself and wonder what could have been, and I wonder what I’m missing out on by not being an Ivy leaguer. </p>
<p>Does anybody find themself in a similar situation, and does BC have a reputation for being an ivy reject school?</p>
<p>There are probably plenty of BC students who applied to ivies as well, because BC students were typically high-achievers in high school. But I know so many people that BC has always been their number one choice and they couldn’t wait to go, and getting in was so exciting for them. A lot of people consider going to BC a huge accomplishment and are perfectly fine with not going to an ivy. People who go here LOVE it, I think it stands well on its own and I don’t think it has a reputation as an ivy reject school. I always think of Tufts as more like that.</p>
<p>First of all, I know many people who turned down schools on the ivy level to attend BC. I know many people who turned down higher ranked schools to attend BC. I know people who were rejected from "better’ schools they really wanted to attend, applied to transfer, GOT IN, and turned them down because they wanted to stay at BC. </p>
<p>But, just a word of advice. Don’t go through life wondering “what could have been”. It’s too short for that. And don’t let the hype of the ivy name make you feel down. It’s just a name, and people really don’t walk around for the rest of their lives with the school they attended on their forehead. You are the one that will make yourself successful or not, no matter what school you attend. </p>
<p>Feel good that you are part of the 1% of the world’s population that will actually get to receive a college education. Feel good that you are part of the small percentage that gets to attend a school in the top 50. In perspective, this is a huge accomplishment. Smile, go with it, and never look back.</p>
<p>BC has been called various (what are supposed to be) complimentary nicknames over the decades, such as the “Catholic Harvard”, the “Jesuit Ivy” and even (more recently) a “New Ivy”. But let’s remember one thing, BC’s Jesuit heritage does not aspire to the WASP heritage of the Ivies, and had its educational roots planted about one hundred years before Harvard’s founding. BC is justifiably proud of its heritage. You can hold your head high when in the presence of those from the (laughably) “Ancient Eight”. </p>
<p>In the past few decades BC has finally turned around its hitherto shaky finances and can now start to realize its aspirations, which are quite lofty. It is an exciting time to be there.</p>
<p>I predict that BC’s stature will only grow (as it has been doing) as it sticks to its mission. The Ivies, meanwhile, have all but abandoned their WASP origins. Can’t say where they are heading…</p>
<p>I turned down UPenn and Brown to come to BC. No regrets. Yeah, I am sure there are people who chose to go to Penn or Brown and are happy there… but the school does not the person make. There are idiots going to Harvard right now who will spend their lives being idiots… and there are smart pople going to State U who will become super happy and super rich, or both. All an ivy really gets you is, maybe, your foot in the door for an interview somewhere if the guy in H.R. has a crimson tie on. But if you want to see a network, look no further than the BC network. Lots of maroon and gold ties out there, looking to keep fellow Eagles successful. I’m happier here than I would have been anywhere else, I am confident of that. And what leanid said is true: BC’s arc is up and to the right. Come here and you will find your ivy friends jealous of YOU within a semester. I know this for a fact.</p>
<p>I understand exactly how you feel. I was accepted to BC early action, but was waiting to hear from a lot of my reach schools in the spring. In April I was rejected from Harvard, Yale and Columbia. At first, I was so focused on the rejections that I didn’t even think about how happy I would be at BC (or any of the other schools I had gotten into). But, eventually, I chose to attend BC and now I am extremely excited! I have orientation on Sunday and I can’t wait!!</p>
<p>As for BC, being an “Ivy reject school,” I am not actually a student there yet, but I have a feeling that a lot of BC students applied to top schools knowing that they would be really tough to get into, and even those who were rejected from ivies are very happy at BC now. </p>
<p>Chances are, if you were smart enough to even be considering Ivy League schools you will be extremely successful at BC, and you will definitely have a lot of fun too (BC has way better athletics than any of the Ivies!).</p>
<p>BC is a very good school, but it is not a great school. it provides the most traditional collegiate experience in the Boston area, but it will forever be a backup to the Ivy League Georgetown, and Notre Dame. It has a good, but not great, regional reputation, limited national reputation, and basically no international reputation. its primary peer schools are Villanova, Holy Cross, Boston U., Tufts, Wake Forest, Fairfield–not Harvard, etc.</p>
<p>its primary peer schools are Villanova, Holy Cross, Boston U., Tufts, Wake Forest, Fairfield–</p>
<p>Fairfield is a peer school to BC? In what respect-- because they are both a Jesuit school and both on the semester system? The similarities pretty much end there…</p>
<p>Dear hoyasaxa1 : This is second post within the last 24 hours here on the Boston College College Confidential message board where you have maligned Boston College in an effort to positively position Georgetown. Now, as a reasonably well respected member of both the Boston College and Georgetown communities on the professional level, I could author a pages long diatribe discussing each individual point that you have raised. </p>
<p>My reservations for doing so are rooted in the fact that you have expressed your view based on a lack of quantitative information and have presented only a qualitative sequence of statements. As one learns from a true study of humanities, one can choose to like or dislike a given piece of artwork, yet expressing that opinion based on an understanding of the artist and the work is highly more valuable to society.</p>
<p>Discussion of national reputation is only valid when you survey beyond the results you seek to prove. Selection of peer group schools without research into Boston College’s cohort listing is a flawed approach. Expressing that cohort group without listing Georgetown itself demonstrates such built-in bias.</p>
<p>Regardless of which undergraduate research institution you attended, the inability to articulate a substantiated point of view renders your views as inaccurate and therefore stains the reputation of your personal education.</p>
<p>Georgetown benefits by location and age-access to politcal establishment and foreign service and oldest Catholic school. Gtown, Holy Cross and ND have been boarding schools from the beginning-drawing more geographic diversity, HC had many wealthy southerners prior to the Civil War and like ND its alumni clubs have been established for over 100 years. BC, ND, HC, and Georgetown are peer schools with different qualities but all fine schools.</p>
<p>My word hoyasaxa1, a post at 1 AM on a Sunday morning (Saturday night really) for a thread that died over 4 months ago! What a truly piteous life you must lead.</p>
<p>There are so many variables that go into an admit/reject decision, without knowing what the admissions committee discussed with your application, no one can draw any conclusions from that statement.</p>