During your time period BU was more competitive than the others. Northeastern was the least competitive.
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Not so sure. The two worst students in my senior high school class of 50 something kids with GPAs in the low 2s and SAT scores around 1000 went to BU and Northeastern. I remember neither was accepted at U Vermont or Fairfield.
My high school in NY sent a lot of smart kids there in the 90s. I had friends with zero APs go to Ann Arbor and College Park, though. Not today!
I think the adults here understand that. But most of the kids who come here are the ones so driven that it is Ivy and a private equity job or bust. You get the idea that they have never visited any of the schools, it is just based on reputation. Kids from Houston who like the heat and city life asking for help to get into Dartmouth. There was a kid here this Spring who got into UC Berkeley and wanted to know if he should defer and take a gap year to reapply to Ivies.
Maybe Barronâs has the best idea. 500 schools, 5 groupings. And their ratings are more indirect.
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Not sure what happened in this case, but my experience maps with @michaelcollege .
Northeastern was closer to UMass-Boston back in the day. BU was always considered a step (or two) above.
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My dh graduated from NEU as a transfer back in the early 90âs, when it was considered a commuter school (after his parents pulled his funding after not taking college seriously, so he had to work and save to finish up at NEU). He cheered its rise in the rankings as it made his degree look more impressive 
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I got into BU with a 2.8 and 1070. Ultimately went to Syracuse. 41% percentile rank. Mid 80s.
If the check would clear, you got in.
college of basic studies
As recently as 2004 BU had a 70% acceptance rate.
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Interesting that two of BUâs most generous alumni donors started out in the College of Basic Studies.
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I donât remember - but journalism was my major field. It could be though - I attended SU but not in Newhouse - I had to get a 3.0 first year and transfer in - which I did while being allowed to take Com 107, which was the intro class for Newhouse.
The point being - it wasnât that hard an in - of course a 2.8 being the 41% percentile wouldnât happen today either.
Never took an AP class - think school only two or three offered if I remember. Iâm sure today - wealthy area, top school - it offers a lot.
Like NYU, it has dropped sharply just in the past few years. When D19 was applying, the most recent admit rate to BU was somewhere in the low 20s - itâs now 12% I believe. NYU was also low 20s - it dropped to the teens for the first time that application cycle - and of course is now single digits. D19 would probably not even bother applying to those today with her stats tbh.
Question, are there stats anywhere of the average applications per student (not just the overall number of students applying)? Anecdotally common app + increased ease and/or wealth of internationals applying mean more applications per student, but is there data to show this?
BU was the most competitive school on the list then, and may still be on top, along with Northeastern, now. The school was ahead of its time taking full-pay kids who were less qualified. They battled US News for years around excluding them in their data. If you go back to the 60âs and 70âs, it was a school for everyone. The evolution of colleges can be especially interesting, but probably off-topic.
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When I was in HS at a New England prep school - BU was where slightly below average kids went or someoneâs safety school if slightly above average student.. However it was on peopleâs list and people considered it a good school. NOBODY considered even applying Northeastern. For the local public school kids Northeastern was for average kids who wanted to be nurses or a PT or something. Was definitely looked down upon in my circles. (note, not saying this was right!) I know many successful people who went to northeastern back then, though kids I know who went to BU are too.
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Another 90s BU grad here, and I was not a good student in HS. I started at my StateU, got my grades up and transferred to BU which was fairly generous with my merit and need-based aid (although I still had a lot of student loan debt). It was definitely considered a cut above Northeastern at the time, but Iâve been delighted to see the university come into its own in recent decades. BU was a great experience for meâreally took me out of my comfort zone academically, socially and geographically. While the BU of the 90s is not the BU of today, even then, I had some truly wonderful professors and met a lot of really smart kids. As a big school, you can find whatever youâre looking forâthe diligent students, the kids that blow off academics, etc.âbut I think BU had a huge impact on my life. I agree with others that itâs been interesting to see how colleges evolve their reputations.
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Sounds like we went to the same school.
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The Common App reports this data, might be the best you can do on a large scale. International students probably make this harder. But 100% of admissions officers and guidance counselors would tell you it is true.
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I graduated from a specialized high school in NYC in the late â80s and was determined to major in journalism, so I took myself out of the Ivy rat race most of my friends were in (the Ivies had, and I believe continue to have, no undergrad journalism majors). I applied to Northwestern, BU and Syracuse. NU, in those early days of the US News list, ranked in the high teens or low 20s. The school didnât have the profile it has today, so people would occasionally ask me if I meant âthat co-op school in Boston.â And of course I took offense! Northeastern had nothing close to the profile even of BU back then, and it was light years from what it is today. (Got into all three, went to Northwestern, loved it.)
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The younger generations today often have no idea that BU, BC, NYU and USC were once commuter schools too. They became residential in the 1950âs and 1960âs. Northeastern became residential in the 1990âs.
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When D19 was accepted at NYU, my stepmom (who was a Queens College commuter) still had the âold idea×´ of NYU in her head. She was flabbergasted to find out the admit rate was in the teens that year.
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