Why is Boston College ranked so low?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
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<p>I was in Boston over break and decided to check out a few schools (Harvard, BC, Tufts and Brandeis … my dad and I will do the real “East Coast Trip” this summer). I absolutely fell in love with BC. Seems like exactly what I’m looking for (size, campus, proximity to a great city, community/spirit, etc). I actually liked it even more than Harvard, though I will still probably apply there. My problem might be superficial, but I wanted to get a read on what people think … I’m pretty sure I could get in (decent shot at least) but I’d feel better if it were ranked higher.</p>

<p>(sorry for the repost, but figured it was appropriate for the BC page)</p>

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<p>It's in the top 40--and it's really great. With so many good schools out there, not everyone can be in the top 10, and it will be hard to bump the Ivies. Don't worry about the rankings, because it is really about the best fit! Our kids could care less about the Ivies because they want different things in a school, including great athletics so there is a lot of social activity around games and a super school spirit. You will definitely find that at BC! And for being a good athletic school, it is one of the highest ranked division 1 schools academically--they get very high marks for their athletes graduating, and not getting put on academic probation. They have excellent programs in so many areas, an ever-increasing number of applicants--this year was a record #, so their admit rate is getting lower and lower, with the quality of the applicants getting better and better. It was a pretty rough year for getting into BC. Our D LOVES it, and hopefully you'll recognize that you really have to feel good about the school you choose!</p>

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<p>If you check the history of BC, you would notice that BC is relative new on the "prestigious" scene. Twenty to thirty years ago, BC is only known within the North East community and doesn't have much brand name outside. However, during the famous Thanksgiving BC v. Miami game (which BC won), which introduce BC to the world and create the famous "Flutie Factor" (google this) From then on BC begin to receive more applications and gain more noriety. BC has rise through out the year, in 2001 BC rank at 40th, at 2002 at 38th and now at 2004 at 37th. Although ranking from the U.S. News is controversial, it does show the growing fame of BC. The new President, John Mahoney is really pushing to get the Name BC out there and gain greater fame. I wouldn't be suprise if when I leave BC it would be on the top 20th. With this aside, BC is a fantastic school as you already find out, dont let superficial thing like ranking worry you. Good luck on your college hunting</p>

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<p>I really don't know whether this is the truth or not but when I talked to one of their current students, they said it was because BC truly is a "college" and doesn't offer a comprehensive list of college majors. For example, they don't have a Med school and they said if schools offer more departments, their rankings go up.</p>

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<p>Hey thanks for the input.
I also got the impression that BC is rising, though I'd question wether it can climb 13+ spots in four years. As for the "Flutie Factor," I'd actaully never heard of it but a Google search turned up an interesting article (in BC's alumni magazine no less) that discredits the theory.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bc.edu/publications/bcm/spring_2003/ll_phenomenology.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bc.edu/publications/bcm/spring_2003/ll_phenomenology.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I'm curious to know what others think about this (I'll post it on a general board). As for not having a Med school, I'm not sure how/if thats relevant. I'm still undecided as to a major, but will probably choose something in the humanities so a generally strong liberal arts curriculum is key. BC's core seems to fit the bill, but I'm not sure I could justify spending $40,000+ on a school thats not even in the top 20.</p>

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<p>OK, A.) Not having Med is very key, if i understand it correctly US News factors in cash in those rankings. BC can not compete with schools who have enormous research facilities ad receive tons of money from comapnies alumni etc. So not having certain departments actually is quite relevant.</p>

<p>B.) You will be hard pressed to find any colleges in the top 40 with good Humanities, IE liberal arts lower than $40,000.</p>

<p>In the end though you need to go with what you like...put in the work and you will suceed no matter where you go. I wouldnt read to deeply into ranknigs because, for example Brown, top 20, is right near my house and i truly believe that it is not half what it is billed up to be....go with whichever you can see yourself at.</p>

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<p>If I remember correctly BC has always been in the top 50 schools ever since USNews started their rankings. It is a great school with incoming stats of its freshman class climbing every year. Heck, they have beaten ND in football the last 5 times they have played them.</p>

<p>However, do not look just at reputation. Look for the programs that you are interested in. For example, if you want to study engineering do not go to BC, there is no engineering school. If you want to study German, there may not be a better place to go in the US. Their German program produces a very high percentage of competitive scholars every year, i.e. Fulbrights.</p>

<p>While I am writing, I need to correct a few mistakes made by Reddune, John Mahoney is not the president of the school, he is the admissions director. Father Leahy is the president. Further, their USNews ranking has not been raised significantly over the years but it is moving up some.</p>

