Trying to compare Boston Colleges for DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BC doesn't work if you're not Catholic (we're not);
Tufts doesn't work if hour kid wants to be in the city (it's in the burbs on a hill - FWIW, my kid thought Tufts would be #1, but after visiting, didn't like the vibe);
BU doesn't have much of a campus (full city college);
NEU has the best of all - city campus (inbetween 2 T-stops), excellent Econ (my kid is an Econ major at NEU), but I'm not going to lie, this is our third kid, and their admin is a hot mess. Billing is a disaster, always late and always wrong, and housing is a joke (your kid doesn't find out whete they'll live until mid-July if you're lucky, but possibly as late as mid-August). Makes planning difficult

Why do you say BC doesn’t work if not Catholic? It’s my Jewish nephew’s first choice. Seems better than some Pro-Hamas campuses.

Your Jewish nephew might want to really think about it.

With 70% of the student body Catholic, it will be hard to relate if he doesn't share that experience. Obviously someone is going to say their Jewish friend, etc loves it and the students don't go to Mass, etc. But the reality is that they have been to Mass, went to a Catholic high School, want to raise their kids Catholic, etc. and it is a Catholic school regardless of the fact that it is a Jesuit Catholic school.

These are all unfounded assumptions.

Hide your head in the sand all you want.

BC is a Catholic school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BC doesn't work if you're not Catholic (we're not);
Tufts doesn't work if hour kid wants to be in the city (it's in the burbs on a hill - FWIW, my kid thought Tufts would be #1, but after visiting, didn't like the vibe);
BU doesn't have much of a campus (full city college);
NEU has the best of all - city campus (inbetween 2 T-stops), excellent Econ (my kid is an Econ major at NEU), but I'm not going to lie, this is our third kid, and their admin is a hot mess. Billing is a disaster, always late and always wrong, and housing is a joke (your kid doesn't find out whete they'll live until mid-July if you're lucky, but possibly as late as mid-August). Makes planning difficult

Why do you say BC doesn’t work if not Catholic? It’s my Jewish nephew’s first choice. Seems better than some Pro-Hamas campuses.

Your Jewish nephew might want to really think about it.

With 70% of the student body Catholic, it will be hard to relate if he doesn't share that experience. Obviously someone is going to say their Jewish friend, etc loves it and the students don't go to Mass, etc. But the reality is that they have been to Mass, went to a Catholic high School, want to raise their kids Catholic, etc. and it is a Catholic school regardless of the fact that it is a Jesuit Catholic school.

These are all unfounded assumptions.

Hide your head in the sand all you want.

BC is a Catholic school.

DP. No head in the sand here. I attended and my kid did as well. A third of the students are not Catholic; it works for them. It's not proselytizing. The main cultural characteristics are not religious in nature. That said, if it doesn't work for someone else, then don't apply.

[Anonymous]

We keep hearing that Tufts has roaches in its dorm rooms. I'm not doubting that roaches exist in Medford, but I'm pretty sure that higher density colleges like BU and NEU also have their fair share of roaches.

In fact, when we visited I saw a rat in broad daylight at something like Alley No. 29. This was in the middle of the day.

Tufts' campus appeared clean and well-kept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BC doesn't work if you're not Catholic (we're not);
Tufts doesn't work if hour kid wants to be in the city (it's in the burbs on a hill - FWIW, my kid thought Tufts would be #1, but after visiting, didn't like the vibe);
BU doesn't have much of a campus (full city college);
NEU has the best of all - city campus (inbetween 2 T-stops), excellent Econ (my kid is an Econ major at NEU), but I'm not going to lie, this is our third kid, and their admin is a hot mess. Billing is a disaster, always late and always wrong, and housing is a joke (your kid doesn't find out whete they'll live until mid-July if you're lucky, but possibly as late as mid-August). Makes planning difficult

Why do you say BC doesn’t work if not Catholic? It’s my Jewish nephew’s first choice. Seems better than some Pro-Hamas campuses.

Your Jewish nephew might want to really think about it.

