Boston College

Boston College Introduction

Boston College’s distinctive approach to undergraduate education can be best understood through the motto of the University: “Ever to Excel.” For more than 135 years, Boston College has maintained a commitment to excellence through the experiences and opportunities it offers its students both inside and outside the classroom. “Men and Women in Service for Others” has long been a phrase used to describe the focus of a Jesuit education, and the influence of the Jesuit focus is evident in all aspects of the university. Academically, in addition to maintaining the highest standards for its faculty and its students, Boston College’s curriculum is focused on helping its students develop a consciousness of their identities and their responsibilities in today’s society. Socially, Boston College seeks to provide a diversity of opportunities for its students to discover their abilities and their calling, including dozens of clubs and organizations representing artistic, athletic, cultural, ethnic, religious, and political interests; professional internships; volunteer programs; international study; and leadership opportunities.

Boston College draws inspiration for its academic and societal mission from its distinctive religious tradition. As a Catholic and Jesuit university, it is rooted in a worldview that encounters God in all creation and through all human activity, especially in the search for truth in every discipline, in the desire to learn, and in the call to live justly together. In this spirit, Boston College regards the contribution of different religious traditions and value systems as essential to the fullness of its intellectual life and to the continuous development of its distinctive intellectual heritage. While highlighting its Jesuit and Catholic traditions and principles, Boston College recognizes the importance of a diverse student body, faculty, and staff, and maintains a firm commitment to academic freedom, as the university encourages a communal effort toward the pursuit of its mission.

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 enjoy 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 Harvard, 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 more than 800 students in the freshman class. 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 the separate location affords them.

Size

In the fall of a recent year, 9,019 undergraduate students were enrolled at Boston College. However, the number studying on campus is somewhat smaller because many students choose to spend a semester studying abroad. Regardless, Boston College is best classified as a “medium-size” university. Although the student body is much larger than any student would have experienced in high school, the overall population is much smaller than that of most of America’s leading universities. In addition, the large number of full-time faculty at Boston College allows class sizes to be kept small; the student-faculty ratio is 13:1.

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 curapersonalis, 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 makes available to all members of its community; and through the holistic perspective it offers 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.

Boston College Academics

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of a Jesuit undergraduate education is the core curriculum, a tradition that Boston College has embraced and defended since the school’s founding in 1863. Rev. Timothy Brosnahan, S.J., who served as President of Boston College from 1894 to 1898, wrote the following in a statement justifying BC’s reliance on common requirements for all of its students:

Education is understood by the Jesuit Fathers, in its completest sense, as the full and harmonious development of all those faculties that are distinctive of man. It is not, therefore, mere instruction or the communication of knowledge. In fact, the acquisition of knowledge, though it necessarily accompanies any right system of education, is a secondary result of education. Learning is an instrument of education, not its end. The end is culture, and mental and moral development.

Although the university has undergone many changes since Fr. Brosnahan’s time, questions that have traditionally stood at the center of intellectual debate have remained salient. Many of these questions focus on issues such as the origin and destiny of existence, the principles of the physical world, the characteristics of human nature, the state of our society, and our attitudes toward the past. Because of the relevance of these questions to all academic pursuits, Boston College has retained its integrated core curriculum, allowing its students to examine all of these questions during their years at the university.

Because each academic discipline examines these questions from a unique perspective, the core requirements are dispersed among the university’s many departments. All students are required to take a full year of theology, philosophy, natural science, social science, and modern European history. In addition, one semester of study is required in fine arts, cultural diversity, English literature, English composition, and mathematics. The College of Arts and Sciences and the Carroll School of Management also require each student to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign or classical language. As students proceed through the core, the abovementioned questions are addressed in depth, with particular issues often revisited in several courses. Thus, the core experience challenges undergraduates to constantly formulate and reformulate their positions on the questions and issues that shape their lives as students, as professionals, and as human beings.

When talking with friends over a break during freshman year, we inevitably ended up discussing the classes we were taking. Some of them were surprised that BC’s core curriculum involved so many areas of study. I remember one friend saying, “I’d rather just take classes in subjects that I’m interested in, and not have to be forced to take all that other stuff.” At the time, I wasn’t sure what to think—I had never taken classes in philosophy or theology before, and wasn’t sure how they would compliment what it was that I thought I wanted to do. But looking back, I find that my interests (academically, professionally, and other- wise) have changed a great deal since I was a freshman in college. Had I filled my schedule with classes to prepare me for the career I sought when I was eigh- teen, I would have been quite disappointed when my path eventually changed course. But through the classes I took for the core, I was exposed to ideas that complimented all of the other classes I took in college, and in my grad school and law school coursework as well.

