Junior in CSOM- AMA

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

Hi,

Just wanted to reach out to the aspiring, incoming, or existing members of the BC community to offer any help or advice in any capacity to the best of my ability.

A little bit of background on me… I’m concentrating in finance and biz analytics with a minor in environmental studies and I’m currently through most of the CSOM core and I’ve completed the University core. I’m in the midst of knocking out the last of my required classes so I think I have enough experience to weigh in on any questions in that area that anyone might have. I’ve interned the last two summers as an admin intern in wealth management after freshman year and I was a credit analyst for a larger boutique firm in Boston last summer. This summer, I will be doing investment banking in Manhattan, so feel free to ask anything regarding summer employment as well, and I’ll try to answer anything as best I can.

My HS background… Top 5% of graduating class (approximate, we were never told), 2190 3-part SAT (1460 2-part) which translates to a 1510-ish on the new SAT (see converter I used here, https://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■/blog-0/sat-score-conversion-chart), 33 ACT, 3 SAT II’s in Math II, Bio, and US History with scores of 770, 690, and 750, respectively, President of 2 clubs and a member of 2 more, took 8 AP’s and and got college course credit for 7 of them. Again, if you’d like to know more, ask, but I think this is a solid basic roundup of my background stats-wise. I was HS class of 2014 so keep in mind my chances at this school are different than any aspiring 2021’ers now; you guys probably have it a bit rougher.

More than happy to help however I can, and I’d also be happy to give any tours or have a quick sit-down if any of you are ever in the area, now that my class schedule has eased up a bit relative to prior semesters. Also, feel free to shoot a pm if there’s anything you don’t feel like asking in front of an audience, so to speak.

2

How many non-business classes do you have to take to fulfill the two cores? I want to take as many business classes as possible, and would not want to spend the first 2 years fulfilling the core. Also, what is the social life like at BC? Thanks!

3

@cfnv101 Here’s a great link to the university and CSOM cores. It’s pretty comprehensive and should be a direct answer to your question. If not, let me know and I’d be happy to delve into it a bit further. Just a quick note, BC is one of the more liberal arts-based universities in the country to not have the legitimate title as a “liberal arts university” per US News standards. The core is large and if you don’t get a decent amount of AP credit coming in, you will have most of your first 2 years allotted to working through the core. I’ve included a link to AP crediting through the university as well, if it helps.

https://www.bc.edu/schools/csom/undergraduate/academics/core.html
https://www.bc.edu/admission/undergrad/process/freshman/advanced-placement.html

The social life is great for me, personally. BC doesn’t have Greek life, so all of your relationships are definitely much more organic (i.e. you don’t pay for friends by joining a frat/sorority). Most of my current best friends are floormates from freshman year with several other friends from shared classes, clubs, and intramural games. The party scene is admittedly a bit difficult freshman year, as its tough to be the low man on the totem pole when you’re a freshman guy and you don’t go to a huge state school. However, it’s gotten exponentially better each year. BC is also a wet campus, so alcohol is allowed and there’s always parties to go to on the weekends, which become more accessible as you move on to being an upperclassman and you can better solidify your social “base”. There’s usually a ton to do, like going into Boston for movies or going to Sox games or to a concert at the House of Blues, so if you look for it, it gets easier and easier. If you don’t make an effort though, it’s rare that you’ll just have this crazy social life come to you.

4

Thank you for the response!!
Can AP credits be used for CSOM requirements as well?

Additionally, how intrusive is religion in Boston College?

Will I feel left out in any way if I am not catholic?

Also, how are the professors in CSOM?

5

@cfnv101

AP Credits only satisfied economics for CSOM, as far as I’m aware. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as AP Finance or AP Marketing (yet) so it would be hard to satisfy requirements for such classes in the business school. The vast bulk of any AP-satisfied classes would be in the school of arts and sciences which is where all of the university core is contained.

