Boston University???

[Ann.without.an.e]

DD received a letter today with an invitation to apply to their honors college.  She has been poring over their website and really likes what she sees.  DD is a quiet girl who is attracted to a larger city for some reason.  There is a part of her that doesn't want to be far from home (Boston is about a 14 hour drive), at the same time I could see her loving Boston.  I ran an EFC with our financial position and her stats and the financial end looks really nice.  Does anyone know anything about this school?  Thoughts?  Good or bad are welcome :)

[Luckymama]

BU is very urban. A major road bisects the campus. Would that be ok with her?

[happypamama]

It's a busy area, very urban (whereas Boston College is a little closer to the suburbs and not quite as urban), but as far as cities go, Boston is a pretty cool one. I know zero about the school though.

[bibiche]

What is she interested in studying? There are other schools in the area that aren't quite so ... hectic in terms of their location. Brandeis and Tufts spring to mind. Even Harvard and MIT are a lot calmer.

[Ann.without.an.e]

What is she interested in studying? There are other schools in the area that aren't quite so ... hectic in terms of their location. Brandeis and Tufts spring to mind. Even Harvard and MIT are a lot calmer.

 

 

She wants to double major in Biology and English.

 

We've never been to Boston.  I worry about the cold winters too  :crying:

[cave canem]

BU does have some pleasant, quiet areas.  The river bank is a beautiful place to hang out.  However, as has been noted, BU is not just in Boston.  Boston and BU overlap and intertwine.  Its border with the river is the sharpest demarcation between BU/not BU, but even that is tricky because BUs boathouse is on the opposite side of the river from the rest of the buildings.  A very wide avenue--more than six lanes in some places--with trolley lines in the middle of it runs through BU.

 

BU admissions can be weird.  The why BU? essay is very important as is showing up for a tour/info session not too late in the admissions season. Adding on a visit to a specific school/college is even better. They don't want a student who is looking for a way to go to school in Boston. They want someone who knows that BU is the best fit.  My daughter was surprised to be waitlisted by BU while being accepted by much more selective schools.  I think being a local student didn't help, but she didn't show the love as much as she could have either.  She already knew BU well, and even has BU credit on her HS transcript, so she didn't do much on campus for her application.  I can see that BU could have thought she viewed it as a safety.

 

BU is not known for generous aid, but I don't have experience with that.

 

I don't know of any homeschoolers going to BU, but I have never heard that homeschoolers are at a disadvantage in applying there.

 

 

 

 

[EKS]

Howard Zinn was a professor there.

 

That's all I've got.

[cave canem]

Howard Zinn was a professor there.

also Isaac Asimov and Elie Wiesel

[justkeepswimming]

BU was one of dds final choices. Her "why BU" essay was written at the last minute and she never officially visited. She did not apply to the honors college (she was essayed-out by the deadline and decided she didn't want to bother with it).

 

She was admitted to her first-choice major.

 

The financial aid (for us) was exactly what the financial calculator on the website said it would be. And it was excellent!!

 

She visited once (BU didn't know she was there) and loved the busy energy of the place and loved Boston.

 

Hths!

[Gwen in VA]

Dd applied to BU as a transfer for some strange reasons. For some equally strange reasons she should have been a strong candidate for merit aid.

 

She was accepted, but without merit aid despite her "peculiar" strengths. With no merit aid there is no way she could have attended, so she didn't. (Dd had several good friend who were at BU. The number of them who were accumulating private loans hand over fist was scary!)

 

Do investigate the individual colleges closely. We knew a young man at one college, and to say that we found his education a huge disappointment would be an understatement. Do your homework so you know what you are getting into. (He was in one of those departments that BU is NOT known for.)

[JanetC]

Thanks for the info. This may be on my rising-junior DD's list in another year. I know that Massachusetts state schools can be picky about GED's and accredited diplomas. Is there a similar problem with private U's like BU? DD may have a diploma via dual enrollment, but not 100% sure on that at this point.

[cave canem]

BU was one of dds final choices.

Did she go to BU?

[justkeepswimming]

No, she didn't wind up going to BU. Even though their offered financial aid was great, she opted for another school. :)

A friend of hers did go - this past year was her freshman year. She loves it there, but is an athlete, so that is likely a very different experience. :) I dont know what college/major that girl is, though.

[fdrinca]

I attended BU as an undergraduate for two years before transferring to a different university for academic and personal reasons.

 

I didn't realize until I transferred to my second undergrad how much a college campus meant to me in terms of having a "college" experience. BU doesn't have a campus - not really, in the traditional sense. 