Resources

Boston College students have access to a multitude of resources to assist them in their academic pursuits. The university’s network of libraries features the Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. research library, along with seven other libraries featuring art collections, rare books, and professional resources for education, social work, and law. These facilities also provide students with access to the Web and other on-line databases and applications, private small-group study rooms, and audiovisual equipment. Additionally, Boston College’s Academic Development Center, located in the O’Neill Library, provides free tutoring to students in all subjects, along with specialized services for students with learning disabilities.

Boston College’s Student Affairs division includes several offices that serve students seeking academic support. Included among these is the Learning Resources for Student Athletes office, and the Learning to Learn program, which helps students improve their critical thinking, and develop learning skills necessary to succeed in college.

Over the past fifteen years, the university has refurbished many buildings on campus to accommodate state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories, computer facilities, and meeting rooms. These renovations are readily apparent as students undertake their coursework in the natural science departments of biology, chemistry, geology and geophysics, and physics, where laboratory facilities have been carefully designed to facilitate interaction between faculty members, researchers, and students. Students studying management, education, and nursing also reap the benefits of the recent construction, as the main buildings for the three professional schools have been given a face-lift in recent years, in an attempt to provide every Boston College student with a learning environment that complements the subject matter being taught.

Cable Television, Telephone, and Internet

Although often viewed as a resource for entertainment or communication, Boston College’s cable television, telephone, and Internet network is also an important academic resource. At the beginning of each student’s BC career, he or she is issued an e-mail address and a private telephone number with a voice mailbox, which remains the same until the student graduates. All dormitories are wired so that each resident student has his or her own hook-up for telephone, Ethernet, and cable television. All three of these are used by faculty and students alike. Professors and classmates share class distribution lists for e-mail and voice mail, allowing for mass transmittals of important class information. Faculty members and student groups utilize Boston College’s own cable television channels to provide students with an opportunity to view movies, lectures, and other presentations on their own time. These resources were put in place in 1994, and continue to be developed and improved upon each year, demonstrating Boston College’s commitment to providing its student body and its faculty with access to the latest innovations in communication technology.

Boston College Admissions

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. For the undergraduate class entering recently, more than 26,000 students applied for 2,250 places.

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 requiredto complete at least two years of laboratory science, including one year 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 American 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. For the class admitted to Boston College in a recent fall semester, the middle fifty percent of applicants scored between 1900 and 2100 (out of 2400) on the SAT, and/or between 27 and 31 on the ACT.

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 a 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.

Freshman Applicants

To apply to Boston College, students must complete both the Common Application and the Boston College Supplemental Application. For students seeking to begin their academic career at BC in the fall semester, there are two admission pools: a nonbinding Early Action pool, and the regular admission pool.

Freshman applicants with superior academic credentials who view BC as a first choice should consider applying for Early Action; both admission forms, along with the $70 application fee, are due by November 1. Early Action candidates will be notified of their admission decision before December 25.

Forms and fees for the regular admission pool must be received by January 1. Candidates will be notified of their admission decision between April 11 and 15.

Students wishing to enter as freshman in the spring semester must submit all forms and fees by November 1.

Transfer Applicants

Boston College accepts transfer applicants each semester. Transfer candidates must also complete both the Common Application and the Boston College Supplemental Application. Students wishing to transfer into BC beginning in the spring semester must submit their application forms and the $70 fee by November 1; those students seeking to transfer into BC beginning in the fall semester must hand in the forms and fee by April 15. In addition to high school records and standardized test scores, transfer applicants must furnish transcripts from all postsecondary institutions they have attended.

Boston College Financial Aid

BC is committed to admitting its students solely on the basis 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 basis 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.

Boston College has recently consolidated its offices of student financial aid, student accounts, bursar, and registrar into one department. This new division, now called the Office of Student Services, is prominently featured in the center of campus in completely redesigned facilities, providing students with quick and convenient access to answers for all of their financial and academic questions. Each student is assigned a counselor who works in the Office of Student Services, all of whom are willing to discuss specific cases with parents and students. Although the application process is structured and formal, the financial services counselors at BC take a personal approach to help students and families afford their education at Boston College.

Boston College Students

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 student 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 acappellagroups, 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 Rico, 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.

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 year, while spending junior year 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 apartments, off-campus apartments, and into downtown Boston.

The most popular senior housing option is in the Modular Townhouses, better known as “the mods.” Located near the football stadium, this community of seventy-eight two-story homes is often the center of Boston College’s undergraduate social scene. Although only a small percentage of students get to live in a mod, all students have a common area in their suite or apartment in which they can host parties and gatherings.

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 year, 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, the 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.

