@appplicant Really appreciate your thorough response! I’ve already been accepted EA to CSOM by the way. You have calmed my fears that my interest in doing study abroad would take BC out of the mix for me. I started getting nervous after trying to do the exercise you suggested, but didn’t have all the info I needed. So thanks for clearing things up for me there!
Another question, if you don’t mind…does BC give AP credit for exam scores without taking the class? Self-study? Thank you again!
@crazy43 Glad i could help and congrats on the acceptance. Yes. To my knowledge, if you send the scores through the college board to BC and they have receipt of the score, you can place out of the associated class. I don’t think having the physical class on your transcript matters if you self studied, because you still demonstrated the necessary aptitude to succeed in the material that BC requires to enable credit.
Thank you for the detailed responses. Grateful for all the info.
Just a couple more questions.
Thanks.
@amacollege … glad to help. Hopefully it’s giving you a better impression of the school.
To my knowledge, only UBS does their super day on campus. All other banks do only their first rounds on campus, with the occasional exception, depending on how BC-heavy their staff is. UBS is the only big bank that never requires you to leave campus in order to get an offer; all the others usually pay for you to fly down to Manhattan where they’re often based.
4 years of housing is actually given in your acceptance letter. It is granted to full scholarship athletes, all nursing school students, and students with severe medical or financial disability that disables off-campus from being a feasible option. This number varies heavily year over year, so the remaining openings for four years of housing are then allotted to the top 5-10% of the incoming class, determined objectively by the admissions staff. I fell into that latter category, and consider myself lucky, as I have friends who I know for a fact are smarter than me but didn’t get 4 years. However, off campus is a great time and I know most people love their semester of freedom before returning back to campus for their senior year (which is super unusual, relative to other colleges). Oftentimes, I’ve heard living off campus can actually be the cheaper option of the two, so the two options really balance out fairly well, much like the juxtaposition of upper or newton campus for your freshman year. If you’re hell-bent on staying on, BC does hold an appeals option for those interested, who were originally assigned three years, which I’ve heard yields a fairly good chance of ruling in your favor.
@appplicant Thank you for the AP credit answer! Since you mentioned it, any observations about upper campus v. Newton campus for freshmen? I’ve heard that, although the transportation can be a pain to deal with, the social aspect can be better because you get to know more fellow classmates due to it just being a freshman campus, dining hall, etc. Not sure where you were first year, but do you have any knowledge about that you’d like to share?
I lived on upper, personally. I lived in a forced triple there and it was totally fine. No huge complaints. You pretty much hit the nail on the head though; the sense of community and the unity among freshman on the Newton campus is the direct tradeoff with the fact you don’t have to commute to campus by living on upper. Also, Newton rooms are a liiiitttle bit bigger, and you’re guaranteed to not have a forced triple. It ultimately boils down to minutia, and, considering nobody really has a say (other than volunteering for a forced triple, which you would then be guaranteed a spot on Upper), it’s not worth losing sleep over.
Sidenote, I know you didn’t ask, but I wouldn’t say pre selecting a roommate through the accepted students FB page necessarily yields a better overall roommate experience than going random from the start. I figured that was important to share as well.
@appplicant Great thanks for your perspective!
@crazy43 Glad to help. Feel free to message if anything else comes to mind.
@appplicant is correct about BC no longer being a core school for Barclays. We are, however, a focus school (largely semantics). Barclays did hire 6 BC juniors for internships in IB in the fall. Yup, the process has accelerated to fall of junior year.
jw what my chances are
White male catholic
3.94 UW/4.35W
31 ACT
Strong essays Strong recs
Two varsity sports one being captain
good leadership opportunities
and applied to CSOM Finance
@echs22 There’s an “edit” button, man haha.
I’d say low reach, but I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Your GPA is good. Varsity sports are good. I didn’t read your essays, and nobody would send an essay that they didn’t think was good, so I’ll take your word for it. Your ACT is below average by 2. So with the info provided, I don’t know what to tell you other than you have a shot, but a slightly below average one (given the info you provided). I really intended for this thread to gear toward advice for those who would like to know more about the school, not necessarily to speak as an admissions counselor.
Best of luck
yea I didn’t think of the edit button, I just started typing and forgot to add stuff haha but I thought the average ACT range was 30-33 being the middle 50% i may be wrong but I think that’s what I’ve read. I know you can’t tell me anything as you’re just a student but most kids are just worried about getting in, they know BC is an amazing school and a very fun school. @appplicant
@echs22 The middle 50% may very well be 30-33 last year, but I picked up a subscription of our school newspaper outside of my dorm a few days ago that said the EA results averaged a 33, which I was fairly shocked by. I was in your shoes as well. BC was not my dream school but it worked out for the best; super happy here, as I’m sure you’ll be wherever you end up.
ahh EA being 33 makes sense so tough to get into any school early
@appplicant How is the student body at BC? The biggest complaint I’ve heard about BC is that it’s too rich, preppy, obnoxious, etc. Do you feel this is true?
@HSStudent938 The student body is totally fine for me personally. Then again, I’m a white straight guy from a upper middle class town in the Northeast. I would say on the whole, everyone is pretty nice and considerate. Pretty much whenever I get to campus, I forget how ready most people are to hold doors and elevators for you and how willing most people are to greet you with a smile.
However, there have been some complaints among LGBTQ students regarding BC’s inaction on some issues every few months or so. It’s unfortunately something to be expected from a major private religious institution, but there have been fairly considerable strides being made year over year. Still, unapproved clubs like Students for Sexual Health, who distribute free condoms around major “party” holidays and weekends, are not allowed on university grounds, so they stick to the nearby bordering streets- just to give you an example.
BC is definitely preppy, but my background wasn’t too dissimilar, coming from a public high school on Long Island, so I never took issue with it. However, I think the graduating class size of ~2200ish(+/-) is perfect, because it’s big enough for there to be a ton of diversity in who you see on a daily basis; always new faces to see, but the occasional familiar one as well. However, it’s not by any means HS sized, nor are you just a face in a sea of students if you went to a huge state school like Michigan or Penn State. Still, you’ll find a group of people who aren’t preppy at all (quite easily actually). Most of my friends are the antithesis of preppy (joggers, sweatshirts, regular t-shirts) and that’s definitely not uncommon.
A lot of families are wealthy here, I think the median family income was something absurd like $194k, (source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/boston-college) but I’m here with lots of aid. What IS encouraging about this, though, is that there is a huge legacy presence at BC, meaning a lot of these high family incomes were derived from a BC degree. You’ll definitely encounter people with tans from recent exotic vacations and girls in study lounges not thinking twice as they shop for (and buy) $300 bags without batting an eye. However, it’s your prerogative to associate with those people. Again, it’s not hard to find your niche, in my experience. I’m trying to be as candid as possible, and in doing so, I may have even leaned a bit negative in writing this, but it’s actually the friends I made in my first year that played a huge role in not transferring for me (I was given an option to go to Cornell after my freshman year, which I ultimately turned down).
My daughter, who also attended on significant aid, would agree with you.
Well done.
Much appreciated. Always feel free to chime in to give you and your daughter’s perspective. I’m sure my view is skewed in a number of ways from the true norm, so the more contribution, the better the help for others.