Religion is not intrusive at all. I was never baptized and I consider myself agnostic. I went to the first mass (which was not mandatory) for my own curiosity, and wasn’t wild about it, so I never went again. I also had my intro to christian theology class through the university core for two semesters, but that had much more objective scholarly analysis than anything that would suggest a religion-shoved-down-your-throat dynamic. The jesuits are also extremely nice. I knew one fairly well during my freshman year. He took me out to lunch and we had a great conversation and not once did he ask about my religious affiliation, or really religion in general. So really religion is a total non issue, unless it is something you like, because if you seek it out, it is definitely there to whatever extent you’d like it to be.

I hope the above answer helps to address the third question a bit as well, but to dig a bit further, I have a few friends who are highly religious, but everyone in my experience has been very open and accepting of anyone’s religious beliefs (and whether they have even have beliefs or are atheist). Granted, I associate myself with a fairly socially liberal friend group, so this, as does all my other advice, stems from personal experience.

I have only had one or two less-than-stellar experiences with any professor at BC. They have all been nice and considerate at the very least. I’ve had some that I’ve really loved as well. Sometimes the teaching styles don’t mend well with your personal preference, and that happens on a case by case basis. Overall though, they all have office hours and most make a very pointed effort to be as accessible and helpful as they possibly can. There is also a ton of resources like Boston College PEPs, class evaluations, and accounts from friends, to help you select the best professors that you possibly can.

6

@appplicant I got into both BC CSOM and VSB honors early action. I searched up some past threads about those two and I saw that you said you got into both on one of the threads too. Are there any specific reasons you picked BC over Villanova? I know BC is more prestigious, but honors at Villanova seems like it has nice perks too. Other than that, the schools seem very similar with solid mid sized business schools near major cities with a religious affiliation. I am leaning towards BC right now, but I feel as though it’s only because of prestige atm. It’s going to be a tough choice.

7

@HSStudent938

You’re right I was almost exactly in your shoes. My final three, after the dust settled, were BC, VSB honors, and UVA. I wasn’t a fan of the Greek life component which hurt VSB and UVA, and I’m also a big football fan, of which BC has a good history from their days with Matt Ryan (who is currently doing amazingly as I type this). We’ve also gone to bowl games in two of the last three years, which has been pretty cool.

I’m ashamedly a pretty rankings-oriented guy, and at the time of applying, UVA was the best school and had the best business school, and BC was 2nd and Villanova was 3rd. Now, the general rankings for the schools as a whole have remained, but the b-school rankings flipped, with UVA falling, BC rising to #3, and Villanova vaulting to #1 from something like the mid 20’s if I remember right, which, if you ask me, leads to some questioning of the legitimacy of the rankings in general, if a school were to jump so highly over a single year. I’m referring to the Bloomberg rankings, by the way.

In the end, I crossed off UVA and it was between BC and Villanova honors. From there you can be assured you’ll get a great education at either. However, to me there were a few things that just set BC a bit higher. At the time, BC was higher ranked as a business school, it’s still higher ranked overall, Boston beats Philadelphia by a mile (personal preference) and I like football and hockey more than basketball (though admittedly, winning a National Championship would’ve been pretty awesome). Also, while I didn’t consider it at the time, BC is a much better school for my career path, and we are ranked much better among most investment banks relative to Nova (excluding Goldman, I believe, who has a number of Nova alums in its upper tiers of management). Also, both campuses were beautiful, but BC still edged Nova out by a bit. The honors distinction would’ve been cool with Nova, but that only helps it to approach the caliber that the standard BC student is already at. I say that with heaps of bias, but that was also my thought process at the time of making my decision.

I have a good friend who is a sociology major at Nova and absolutely loves it, so really just go with your gut, if the money isn’t too different. If you make it out here and want to look around campus, msg me and I’d be happy to give a tour and help you get a better idea of the school as a whole.

Hope this helps.

8

Thank you for answering my questions.

