<p>When I say 2nd tier I mean a step below the Ivies</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Or is it not really an elite school</p>
<p>It’s reputable, but I wouldn’t call it elite. I wouldn’t put it in the category of “a step below the Ivies”, in terms of reputation.</p>
<p>well, it’s not “tier 3” or “tier 4”…</p>
<p>Compared to the 1,500 other colleges in america, then it is one of the best schools in the country</p>
<p>In Boston, most academics would rate the Boston universities thusly: Harvard; MIT; Tufts; Brandeis; BC; BU; Northeastern.</p>
<p>5th is Okay–not elite.</p>
<p>Boston College is not tier two. It is a tier one university. However, if your definition of “tier one” is Ivy League level, then yes, BC would be tier two. BC is now quite on par with the Ivies and other elites like Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford etc… I would say it is comparable to NYU, Tufts, USC, Wisconsin and other excellent universities. None of those are “2nd tier” but then again, they aren’t quite “Ivy” material either.</p>
<p>If you live in Massachusetts, then Boston College is second to none for many people.
But what about outside of MA? Do people from California, for example, really know the value of Boston College?</p>
<p>In terms of student strength, Boston College is a very strong school and I would say that its student profile would place it at the top end of the group of colleges that sits just below Cornell (which sits at the bottom of the Ivies in statistical comparisons). True peer colleges for Boston College would include colleges like Wake Forest, Lehigh, U Michigan, NYU, Georgia Tech, and Tulane. </p>
<p>Consider the following data from collegeboard that supports this tiering (please recognize that some of the data is a year old, but all schools are compared in the same way and thus the relative comparisons likely have not changed dramatically):</p>
<p>25/75 SAT Critical Reading Scores, % of students over 700 on CR</p>
<p>630-770, 38% Cornell
610-700, 26% Boston College</p>
<p>610-700, 29% Wake Forest
600-680, 13% Lehigh
590-690, 21% U Michigan
620-710, 30% NYU
590-690, 18% Georgia Tech
600-690, 36% Tulane</p>
<p>25/75 SAT Math Scores, % of students over 700 on Math</p>
<p>680-730, 59% Cornell
630-720, 40% Boston College</p>
<p>630-710, 38% Wake Forest
640-710, 39% Lehigh
630-730, 43% U Michigan
620-720, 36% NYU
650-730, 44% Georgia Tech
590-680, 23% Tulane</p>
<p>25/75 ACT Composite Scores, % of students with 30+ on ACT</p>
<p>28-32, 56% Cornell
28-32, na Boston College</p>
<p>27-31, na Wake Forest
na Lehigh
27-31, 38% U Michigan
28-31, 53% NYU
27-31, 30% Georgia Tech
27-31, na Tulane</p>
<p>Acceptance Rate</p>
<p>21% Cornell
27% Boston College</p>
<p>42% Wake Forest
32% Lehigh
50% U Michigan
37% NYU
63% Georgia Tech</p>
<p>BC would not be considered elite relative to colleges ranked in the USNWR Top 20, but I think it’s pretty clear from the comparisons above that the college attracts a very high quality student and that its reputation on CC and elsewhere probably deserves an upgrade.</p>
<p>The whole question of tiers is a weird one…it has been ranking in the USNWR top 50 for many many years. BC’s reputation outside of Mass is actually higher than in Mass/the East Coast. Nationally, people are only familiar with the highly competitive university, whereas people from the Northeast still remember when BC was largely a regional university and have only recently (past 10 years) started to recognize it as a major player.</p>
<p>DHRB,
Good point. It is similar to what you find on the West Coast with USC. People still remember that as the University of Spoiled Children and those from places like UCB and UCLA have a hard time accepting that times have changed, USC is much improved and now is a real competitor with those colleges. </p>
<p>For BC, it is probably magnified even more due to the proximity of several terrific colleges in its area (Harvard, MIT, Brown, Tufts, etc). But there is little question that BC is a pretty strong place and, depending on the type of undergraduate experience that a student is looking for (eg, one that encompasses a great combination of academics, social life and athletic scene), BC might be the better choice over some or all of these.</p>
<p>Student strength is one measure–but only one measure. Boston College is certainly a good school, but it is not, IMHO, at or near the level of the nations most elite universities. It is a national research university–but when you compare it department by department with the top ranked schools, it simply doesn’t measure up. Good yes, great no. Let me ask: What field is BC top rated in? If the answer is football, I rest my case. </p>
<p>BC boosters like to compare BC with Georgetown–and the comparison is not unfair. Frankly, I think people tend to overrate Georgetown because, although it is a very “hot” school and, thus, very selective–it too doesn’t have many highly ranked departments. But at least I can name a few top rated fields at Georgetown, such as international studies (foreign affairs).</p>
<p>USNWR ranks BC somewhere in the mid 30’s among national universities. I think they have it about right. Of course, compared to most schools, that’s great. But it is what it is, and what it isn’t is comparable to the Ivy League or other elite schools. Sorry to the boosters.</p>
<p>West Coasters are not that familiar with BC (other than Doug Flutie). I would not have any basis to place it anywhere other than USNWR’s ranking of mid 30s for Universities, which means mid 50s or so if Universities and LACs were to be combined (as shown with the data on Cross Admit preferences).</p>
<p>Fields that we are nationally competitive in include finance, education, nursing, social work, philosophy, chemistry (have you read our professor list there?), theology, and political science. </p>
<p>I want to rebut that BC boosters compare it to Gtown. While they are one of our crossover schools (schools with which we share a great portion of applicants), most BC affiliates recognize that they are two totally different schools with totally different feels and strengths. </p>
<p>For the record, I also don’t get Tufts…</p>
<p>“Nationally competitive” is just the right word… which is different from “elite” or “world reknowned”, or “give up your left arm to go there”, etc.</p>
<p>Boston College’s peers, in my opinion, are the other elite Catholic started/sponsored schools that stress education first and athletics second.
That means Georgetown, Boston College, Notre Dame as the top three. Fordham might be in that group.</p>
<p>Thank you DHRBC07–you’ve proven my point. Look at the rankings (USNRW)for the departments you listed: chemistry–50; political science–unranked but not in top 54) finance–34; nursing–26; social work–14 education–18 (I don’t have rankings for theology or philosophy). Not one is in the top ten. The best is social work which, while unquestionably an important field, is not one that turns the heads of most academics. Bottom line is that BC is a very good but not elite institution.</p>