<p>Hello! I’m currently a freshman at a top 20 LAC, and not entirely satisfied with my experience here. I’m thinking of transferring for next year, and BC has been one of my considerations. I was wondering if anyone who has previously transferred into BC could answer a few questions for me.</p>
<p>1) What sort of financial aid did you get as a transfer? Also, were you guaranteed housing?
2) How active are the student groups on campus? My school boasts an extensive list of clubs/groups, but I don’t really feel like many of them do anything significant.
3) How much is there to do <em>on campus</em>? My school is lacking in interesting on-campus activities, and I’m looking for a school that provides.
4) How would you rate the quality of the professors?
5) How has your experience at BC been? In general, and as a transfer student. Was it hard to transfer credits/did the requirements put you behind? My school has no required courses, so transferring to a school where this is not the case might take some adjusting.</p>
<p>Sorry for the lengthy post, but I’m trying very hard to get a good feel for the colleges I’m thinking of transferring to. I apparently didn’t do such a good job of that when deciding on a school last year! Anyway, thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>I was not a transfer student so I can’t definitively answer some of your questions. As for the rest…</p>
<p>3.) I’m sure others will disagree, but from my experience, there is not a lot to do on-campus. Most on-campus activities are centered around drinking. The few clubs with an active membership are pre-professional organizations; nothing to do with hobbies or “fun” activities. The campus itself is isolated. While it’s geographically close to Boston, it’s difficult to get there. There are virtually no interesting places to visit within walking distance since the majority of the campus is surrounded by residential areas.</p>
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<li> The professors are probably like the professors at your current school. There are some good ones, some bad ones, some that don’t speak English very well, some that are overzealous and some that are tired and burnt out.</li>
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<li><p>BC too boasts a significant number of clubs, but most of them are pretty inactive in the vein of having regular meetings/events. (I believe that club and intramural sports are the most active of all the extracurriculars here.) I joined four clubs last semester and I haven’t attended any meetings since November (pretty much because the officers of these clubs haven’t notified me of anything since last December).</p></li>
<li><p>From the perspective of a commuter student (I live within a two mile radius of BC, BTW), there isn’t much to do on campus or even in the surrounding neighborhood itself. Of course, the school provides a limited range of activities that one can certainly engage in (football games, hockey games, plays, lectures), but, for the most part, I find that they are not really worth attending.</p></li>
<li><p>I find the professors here to be generally excellent and adept at what they teach. Office hours are held on a regular basis and I haven’t had any difficulty in discerning what the professors’ academic expectations are.</p></li>
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<p>So, my take on BC:</p>
<p>The education here is excellent, but everything else falls a little flat.</p>
<p>I kind of disagree that there isn’t a lot to do on campus. I have found that I am never bored. In the fall, there is football, in the winter there is basketball and hockey games. Just going to those are great things to do on weekends. If you’re not into sports, there are a lot of cultural club stuff, I’ve been to some plays and dance performances. But the biggest activity is community service. There are a lot of service organizations, it seems like almost everyone is in one. Some are more exclusive and you need to apply, but if you want to do service you will definitely find something.
I also disagree with what the others said about the locations… Sometimes it seems far from Boston, but if you don’t feel like going into the city, Newton Center is about a 15-minute nice walk and there are restaurants and shops, I’ve been there a few times. There is also Cleveland Circle, which is just 3 stops on the Comm Ave (BC run shuttle bus). It has restaurants and some bars. It’s a residential area, but if you try, you can definitely find stuff to do that is more than just drinking in the dorms. Boston is not too far if you make a night out of it. I love the location, it is one of my favorite parts of the school.</p>
<p>“it’s geographically close to Boston, it’s difficult to get there.”</p>
<p>It’s hard to believe a BC student could write this.</p>
<p>The campus straddles the Boston/Newton line, and there is a trolley station literally right across the street. So you start off virtually IN Boston, and the rest of Boston almost couldn’t be easier or cheaper to get to. When I was a BC student, I went to other parts of the city at least twice per week…parties at other colleges which friends attended, the opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, plays, concerts, movies, Red Sox, Celtics, every imaginable type of restaurant, etc. If you’re bored there, it’s your own fault.</p>
<p>^yea… it’s also a 45 minute ride if you use the B line right outside of the campus. About 10 minutes faster if you use the Reservoir. But when the T stops running at 12:30 many people won’t do Boston for the night. </p>
<p>So, imo it’s not that odd for a BC student to write that (not that I totally agree with it.)</p>
<p>The B line takes at least 45 minutes to arrive downtown, but closer to an hour or an hour and a half to arrive at Park Street or Govt. Center. The trains are usually delayed during the busier parts of the weekend (i.e. Friday and Saturday night). Downtown Boston does have lots of great things to do, but getting there can be a hassle. </p>
<p>Either way, my point was that I found little to do on campus when I was there. Being bored there is irrelevant to what I did downtown.</p>
<p>PaulATBC: I don’t know how often you’ve taken the B line, but I use it weekly because I prefer it to the D line and I go downtown quite a bit. The B line DOES NOT take an hour or an hour and a half to get to Park Street or Government Center and it NEVER has! That’s quite outrageous to say. It takes 45 minutes (no more than 50) to get to Government Center. Park Street: 40 minutes. Obviously since Government Center is the last stop, it’s shorter to get to other destinations downtown. It takes one hour to get to Harvard Square. Yes, the T isn’t the quickest form of transportation, but it does not take as long as you said it takes. I question whether you really took/take advantage of being near/in Boston, because if you did, you’d know the actually time it takes on the T. That’s all.</p>