  1. Is it hard to get good grades at bc? What are the grades curved to?
  2. How is the career center at bc?
  3. Did you get your internships from in campus recruiting?
  4. Did you live in a triple freshmen year? If so, how was it?
9

@amacollege The average grade in CSOM is approximately a 3.5, and it is .2-.3 lower in A&S, but I can’t speak on that nearly as confidently as I can on CSOM. Difficulty also varies inherently with professor, but I’d say the grading in my five semesters has definitely been fair.

The career center is alright. People have mixed reviews generally. They do have a good number of options like practice interviews, resume/cover left help, and other resources to help solidify your job search. You get a login freshman year through your student profile that enables you to be a part of the BC careers website which is like a job social media platform with some vague similarities to LinkedIn.

My first job after freshman year in Wealth Management was through a family connection, which is justified by how hard it can be to get internships that early on. My second one was after sending approximately 40 applications through the careers portal, and then going to 2 interviews in downtown Boston, where I was one of three interns taken out of 350 applications. I say this once again as a testament that internships are hard to lock down any time before your last summer here, but definitely not impossible if you work your ass off. This was the only job that seemed very open to the idea of not taking a rising senior, and my main interview contact at this company was a BC alum, which I would say helped a bit. That process was incredibly stressful (but rewarding) and was also months of cover letter writing and applying to places you know you’ll never hear from. The final interview process for my position this upcoming summer was the most stressful, but that was because investment banking is extremely competitive in its applcication process. Luckily, all interviews were held on campus in the career center by members of the company who had flown out from New York (all of whom were BC alums). That process involved two months of insane networking, but I would also say that the BC name definitely helped the most with this job over the other two. We have good rep on Wall Street and it’s only continued to improve in recent years, so that is definitely my encouraging note for incoming freshman. The apps to BC itself may be getting more selective, but the school’s rep in general has only helped in opening doors.

I did live in a forced triple on upper campus. It was definitely tight but I got along well enough with both roommates that we were never at each other’s throats over space. It’s likely an adjustment from prior living situations for anyone, so it’s hugely dependent on how accommodating you and your roommates are and how you can economically use space. On the other side of the coin, I’ve heard some disagreements and hostility arose in forced triples, but mainly that was from girls, who I think bring many more things than guys in general and are therefore a bit more reliant on what little space they can lay claim to (not to say that there aren’t exceptions for either gender, that’s just how it’s historically been seen). My experience definitely wasn’t awful though, and it made my sophomore and junior year situations seem all the better by comparison.

Hope this helped.

10

Source, please? (I’d be shocked if A&S was lower.)

For B-school, that is ok and should be expected since many employers values prestige.

11

For the sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, math…), the grades probably are 0.2 to 0.3 lower. For the humanities, they’re higher.

12

Well, sure. That is the same at pretty much every school (other than perhaps Brown). And that is bcos the intro math-sciences run on a curve regardless of the grading scheme. OTOH, there are plenty of easy A’s in Lit/Hume/Rocks for Jocks at BC so the average of A&S is likely not any different that CSOM.

13

@bluebayou @gobosox

I’m confident that CSOM is approximately a 3.5, as I’m in the 53rd percentile with a 3.51. As for A&S, I only say that with information from several friends who are in A&S (most of whom are STEM), hence my original disclaimer where I say I can’t speak nearly as confidently on those numbers. It varies heavily, that much I can say with confidence. My highest grades are in my minor in Environmental Studies, which is on the easier side of STEM, but still slightly more difficult than many of the humanities classes I’ve taken. However, I’m just referring to my own experience. No intent to spread misinformation.

@amacollege , just another note…

I packed most of my hardest classes earlier as well. I came in with about 42 credits (as a benchmark, 24 credits are required to graduate in 3 years) and thus skipped much of the university core and powered through into my CSOM concentration specific classes a semester or two ahead of the average. That hurt my class selection, because it often meant I was in the same selection pool as people a year my senior, and thus I got the worse times and harder professors because they had dibs over me. I say this because ease is relative and everyone’s situation is different. My experience should by no means by a driving factor in anyone’s consideration of a school’s difficulty. Everyone adjusts to college differently and their grades are often a reflection of that.