<p>Going forward, BC sees their controversial move to the ACC as beneficial to the school because it will get them significant exposure in a region that is growing demographically, the south. Further, the ACC shares research dollars among the schools unlike the Big East. It should be interesting to watch how this move will impact their progress going forward.</p>

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<p>Replying about the Flutie Factor:
I read the same article on the alumni magazine, but you got to know whose point of view you are reading. An alumni magazine not going to validate a theory that would make BC's accomplisments (and it is wonderful accomplishments) depending on a sport game. I, myself, dont believe the Flutie Factor is the main reason for BC explosive rise, it might be an inition, but not the key element.</p>

<p>Few of us could justify spending $40,000 on anything. Ranking from U.S. News is very superficial and poorly represent some of the great institutions out there. They merely outline "prestigious" standing among the elites, but doesn't bring depth or provide cohesive and relevant informations that a college students might need. Go visit schools and find out what they offering you, find the school that fit your need, not your vanity, the best. </p>

<p>Another tidbit information is that there are more CEOs that graduate dfrom unknown schools then from the Ivies. It was an April article from (of all places) U.S. News and World Report. Ivies, or the equivalent schools, monopoly on CEOs and intellects is slowly slipping away, they continuing to lose standing among the mover and shaker out there.</p>

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<p>Eagle79 is correct, i apologize for the mistake.</p>

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<p>Reddune -</p>

<p>"They merely outline "prestigious" standing among the elites"</p>

<p>You make a good point and it is the issue I have with the USNews rankings, 25% of the ranking is based upon a "peer assessment" score. I guess that number is important to some degree but 25% of the overall score? Go through the rankings and note what kind of impact on the rankings it would have if any of the top 50 Catholic schools, BC, ND, Georgetown, had higher reputational rankings.</p>

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<p>The top schools in US News don't fluctuate that much from year to year. As you get further down the list, there tends to be more fluctuation. If a school in the 40-50 range raises $30 million from alumni, that might shoot its stock up a fair amount. At a school in the top 10, that money won't do anything. Let's not get too ambitious here. US News rankings can be misleading anyhow because they rely too heavily on endowment. Brown is behind WashU St. Louis for instance, even though most experts would agree the level of students and overall education and opportunity at Brown is higher than WashU. BC is one of the top 60-70 schools in the country, including small liberal arts colleges. And by no means, as trevian extrapolates, will BC be anywhere near the top 20 in a couple years. That's way too ambitious. BC is narrowly ahead of schools like Lehigh and URochester (both #38). That's a far far cry from the likes of Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, and Rice that hover at the back of the top 20. BC is a good school, let's leave it at that. It's not prestigious like Harvard, or sunny like Miami, or have a primarily academic reputation like Tufts its neighbor; but it's a good school for above average students. Can anybody be satisfied with plain old good anymore? </p>

<p>Secondly, BC is getting more applications and "rising" year by year, without question. But so are all the other schools. Every year more and more students are applying to more and more colleges and the result is smaller admit rates and more competitive admissions procedures for almost every school. I can guarantee that over the past 10 years, admit rates at every single college in the top 25 have gone down, and endowments have gone up. That's just the nature of the beast. From a relative standpoint, BC is just keeping pace. And one last thing, it isn't "why is BC ranked so low", it's "why is BC ranked so high?" Low would be #1, high would be #40....a low ranking is a good thing.</p>

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<p>collegeman makes some good points. However, I suspect that BC may climb a bit more going forward, similar to USC climbing over the last 10 years. The reason I suspect this will happen is a change of conferences, improved school economics and peer assessments.</p>

<p>I dis agree with collegeman on the increase in apps and stats. While it is generally true that all schools have gone up, BC and a number of other have gone up by more than the average. The demographics will enable the trend to continue until 2010 then it will be interesting to watch what happens . . .</p>

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<p>hey eagle. This is really random, but I read that your bro in law got into some really great law schools. </p>

<p>did he do anything absolutely amazing? im trying to evaluate where I should stand in terms of choosing a law school...even though its still a few years away. </p>

<p>thanks!</p>

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<p>I initially read this post, and decided not to contribute mainly because I find most "ranking" threads useless. But I'm obliged to respond to a few of collegeman's comments ...</p>

<p>US News rankings dont rely on endowment at all. If they did, BC would probably do a lot better (BC's endowment has skyrocketed over the past 10 years; its now almost twice the size of those at Georgetown and Tufts). The "financial resources" category of the US News ranking refers to annual expenditures per student, <em>not</em> endowment. BC ranks poorly (or "highly" as collegeguy would say :) ) in this category because it lacks the big research dollars that more research-intensive schools attract (this is where having a med school would help). The relatively high cost of living here doesn't help either.</p>

