<p>I’m just curious if anybody knows of Boston College practicing this. I got waitlisted at BC but was accepted at Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc. What’s up? I really liked BC; I wouldn’t have chosen it over some of my other acceptances, but still, if this is a case of yield protection it’s silly & frustrating.</p>
<p>If that is indeed true, then it is somewhat perplexing that BC didn’t accept you.</p>
<p>Who knows if it is yield protection, really. They say no, but who really knows?</p>
<p>I think all tier 1 especially in the top 50 will practice this. No disrespect, but Harvard, Penn, and Yale are light years ahead of BC and they simply viewed you as on overqualified candidate with a small chance of accepting if they extended you an offer. Hence rather then rejecting you they waitlisted you which is typical practice.</p>
<p>That makes sense. I guess I just thought it was less widespread than it seems to be.</p>
<p>Ivy Grad, with all due respect you’re totally biased.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, I agree with you. I wouldn’t say they are Harvard, Yale and penn are light years ahead of BC. They are almost the same except BC’s science dept.</p>
<p>BC’s science department is better or worse?</p>
<p>You can’t compare BC and UPenn on the same level…just look at the Sat Score ranges for UPenn and BC, UPenn is a lot higher…look at the amount of UPenn kids that are top 10 percent…its almost 99 percent…BC’s top 10 percent can’t compare…plus UPenn is a major research university that has a lot of prestige…BC doesn’t have as many research opportunities as UPenn…what I mean by this last statement is that UPenn has groundbreaking research taking place for undergrad/grad/and professionals…</p>
<p>and if you can’t compare UPenn and BC on the same level…you shouldn’t even try to compare BC and Yale or BC and harvard…</p>
<p>WHOA, i’m not putting down Boston College one bit it’s a great college…but are you suggesting that BC can compete with the likes of Harvard,Yale, and Penn? In terms of academics, BC can barely compete with NYU so what makes you think that BC is toe to toe with any of the top tens? I hope the general population at BC don’t have inflated egos like DHman06.</p>
<p>I agree with Ivygrad, BC is a great school, but seriously? “Almost the same” as Harvard? I mean…seriously?</p>
<p>I think i have confirmed my point regarding BC</p>
<p>I think all the previous posters have been preoccupied with only one aspect of “better,” prestige. In that category alone, Harvard, Yale, and Penn have a lot, but you can’t eat prestige. An unemployed Harvard alum and an unemployed BC alum are both unemployed. I doubt their degrees give them much comfort when their houses are about to be foreclosed. If your whole life is about prestige and status, then you will spend all of it chasing after fickle public opinion. Your degrees are dead letters, they say nothing about the content of your characters; they only tell the world where you spend four years out of a century of human life. </p>
<p>We should go to schools for three things: to get an education, to make meaningful relationships, and, if we are lucky, to find our place in the world. The three are also deeply intertwined.</p>
<p>A good education is the main reason why we are all here. We want to find that place that we can find call our “alma mater.” We each have our reasons for our education. Perhaps it is to be fabulously wealthy, maybe it’s to prepare ourselves for leadership, or it could just be to learn for learning sake. How do you compare the value of education, not a degree, but of learning, among different institutions? The Ivies undoubtedly have the best of the best professors in the world. But does that make them the best teachers? Professors at most elite institutions were not selected for their pedagogical skills, but for their understanding of a tiny corner of reality. When they survey their vast intellectual domain, will they notice you? Will they descend from their ivory towers, put aside their own unanswered questions, and help you find yours? I believe these are pertinent questions to ask and ponder on. We might be proud of the accomplishments of our schools’ faculty—their groundbreaking research or their insightful critiques of literature. But we didn’t come to college to breathe in the same collective air as they do. Being in the presence of greatness shouldn’t cost fifty-thousand dollars a year. </p>
<p>I cannot speak about professors at the Ivies, but I can about those at Boston College. Of all the professors that I have had over the past four years, I can say honestly that all of them want to be in the classroom. This is not true of every single professor, but it’s true of a vast majority of them. I remember one professor working late into the evening, helping me solve a particularly difficult symbolic logic set. He wanted to help me acquire the necessary disciplined thinking to be a great thinker. Another professor, just this year, spent two days she didn’t have to go through my 200 page research paper and helped improve it. She didn’t even know me that well. I have only asked her a few weeks prior because I needed an expert on this subject to examine my research. Many of my professors will never produce paradigm altering research, but they have made a profound difference on how I view and understand the world. And that is all that I ask of them.</p>
<p>BC has a different educational philosophy from the Ivies, and probably most other universities. It challenges its students to ask the big questions. No matter who you are, no matter what you study, you have to take at least four classes in philosophy and theology. This is not to indoctrinate you in the Catholic faith, but to get your to see the world as bigger than a pursuit of material comforts. Some will brush this as another requirement to fulfill, but some don’t. Needless to say, philosophy is one of the most popular major and minors at BC. It offers programs and courses like Perspective, Capstone , and Cornerstone in order to facilitate a deeper and higher thinking than just one’s self. Community service is vital part of the Boston College education. Every year thousands of students embark on tens of service trips. Some might see this as a glorified field trip, but I believe many experience something more. It’s difficult to experience absolute poverty and shrug it off. The financial Apocalypse that we are experiencing today is due largely to overwhelming greed. This is not just the greed of the Wall Street financiers, but greed from everyday people who spent without thinking about the long-term impacts it might have on their lives. An education that promotes the well being of others might be what we need right now.</p>