With 70% of the student body Catholic, it will be hard to relate if he doesn't share that experience. Obviously someone is going to say their Jewish friend, etc loves it and the students don't go to Mass, etc. But the reality is that they have been to Mass, went to a Catholic high School, want to raise their kids Catholic, etc. and it is a Catholic school regardless of the fact that it is a Jesuit Catholic school.

These are all unfounded assumptions.

Hide your head in the sand all you want.

BC is a Catholic school.

It's jesuit.
You be amazed at how many kids become "catholic" during application time. They don't check your credentials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BC doesn't work if you're not Catholic (we're not);
Tufts doesn't work if hour kid wants to be in the city (it's in the burbs on a hill - FWIW, my kid thought Tufts would be #1, but after visiting, didn't like the vibe);
BU doesn't have much of a campus (full city college);
NEU has the best of all - city campus (inbetween 2 T-stops), excellent Econ (my kid is an Econ major at NEU), but I'm not going to lie, this is our third kid, and their admin is a hot mess. Billing is a disaster, always late and always wrong, and housing is a joke (your kid doesn't find out whete they'll live until mid-July if you're lucky, but possibly as late as mid-August). Makes planning difficult

Why do you say BC doesn’t work if not Catholic? It’s my Jewish nephew’s first choice. Seems better than some Pro-Hamas campuses.

Your Jewish nephew might want to really think about it.

With 70% of the student body Catholic, it will be hard to relate if he doesn't share that experience. Obviously someone is going to say their Jewish friend, etc loves it and the students don't go to Mass, etc. But the reality is that they have been to Mass, went to a Catholic high School, want to raise their kids Catholic, etc. and it is a Catholic school regardless of the fact that it is a Jesuit Catholic school.

These are all unfounded assumptions.

Hide your head in the sand all you want.

BC is a Catholic school.

DP. No head in the sand here. I attended and my kid did as well. A third of the students are not Catholic; it works for them. It's not proselytizing. The main cultural characteristics are not religious in nature. That said, if it doesn't work for someone else, then don't apply.

The culture at BC is essentially "be of service to others." If that bothers you, then it's not a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Does being Catholic provide a boost when applying to BC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My personal opinion is that most Catholic teens are not what their parents think. Youth is trending socially liberal, likely do not actually go to mass, etc. Not a knock on Catholicism, religion just isn't resonating with the youth across all denominations. I am fond of the service and being a good human aspects of Jesuit schools.

This. Also, we’re “Catholic” in the least way possible. But you can be sure DS checked the “Catholic” box when applying ED1 to BC. He’s drawn to the idea of helping others in need and BC has lots of that.

To the Jewish boy’s aunt: there was a Jewish boy on the student panel we saw at our BC tour and he handled this question beautifully. Basically he said he wanted to make the world a better place and he had that in common with his BC classmates. But he said it much more eloquently.

I think he would be fine because goes to Suburban private school with loads of Catholic kids. BC is most popular college destination.

[Anonymous]

Fewer than 1% of BC's students are Jewish. The vast majority of Jewish students opt for BU, NEU or Tufts over BC. There are over a 1,000 Jewish students and NEU. BU has 4,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had planned to apply to Tufts, when we went to visit the campus though we were so turned off by the setting/location that we cancelled her appointment.

+1 as we drove onto Tuft’s campus my daughter was instantly turned off. She wouldn’t even get out of the car. She hated the environment.

Again, Tufts is spending a ton of money on capital improvements.

Capital improvements don't help the suburban location. Tufts is not in the city of Boston

BC is mostly in the suburbs and is farther to Government Center than Tufts. By the way, Tufts is only 6 miles to Gov't Center.

Yet so much harder to reach than it is from BC where the T comes all the way to campus.

Areas resident here.

Actually they just extended the Green line to Tufts too.

BC is also only 7 miles from Govt center.

But driving from either location or taking the T easily can be an hour depending on traffic and MBTA issues. My son used the Tufts stop this year to commute to an internship in Boston and tons of delays.

In any case, both good schools.