14

Thank you for the responses.

Do all the bulge banks interview on campus? If not, which ones do?
Is there an investment club that one can join and is it selective?

15

Deutschebank, UBS, Citi, Moelis, Barclays, William Blair, Robert Baird, and Raymond James are among the banks that recruit. Some students network their way into JPM, MS and GS. We’ve gotten a couple into CS. There is an investment club and anyone can join.

16

@amacollege furthering the remarks of @gobosox , we have a solid rep among bulge brackets and upper-tier boutiques. However, we are no longer a core school to Barclays, per this most recent semester’s recruiting process. There was some speculation as to why, but it was speculation and not much was substantiated from it, so I’ll hold my tongue. UBS, Citi, and DB are the big 3 among bulge brackets. Citi usually takes the most students toward any function of its business (including, and beyond investment banking), and UBS has BC as its #1 school, while BC is a “top school” to the other two, which is a bit more ambivalent, but is still hugely significant to BC. Like bosox said, we send about 1-2 per year to each of the other bulge brackets, but that is a much more difficult process to get your foot in the door of, considering we are not a core school to the other six (JPM, GS, CS, BoA, Barclays, and MS). Consequently, it’s not as easy to get alumni help as it is at the main three, who obviously have the biggest alum presence.

On top of the investment club, which is open to everyone (but is selective in its analyst positions and the e-board), there is also the Investment Banking - Sales & Trading Club, of which the IB half of the club pairs approximately 30 juniors with 6 seniors who had internships with IB firms over the prior summer (5 mentees to every 1 mentor, +/-). Its purpose is to better prepare the current juniors for interviews, which now take place around the start-middle of the fall semester. They do this through extensive practice interviews and classes held twice a week, plus resume critiques and general accessibility for any help you can possibly need. I was a mentee this past fall and the experience was amazing and, in my opinion, pivotal to getting my upcoming summer job. You do have to apply to be a mentee for that club though, as it is fairly selective, given the demand for IB jobs.

17

Thanks for sharing, but don’t forget that CSOM classes get “easier” in the last two years as well. Which is also true for STEM majors; upper division courses are just more generous with A’s. As just on example, Organic Chem, for example, may award quite a few low C’s first semester, but they can be rare second semester (depending on the Prof).

So you may end up with a 3.6+ GPA by the end of next year, but still be at the ~50% tile.

18

@bluebayou Fair enough (and for my sake, I 100% hope you’re right, especially if grad school entered the picture). However, I was in a group project last semester where a friend, who is a current senior, reported that same 3.5 average, as he is approximately around the 50th percentile as well. Granted, that still precedes the grades he would get back for last (and this) semester, but I wouldn’t imagine a flat 3.5 after 4 years would be too far off the mark either.

Further to your point, though, the relatively small amount of classes I have left to finish still affords me the ability to take two random electives each of the remaining three semesters that I’m here. While I would be interested in learning something totally abstract for a change, I don’t wanna break the bank and take an advanced physics or comp sci class either. That said, the upward GPA projection in the final year is definitely a fair point, as I’d like to have a senior year I can really enjoy and ease off the throttle a bit.

All points aside, still happy to answer any questions anybody might have, per the AMA.

19

You are sharing tremendous information here, thank you! My interest is about study abroad. Do you have any friends who have done this? Was it a semester abroad, a summer, or some other type of travel opportunity? I have great concerns about being able to do this given the significant number of university core and CSOM core classes. I will be coming in with only a few AP credits. Please let me know about any classmate experiences with this (sounds like you haven’t done it yourself) who also did not come in with a lot of AP credits. Thank you so much!!

