<p>So i got accepted to the arts and sciences school, but i have also gotten in at skidmore, kenyon, and connecticut college.</p>
<p>I’m most attracted to the programs and area that come with BC, but the school has a reputation of being only for preppy, athletic, stuck up popular kids, and that just isn’t what i want in my college.</p>
<p>does anyone know if there are kids who have other interests, maybe that are more interested in music/movies/the arts? </p>
<p>i don’t want to pick BC for everything but its kids only to end up with no friends!</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but this question has been asked so many times on this forum, you should search for the other questions and responses. </p>
<p>The short answer is YES. Not all 9,000 undergraduates are clones of each other, as hard as that is to believe. Of course there are students interested in the arts. Otherwise, how would BC be able to put on theatre performances, culture shows, film festivals, a HUGE annual art festival that is coming up at the end of April, etc.</p>
<p>There is no way anyone can stereotype an entire student body from any school on the face of this Earth. It’s just not possible. What you said about BC students, while it <em>may</em> be true for some people, is nowhere close to being true for the entire student body or even a majority of the student body.</p>
<p>im sorry if its repetitive, i looked through the eight pages of forum threads on bc’s main page and all i saw were comparisons and “chance” requests. if you happen to know of any other threads with the same type of question could you point me in the right direction?</p>
<p>I’m not a BC student yet so take this with a grain of salt but…</p>
<p>I was a bit concerned about this as well. However, when I attended the Early Action admitted eagle day I found that for that particular group of accepted students, the stereotypes were completely wrong. It was a diverse group of people of all races and parts of the country. The great majority of people were not super wealthy, super preppy, or super stuck up at all. Everyone was just very friendly and excited to come to BC. The only thing everyone had in common was being very ambitious and intelligent.</p>
<p>When you think about it, BC is a very selective school. Everyone that gets in has to be intelligent and driven. I don’t know about your high school, but at my school “intelligent” and “driven” aren’t really the words that describe the athletic, stuck up, popular group.</p>
<p>Once again, I’m not a student yet so my perception of the school could be wrong, but that’s just my personal opinion!!</p>
<p>The fact that you’re asking this question means it’s a healthy time to ask yourself if you are being fair in your outlook. BC is a top-40 college with over 30,000 applications a year. If the student body was that sterile, it would have failed years ago.</p>
<p>It’s normal for a HS senior to latch onto random hearsay. BC, and most other colleges, do not come close to the reputation that you mention. </p>
<p>If you enter college with a closed mind, you’ll be unhappy with fellow students wherever you go. Enter it with an open mind, and you’ll be amazed at the great lifelong friendships you’ll make.</p>
<p>Perhaps that stereotype would have held some degree of truth twenty years ago, but BC is now 25% AHANA. In other words, one out of four students you meet on campus is going to either be Asian, Hispanic, African-American, or Native American. And as a rising sophomore who is chinese and who also had significant qualms about the quality of social life in college, I tell you without the slightest qualification that BC is anything but homogeneous or-as you might have read from urban dictionary- a embodiment of a J-crew catalog with a hangover. Sure, there are some preppy kids, but that’s all part of the college experience. We have so many students on campus, it’s virtually impossible to find your own niche of friends who share your interests. My advice? Don’t ever sell yourself short. Go out and meet as many people as you can, and you’ll be surprised at how amiable everyone here is once you take the initiative to introduce yourself. </p>
<p>Hello
As a fellow student deciding between BC and Emory I must say that after visiting BC yesterday for Admitted Eagle Day, I have decided to attend BC. </p>
<p>Initially, I too, was concerned about the whole “preppy, J-crew” stereotypes I had heard about the school but when I got there, I didn’t really see much of that- especially in the newly admitted class.</p>
<p>The people were all very wonderfully nice; when my car got a flat tire near one of the dorms and my father was trying to get the spare on, a group of male students making their way to the recreation center hurried over and asked if they could be of any help. Although none of them were mechanics themselves, they did call one. And let me just mention that that group of male students was multi-racial.</p>
<p>I realize that it might be a bit naive to perceive the entire BC student population as being something other than the given stereotypes but I also believe now that it might also be a bit naive to perceive it based on just the stereotypes :)</p>
<p>FWIW this is the same “profile” that causes concerns about Miami, (rich, snotty, party-all-the-time jocks) and USC, (rich, obnoxious, beauty-obsessed party-all-the-time spoiled children). Of course what is also always omitted in these stereotypes is that the average admitted GPA for all three schools runs 3.6 - 3.8 and the mid-point SATs run around 1950 - 2200. They also overlook the fact that at the three schools an average of 75% of students receive aid; I guess smart and middle-class isn’t as demeaning or incendiary.</p>