 

I also found it to be a difficult place socially. There was a lot of money, experience, and expectation that I didn't have, coming to the school as a somewhat sheltered midwestern girl. 

 

Academically, the honors classes I had (and there were one or to a semester) were fine. The general ed classes were hit or miss, some quite dreadful depending upon the students in the classes. 

 

This could be a standard experience for any large, urban university. Take it for what it's worth :)

[Nan in Mass]

Huge and spread out along very much city streets. That alone was enough to make my youngest refuse to consider it, despite the fact that he is in a middle of the city school now. The students we,ve known seem to be fairly wealthy and/or foreign. That might just be us. I think of it as an expensive school that attracts brightish students that isn,t impossible to get into, but again, that might just be me. I would definitely visit before going there to make sure the campus situation is ok.

 

Nan

[Jenny in Florida]

One of my son's buddies just finished his freshman year at BU. I know the university provided very generous aid for him. 

 

He started off in the honors college, with a double major (or possibly major/minor) in music and engineering. However, he found it very difficult to juggle the requirements for all three programs, and I believe he is now focusing just on the music part.  

 

Update: Okay, here's the gist of what my son's friend and his mom have to offer.

 

BU has lots of programs and is supportive of its students, and the networking in Boston with other schools is fantastic. The student body includes lots of smart kids. Friend and mom highly recommend that your daughter try to get up there to do a tour. They found everyone on campus to be very friendly and that the visit gave them a real sense of the place.

 

If you haven't done so already, you might check YouTube. Apparently, there are some videos there from people who have taped the campus tours. The student's mom also suggests that your daughter ask the majors' offices for a student or two that she could talk to. 

 

Regarding the honors college: Students are required to live in honors dorm the first year. Honors brochures make it sound very exciting for brainiacs, but my son's friend thought some of the required classes might do more to enrich some majors than others. Friend found that some of the honors classes took study time away from courses required for his fine arts major, and some even conflicted schedule-wise. Some of the required Saturday seminars had 'good intentions but the execution just wasn't there'; in other words, there were other things my son's friend thought would have been a better use of his weekend time. Bottom line: for him, the honors college wasn't the right fit.. A student doing the English/biology combination might get more out of the program.

The food is good. BU uses organic and locally grown when possible. It is, of course, very cold in the winter and a bit of a wind tunnel as the campus goes along the river. Hockey is major there. Great workout facilities. Free BU shuttle. Some stuff is like any major
university -- some alcohol and drug use, rich kids who party a lot -- but there are a lot of other students who are focusing mostly on academics, meeting new people, especially international students, going to events, etc. As others have mentioned, the campus runs along city streets, so there are certain things that can be problematic for some students. For example, students aren't supposed to smoke on campus, but that policy is hard to enforce. And, on the flip side, Boston is just awesome.

 

I hope some of that is helpful!

Edited July 16, 2016 by Jenny in Florida

[katilac]

 I think of it as an expensive school that attracts brightish students that isn,t impossible to get into, but again, that might just be me.  

 

The admit rate is 29% and the ACT middle 50% is 30 to 33, with an average of 32, so I'd say that's an optimistic view of admissions. 

 

Way easier to get into than a single-digit school, sure, but you're going to want to be more than brightish. A 32 ACT is in the 98th percentile, and even a 30 is 95th percentile. 

[Jenny in Florida]

The admit rate is 29% and the ACT middle 50% is 30 to 33, with an average of 32, so I'd say that's an optimistic view of admissions. 

 

Way easier to get into than a single-digit school, sure, but you're going to want to be more than brightish. A 32 ACT is in the 98th percentile, and even a 30 is 95th percentile. 

 

Yep, admission is definitely competitive. When my son's friend was admitted, it also earned him recognition on our school district's brag board of students admitted to highly selective schools.

 

By the way, friend's mom followed up with a few more thoughts.

 

She refers to BU as "a city/cosmopolitan school with the hidden charm of historic building and Bay Street brownstones." They like that there is great public transportation, so no need for a car.

 

Bonus: The honors college is across from the best dining hall on campus.

 

She also says that students really do look like the ones in the BU pictures. Friend has found his fellow students to be very smart, down-to-earth young adults who for the most part that want to make a difference in the world. BU in general is very into social action and change, much more focus on social action than the latest fashion. 

 

And she emphasizes that her son really loves BU.

[EKS]

Thanks for the info. This may be on my rising-junior DD's list in another year. I know that Massachusetts state schools can be picky about GED's and accredited diplomas. Is there a similar problem with private U's like BU? DD may have a diploma via dual enrollment, but not 100% sure on that at this point.

