Which is harder to get in: BU or Boston College?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>“BC is an excellent school, but claiming that Tufts is somehow less is silly.”</p>

<p>Nobody is claiming this.</p>

<p>“I think judging things on names and PA scores is silly.”</p>

<p>You certainly see a lot of silliness around you. PA scores have their flaws, but so do the overall scores (which include things like alumni giving %). PA scores are very subjective, but they at least attempt to reveal schools’ ACADEMIC reputations among people at the top of the higher education pyramid. You can call them silly all day long, but year after year they rank Tufts and BC about equal.</p>

<p>As for the name “Tufts,” nobody is claiming that it has any direct impact on the school’s academic quality, but if you check the threads on college names that people don’t like, it doesn’t seem to help the school’s popularity. Jostling for position with BC on the Boston-area higher education totem pole, I don’t see how you can doubt that a name with such widespread negatives can be a detriment.</p>

42

<p>I don’t see a connection with not being in Boston relates to being forgotten. Remember, MIT and Harvard are also not in Boston. Yet the redline goes through the heart of Boston. Look at the map:</p>

<p><a href=“http://mirror-in-bom1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/places-and-sights/_more2003/_more02/US-MA-Boston-MBTA-Massachusetts-Bay-Transport-Authority-subway-Transit-map-and-tokens-JR.jpg[/url]”>http://mirror-in-bom1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/places-and-sights/_more2003/_more02/US-MA-Boston-MBTA-Massachusetts-Bay-Transport-Authority-subway-Transit-map-and-tokens-JR.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Do you see where BC is? Do you see all the dots on that green line? Now compare that with the redline. Yeah, BC straddles Boston, but it’s the very outskirts.</p>

<p>I also wouldn’t call Tufts boring seeing how Princeton Review ranks it 14th for happiest. If people were bored, they would not be happy (and if happiness was derived from other schools, then you would notice them having high reports of well-being).</p>

<p>Yet a the end of the day, you are right, it’s all about fit and preference. BC is a gorgeous campus and obviously has a good sports team which makes games fun. You are smart to choose people’s preferences and people should visit both to see what’s best for them.</p>

<p>As for PA, it’s not high academics who vote. In theory it should be, in practice, it isn’t. Here is proof:</p>

<p>[News:</a> Reputation Without Rigor - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/19/rankings]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/19/rankings)</p>

<p>You will also find Wake Forest having a low PA score. Besides, those aren’t the people hiring for jobs. It’s sad that PA has turned into a “Game” or people just ignore it and give it to their secretaries like that article states. Heck, PA scores now encompass High School counselors. Tufts is tied 19th with U of Chicago and Vandy. BC is 22nd tied with good schools like Wash U and USC. Should these be valid? No? Because they are high school counselors? I think PA is stupid because it is not only subjective and arbitrary, but it’s addressed to people who don’t matter. I don’t care at all if an academic finds any school awesome or not, but I do care about employers. Just my opinion, of course (HA!).</p>

<p>Also, I am pretty sure a name isn’t a reason why the majority of people don’t/do apply to a college. If it really comes down to that for our generation, may God have mercy on their souls.</p>

<p>I also don’t think Tufts and BC are competing on the Boston Totem pole. BC has always been between the 30-40’s range and Tufts has always been in the 22-29 range. Tufts is part of the brain power triangle, the red-line schools which encompass Harvard, MIT, and Tufts. Tufts admits smart kids with scores that are at par with ivies. Hence why it’s a little ivy. BC is a great school and I think for some people, it’s perfect and you will get an excellent education. I just think your reasons for BC working it’s way up are premised on things like PA scores (Which kind of are mute if they are viewed by people who don’t matter and/or in the same range), or the name sounding funny. Though I agree with you that rankings are inherently flawed (i agree on alumni giving rate as being reallllly stupid). The Times Ranking of world universities put Tufts 53rd in the world. These rankings are supposedly based on “objective” material like the contribution of professors in the academia/with papers, etc.</p>

43

<p>Surprising, at least to me, was how similar the numbers are between Tufts and BC. Tufts beats BC on PA & student quality (a little) and $$ factors (a lot). But yet I consider them extremely dissimilar colleges. :D</p>