20

@crazy43

You’re right. I didn’t study abroad. I ideally was split between New Zealand and Australia, as I wanted to see about knocking out some of my Envi Sci minor in the places with the most beautiful environment and biodiversity in the world. I got accepted to the University of New South Wales a bit south of Sydney but ultimately declined when I discovered the difficulties with the inverted semesters of the southern hemisphere and its impact on your ability to get an internship over any given summer back home. That’s actually a huge piece of advice I would pass along if you’re strongly considering CSOM, where internships are paramount in developing hands-on experience and a marketable skillset. DO NOT choose to go someplace in the southern hemisphere, as (to my knowledge, and in my experience), the listed schools all invert their semesters relative to the northern hemisphere. That said, their shorter winter break is our longer summer break and visa versa, so you’d be guaranteed to miss some portion of your summer no matter how you choose. This is definitely something that’s valuable to know, as I keyed into this wayy too late and didn’t even have the chance to switch to some place that was actually doable, such as London, where a ton of CSOMers (who are smarter than I) ended up.

To more pointedly answer your question, following my tangent, I actually only have a few close friends that chose to study abroad. The group of girls that my friends hang out with almost entirely went abroad this semester to Hong Kong, Ireland, and London. The programs, in general, vary a ton. There are summer, single semester (the most typically chosen one), and even full year programs, and its more-or-less a condensed version of reapplying to college. You’ll have a list of international universities that BC has relations with (and if there isn’t a school on that list that you’d like to attend, you can outsource your selection to BU for a semester, but I’m not too familiar with that unfortunately). You’ll fill out your applications and meet with an advisor who has a specialty in the region (like western Europe, for example). They will sit down with you and help develop a game plan, and then you apply and they can sign off as “approved” to apply to the school, if they like your application. Sidenote: when the advisor approves you, then you have a really high chance of the school accepting you. I’ve heard instances of a school rejection are pretty rare, but I’m sure it depends on the school. The most strict criterion for admission is the GPA threshold, which often varies from school to school and is usually in accord to its international prestige. For example, if you want a prayer at going to Oxford, you need a 3.8+. If you want the full year program at the London School of Economics, the mark is a 3.5 I think, but often so many competitive applicants want to go there, that it’s really more like a 3.7ish. Most schools however, are usually around a 3.2.

As for credits, you can satisfy a number of classes while abroad. And when I say “a number”, that number isn’t necessarily more than 1 (for the sake of honesty). If you’re hell-bent on CSOM, there are usually only two classes in the CSOM core that are given abroad approval- Organizational Behavior and Operations Management. Those are arguably the two easiest and most internationally transferrable classes, so it makes sense. Unfortunately, its rare for abroad universities that have a business school to offer both. So you’ll likely have a chance at knocking out only one of them, and then, if you make a really passionate case to whatever department head about the relevance of some abroad class, you might be able to get core credit for another elective in your minor or your other major. This is all to be done before leaving, so you’ll know exactly what you’re satisfying before you set foot on the plane. Usually people underload classes as well. Instead of taking 5, they take 4 and overload some other time when they’re back home. Honestly, abroad is the time to take joke classes and learn a culture and travel with friends. Not everyone comes in with a ton of credit, so if you have the chance to knock out one or two abroad, then do it. It eases up the density of core stuff that you take before/after you leave.

If you’re really curious and have some time on your hands, you can make a gameplan for yourself and see what fits. You need 120 credits (about 40 classes) to graduate; 5 classes per semester. Count the total number of university core courses you’d have to take that you couldn’t satisfy with AP credit, then add that to the CSOM core and the number of classes you’d take for your concentration. No doubt in my mind you’ll have room. However, if you choose to double-concentrate, pick up an A&S major, and/or take up a minor, it’ll get tough to work an abroad semester into the mix. I think with my double concentration and my minor factored in, I would’ve been left with 2 free elective classes to take in the rest of my time here, with all the other slots filled with requirements that I couldn’t do while abroad. Lots of logistics and planning go into that whole deal. I’m a nerd so I loved it, even if I didn’t go.

That was super long winded. Sorry about that. Hope this at least helped a bit.