 

My son is at a private school in Massachusetts and there were no issues with his home grown diploma. 

[obsidian]

I applied to BU, and was accepted, though decided not to attend. They gave me a decent merit scholarship, but ultimately it was not enough. Anyway, I did visit the school, and I loved it. As others mentioned, it's in the middle of the city. Personally, I liked that -- there seemed to be a lot going on & plenty of interesting things to do. When I visited, they emphasized interdisciplinary connections quite a lot, and talked about a senior project engineering students were required to do, which involved engineers from different disciplines working together to create a product to solve a problem of their choice. There're a lot of opportunities for study abroad and tons of international students, and of course, it's in Boston, which is a vibrant city with all sorts of museums, cultural events, etc. :)

[obsidian]

Thanks for the info. This may be on my rising-junior DD's list in another year. I know that Massachusetts state schools can be picky about GED's and accredited diplomas. Is there a similar problem with private U's like BU? DD may have a diploma via dual enrollment, but not 100% sure on that at this point.

 

They had no issue with my homeschool diploma.

[Ann.without.an.e]

The admit rate is 29% and the ACT middle 50% is 30 to 33, with an average of 32, so I'd say that's an optimistic view of admissions. 

 

Way easier to get into than a single-digit school, sure, but you're going to want to be more than brightish. A 32 ACT is in the 98th percentile, and even a 30 is 95th percentile. 

 

DD is well above their stats and I think that's why they are offering such generous aid.  She's unsure about being that far from home and the cold.  The aid was fantastic when I ran the NPC and that's enticing.  I don't think we are going to have the $ to visit right now.  I wish we did but even if we did visit it would be before cold weather hits and so she really wouldn't get the feel of the weather at all.  

[Ann.without.an.e]

Thank you SO much for all of your thoughts and experiences - very helpful.  DD probably won't get to visit before applying so this is a tough decision.  

I guess she'll need to decide if it is worth it to apply blind.  She's probably applying to Princeton, Yale, and maybe Harvard blind already.  If she gets in for some reason then we will visit before she commits.  She has received a ton of travel reimbursement offers from other schools and one is in Boston but she feels bad using that and scooting through their tour with the real intention of actually focusing on different schools since the school with the offer isn't a school she's interested in   :rolleyes:

 

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by Attolia

[katilac]

I don't think we are going to have the $ to visit right now.  

 

Just keep in mind that going back and forth from home will be an ongoing cost - well worth it if you can manage it, of course! 

 

Thank you SO much for all of your thoughts and experiences - very helpful.  DD probably won't get to visit before applying so this is a tough decision.  

I guess she'll need to decide if it is worth it to apply blind.  She's probably applying to Princeton, Yale, and maybe Harvard blind already.  If she gets in for some reason then we will visit before she commits.  She has received a ton of travel reimbursement offers from other schools and one is in Boston but she feels bad using that and scooting through their tour with the real intention of actually focusing on different schools since the school with the offer isn't a school she's interested in   :rolleyes:

 

Can she do some fairly local visits, even to schools she is not that interested in? It can really help a lot when deciding if you are okay with large vs small, campus feel vs buildings in the city, and so on. We learned something with every visit. 

 

Also, tell her to keep in mind that visiting a school gives them the chance to change her mind. That's one of the reasons they offer reimbursements. If they're the International School of Lemonade and she is morally opposed to citrus drinks of all kinds, then don't visit. But if they offer some decent majors and it just isn't likely that she will attend, go with no guilt. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Just keep in mind that going back and forth from home will be an ongoing cost - well worth it if you can manage it, of course! 

 

 

Can she do some fairly local visits, even to schools she is not that interested in? It can really help a lot when deciding if you are okay with large vs small, campus feel vs buildings in the city, and so on. We learned something with every visit. 

 

Also, tell her to keep in mind that visiting a school gives them the chance to change her mind. That's one of the reasons they offer reimbursements. If they're the International School of Lemonade and she is morally opposed to citrus drinks of all kinds, then don't visit. But if they offer some decent majors and it just isn't likely that she will attend, go with no guilt. 

 

 

She has visited schools more local to us.  She doesn't really seem to have a strong opinion on size - she doesn't like super small schools and those are the travel offers she's received.  Her preference is probably 5,000-10,000 range of student population.  She didn't mind State though and it is larger but she doesn't like Chapel Hill (and it is larger).  It isn't the size that she dislikes about chapel hill, it is the amount of students vs the campus size.  They are cramming way too many people on a campus that maybe isn't large enough to support it?  Just our take away.  So she'd be okay with a larger school with ample room for the students they have.  If  that makes sense?