Students frequently ask about a student body’s “diversity” when they are looking at schools. I’ve always found the term hard to define. The friends I made at BC came from all over the country. Some of their parents were business owners, some were teachers, some were in the military, some were farmers, and some were professionals. My friends were Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Mormon, Jewish, Hindu, and nonpracticing. Their ancestors were from North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Some friends were more liberal, others more conservative; some politically active, and others not as involved. Today, my friends are doctors, teachers, lawyers, financiers, musicians, nurses, professors, students, college administrators, and computer programmers. This kind of diversity—in backgrounds, interests, beliefs, motivations, and aspirations—can’t be appropriately expressed by a statistic. However, while there was no doubt that we were diverse in our differences, the best part of the BC student body was something we all had in common. The “typical BC student” is bright, well rounded, ambitious, and concerned, and spending four years with people with these kinds of commoncharacteristics was what made BC a great place to learn and grow over the course of my college career.

Boston College 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, 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.

Recent success among many of BC’s teams also plays a role in the popularity of athletics among Boston College students. In 2000, the Boston College men’s ice hockey team won the national championship. In 2003, the football team played in the San Francisco Bowl, the men’s and women’s basketball teams were nationally ranked and earned berths in the NCAA tournament. In the past five years, BC’s teams have won Big East conference regular season and playoff championships in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s field hockey, men’s ice hockey, and women’s softball. But at BC, excellence goes beyond the playing field, for Boston College maintains one of the highest graduation rates of any Division I university in the nation.

Many opportunities to participate in athletics are available for students who do not play varsity sports. Intramural and club leagues are sponsored by the university for more than thirty men’s, women’s, and coeducational sports. In Summer 2001, Boston College’s main student athletics facility, the Flynn Recreation Complex, was given an $8 million face-lift, providing renovations to the pool, basketball and tennis courts, indoor track, weightlifting facilities, and locker rooms. Free weights are also available in the residence halls on the Chestnut Hill campus on the Newton campus.

Boston College Local Community

Although Boston College is not located in the heart of downtown Boston, the ease with which students can access all that Boston has to offer makes the city a virtual extension of the campus. While events are always occurring on campus, the presence of a neighboring metropolis gives students opportunities to reach beyond the college environment. Boston’s restaurants, concert halls, dance clubs, theaters, bars, and sporting events, are as much a part of the BC social scene as the campus-sponsored events.

Students interested in Boston College, but unfamiliar with the city of Boston, should be sure to visit the campus and the city. Unlike other big cities, many of which appear cold and unfriendly to the typical college student, Boston is “America’s college town.” Renowned for its history, its beauty in all four seasons, its diversity, and for its quality institutions of higher education, the city of Boston is a perfect complement to the history, beauty, diversity, and quality of education offered at Boston College.

Boston College Alumni

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 graduates 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.

Prominent Grads

• Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., ’36, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• George V. Higgins, ’61, Novelist
• Peter S. Lynch, ’65, Vice Chair Fidelity
• R.Nicholas Burns, ’78, NATO
• Herb Scannell, ’79, President, MTV Networks
• Doug Flutie, ’85, NFL Quarterback
• Erik Weihenmayer, ’91, Mountaineer/Author
• Chris O’Donnell, ’92, Hollywood Actor
• Amy Poehler, ’93,Saturday Night Livecast member
• Matt Hasselbeck, ’97, NFL Quarterback
• Elizabeth Hasselbeck, ’99, Media Host

Boston College 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 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 enmasse, 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 abil- ity 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 examine 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 popular cocurricular employment opportunity offered by all four schools is the Undergraduate Faculty Research Fellowships, in which students can earn money as they assist faculty 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.

Although BC boasts a beautiful campus and first-rate facilities, in my opinion, the school’s greatest asset is its faculty. You can tell that the reason they are at BC is because they wantto teach undergraduates. My sophomore year, I had a history professor who had a reputation as a very tough grader. After receiving a grade on a paper that was lower than I expected, I went to his office to ask him for advice. I didn’t expect the meeting to last more than five minutes. He invited me into his office, and after discussing the paper for a minute or two, he began to ask me questions about my academic interests and the career path I was considering. At the time, I wasn’t sure, and I told him so. His response was brilliant. He said, “Well, that’s the reason you’re here! One of the purposes of a liberal arts education is ‘to liberate’ you from the restrictions placed on your ability to learn about the world once you leave school and focus on a career. Use your time here to explore all that you can—you may not have many chances like this ever again.” I took his advice, and outside of my major, I took classes on Shakespeare, American architecture, Beethoven, World War II, and other areas in which I had a curiosity. That professor and I became close friends, and are still in touch today. Not only did I get an A in his class, the advice he gave me about how to approach my college career was among the best I had ever received.

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (high research activity)

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Air Force	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification