The “backdoor” to Boston College just got outed by the student newspaper. Ouch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it’s ok to accept unqualified students into Messina, with hopes of transferring to BC, as long as they aren’t rich?

It’s not “unqualified students” it’s a qualified student they reject and they can live in Boston, ho to college for 1 year at an alternate program, get a 3.4 GPA and automatically transfer.

Almost every college has a program similar,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it’s ok to accept unqualified students into Messina, with hopes of transferring to BC, as long as they aren’t rich?

It’s not “unqualified students” it’s a qualified student they reject and they can live in Boston, ho to college for 1 year at an alternate program, get a 3.4 GPA and automatically transfer.

Almost every college has a program similar,

I don’t get the outrage. Some kids get asked to be in this alternate program which is probably humiliating for some. Yay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it’s ok to accept unqualified students into Messina, with hopes of transferring to BC, as long as they aren’t rich?

It’s not “unqualified students” it’s a qualified student they reject and they can live in Boston, ho to college for 1 year at an alternate program, get a 3.4 GPA and automatically transfer.

Almost every college has a program similar,

Every college in Virginia does it. I think all the public colleges in California do, too.

[Anonymous]

The kids were basically rejected from BC and offered and alternative pathway. I'm thinking of all the colleges that have alternative freshman year campuses. Emory has Oxford. Colby has a Global Entry semester. Northeastern has a bunch: https://nuin.northeastern.edu/



Is it that these students aren't aware and think BC is doing something really different?

[Anonymous]

One of the comments on the article:

Like most things, it’s important to have balance, especially in perspective. A very small percentage of students were interviewed for this story and the comments provided are not reflective of this program. I’m writing as a parent of the Foundations program – who is not a donor to BC, nor an alum, nor connected to the university in any way prior to this program.

BC, and the Dean of Messina in particular, created a great program substantially benefiting our student in preparing them to excel at BC. It has been thoughtfully structured and provides access to some Chestnut Hill classes that otherwise would be nearly impossible to get because of demand for the class and which are taught by some of BC’s outstanding, most desired professors. It has also exposed our student to developing strong friendships with the first generation students at Messina, where I also witnessed our student ensure their Messina friends felt integrated and welcomed at Chestnut Hill activities to allow for as much of a seamless transition as is possible. It also affords our student access to leading BC professors that mentor them and truly encourage cura personalis. We see a significant change in our student, with deep gratitude to BC and the Foundations program for identifying them as a good candidate and to enabling their development in this way.

The program is in its infancy and like anything new it will continue to improve over time. This article does not provide a well-rounded perspective, and should instead commend BC for developing, deploying, and improving various pathways to a successful BC college experience and outcomes.

[Anonymous]

ANother comment:

Notre Dame has a similar program called Gateway. They take approximately 75 “promising students,” that for whatever reason just missed the mark of being accepted to Notre Dame. They do year one at Holy Cross College, a junior college in South Bend and if they have a 3.5 or higher (and no grade lower than a B), they are automatically accepted in to Notre Dame at sophomores.

Most of the spots are for kids with fantastic involvement and community service that we’re just shy of ND admissions standards with grades & scores. However, I met a parent who said that their family was connected heavily to Notre Dame and claimed that their child got to use this program as a back door entry to ND.

Pathways programs can be for rich kids, too.

[Anonymous]

Cornell is notorious for giving rich legacies a guaranteed transfer option. Basically, go to any other college, maintain like a 3.0 and you are guaranteed accepted as a sophomore transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you bother with student articles in student newspapers? Read some of the comments. “As with most student publications, authors need to learn balance in their reporting…”. Never bother with student newspapers. You are going to get juvenile, slanted writing

student newspapers are the best way to learn what's going on at a college. we read them all the time when considering schools. you should too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you bother with student articles in student newspapers? Read some of the comments. “As with most student publications, authors need to learn balance in their reporting…”. Never bother with student newspapers. You are going to get juvenile, slanted writing

Entirely disagree - they usually have the goods on their institutions.

+1.

[Anonymous]

What an excellent story. Kudos to those student journalists for looking under this rock.

The fact that virtually all of the Foundations students are legacies and wealthy is so sloppy by BC. And the whole “you rich kids who didn’t meet our admissions criteria will be leaders to the poor first-gen students” message—which the admissions guy does not deny!—is vile.

[Anonymous]

Messina initially came about when BC bought the Pine Manor campus and needed a way to help Pine Manor students get to a degree. These were disadvantaged students.

Is it surprising that this is evolving into a guaranteed transfer program per the above comments? No, not really. But if that's what this is, I don't understand the fuss. So a few big donor kids with weak academics slipped into the program, I don't see the problem. They'd still have to prove themselves through Messina.

What the article just did is to loudly encourage donations from a bunch of such families, full of legacy attachment to the school and flush with cash, to hope a kid with weaker academics can attend. To be clear, if the kid had the academic stats, they'd get in through the front door unless BC thought the kid was act

[Anonymous]

Let me finish typing:
unless BC thought they weren't the kid's first choice, which is often the case for kids with sufficient stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Messina initially came about when BC bought the Pine Manor campus and needed a way to help Pine Manor students get to a degree. These were disadvantaged students.

Is it surprising that this is evolving into a guaranteed transfer program per the above comments? No, not really. But if that's what this is, I don't understand the fuss. So a few big donor kids with weak academics slipped into the program, I don't see the problem. They'd still have to prove themselves through Messina.

What the article just did is to loudly encourage donations from a bunch of such families, full of legacy attachment to the school and flush with cash, to hope a kid with weaker academics can attend. To be clear, if the kid had the academic stats, they'd get in through the front door unless BC thought the kid was act

It's 15 people. PP already gave one example of a non-donor being offered the option.

[Anonymous]

Let's put the richest, least academically qualified kids with first-gen students and tell them they can be "mentors" aka white saviors, if interested, to those poor, poor Messina College students. The article noted how most are carrying 5k Chanel bags. It's so offensive to the Messina College students that they are doing this. It's abusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you bother with student articles in student newspapers? Read some of the comments. “As with most student publications, authors need to learn balance in their reporting…”. Never bother with student newspapers. You are going to get juvenile, slanted writing

Wrong.