Friday, June 18, 2010

Visiting Boston College


The trolley/muni took us down west on the extra long Commonwealth Ave to Boston College. Not Boston University which is located on the east side of the avenue. The AC on the trolley was just what we needed on this hot, high 80's degree day. Once we got off the trolley, the weather really decided not to be nice to us. We were walking about half a mile uphill to reach the admissions building of BC.

As compared to Columbia's session yesterday, I enjoyed BC's much better. One admissions officer led the discussion-like session, while five students from different grade levels, backgrounds, and majors were there to answer questions and comment on a handful of different aspects.

Because BC is a Jesuit-Catholic school, theology and faith plays a significant part of a student's education and extracirricular activities--including their 200+ clubs. Students must fulfill the theology requirement and that can be fulfilled by classes that relate to religion and faith--not just Catholic classes.
Nevertheless, they have activities for all religions and even provide complimentary shuttles to a student's place of worship if so desired!

Thus, everyone is welcomed in the end but if you are of a Catholic background and don't mind moving to the East Coast, then I definitely recommend BC.

One thing that really struck me was the buildings. The exterior was mostly made up of light grey colored stones, pointy roofs with many clocktowers, but the interior was fairly modern and bright. You kind of get the best of both worlds here: traditional and a modern feel.

Last but not least, their mid-size population of 9000 undergraduates really interested me. The campus is small enough to build an intimate relationship with your peers but also large enough to meet someone new up to your senior year. I really liked that aspect.

Unfortunately, the Boston Celtics didn't claim this year's championship!

2 comments:

  1. Stephanie,

    Many of you are writing about the religious aspects of BU. Your comment about BU being inclusive, though, may not be as accurate as you suggest. Even though they may push the 'faith' issue, I can't help but believe that their overwhelming influence will always be towards the Catholic religion with an emphasis on the Jesuits.

    Considering the heavy Irish Catholic make-up of Boston, though, this only stands to reason.

    Being a godless heathen, though, I can easily see that I would be uncomfortable spending any time at all there.

    Your description of the weather made me break out in a sweat even though the weather here is cool, windy and in the low 60's. For that reason alone it's better to be here than there.

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  2. Nice description of the size, that's a factor I'm considering too.

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