<p>What would you change about BU …academics/dorms/campus/ etc.? What are the things you don’t like? (Please no comments about the weather!!!)</p>
<p>More of a sense of place; the campus strings out along Comm Ave and the T runs down the middle so it's a real divider except at crossings. The dorms are variable in size and quality, so can't really say. They're supposedly building two new ones in the next few year at StuVi. Most people don't like the strict guest policy. The campus could use a larger area where people would cross and run into each other. It would be great if they decked over the sunken area of the turnpike to make a park. </p>
<p>More of a sense of pride. BU is a very good school but it's automatically compared negatively to Harvard and MIT. It's like if NYU were next to Columbia so people would always be comparing.</p>
<p>except noone cares about columbia, even if it is an ivy! lol. nyu all the way!</p>
<p>This forum has become absolutely stupid. I don't know why I bother.</p>
<p>The Hyatt for housing in the fall was less than desirable. Worrying about packing things up during finals week was an extra hassle and then waiting for said items to be delivered to new dorm room after winter break was also less than convenient. DD did make some great friends at the Hyatt, she was sad to leave them in the end- now they are all spread across campus.</p>
<p>most people like living in the hyatt & don't think it's too much of a hassel. you get a free t-pass, discount room service, a pool & exercise room to use ... plus the shuttle is really convenient. second semester you also get your first choice of housing ... i have yet to meet anyone to complain about the hyatt or any other hotel. also, seniors are given the choice to live in hotels/the hyatt and the rest of the space is used for incoming freshmen & transfers.</p>
<p>academics - it's hard, but not to hard. classes are challenging but then again it's college so classes aren't going to be easy.
food - i like the food & the staff are super nice. the only bad thing is the weekend food because i think they don't care what we eat on the weekend & the main staff people are off so of course the food is worse.
dorms - they're nice, excluding west because i personally hate west.
campus - there is a campus, it may be in a line about half a mile long ... but it's there. i like it. if i wanted an enclosed campus i would've went to some suburban school</p>
<p>i'm biased about bu and i work in admissions [talking to perspective students about whatever & their families] so it's hard to think of things i hate. i hate the fact only 2.6% of the population is black ... i'm always the only black girl in class but other than that ... i love it.</p>
<p>here's a relevant thread:</p>
<p>and i'll also add to my previous post on that thread:</p>
<ul>
<li>most things in boston shut down by 2 am, which is relatively early for a major city</li>
<li>the boston T subway can get annoying and inconsistent, and its fare is higher now ($1.70)</li>
<li>in general, things in boston are a little expensive</li>
</ul>
<p>The dorms in BU are not the best you'd get. For freshman, you'd most likely to live in Warren/Towers/West, which all look like prison after you move in.
In Warren Towers/ West Campus, you almost feel like you are living in China/Japan because it's crowded as hell. It's almost always a problem when you go dining in either campus because it's hard to find a seat.</p>
<p>The construction works around campus start at 6a.m., so if you don't mind the sound of jackhammers that early, then dark rooms and small living space shouldn't be a problem for you.</p>
<p>Also, some classes in BU are notorious for their nasty curves. It's best to go to ratemyprofessors.com to check out your professors before you take certain classes. If anybody would like to take a pre-med killer class, try Dr. H. Fernandez's MA124/127. Then you'd know the definition of a nasty curve.</p>
<p>My kid lived in a small dorm, really a brownstone, near Kenmore. If you don't select to live with your group - as in a COM floor, a CGS floor - then you may end up not in a big dorm. A bunch of Hyatt kids, including freshman, got singles 2nd term. You can keep that room the next year. Actually, the way housing works, you can keep your room, see what's open in your dorm or move elsewhere in BU. People switch a lot, either by a thing called direct swap or a pull-in where one person leaves and you can grab a friend into your room.</p>
<p>Also, the construction is to make the sidewalks and median of Comm Ave more attractive. BU has been pushing the work along rather than let it sit through the winter, so it will be done much sooner. BUT they will be starting on new dorms behind StuVi so there's always construction.</p>
<p>There is virtually no academic advising available to students outside of CAS about CAS classes. I was screwed by this in my first semester: I signed up for an ethics class with the chair of the philosophy department, a well known scholar of Enlightenment virtue ethics, only to discover that it was 90% SMG and COM kids who were required to take a philo course... it was three months of misery...