<p>I'm not sure where collegeguy is pulling the 60-70 figure from. In the only combined ranking of research universities and liberal arts colleges conducted (by the Atlantic Magazine), BC ranked 49--and that was 2 years ago.</p>

<p>Sure admit rates have declined and endowments have grown at most schools recently, but BCs numbers are out of the ballpark: applications over 24,000 (the fourth most of any school in the country; pretty wild considering #s 1, 2, and 3 all have student bodies about twice the size of BC's), and endowment growth over 20%--hardly just keeping pace.</p>

<p>Better measurements of BC "rising" are things that US News doesn't even look at, but that I think will have greater long-term impact: expanding over 125 acres during the past year, incorporating the Jesuit School of Theology ("on a quest to become the nation's undisputed catholic intellectual powerhouse"-NYTimes ... take that ND! ha), rising numbers of AAAS- and NAS-member faculty, rising number of Rhodes, Trumans, Marshalls and Fulbrights (record 14 so far this year) ... </p>

<p>If Heightsonians, myself included, are indeed getting too abitions, its not just based on wishful thinking. Whether BC will be a "top 20" school by the time trevian graduates, I can't say. It's definately the prevailing attitude, though BC certainly has its share of naysayers as evidenced on this thread. In this sense, BC both benefits and suffers from being in a city--and a region--where it's often over shadowed by the likes of Harvard and MIT, Amherst, Williams, Brown ... as for Tufts and Brandeis, the schools trevian first mentioned (and school I looked at too), I'd say no contest.</p>

<p>Of course, you have to consider the source ...</p>

<p>I've just finished an amazing year at BC. I'm hardly unbiased.</p>

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<p>ps.</p>

<p>trevian: another reason BC ranks low in US News is due to a poor ("high" ha) "faculty resources" rank. In this case frankly, its deserved. BC's student/faculty ratio (13:1) is higher than that of any school in the top 20, and mostly classes are larger than the ideal US News cut-off (20). Faculty salary is also taken into account, and while BC profs are better paid than most, the cost of living again hurts these stats.</p>

<p>Good news: BC is adding 100-150 permanent new faculty positions and slightly reducing the size of the undergraduate student body over the next few years which should help all these stats. More details at: <a href="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v13/my12/planning.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v13/my12/planning.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>red92 - enable personal messaging and I will respond to your request.</p>

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<p>well for the record, i got off the waitlist at penn (got into bc too), so i'm goin ta go to penn and hopefully study music...but beside the point..</p>

<p>bc's a good school i considered going there last summer, i never said it wasn't a good school. you can't be so defensive heightman. secondly i'd like to say again that i think it's worth pointing out again that a low ranking is a good thing. the lower the number the better the ranking. it's a little confusing on this thread to hear people upset about a "low" ranking when they really mean a high ranking.</p>

<p>finally heightman, you're right, rankings are pretty useless. we all know what schools general reputations are and there's no magic formula to see what school can provide the best experience. i'll even admit that my school is given a very generous us news ranking at 4, when stanford and mit are behind at 5. but a school that's barely inside the top 40, can't be considered top 20 in a few years. find me another school that's shot up 20 spaces in a few years. let's not count our chickens before they hatch. a more realistic goal within the distant future, if you love rankings, might be to try to chase down tufts (#28), a cross-town rival. but then again rankings are pretty useless.</p>

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<p>Heightsman,</p>

<p>Actually, at over 24,000 applications BC gets the fourth most of all private schools in the country, not all schools, i.e. large state schools like UMichigan. Regardless, it is doing well attracting students and it will help to increase faculty hiring. If they add 150 professors and keep the same # of students they will then have a ratio of just under 11:1. Further, if they target the right faculty that will improve their peer assessment.</p>

<p>I mentioned it earlier, but look at USC. They are following a similar path and have jumped in the rankings quite dramatically. And their endowment is up a huge amount since the early 1990s. For BC, I think adding the new campus and merging with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology will help them compete more effectively with Georgetown and ND, 2 schools that are in the top 25 nationally.</p>

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<p>done and done-- thanks eagle.</p>

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<p>To respond to collegeman102:</p>

<p>I dont have an example of a school that was jump up 20 position, but i have a school that jump down 20, which is a testament of how sad the u.s.news ranking is. Bryn Mawr, which we all know is a fantastic all women liberal college, was initially rank at 5 when the liberal art college of the u.s. news ranking begin, but a few years back they put Bryn Mawr all the way to the twenty something place. I got this information from Stanfford President's letter of protest to U.S. News and World Report ranking colleges.</p>