Background - Current community college student in CA, looking for a change of scenery when I apply as a transfer. I have approximately a 3.63GPA, and I’ve been working full-time for several years while going to school so I have a decent bit of work experience. I’m going to apply to schools in a few areas, but I wanted to eliminate some of the schools in the greater Boston area.
My current list includes:
Babson
Northeastern
Boston U
Bentley U
Suffolk
Given the fact that I’m not the most competitive applicant, I probably shouldn’t just have Babson, NEU, and BU on my list. I’m pretty confident I want to keep Northeastern because of their co-op program. I’m thinking that between Bentley, Babson, Boston U, and Suffolk I should just keep 2 of the 4. I won’t be living on campus (long term relationship) so I don’t care much about on-campus life. I’ll be going for a Finance major. I do enjoy doing things in my free time, I enjoy going to all sorts of concerts and shows, going out to eat a variety of ethnic food, going to fun bars. Politically, I lean libertarian, but I would hate to be somewhere that’s super religious or super right-wing. If anybody has any input that would be super helpful.
Thanks,
Phil
Addressing your nightlife question, you should know that Babson (Wellesley) and Bentley (Waltham) are in the burbs, so your concerts/shows/eating options would be fewer (though not nonexistent, they’re okay burbs and close enough to Boston, especially with a car). Addressing your political/religious concerns, I don’t think any of the schools would be a problem for you.
First of all thanks for the responses.
My budget isn’t really set yet, they’re all approximately the same price but I’m applying in December so I won’t know how financial aid looks until then.
I’d be bringing my baby with me (g35 stickshift) so I can get around if needed.
Well, since you have a car and will be wanting to park it, Babson and Bentley might be preferable to the Boston proper schools like BU and Suffolk, due to cheaper/easier parking (again, burbs). And between BU and Suffolk, parking would be somewhat easier in the areas surrounding BU (good parking a few streets away from main campus, which is toward the edges of Boston) than Suffolk (more central Boston neighborhood). Regarding cost of living, it is lower near Bentley than near Babson, because Wellesley is an upscale suburb and Waltham is not. (Though it is actually pretty reasonable to live in parts of Newton with reasonable housing prices that lie between Babson and Bentley and drive to either one.) I’m leaving Northeastern out of this analysis because you stated you definitely want to keep it on your list, but for the record, it is similar to BU for all these parameters except parking may be a little more challenging (though I’m not certain on that).
In my mind Waltham is more of a city and not that suburban while Wellesley is the definition of the rich suburb with nothing to do (although there is a commuter rail station near by). But again might be just a perception. I don’t like to talk against schools but I agree about Saffolk. It is hard to gauge your chances though since you are not a traditional applicant. What does you transfer gc is saying?
I get that Suffolk’s not great undergrad, but U Mass Boston is pretty much the same (our Naviance stats are higher for Suffolk, FWIW), plus UMB’s had construction going on on campus for what seems like centuries. And it’s pretty isolated from the fun parts of Boston (though I believe they have a T station somewhere around). I’d frankly skip both of them unless you need one for a safety, and I’d still pick Suffolk over U Mass Boston (though I admit, I don’t have a granular understanding of specific programs at either). And I agree, Waltham is a city. I just meant it’s like a suburb of Boston. But it has more affordable fun stuff going on than Wellesley, this is true.
@am9799 Valid point. I wasn’t addressing finances. UMB would be a good financial and academic safety, whereas Suffolk would just be a good academic safety. I would just caution OP to take a look at it if he ends up applying and getting accepted, before he commits. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
UMass boston doesn’t have finance I’ve looked into it before. The reason I had Suffolk on my list was because it had a high admittance rate. But bentley also has a 46% admittance rate and a much better business school so if you guys don’t think I’m overreaching then I could keep bentley on my list and pick between boston U and babson. I have a couple friends who already graduated from Olin and they told me that while Babson has a reputation for partying the student body is not very… interesting? I don’t know myself but it was interesting to hear.
Is getting from babson to downtown boston a pain in the ass? Especially in the event I want to go to a concert or to a bar and have a few drinks and not have to drive home?
Edit: btw as I said in the OP, I am applying to Schools in other areas so I’m going to have safety schools like Seattle university, university of delaware, university of rhode island, and a couple others. I don’t need Suffolk on my list.
OP, Babson is a VERY small school, has 30% international students and a very specific character. People love it or hate it. It would be great if you can visit.
@philbegas It kinda is. You can take the Framingham/Worcester commuter rail from say, Back Bay Station and then walk a mile at the end. All told, about an hour. And last commuter rail is 11:30 on Fridays and earlier on Sat/Sun. Or you could take the Green Line (Riverside branch) from Park Street to Woodland Station; last of these is 12:49 it looks like. You’d probably want to cab it from there, 3.5 miles. I’m guessing this option would take a little over an hour and a half. Of course, this assumes you’d live on campus, which I don’t believe is the case. If you lived off campus, you could probably be strategic about proximity to train stations. But you’d still have the limitations caused by the trains not running terribly late.
Regarding using Bentley as a “Boston safety”, I want to say go for it, except I don’t have any perspective for their transfer selectivity. For undergrad, our Naviance has the average acceptance at 4.28 high school GPA, which translates approximately to 3.28 once you unweight it. It seems like you’d be okay, but I’d suggest looking at the transfer stats on their common data set.
Well if babson has parking maybe I’ll rent a place closer to Boston that has its own parking and drive to babson. I would aim to condense my classes into as few days as possible anyways.
Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to visit babson beforehand but I’m trying to figure it out. My available time is going to be slim between 40 hours a week, 2-3 classes a semester, and doing the actual applications but if I can at least condense my list a little bit, maybe I can plan a visit to jut a couple schools
Thinking more about your, I would see a non traditional student with work experience better served in a school like BU or NU where there is more variety of students and in the city so you are not limited to your classmates. On the other hand if you visit Babson and feel a connection it is for sure a very prestigious school. Bentley might be in the middle. But again, I might be totally wrong.