What colleges are in Boston College's tier group?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Umiami
NYU
Northeastern
BU
Fordham
Villanova
Holy Cross

I think Emory, ND, Georgetown are a different tier

I would add Tulane

[Anonymous]

BC has several factors going for it that are hard to match - a beautiful campus, rah rah / big sports atmosphere, safe location near a major urban center with lots of other students, and mid-size university with professional schools.

Add to those factors the fact that there are two populations for whom BC is a pinnacle - Catholics and many other New Englanders. There's a Catholic school pipeline that's been around forever. And even for non-Catholics a BC degree is perceived as an attractive pathway to UMC life in the area. Overstating just slightly, BC can provide more powerful networking in the greater Boston/New England than Harvard. Sports has helped take that reputation national. I'm not a BC grad (from a Holy Cross family who hated BC) but I can see how it's become so hot.

Now Georgetown has all this and more prestige; ND has more prestige but a less desirable area.

Personally I think BU is an undervalued alternative, although it's also gotten much more competitive. But there's a tendency to be snotty about the lack of a campus feel (even though it's in a great area of the actual city.)

Whoever is saying Wake is a harder admit is out of their mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BC has several factors going for it that are hard to match - a beautiful campus, rah rah / big sports atmosphere, safe location near a major urban center with lots of other students, and mid-size university with professional schools.

Add to those factors the fact that there are two populations for whom BC is a pinnacle - Catholics and many other New Englanders. There's a Catholic school pipeline that's been around forever. And even for non-Catholics a BC degree is perceived as an attractive pathway to UMC life in the area. Overstating just slightly, BC can provide more powerful networking in the greater Boston/New England than Harvard. Sports has helped take that reputation national. I'm not a BC grad (from a Holy Cross family who hated BC) but I can see how it's become so hot.

Now Georgetown has all this and more prestige; ND has more prestige but a less desirable area.

Personally I think BU is an undervalued alternative, although it's also gotten much more competitive. But there's a tendency to be snotty about the lack of a campus feel (even though it's in a great area of the actual city.)

Whoever is saying Wake is a harder admit is out of their mind.

+1

BU had like an 11% acceptance rate last year. Yikes.

BC is a great school and tough admit. Not quite Georgetown / ND level but getting very close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BC has several factors going for it that are hard to match - a beautiful campus, rah rah / big sports atmosphere, safe location near a major urban center with lots of other students, and mid-size university with professional schools.

Add to those factors the fact that there are two populations for whom BC is a pinnacle - Catholics and many other New Englanders. There's a Catholic school pipeline that's been around forever. And even for non-Catholics a BC degree is perceived as an attractive pathway to UMC life in the area. Overstating just slightly, BC can provide more powerful networking in the greater Boston/New England than Harvard. Sports has helped take that reputation national. I'm not a BC grad (from a Holy Cross family who hated BC) but I can see how it's become so hot.

Now Georgetown has all this and more prestige; ND has more prestige but a less desirable area.

Personally I think BU is an undervalued alternative, although it's also gotten much more competitive. But there's a tendency to be snotty about the lack of a campus feel (even though it's in a great area of the actual city.)

Whoever is saying Wake is a harder admit is out of their mind.

+1

BU had like an 11% acceptance rate last year. Yikes.

BC is a great school and tough admit. Not quite Georgetown / ND level but getting very close.

Generally agree with this. Also have to factor in the Catholic things. All the Catholic schools (even Georgetown which I'd call Catholic Lite) still have a pipeline from Catholic HS.

Our HS has barely sent kids to BC (the data on Naviance is sparse), so I think they aren't familiar and tend to reject. Whereas NEU takes 10+ every year and is a relatively easy admit for kids who meet the academic bar.

[Anonymous]

The University of Virginia is in the same tier group as Boston College.

[Anonymous]

If BC were ever close to G’Town and BD, it wouldn’t have changed from EA to ED. It just simply couldn’t hold on to EA anymore. For private schools, EA is the true measure for prestige, including ivies…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If BC were ever close to G’Town and BD, it wouldn’t have changed from EA to ED. It just simply couldn’t hold on to EA anymore. For private schools, EA is the true measure for prestige, including ivies…

+2 Top students at our Catholic HS used to be able to apply early to ND or Georgetown and then reliably get into BC or Villanova as a back up. Now you have to ED to BC or Villanova to get in, which means no applying to ND or Georgetown since they are restricted. It is a choice lots of Catholic kids now face.

[Anonymous]

These were the schools +5 and -5 in the rankings around BC before recent DEI.

University of Rochester
University of California-Irvine
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Florida
Brandeis University
Boston College
University of California-Davis
College of William and Mary
University of California-San Diego
Case Western Reserve University
Boston University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you like Boston College, you'd probably like UVA, Villanova, Wake Forest, Fordham, Middlebury, and maybe Richmond. For reaches, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Penn, and Cornell.

What are safeties for if you like BC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you like Boston College, you'd probably like UVA, Villanova, Wake Forest, Fordham, Middlebury, and maybe Richmond. For reaches, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Penn, and Cornell.

What are safeties for if you like BC?

This is all going to depend on major and if your kid is an engineering major, BC’s program is really not well-developed and it’s not a good school for it but. But if applying humanities or just science, some safeties would be Providence, St Joe’s, Gonzaga

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you like Boston College, you'd probably like UVA, Villanova, Wake Forest, Fordham, Middlebury, and maybe Richmond. For reaches, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Penn, and Cornell.

What are safeties for if you like BC?

This is all going to depend on major and if your kid is an engineering major, BC’s program is really not well-developed and it’s not a good school for it but. But if applying humanities or just science, some safeties would be Providence, St Joe’s, Gonzaga

Agree. And Loyola Maryland and other Loyolas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you like Boston College, you'd probably like UVA, Villanova, Wake Forest, Fordham, Middlebury, and maybe Richmond. For reaches, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Penn, and Cornell.

What are safeties for if you like BC?

Villanova, Holy Cross, Catholic

[Anonymous]

UMiami is the non-Jesuit BC of the South.

[Anonymous]

This is a tough question to answer. There are a lot of schools on BCs level but that won't appeal to kids who love BC. I agree with everything 9:08 said except I think that BU is too urban for the average kid who falls in love with BC.

Also, as others have mentioned BC definitely gives preference to private, especially Catholic, especially Jesuit high schools. I know kids from "feeder" schools in Boston that are not top notch students whereas at our FCPS, according to Naviance, only a couple super stars have been accepted in the last five years.

Comparable (+ or - some of these will be easier and some harder) schools with similar vibe: Wake, Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Villanova, UVA. A tier below: Fairfield and Fordham (maybe Bucknell?). A tier below: St Joe's, Loyola Maryland and other more regional schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Umiami
NYU
Northeastern
BU
Fordham
Villanova
Holy Cross

I think Emory, ND, Georgetown are a different tier

Boy, are you wrong