Boston College

Date: Apr 19 2004
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
No college can be right for everyone, and your education and experience on any campus will largely be what you make of it. But in my mind, BC is definitely a quality school.

I tend to disagree with specific rankings of schools (there's simply too much in the way of intangibles and nonstandard data, and no real way to measure 'learning'), but everyone seems obsessed with rankings these days. If pressed, I'd say that BC is deservedly considered among the best in the nation. It may not be considered in the absolute 'top tier' academically (the top 20-25 schools, say), but it's solidly in the tier just below that. And when you consider the number of four-year colleges in this country, that would still place it in the top 5% or so of all US schools - that's nothing to sneeze at. I think beyond that, you're splitting hairs, and should be looking at the strength of specific departments at various schools and some other factors. The fact is that if you want to go to grad school and do well at BC, you will have no problem. The school also has a solid reputation in the business world, in my experience.

I had grades and test scores sufficient to get me into many top schools (Columbia, ND, NYU, etc.), and I chose BC largely due to family/personal and financial reasons. If some things had been different, I may indeed have gone elsewhere. But I have always been happy that I went to BC. I received a great education, and had some wonderful and distinguished professors in the English and Philosophy departments. The overall location and campus are great, and the student life and athletics were also a plus to me. It's really got the best of all worlds in many ways. Students drink and party on every campus - and there are always a few morons that leave you scratching your head as to how they ended up at school there (or anywhere) - but in my experience BC students also tended to work hard, and were generally intelligent and friendly. There was some cliquish behavior for sure, but again, that seems par for any campus.

All in all, BC is a first-rate academic school that also offers the best college town in the US and some great athletic traditions. Beyond that, it's all you.