<p>I know it’s bad to be basing things off of US News Rankings, but I can’t help but notice that BC is at number 34 on the rankings, behind Brandeis, W and M, UNC, USC, Wake Forest, NYU, and UMich (all schools I feel BC is better than). Anyone have any clue why this is so? Has BC drastically jumped up the ranks in the past few years? I am asking this because I am very interested in BC and it is just as hard to get into as Cornell, JHU, Tufts, etc, and harder to get into than Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, W and M, UNC, USC, Wake Forest, NYU, and UMich. I really want to go here, but I can’t help but be irritated by apparently lower reputation of BC according to some people.</p>
<p>well, if it's what you what it's what you want. You can't really make decisions off of how someone else ranks a school. I find the whole ranking system kinda dumb anyway. The top 150 should just be called "great" and be done with it.</p>
<p>Um...no? BC as hard to get into as JHU, Cornell, and Tufts? Are you kidding? Better than NYU, UMich, and UNC? No? I think you have a misunderstanding how good of a school BC is. If you want to go to BC then go to BC, it is a great school. I don't know why you think it is as good as JHU or Cornell, because it isn't. BC's reputation is good but by no means is it particularly amazing at anything. JHU's medical is top, as well as many of its engineering programs. Cornell has an amazing engineering school. I agree with you that I don't necessarily understand W&M, Brandeis, and wake forest's high rank. But harder to get into than Carnegie Mellon? I doubt it.</p>
<p>If my perception is totally wrong, which I doubt it is, but even in that case it is a boston school. Kids from all over the country want to come to the north east, and people in the north east often want to stay. It can become overvalued like many schools that are in major cities can be. Massachusetts is one of the best states in the united sates to live in, so naturally it's colleges will be popular.</p>
<p>I don't want to offend anyone here. I love BC, and it is my number one choice right now by far, but I don't think you can really say it is just as hard to get into BC as it is for Cornell and John Hopkins. Although they have similar low acceptance rates, all you really have to do is look at SAT percentiles. According to collegeboard's site which has the most accurate numbers because they are the ones who send out the scores, BC's average is 1870-2140; JHU's is 1920-2230. Cornell's is a 1290-1500 which equates to about the same as JHU's. You can see that from these stats that most the people who get rejected from JHU and Cornell are more competitive than BC's. I probably shouldn't even be typing this because I don't want some adcom from BC to see this, but these are the numbers. Again, I would much rather go to BC than either of those two schools though, so don't get me wrong.</p>
<p>BC is an awesome school (I applied, got in, currently considering it), but as others above state, it is nowhere near as difficult to get into as cornell or hopkins, and not really academically better than Mich and those schools. W&M has also recently become a much more competitive university, so I'm not surprised it's ranked higher. I am somewhat surprised at BC's ranking, but I definitely wouldn't consider it "low."</p>
<p>JR526- congrats! Can you chance me in the do i have a chance post by superwoman? Thanks & BC definetly is not on their level but it is still a great school. But you shouldnt base your decision on that, the love of a school is much more meaningful then stats when you have to spend four years of your life there, unless you transfer of course! Good luck if your applying!</p>
<p>Well, I guess it's just that BC is really popular in my school, or BC doesn't like my school, because the average weighted gpa accepted from our school for BC is 4.31 with 1420 SAT. Cornell is 4.33 with 1431, JHU is 4.32 with 1414, Carnegie Mellon is 4.09 with 1356, Tufts is 4.30 with 1423, NYU is 4.08 with 1362. Our schools average unweighted gpa is way lower than the average school's, so maybe BC doesn't take that into account.</p>
<p>If you look at the US News "peer assessments" for BC, Georgetown, and Notre Dame, you'll see that they are all lower than the schools around them. In certain circles there still exists strong sentiment that religiousness = flawed intellect. Those who imput peer assessment ratings would seem to often be among the subculture (non-Christian intellectuals) who are especially suspect of anyone who is religious, especially Catholic. Not much any of us can do to change that.</p>
<p>Given the powerful impact of Peer Assessment scores, Georgetown, BC, and ND will all probably continue to be ranked a little below there the more objective scores would place them. About the only thing outsiders can do to help BC rankings is donate money, which helps several of the US News categories, especially the financial resources score, and "alumni giving %."</p>
<p>Touche, Tourguide!</p>