<p>USNews’ Criteria: Tufts/BC</p>

<p>PA: 3.6/3.5
Grad/retention rank: 19/19
Frosh retention: 96%/96%
Faculty resources rank: 24/55
Classes <20: 73%//47%
Classes 50+: 5%/8%
Student/faculty ratio: 7:1/13:1
% faculty full time: 86%/76%
Test scores 75th%: 1500/1430
Top 10% of class: 85%/80%
Acceptance rate: 26%/26%
Financial resources rank: 31/67
Alumni giving: 33%/35%</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>PA is all relative. If the ‘Dean/Janitor/Secretary’ scores Harvard at a 5.0, she/he can’t give the same score to Tufts/BC/Wake. PA also tends to reward research powerhouses, particularly those with large science programs. Thus, schools like Wake (the smallest Uni outside of Dartmouth), Tufts (which is LAC-like), and BC (which has a lot of pre-professional undergrads), lose PA points.</p>

<p>Since PA is relative, if Tufts/Wake were to move up, whose PA would they supplant?</p>

44

<p>The acceptance rate is wrong. Tufts is 24.5 for class of 2014 and BC is 31%. For last year, Tufts had 27% and BC had 30%.</p>

45

<p>I’m just reading what was in last year’s USNews hardcopy. Obviously, numbers change constantly; but regardless, 27%/30% is still pretty close. Moreover, since Tufts has ED, it can lock in a higher yield with that group. Thus, should be able to accept fewer in RD…</p>

<p>btw: since neither school publishes their common data set, I’m a non-beleiver in the complete and total accuracy of the numbers on their web sites. (‘Trust, but verify’ hahaha)</p>

46

<p>Weird. Because last year online US news said 27% and 30%. Acceptance rate includes people in ED. They take the total so it doesn’t make a difference. BC has about 30000 people apply and they accept about 9000. Tufts has about 15000 apply and accepts about 3300.</p>

47

<p>Actually, ED can make a difference in overall acceptance rate. Taking Tufts '14, for example: </p>

<p>According to their website, they accepted 3757 for a class of 1316, for a 35% overall yield. However, that includes a 99% yield of ED’ers. If we assume that 1000 apps were ED and the ED acceptance rate was 50% (just for example’s sake), then 500 slots of the class are already full. Thus, Tufts is looking to fill 816 additional beds. Those 816 beds are filled in the RD pool, which is 14,433 (15,543-1000 ED) applicants. With an assumed 25% yield for RD, Tufts would have to accept 3264 RD apps, or 22% (3264/14433). If ED goes up, RD acceptance rates have to go down and vice versa.</p>

48

<p>BC’s campus will be even more “gorgeous” if and when its master plan is completed.</p>

49

<p>I get your math. But I believe the assumption is wrong. I believe when they do acceptance rates, they combine the total number of applicants (ED or not ED). Yield is irrelevant because people who actually enroll a. doesn’t matter as it’s not a factor in rankings or whatever/there is no incentive and b. doesn’t play a role in acceptance rates. Acceptance rates are just:</p>

<h1>accepted/#applied X 100. What gets skewed is when you have schools who have a bunch of applicants yet their spots are small. This is why some schools have low acceptance rates. It’s a distortion. Why? Because you have schools that have 30K applicants versus schools with 15K applicants. So the denominator is larger, and thus, the acceptance rate is smaller.</h1>

<p>When in reference to ED (and even EA), schools take the total number who accepted (this means the sum of RD and ED/EA) and divide it by the total number that applied (again, this means the sum of RD and ED/EA).</p>

<p>USNWR give their definition:</p>

<p>“Acceptance rate: The ratio of the number of students admitted to the number of applicants for fall 2009 admission. The acceptance rate is equal to the TOTAL number of students admitted divided by the TOTAL number of applicants. Both the applications and acceptances counted only first-time, first-year students. A lower acceptance rate scores higher in the ranking model and a higher acceptance rate scores lower.”</p>

<p>Thus, it’s in aggregate.</p>

50

<p>This thread was about BC and BU, now it has become BC/Tufts and BU/Northeastern.</p>

