Boston College

Boston College 

Boston College stands out among its peers in American academe because of a distinctive approach to higher education. While upholding the standards of excellence that are expected of the nation’s finest colleges and universities, Boston College’s mission articulates another set of expectations for its faculty, staff, and students.

As Fr. Brosnahan wrote many years ago, “the acquisition of knowledge…. Is a secondary result of education.” To the administrators, faculty, and staff at Boston College, the personal development of every member of the BC community is the primary result. Because of this belief, Boston College emphasizes its dedication to the philosophy of cura personalis, or “care for the whole person.” This dedication is recognized through the university’s commitment to employing a learned faculty devoted to teaching undergraduates; through the resources it makes available for education outside the classroom; through the academic, social, and recreational facilities it make available to all members of its community; and thorough the holistic perspective it offer from its broad-based, spiritually focused, liberal arts curriculum.

Dedication to these goals, combined with the university’s commitment to excellence in all aspects of its operation, has given Boston College recognition, not only as one of the nation’s leading Catholic universities, but as one of America’s finest providers of an undergraduate education.

Location

Boston College’s main campus is located on the border between the city of Boston and the city of Newton, six miles from downtown Boston, in a village known as Chestnut Hill. BC’s location is one of its most attractive features. Students enjoys having the ability to live and study on a quiet campus featuring green lawns and beautiful English Collegiate Gothic buildings, and at the same time, to have easy access to one of America’s greatest cities. The Green Line of Boston’s mass transit system, “the T,” begins at the base of the main campus, and transports travelers to all parts of the city for only $1.70.

In addition to offering a plethora of opportunities for shopping, sightseeing, nightlife, professional sports, research, volunteering, internships, and employment, Boston is also America’s largest college town. Boston College students often become acquainted with students from several of the neighboring universities, including, M.I.T., Tufts, Boston University, and Northeastern.

Boston College also features a Newton campus, located approximately one-and-a-half miles west of the Chestnut Hill Campus. The Newton campus is the home of Boston College Law School, and also the home to students. Shuttle buses travel between the two campuses several times each hour, providing for convenient access between them. Although undergraduate classes are always held on the main campus, freshmen living on the Newton campus enjoy the unique “freshman-only” community that in the separate location affords them.

Admission requirements

Boston College features four undergraduate colleges: the college of arts and sciences, the Carroll school of management, the Lynch School of Education, and the Connell School of Nursing. Although applicants do not have to declare a major when they apply, they must designate the school to which they are applying.

Students who apply to Boston College are usually those who have pursued challenging academic goals in high school; most have taken Advanced Placement classes, participated in numerous cocurricular and extracurricular activities, and have scored well on the SAT or ACT exams. Even among these students, Boston College is very selective.

While specific courses in high school are not required, students are recommended to pursue a strong college preparatory program, which should include four years of English, mathematics, foreign language, laboratory science, and social studies. Students applying to the School of Nursing are required to complete at least two years of laboratory science, including one years of chemistry.

There are two standardized testing options. Students may either take the SAT test and two SAT subject tests; or, they may take the America college test (ACT). Applicants must take all standardized tests by the December test date of their senior year of high school, and each applicant must have his or her test scores sent directly to Boston College. These scores must be received by December 15.

As mentioned before, the Boston college community reflects a diversity of talents, attitudes, backgrounds, and interests. Although diversity is sought in these areas, one common characteristic sought among applicants to Boston College is demonstrated interest in the Jesuit ideals of commitment and service to others. Therefore, the committee on admission looks for applicants to demonstrate not only their academic abilities, but also their intellectual curiosity, strength of character, motivation, creativity, and devotion toward personal growth and development.

Faculty

One of Boston College’s greatest assets is the quality of its faculty. Although BC prides itself on their research accomplishments, the professors, lecturers, and instructors at Boston College possess a common characteristic: all are devoted to the importance of their primary responsibility-teaching undergraduates. Unlike other research universities, at which many of the lower-division classes are taught by teaching assistants or part-time faculty, the bulk of the classes required in Boston College’s core curriculum are taught by full professors. These faculty members are distinguished in their field, and most have decades of experience in undergraduate in instruction.

In lower-division “survey” classes in the history, natural science, and social science departments, classes are taught by full professors in a lecture hall setting two days a week, and are then broken up into smaller discussion groups on a third day. This format allows for general information to be communicated en masse, but also gives students and faculty a weekly opportunity to discuss what has been presented and to relate the material to more specific topics. In other departments such as theology, philosophy, English, foreign languages, mathematics, and fine arts, classes are intentionally kept small to maximize the student’s ability to comprehend and discuss the subject matter with students and faculty members alike.

As students move from the core requirements to their upper-division electives, they find that the class sizes become even smaller. Every semester, each department offers seminar classes in which a professor and small groups of students examines specific academic issues in detail; the departments also allow students to earn class credit for “readings and research” in a one-on-one project with a faculty member. A poplar cocurricular employment opportunity offered by all four schools is the Undergraduate Faculty Research Fellowships, in which students can earn money as they assist members with their research.

