<p>^ I didn’t say BC is a new ivy. What I meant is BC is almost on the same boat as Ivies. Ivy league will never be expanded, at least not in our lifetime. But what the news medias are trying to say is, not only ivies give you the best education. There are schools like BC, Tufts, GW who are providing same quality education, social life, athletics programs as the ivies do.</p>
<p>And in some cases, SRB2006, they do it even better.</p>
<p>According to some quick research I have just done, Harvard has one of the lowest undergraduate satisfaction rates of any major university in the country. </p>
<p>So, ranking isn’t always as important as one may think.</p>
<p>I agree but there really isn’t anything new about it. The Ivy League still draws a lot of applications and interest but there have been uducational equals around for a long time now. Ivies tend to appeal to a different type than BC does. I applied to a couple ivies but never had any real interest in attending. The applications were more a measuring stick for how I compared with other applicants.</p>
<p>^ True, but I think it’s because Ivies often tend to accept students with lower SATs and a lot more diverse than BC is. </p>
<p>XX55XX totally agree with you. I looked at some of the reviews on **************.com/ and Harvard students are really unhappy about how the school operates. They were complaining about how they don’t get any help from the school stuffs, professors, rich kids tend to show off, etc.</p>
<p>Do a Google on students review to get to that web site.</p>
<p>Nice link SRB2006m @ #39. Thanks.</p>
<p>Regarding your comment (@#44) about Harvard student compaints at the (redacted) website: I always view those sites with a small grain of salt because most rating sites (this applies to consumer goods, colleges, books, whatever) tend to attract the extreme views on the topic. In the case of service reviews like the website you reference in #44, I tend to think the truly disgruntled always tend to be the most likely to go there to vent, and so may create the impression that there are a lot of gripes about the school or its environment.</p>
<p>But aside from that statistical note, I can only say that what I have seen at Harvard (and a couple of other Ivies), may indicate that the students are left more to their own devices when it comes to navigating the processes at the school, when compared to some of the other schools that are being discussed above. The flip side argument, of course, is “Well, Ivy students are smater and more motivated so they don’t need their hands held as much”, which may in many cases be true. But if a student wants a more deterministic or nurturing or unabashedly-undergrad focused environment, I think it is somewhat safe to say that Ivies may not be the first place one would look for such an experience. After 4 years at an Ivy, you may be more likely to develop the skills necessary to function in a more frenetic or non-deerministic envirnment, but the path there for some may be less enjoyable than the alternative.</p>
<p>End of my ramble…</p>
<p>Duke:</p>
<p>Most studies of student satisfaction rate H low; perhaps it’s probably one reason that H refuses to publish the results of the annula COFI survey? Two Ivies that are a LOT more nurturing are the small ones, Dartmouth and Brown, which act more like large LACs.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that reviews are skewed by expectations. People tend to be tougher in their ratings of higher end products. College satisfaction ratings are probably no different. For example, when someone pays $90k on a Range Rover and they rate it a 3.5 and others rate their Hundai a 4.5 it doesn’t prove the Hundai is better. (I am not comparing BC to a Hundai by the way - just an example). When you pay a lot and you enter with high expectaions you are going to be more critical of the perceived failings of an institution.</p>
<p>Of course, but it’s all relative. The simple fact is that folks matriculate to H (and all Ivies) with high hopes/expectations and those hopes are dashed at H, but not necessarily at other Ivies…</p>
<p>Yes, bluebayou, I am familiar with Brown in particular (I got in there this year, although I’m not going there, and got a close up look several times) and I found it to have a small-college feel unlike the feeling at HYC, and sometimes P.</p>
<p>But I also still got the “you’re smart enough to figure this out” vibe at Brown, moreso than at places like BC, Tufts, even Georgetown. As I stated, this is not an indictment, since there are pluses and minuses to creating an environment that provides more guardrails or less. Harvard famously works very hard to keep you there once you’re in – providing tutoring and counseling for whatever level of support you need – but the anecdotals say that you may be more likely to end up needing that help due to feeling adrift more often than not. But this is, of course, all hearsay and opinion, this being the web and all…</p>
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<p>Not to mention the best grade inflation outside of Providence!</p>
<p>Duke: I don’t think Harvard provides as much tutoring as they claim to be. Two of my cousins are at Harvard at this very moment and they always complain how the professors are always busy with their own work, and little time for their students. They expect their students to figure out everything by themselves. (which I would say good in some cases) </p>
<p>The only reason they are there is because of the grade inflation which would be helpful for them to get into good med schools.</p>
<p>^ Not what I want to read if I’m about to go into surgery. </p>
<p>I thought grade inflation was an issue in general at colleges. Not sure where BC fits in that regard, but my dad is an engineer and he says that when he went to school it was common (for engineers anyway) to have B/B- cums like 2.7 or 2.9 and feel like they were holding their own. A 2.9 these days would probably indicate some major dysfunction, I assume.</p>
<p>Have a friend at H who got a 37 on an economics test which ended up being a B. You all can be the judge of that.</p>
<p>uh… fenton, that proves nothing, some tests in my math classes at BC average to around a 50, which curved to about an 80, which over the long run, curved to about a B+, while i’ve also been in accounting classes where over 25 percent of the kids got 90+, if the material is too hard and everybody fails, i think a humongous curve is justified, and BC students dont like to admit to it but there is at least some grade inflation at BC, particularly in CSOM</p>
<p>Okay, I’m a high school senior. I dont go to Penn, BC, Harvard, Yale, OOORRR Georgetown… So i’ve earned the right to speak without bias. Penn is not that good of a school, im sorry. BUUUT, Wharton is still the best of the best and that’s a fact. Disregarding the business schools (keep in mind that BC’s Caroll is still very prestiguous), BC is definitely comparable to Penn. Penn’s Wharton is much better than Caroll but still… </p>
<p>My point is: Penn is NOT LIGHT YEARS ahead of BC. It’s just slightly/comparably better.</p>
<p>Lobzz i have to disagree with you. BC and Penn are not comparable not only are the philosophy’s of both schools completely different but virtually every Penn program is ranked highly in the country. Penn is superior to BC academically. BC has a fairly decent business school that is ranked mid tier.</p>
<p>so why isnt BC accepting ppl off waitlist? there are a handful of ppl still waiting…</p>
<p>Seriously folks, this thread has gone on long enough. Everyone has their own personal feeling about each respective school. You are guys are not going to change anyone’s mind because you think one particular aspect of the institution is great. The word university’s root is totality (as in the universe). There are thousands of things that make a university for one person and wrong for the next. I am not sure that if I attend BC right now instead of four years ago that my experience will be the same. In the long run, the university that offers that most attractive benefits to the most students will win out. Who had heard of Stanford a hundred years ago or BC forty years ago?</p>
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<p>I’m no fan of Penn or BC but the BB IB where I was an analyst recruited from both schools, so I would submit that you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not saying Wharton and BC are at the same level but many BC grads get good jobs too.</p>