<p>Catholics cannot produce beyond a certain level of intellectual ability. They are, ipso facto, limited... much like their African American brethren used to be.</p>
<p>leanid- exactly what are you trying to say? "limited"; I understand "used to be" but that is still pretty far-fetched. As an African-American young women, that was a poor comparison.</p>
<p>Both Notre Dame and Georgetown are ranked in the top 25 by US News. Where's the bias?</p>
<p>Superwoman,</p>
<p>What I am trying to say is that both African Americans and Catholics have been the victims (and apparently still are) of discrimination by the ruling "wasp nation" (if you will). I do not need to tell you that. </p>
<p>I recognize, of course, that the former have suffered far worse (and far longer) mistreatment than the latter have. I hope I have not offended you by implying that it was an equal comparison. It's similar in that it is discrimination based on prejudice -- only that.</p>
<p>Catholic intellectualism is hardly an issue. In the western world, outside of the fact that the political establishment (body, if you will) of the Catholic church was responsible for some pretty weird stuff, the Jesuits were up for a good deal of philosophical inquisitiveness. The peer assessments are not based on religious attitudes any more than they are on intellectual flexibility--if that were the case, I would think Brandeis or Yeshiva universities would be ranked higher than they are. Clearly, the results of peer assessments are ridiculous at the outset. Who do you think makes those assessments? On what are they based? "Oh, Stanley Fish is at Duke! I liked that essay he wrote on Milton, hence Duke has gone up in my assessment!" What a bunch of B/S! Usnwr is a joke. People who pay attention to it are the butts of that joke. Get a grip on reality. The stars are falling tonight.</p>
<p>leanid- o, I'm sorry; I definetly interpreted that completely wrong. I think it's because I go to a 99 % caucasian school & every word out of someone's mouth to me or my race in general is negative...so I have to always be aware of what people say. Sorry! But that is true!</p>
<p>I think the ranking is pretty deserving to be honest. We're a great school, not an excellent one. There's a lot that we're missing as a campus...no engineering, no dental school, no medical school... research isn't that phenomenal.</p>
<p>What undergraduate departments do we really excel in? CSOM is great but if you're not a finance or an accounting major, then it's not worth it. A&S has a plethora of majors but none that makes people say, "I'm going to BC for so and so major so I can be taught by so and so professor."</p>
<p>Generally, people who choose to go to BC see it as a great school for the overall experience. It's not like if you go to BC, you're going to have a terrible time. Most people who graduate from BC don't have regrets. Neither, do I.</p>
<p>I heard someone a few posts ago say that BC is easier to get into than Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>I think it really depends also on what kind of school you're from. For example, I go to one of the top public schools in NJ, and if you look at our records, College Admission Profiles, and Naviance graphs of our former graduating classes, you'll see that kids who got accepted into BC have MUCH higher GPA and scores than those getting into Carnegie.</p>
<p>BC about 4.35
as opposed to Carnege 4.01</p>
<p>and it seems like BC is a lot pickier too. Thats just my opinion. Anyway, both are really great schools, though I love BC and would do anything to go there.</p>
<p>Rankings are so dumb, but whether we like it or not, too many people look at them and base decisions on it.</p>
<p>BC is a very good school, just not a "great" one. The OP is terribly misinformed if he/she thinks that it is on the same par with JHU, Cornell or Tufts. It just isn't, plain and simple. It is, however, a very good school that offers a very good education and active social life with all its athletic events. Living in this area, most of us are well aware there are much academically stronger schools (Harvard, MIT, Tufts).</p>
<p>Eh, I guess you can say that I am misinformed. I just get misled because the stats are so similar for acceptances into BC as those top schools that I always put them on par with each other. In addition, I know some insanely smart kids who go there, including one who was waitlisted from Yale and accepted to Cornell/Brown, but decided to go to BC.</p>
<p>Eh, I'd say they are on par in a more general sense. I honestly believe that the big name schools don't offer a better education than other excellent schools. A big name might attract a big name professor for a course or too. The students might score a little higher, and you might get better networking, but honestly</p>
<p>What is about Havard that makes a Org. Chem. class on some astronomical order greater than the same class at BC? or any other good school</p>
<p>Harvard is known to not be a great academic experience compared to its peers.</p>