Tufts housing has roaches (my son did a summer program there)

BC no roach reports I know of but yes, crucifixes in classrooms. And huge school spirit.

I’m advising my kid to apply to both. But he wants the west coast.

All schools have roaches. Living in a dive is a rite of passage. If you deprive your kid of that, you will suffer the consequences.

I have heard of rodents at many colleges including UPenn and Georgetown. Kids still want to go there. Those are my kids’ top two choices. Tufts, BC, BU and NU are all next and I think DS likes all of them but those are not his top choices.

[Anonymous]

ED to UPenn and pick ED2 from Tufts, BC, BU, or Northeastern I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does being Catholic provide a boost when applying to BC?

Going to a catholic school with history of sending multiple kids each year to BC is a hook.
Claiming Catholicism on the app, I don’t think so, but check the box if you want

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dd had planned to apply to Tufts, when we went to visit the campus though we were so turned off by the setting/location that we cancelled her appointment.

+1 as we drove onto Tuft’s campus my daughter was instantly turned off. She wouldn’t even get out of the car. She hated the environment.

Again, Tufts is spending a ton of money on capital improvements.

Capital improvements don't help the suburban location. Tufts is not in the city of Boston

BC is mostly in the suburbs and is farther to Government Center than Tufts. By the way, Tufts is only 6 miles to Gov't Center.

Yet so much harder to reach than it is from BC where the T comes all the way to campus.

Areas resident here.

Actually they just extended the Green line to Tufts too.

BC is also only 7 miles from Govt center.

But driving from either location or taking the T easily can be an hour depending on traffic and MBTA issues. My son used the Tufts stop this year to commute to an internship in Boston and tons of delays.

In any case, both good schools.

Tufts housing has roaches (my son did a summer program there)

BC no roach reports I know of but yes, crucifixes in classrooms. And huge school spirit.

I’m advising my kid to apply to both. But he wants the west coast.

All schools have roaches. Living in a dive is a rite of passage. If you deprive your kid of that, you will suffer the consequences.

I have heard of rodents at many colleges including UPenn and Georgetown. Kids still want to go there. Those are my kids’ top two choices. Tufts, BC, BU and NU are all next and I think DS likes all of them but those are not his top choices.

Exaclty. Mice and insects are not a sign of anything. Schools aren't in the business of running flop houses. The more there are a concentration of people, and food, you're going to find pests.

Here is Harvard:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/2/rodents-freshman-dorms/

When Kaitlin M. Caughman ’27 woke up in her Massachusetts Hall dorm one morning last December, she found an unexpected visitor in her bed.

“I roll over to go back to sleep, and it’s on my bed. I come face to face with the mouse,” Caughman said. “Less than a foot from my face.”

[Anonymous]

Whatever schools you decide on, enjoy the ride. Going from the DMV north, there are so many great schools, with so much diversity. Boston sounds like your target for visits because of the sheer number of great schools, but don't overlook those on the way! If you drive, you'll be able to easily see the Philadelphia area schools, the New York schools, so many SLACs once you get into Penn, NY and New England. If you are flying, it still is worth it to rent a car. I know that the Boston-area schools offer free parking, and if you want to see Tufts and BC, it is easier by car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will visit BC, BU, Tufts, NE in the fall for my DC. Most likely will be an Econ/Math major. trying to get a sense for each place before visiting. DC thinks they want a school with a lot of school spirit and a fun and social energy but with kids who also take academics seriously. Would love thoughts from parents with kids at one of these.

If your child has the stats for BC, it is worth looking at MIT and Harvard while you are there. Those two are obviously more hail mary than 3rd and 25, but it is worth crossing Mass Ave to take a look.

That’s kind of like trying on a stunning $25,000 wedding dress when your budget is $3,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does being Catholic provide a boost when applying to BC?

Going to a catholic school with history of sending multiple kids each year to BC is a hook.
Claiming Catholicism on the app, I don’t think so, but check the box if you want

70% of their students are Catholic so you never know. Definitely if you’re a practicing Catholic