<p>What does all this mean? Well there are three possibilities:</p>
<p>1) The stereotypes are true and somehow, as jpm50 points out, BC, Miami and USC have figured out how to identify, attract and admit only those “preppy, athletic popular kids”. Quite an amazing feat if you consider the logistics.</p>
<p>2) Perhaps without realizing it prp8264, you are in fact a “preppy, athletic popular kid” and BC has merely called you home to the mother ship where you can mix and mingle with people just like you.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>3) The stereotypes are dead wrong. It you carefully read the posts here on CC many of the stereotypes are promoted by people who have no experience or even basic knowledge of BC (or Miami or USC for that matter). It is easier to buy into a stereotype than it is to investigate the truth. It’s easier to diminish the current student body with blanket descriptions than it is to accept the fact that you were rejected because of your 3.0/1700.</p>
<p>I could assume that Kenyon is still home to the remnants of the counter-culture, hippies and hipsters happily coexisting on the green fields of Gambier Ohio, never once being pestered by oppressive things like classes or exams. I could also assume that every student at “Zoo” Mass, Penn State and Ohio State is a drunken mouth-breathing lout, spending his/her time burning couches when they’re not attending some perpetual kegger. But I’d be simplistic and wrong, (well, maybe not about Ohio State…). BC is a community of 15,000 and like any small town you’re going to have a diverse cast of characters. There will be preps, jocks, Guidos, Barbies and hipsters. You will bring your personality and attitudes to BC and you will both affect each other. It’s hard to imagine a more intriguing or exciting time in your life.</p>
<p>Be extremely careful with the use of such statistics. “Aid” includes merit money as well as athletic and outside scholarships. Only 40% of students at BC qualify for need-based aid; in other words, 60% have incomes/assets to qualify as full pay. At Miami, it’s ~50%. 'SC offers automatic tuition discounts to NMSF’s (aka “financial aid”), many of whom would otherwise be full pay. USC refuses to publish its common data set, so it’s actual need-based number is not clear, but according to Collegeboard reported data, 40% of 'SC’s Frosh qualify for need-based aid.</p>
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<p>Actually, not that hard at all. Notre Dame values Varsity athletic experience, and its admissions reflect that fact – 70% of all Frosh played varsity sports in HS. And there is a lot of self-selection that occurs with applications: many kids apply to U-Michigan because they want to spend Saturday afternoons in the Big House. Kids apply to LACs because they don’t have such an interest. Similarly, some/many kids apply to 'SC & Miami for the same reasons. They also apply for curricular offerings, such as undergrad biz (which, by definition, LACs don’t have).</p>
<p>We are solidly middle class, from the Midwest and got an aid package that made going to BC doable but still a financial stretch - and our son is thriving at BC - has lots of friends - some of whom are racially ‘diverse’. In fact, money seems to not be an issue as the group he is friends with is very diverse when you look at the family finances.</p>
<p>Also, the helping out with the car story seems very BC to me. Last winter when I called my son he gave me a quick hello then said he had to run - evidently, there had been a huge snow storm and the young men on campus where going around in groups helping dig out cars near campus that were buried in snow.</p>
<p>All just anecdotal, but I did worry before sending him to college that our/his lack of financial resources might be an issue - but it hasn’t been.</p>
<p>The former can be easily ascertained from recs (This student was a real “student leader”) & ECs (Student Body officer), and since most high school elections are popularity contests…). I would guess that the latter is self-selection: Bard-types just don’t apply, and neither do hard physical science geeks/nerds, for that matter.</p>
<p>I doubt the admissions committee is looking over applications and saying things like “Oh, we can’t admit this student because judging by the ECs, he/she wasn’t popular enough in high school.”</p>
<p>To change the original question a bit, how comfortable do you feel the campus culture would be for a non-Catholic from the South? I was surprised after looking through nine pages of threads on this forum that there isn’t one on how overt the Catholic environment is. I know that BC individuals will cover the whole normal curve of personality types and operating styles, but with 7 out of 10 BC students Catholic, are there apparent overtones to campus life that might leave the other 3 out of 10 feeling like outsiders?</p>
<p>after a weekend at BC i’ve come to the conclusion that by “preppy” people simply mean BC doesnt have any dirt bags, which is great. i didnt see any skater types, i just saw a bunch of clean cut kids. a lot of them looked like athletes, a lot of them didn’t. everyone i meant was very friendly and to be honest, the girls were very good-looking. BC admissions officers really do take the best of the best- smart, athletic, respectable students.</p>
<p>ha ha before going to BC i thought it was ridiculous that some schools could have hotter girls than others i figured they all probably have about the same number. not true. everyone at BC is very attractive</p>
<p>Don’t worry, not all the kids at BC are the “popular” type. thenatural is going (due to being rejected everywhere else) and he is not a popular or cool kid at all. Good luck on your decision.</p>