<p>BC has traits that many would see as undesirable, while other would laud. It’s a Catholic institution and it has a long Catholic tradition. BC, for the majority of its existence, strived to stay close to its Catholic root: being a place of learning for the under-privileged, striving to instill a moral character in its students, and teaching its students the important of faith. As our society becomes more progressive, some of these ideals seem conservative or archaic. Many students look to BC with caution because they fear of how Catholic it might be. But what they do not understand that the world is not divided in liberal or conservative camps. We are not defined by a set of agreements and disagreements. There are moral ambiguities everywhere. Being pro-life doesn’t mean you don’t believe in women’s right; being against affirmative-action doesn’t mean you are not aware of the inherent injustice in America’s racial society; and being for gay-marriage doesn’t make you an open and accepting person. The Ivy League has already decided where they fall on the political spectrum: decisively liberal, with the conservatives being a lone voice in the wilderness. BC has not, and probably never will. Although there are slightly more progressive students on campus, there is an also a very sizable number of traditional students. Because no group is in the majority or minority, there is a sense of a moral struggle. Discussions and debates are foster where there is an equal voice for both sides. Dialogues don’t mean everybody hugs at the end, but it means being equals at the table and to discuss freely without social ostracism when it’s done. </p>
<p>And finally, to answer the OP’s question, is there a Tufts syndrome at BC, I believe there is none. The main reason why a school would protect its yield is to get a higher ranking in USNews. But BC has done things that run counter to this goal and would make practicing yield-protection strategy moot. For example, BC offers the Option Through Education program for about 40-50 incoming students. The program is designed for low-income students who might not be academically prepared as the rest of the BC student body. These students usually have substantially lower SAT scores than the BC’s median (usually below the 25% percentile, I know of two cases where the SAT scores were 1500/2400). OTE students receive an incredibly amount of financial aid, up to full tuition. They also go through an intensive summer program that also cost several hundred thousand dollars to run. If you do the math, BC is spending several million dollars a year on students whose SAT scores drag down its overall average. Why? Because it’s part of its mission to educate the under-privileged. Another example is BC’s need-blind FA policy. This policy is absolutely terrible for those with means or from middle-class background, but benefits those from low-income background. As studies have shown us, those from low-income household have lower SAT and GPA than others. BC could have spent the money it gives to low-income students to entice high-achieving, but financially well-off, students to increase its yield and its SAT range. It does not.</p>
<p>reddune:</p>
<p>instead of calling it the Tuft’s syndrome (which is easily countered by demonstrated interest), I think a better question is what is it about those in the 75th percentile (3…9/2100’s+) that BC does not admit, particularly when those same students ARE admitted to several higher ranked Unis. BC does not recognize demonstrated interest. Thus, the readers only have the Common App (and recs) on which to base admissions decisions. What is BC looking for that other higher-ranked colleges are not? It seems to me that it almost has to be EC’s (but just guessing here). Is BC looking more for significant community service (outside of school)? Dedication to humanity? Philosophy classes? </p>
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<p>Note sure if it was intended, but that is Dartmouth’s motto, and they are considered the most conservative of the Ivies. :D</p>
<p>Reddune:
Thanks for your great and insightful reply. We have a S at BC. The points you make reinforce what we’re seeing through his experiences.</p>
<p>Any school that recognizes Bill Ayers to be the terrorist that he is is ok in my book.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have chosen it over some of my other acceptances…”</p>
<p>Perhaps the admissions office, with ages of practical experience, is aware of this.</p>
<p>I agree that there is a bias here. The ivies carry some old school prestige but most today know them as schools for the priviledges. I have a rich ucle who of course went to Yale and then Harvard Law. Do you guys really believe that Natalie Portman scored a 1500 on her SAT. Colleges like Duke and Stanford are more appealing to many applicants because they are not in that particular sports league (ivy league). </p>
<p>U Penn is really overrated in my opinion. Penn has good graduate programs but is nothing special as an undergraduate school. BC and some like it provide a great undergraduate education with a different type of student. I chose Georgetown over Penn for the different type of people, the greater focus on undergraduate programs, a better college EXPERIENCE with sports, parties, interesting people, etc. Research by grad school professors does nothing beneficial for the undergrads aside from some phony prestige (ask the folks at amherst or middlebury). </p>
<p>The ivy league is not going anywhere with their massive endowments but a lot of people are choosing some of the elite LACs and non-ivy peers.</p>
<p>Harry, </p>
<p>On what merits and facts makes upenn overrated?</p>
<p>Penn is the Michigan State of the Ivy League. I have known a lot of Penn Grads and most of them are morons (not one of the 8 people that I know that are penn grads were national merit finalists). Penn lies about their admission standards. The student body is horrible looking too. Their med school is good. Wharton has a good reputation but other than that it reminds me of the world’s most expensive state school.</p>
<p>^ Masterful rant, Harry. Simply masterful. You had me at *The student body is horrible looking too. *</p>
<p>LOL thats pretty comical. If Penn is michigan state BC is Bunker hill</p>