<p>As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own “facts”. According to the subway schedule, it takes the B line 45 minutes to go from BC to Government Center during rush hour, which is half the time that you claim. The schedule for weekends is a few minutes faster – logically. Of course, construction/maintenance anywhere in any city can slow a trolley.</p>
<p>But as Jersey said, most kids take the free BC shuttle to the D or C lines, which is a near express to downtown.</p>
<p>i find the T rides enjoyable… haha and it doesn’t seem too bad. i love BC’s location! still wondering why students don’t go into Boston more frequently…</p>
<p>Jerseyyyy21: Since I found little to occupy my spare time on campus, I rode the B line quite frequently; probably more than most other students. It certain can take more than an hour to arrive downtown. Perhaps you only ride the trains during the weekdays while everyone is at work or in school, but many other times they can be substantially delayed. I question whether you actually live, or ever have lived, in or near Boston since you obviously have little knowledge of the T.</p>
<p>bluebayou: The MTBA states the B lines takes 48 minutes to travel from the Boston College stop to Government Center under ideal conditions – that is a fact. I, and many others, have experienced much longer transit times – that is a also a fact. Get your facts straight.</p>
<p>Nearly all subway systems have delays and closures, and some have more than others. The green lines happens to be one of the slowest lines in the T system simply because of its age and structure. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I did frequently take the BC bus to Reservoir, and then the D line inbound. The D line is quicker than the B line, though you must wait for the BC bus to get there. Sometimes they regularly arrive in five or ten minute intervals. Other times three buses all arrive together in thirty five minute intervals.</p>
<p>The MBTA buses are generally the quickest and cheapest. I’m not sure which routes go downtown, but the 86 bus takes you straight to Harvard Square in under twenty minutes. Sometimes it takes me two hours to get the Harvard Square on the T.</p>
<p>PaulAtBC: Similarly, I ride the B line quite frequently, and can state for a fact that I ride it more than most other students. I have ridden the B line during the week while everyone is at school or work, as well as the weekend when there is literally no room to even move an inch. What it comes down to is this: unless there was something out of the ordinary (construction, etc.) it NEVER took an hour to travel to or from government center. The difference between the weekends and the weekday on the T is on the weekends, there are more people going out into the city for fun. Therefore, the trains are significantly more packed. However, that doesn’t make the ride significantly longer (maybe a few minutes added on for the extra time it takes people to get on and off). Also, I don’t understand why you ask if I live in or near Boston…I am a student at Boston College, if that counts? </p>
<p>I also don’t even know why I am having this argument. I get there are negatives about BC, and I’m all for people sharing those on this forum. However, you’re trying to blow up the negatives to new proportions. Yes, BC is not in downtown Boston. The majority of Boston is not downtown Boston (duh). Does it take an annoying amount of time to get to downtown Boston from BC? Yes! It takes SIGNIFICANTLY shorter to get there by car. That being said, you don’t have to make it seem even worse for whatever reason…if your motive is to turn people away from the school by making up numbers or painting an unrealistic picture, you’re free to do so, but you can count on the fact that we will call you out on it. </p>
<p>What it comes down to is this: for those of us who take the B “boston college” line quite frequently, we know we can expect an approx. 45 minute ride to Government Center. When I am making my way to South Station (which requires taking the B line to Park Street then transferring to the Red line), I plan on the trip taking an hour and so far, it has always been that. One time there was reports of suspicious activity on the Red line train so it was delayed. This is the only time it took me longer to get to South Station. </p>
<p>There’s simply no way to argue with what I’m saying. Anyone who has ridden the B line knows this, genius or not.</p>
<p>PaulAtBC: I don’t know what you were smoking when you took the T to Harvard Square, because it takes an hour. I’ll give you an hour and 30 minutes if there were delays and all kinds of problems and it was just a crazy day in Boston (even though this is quite unrealistic for it to be an hour and 30 minutes). To say it takes 2 hours is once again, completely false.</p>
<p>I’m simply stating my observations as corroborated by other students, friends and even faculty at Boston College. Please don’t berate me for offering users here a realistic account of my experiences at BC. You’re really doing a disservice to prospective students with your disingenuous descriptions.</p>
<p>PaulAtBC: I don’t care what you say, as long as it’s the truth. The time it takes the T to get to government center is not an opinion nor can it be one. It is a fact. You may say whatever else you want as long as it’s under the opinion category. If it’s a fact and you say it wrong, THAT’S when I will call you out on it. The only one who is doing a disservice to prospective students is you my friend.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, back when I was there, I never heard anybody complain about downtown being far away. The time it took to get into the more urban parts of the city seemed small price to pay for having the campus in a location that was amazingly safe, and free of panhandlers, thieves, and dog crap all over the sidewalks like down at B.U. Whatever the time it takes to get someplace, I was never bored on the Boston College line because it’s not underground and there was always something to look at out the windows. If u get bored, try to ride all the way to Park Street standing up without holding on to anything…it’s like snowboarding.</p>
Thank you both so much for your honest answers!</p>