Course evaluations and surveys of graduating seniors demonstrate that Boston College students are quite satisfied with their professors; many have indicated that the student faculty relationship at BC often transcends the classroom experience, as professors and students develop friendships that last well beyond the student’s graduation.

Student groups

While Boston College students share much in common when it comes to dedication to academics and service, the diversity of the student body is most recognizable in the multitude of students clubs, musical groups, and organizations on campus. Not only is there diversity in the types of organizations, which include groups devoted to athletics, music, culture and ethnicity, religion, politics, dance, literature, charities, social action, and community service, but diversity is also found among the groups within each genre. For example, for musical ensembles, there are a cappella groups, jazz bands, gospel choirs and liturgical music groups, a symphony orchestra, a marching band, and the university chorale.

Many student groups have also been formed to assimilate students of a particular culture or ethnicity on campus; clubs exist for students whose heritage descends from Africa, brazil, Cape Verde, the Caribbean, china, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Korea, the Philippines, Puerto Rica, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In addition to providing a sense of community for many students, these groups serve another important function at the university; they provide a form of “education outside the classroom” for both the students involved in them, and for the faculty, staff, and student body who experience the events sponsored by these organizations.

Athletics

No BC student can deny that varsity athletics-especially football, basketball, and hockey-have a profound effect on the culture of the university. Freshmen find this to be the case when they experience the first home football game on a Saturday afternoon in September. The campus erupts in maroon and gold, the marching band can be heard from the early hours of the morning, and barbecued food can be smelled everywhere, and students, alumni, and fans from around New England and around the country descend onto campus to cheer on the Eagles.

Boston College’s athletics programs serve many important functions at the university. For those who play sports, participation on these teams provides many students with opportunities to display their talents to a national audience, as all of BC’s twenty-nine varsity teams compete at the NCAA Division I level. But even for those who cannot play on these teams, athletic events draw the campus community together, contributing to a spirit that is quite unique to Boston College. Among many other distinguishing characteristics, the presence of strong, major conference, Division I athletic teams, is yet another feature that allows Boston College to stand out among the other elite Catholic universities in the United States.

Residence life

Most students admitted to Boston College are offered three years of on campus housing. The usual path followed is to live on campus for freshman, sophomore, and senior years, while spending junior years studying abroad or living off campus in a neighboring apartment.

There are many on-campus housing options at Boston College. Most freshmen live in traditional dormitories with one or two roommates in a single bedroom. These residence halls are located on the Newton campus and on Chestnut Hill campus. Most sophomores live in four, six or eight- person suites, featuring two, three, or four two-person bedrooms, a common living room, and a kitchenette. Most seniors live in four- or six- person apartments, which have two or three bedrooms, as well as a full kitchen.

There are no fraternities or sororities at Boston College, a fact the vast majority of BC students are proud to announce. The freshman residence halls on both the Newton and Chestnut Hill campuses are arranged so that students not only feel as though they are part of a community in their dormitory, but also in their class. As students group together in suites and apartments as upperclassmen, socializing is moved to on-campus apartment, off-campus apartments, and into downtown Boston.

Students living off campus experience college life from a different perspective. Although additional responsibilities are an inherent part of living off campus, most students also enjoy the additional freedoms and opportunities that living off campus allows. Because leases usually run for a full years, living off campus gives students a place to stay in the summer, an obvious benefit for students seeking jobs or internships in Boston during the summer before they graduate. Additionally, in large number of students living off campus adds another dimension to the Boston College social scene, providing an opportunity for students to get together away from school.

Financial aid

BC is committed to admitting its students solely on the basic of their academic and personal accomplishments, and without regard to financial need. With the exception of the Presidential Scholars Program, which offers full tuition four-year scholarships to fifteen incoming freshmen, all financial aid at Boston College is given on the basic of demonstrated need.

To demonstrate need, students and families must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Profile form, published by the college Scholarship Service. Boston College also asks parents and students to provide the university with copies of their tax returns and W-2 forms. Because of the limited amount of financial aid available, it is important for parents and students to follow the instructions carefully, and to provide the university with the information requested by the specified deadlines.

Graduates

In 2000, Boston College’s endowment surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time. Much of the recent growth in the endowment can be attributed to the donations of many successful graduated who have given back to the school that gave so much to them.

As mentioned before, Boston College places a great deal of emphasis on service to others. For Boston College graduates, the theme of service is reflected in the career paths chosen by its graduates. In business, education, research, nursing, social work, politics, law, entertainment, or community service, Boston College graduates stand out as leaders in their fields.

The successes of Boston College alumni are beneficial, not only for the university, but also for current students looking for jobs and internships in the “real world.” A common characteristic among BC graduates is a strong sense of loyalty to their alma mater. This loyalty is often expressed through the willingness of BC graduates to help current students, especially through job networking and career counseling.