The facilities in CFA are inadequate, and the Mugar library fell into neglect under the interim president.</p>
<p>Other than that, and the very existence of CGS, I like BU!</p>
<p>My kid took that same ethics class and absolutely loved it. The tests were rigorous and required not only preparation but real understanding. Did very well. BU is a teaching school and the profs are receptive to kids. Went to office hours, got to know the professor a little, met with TA to work out issues about the grading. </p>
<p>CFA needs an overhaul. It's #1 on the new plan.</p>
<p>This</a> article in the Daily Free Press highlights the grading issue that keeps coming up. In brief, there's no policy and some professors curve and others don't and it varies by department. </p>
<p>One issue is that BU, being a large school, is not a deeply intellectual place. That's a function of size. This is not U of Chicago.</p>
<p>I believe someone above mentioned this, but if you're African-American, you will be 1 of like 120 in each class. That may not be a comfortable environment especially since Boston has a relatively small African-American population and they aren't particularly visible in the BU part of town. Boston is no longer a racist haven, so I'm talking about comfort not safety or discrimination.</p>
<p>extremely expensive, I mean check out that application fee : $90? FTW?</p>
<p>i agree:
- CFA needs a better building.
- Blacks are way too under-represented.
- getting good grades may be harder at BU than at most other colleges. it's starting to get well-known though, so perhaps grad school admissions officers will know that your B or even C is equal to someone else's A at another college.</p>
<p>i disagree:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>BU dorms are like prisons.
not quite. during your freshman year, you'll most likely live at one of the big dorms. don't expect luxury, but in no way are you going to be living in a prison. unless you're extremely picky, i doubt you'll hate your dorm. i lived in a triple at west last year (freshman year) and liked it enough to pick it again for this year. i know dozens of sophomores and even a few juniors who picked west again. my friend's friend who came to visit from another college was very jealous of BU's housing (and of course food too).</p></li>
<li><p>it's hard to find seats in dining halls.
even when i'm with a few friends, i've never had to look for a seat for more than 5 minutes. sometimes during peak lunch and dinner hours, you'll just have to keep an eye out for who's about to leave. for a school with over 16,000 undergrads, we need bigger dining halls, but it's not a huge deal, nor should it discourage anyone from coming to BU.</p></li>
<li><p>there's no CAS advising for non-CAS students.
i think that's true, but if you email the department heads or stop by at their offices, they'll be willing to answer your questions.</p></li>
<li><p>charles griswold's ethics course is miserable.
different people have different tastes. griswold is a well-known scholar listed in some college review guides as one of the nation's top philosophy professors. i took his ethics course because i read about that. it was pretty tough and i didn't even do that well, but his course was one of the top 5 best classes i've taken in my life. it inspired me enough to be a philosophy minor.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Lergnom, re: PH 150, I respectfully disagree about there being either rigor or depth to the course (I did very well in it as well).</p>
<p>No prob, but this is why ratemyprofessor is not all that useful. Some people like a course, some people hate the work - you get a whole range of opinion, even about the most respected teachers. That's also why these boards are not that informative for a high school kid; you're making a decision with the illusion that you know what a school is like when the truth is you won't know until you're there and then only when you settle in because your opinions change.</p>
<p>My son says he would change is the freshmen dorms (Warren. Towers. West) as the rooms are (in his opinion) substandard for the cost. To be honest, we, the parents, agree. </p>
<p>And as a CFA student he fully agrees...the building needs a major overhaul, and the musicians need a decent performance space. And the practice rooms...ugh.</p>
<p>All that said, overall, he would choose BU again if he were applying today.</p>