<p>I would put it this way, if I had to:
Tufts
BC
Northeastern
BU</p>

<p>But really, it should be:
Tufts/BC
Northeastern/BU</p>

51

<p>“Also, I am pretty sure a name isn’t a reason why the majority of people don’t/do apply to a college. If it really comes down to that for our generation, may God have mercy on their souls.”</p>

<p>I’d say a school’s name is a big part of why people pick a college. Have you read any of the numerous threads about college names or odd reasons students refused to apply to certain schools? Lots of sane people cringe at the sound of certain names. The school name will be on every resume they ever submit, and will be rolling off their tongue in thousands of conversations…it will be in their wedding announcement and in their obituary.</p>

<p>Given the vast number of colleges in the US, many kids have dozens of schools that suit their needs, so I don’t think it is deplorable that somebody would use the name of a school as a major criterion to pick Rochester over Harvey Mudd, or Boston University over Case Western Reserve. And among people I know, few are wild about the word “Tufts.”</p>

52

<p>Branding is an important part of these universities, especially in a city with five or six of the best universities in the country all within a 50 mile radius of one another.</p>

53

<p>Tufts has very highly statted students in relation to its USNWR ranking of 28:</p>

<p>CR+M 25/75 Ivies+MIT+WashU+Caltech+Tufts:</p>

<p>Caltech: 1515
H/Y/P: 1485-1495
MIT: 1470
WashU: 1460
Tufts: 1450
D/C/B/P/Cornell (CAS only): 1425-1445</p>

<p>Based only on the SAT stats, Tufts would be ranked somewhere around 7-8 in USNWR.</p>

<p>The real question isn’t the admission rates, which as has been mentioned by many posters is a ratio dependent upon # of applicants, but this: A person at the 50% at BC in terms of SAT and GPA: what chance does that applicant have of getting admitted to Tufts, and vice versa. I think the Tufts ave. admit would get into BC 75% of the time, and the BC ave. admit would get into Tufts 25% of the time.</p>

<p>Back to the original question, I guesstimate the ave. BC admit would get into BU 85% of the time, and the ave BU admit would get into BC 25% of the time.</p>

54

<p>“The real question isn’t the admission rates, which as has been mentioned by many posters is a ratio dependent upon # of applicants, but this: A person at the 50% at BC in terms of SAT and GPA: what chance does that applicant have of getting admitted to Tufts, and vice versa.”</p>

<p>No, I’d say the “real” question is which college can make you a smarter and better person at 22 than you were at 18. I would like to hear about something that the faculty at Tufts knows that their counterparts in the same subjects at BC can’t quite comprehend.</p>

55

<p>I am pretty sure the faculty at any good school are going to know the same amount considering that they mostly all have PHD’s in their respective fields(This doesn’t relate so much to students from 18 to 22). At the end of the day, I would argue that what you make out of college, whether it’s with professors or your academic peers, is going to be most beneficial. Hence why fit is best: if you really like a school, you will most likely do well because you enjoy the environment. Fit doesn’t entail what other people perceive about a University, but rather what you feel you can derive out of particular school.</p>

56

<p>^ I agree, but I wouldn’t discount name recognition. BC seems to have a significant reputation in that regard, at least when compared to Tufts, Northeastern and BU.</p>

57

<p>^^ I was not answering a question the OP did not ask… I was answering OPs question about whether it is harder to get into BU or BC, along with BC vs. Tufts which got roped in along the way.</p>

<p>If the question is which school is a better fit for OP, that’s another issue.</p>

58

<p>My point is that Tufts, Northeastern, BC, BU, Georgetown, and whatever all have name recognition. They are all good schools and you will get a good education regardless. Might as well just pick a place that makes you happy. It’s not like going to BU will mean you will never be successful. At the same time, just because you go to Dartmouth or something, doesn’t mean you will be some hot shot. Do certain schools perhaps offer more opportunities than others? Probably to some extent. Yet I am a firm believer that you can make the most out of anything. Once you start comparing good schools, fit is what matters. Because with fit you will probably do well, and attract employers who matter more than college counselors, people on CC, or college Presidents.</p>

59

<p>agreed…</p>