Boston University

Date: Nov 11 2008
Major: Geography and Geosciences (This Major's Salary over time)
First of all, lets make one thing quite clear; students do not come to BU looking for grassy quads and gothic architecture. They do, however, come to be in the very heart of perhaps the most student-friendly city in the nation. Boston is absolutely fantastic on so many levels; its clean, its full of culture and historic points of interests, and the entire city is accessible by the well maintained city transit system (the "T")

From an academic standpoint you are going to run the gambit. BU is a gigantic school of over 16,000 undergraduates and 40,000 students in all! You encounter every type of class imaginable here; large ones, small ones, classes taught by TAs, classes taught by TAs who don't speak English well, and classes taught by professors who very well may change the course of your life. The University is composed of a huge number of schools: the College of Communications, College of Health Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, etc; if you do not find your area of academic interest at BU you are simply not looking hard enough. Couple the diverse range of course offerings on campus with one of nation's best study abroad programs and you can't really go wrong.

Socially, my experience is that your social life is simply what you make of it. It sounds terribly cliche, but it's the truth. It is easy to feel alienated in a large, rather bureaucratic institution like BU, but if you make an active effort to make friends and find stuff to do there are few impediments. Students come from a highly diverse range of back-rounds (BU has one of the largest gay and international populations in the nation for example) and chances are you will find a core group of people who share your interests. BU offers an amalgam of things to do during the week and on weekends. Live music, Sporting events, and Theater performances only begin to scratch the surface. The party scene at BU is somewhat lackluster; girls tend to go to off campus frats (MIT, Northeastern, etc) or to near by Ashford St. to party. Boys tend to follow the girls, but frats are notoriously bad for turning guys away. During the second, third and senior year many people move off campus which adds a new dimension to the party life.

All in all I am very satisfied with my BU experience. As a prospective student, I can not more earnestly recommend my school. Yes, its not a prestigious as some of the big name institutions that it shares a city with, but let me tell you that statistics can be deceiving. BU students, for the most part, share a drive and passion to succeed. Professors, in my experience, expect nothing less then the best from their students and reward only exceptional work with "A" grades. A degree from BU is looked upon quite favorably in the real world and is certainly nothing to scoff at. In the end, as you take your standardized tests, and page through college review books, and prepare your applications you have to ask yourself a question: where will I be most happy going to school for the next 4 years? (not, which school sounds the nicest on a resume or which school my parents want me to attend) For me that school is Boston University