<p>Okay, I just visited BU for the second time today, for the CAS open house for admitted students. The program was great up to and including lunch. I wasn’t interested in any of the lectures going on for the hour afterwards, so my parents and I decided to take an unofficial tour through some of the buildings. We walked into one CAS building (can’t remember which exactly, but possibly Tsai), and the ground level was typical of what you’d expect from BU. It was when we decided to go upstairs and walk past some classrooms that we were truly shocked. Once we got up the flight of stairs, we emerged into a hall that looked like it was taken from a 40-year-old, run down public high school. The hall itself was horribly crowded and the classrooms were small and packed full of students.</p>
<p>I have to ask, is this typical? This was the first time I’d seen anything like this at BU. It’s almost like they were hiding it from prospective students.</p>
<p>Its called going to school in the middle of a city, where space is limited. Most city schools have some sort of building like that, from what I have seen. The schools in the burbs tend to have more space and can add on as the enrollment grows.</p>
<p>CAS is just an older building. If you’ve ever been in SMG or SCI or ENG or even SAR my school then you’ll notice a lot more of what BU has to offer. Sounds like you’re gonna be a CAS student though in which case that doesn’t help. The quality of the education is what really matters and if you feel like BU can provide that then you should accept.</p>
<p>CAS is one of the only older buildings on campus. Classrooms are a little tight, but nothing out of the ordinary for the city. Aesthetics of a school-building interior aren’t really too important anyway. Don’t let it fool you.</p>
<p>No pictures, but it really did look like something that was removed from an old high school. There were classrooms ever 20 feet or so, and the spaces in between were filled up by green, unused, slightly rusted lockers. The floor was your typical cheap tile that you find in highschools, and overall it was just kind of dirty.</p>
<p>CAS is one of the historical buildings on campus. The interior definitely looks like an old high school. However, I think dirty is the wrong word. Its not dirty at all. I take classes up there every day and people are always cleaning it. But yes, that one building has older looking hallways. I still don’t understand how it is relevant though.</p>
<p>I’m a CAS student, and while at first the lockers and such of CAS seemed a little strange to me it’s not a huge deal. I’ve seen similar set-ups in other city schools too, and even other less-urban campuses. This semester I actually only have one class in the actual CAS building, so it’s not even a gurantee that this is where you will be spending all of your time.</p>
<p>As other people have said it’s really the quality of the education that matters, regardless of what the classrooms may look like. CAS has 5 floors, parts of the 5th floor have classrooms that look similar to the 1st floor. CAS could probably do with an upgrade as it is one of the older buildings at BU, but the classrooms themselves aren’t ALL so bad. If you’ve seen the movie 21, the classroom scenes were shot in classrooms in CAS, so many of them are re-modeled and not bad at all.</p>
<p>I’m an admissions tour guide as well, and I always encourage people to go look around after their tour…I’ve actually never heard a complaint (and I’ve heard some pretty interesting things lol). I guess it’s all about personal preference, but in all, no the classrooms in CAS are certainly not the norm for BU.</p>
<p>All the scenes that were supposed to be MIT were filmed at BU. I saw Kevin Spacey here while they filmed. They used Bay State Road, the BU Pub, the FitRec center, CAS classrooms, etc.</p>
<p>Classrooms on the bottom floor and the top floor are actually very nice. Besides, even if you are in CAS, many of your classes won’t even be in this building. Trust me, I thought the same at first when I went into the building. You quickly realize that the quality of the education that goes on inside far outweighs anything else. As a freshman, you will have classes in many locations, so its not a problem you will likely have to worry about too much.</p>
<p>“CAS could probably do with an upgrade as it is one of the older buildings at BU, but the classrooms themselves aren’t ALL so bad. If you’ve seen the movie 21, the classroom scenes were shot in classrooms in CAS, so many of them are re-modeled and not bad at all.”</p>
<p>Just to clarify–the primary classroom scenes in the movie (with Kevin Spacey as the professor) were filmed in SMG (as was the award ceremony for the robot competition). I think all of the CAS shots were either hallways (which include those lockers and got a loud chuckle from the audience when I saw the movie) or the basement CAS classroom when they were practicing.</p>
<p>If you watch the trailer, you’ll brielfy see a shot of Kevin Spacey teaching in a typical SMG classroom. Later, you’ll see several shots of the kids talking about how it all works in a CAS basement classroom.</p>
<p>You’ll see several other BU locales throughout the movie, as mentioned. The three notable ones off of the top of my head were the castle (the formal event Kevin Spacey attends toward the end), FitRec and, oddly, a shot of Towers. I don’t know why they would choose Towers to be their “MIT dorm” of all places on campus, but it got a nice reaction from the audience. They did not, unfortunately, use any shots from the BU pub.</p>
<p>My mistake. I actually meant the castle. I have a habit of calling the castle the pub, because I can’t think of any reason I’d visit the castle anyway lol.</p>
<p>I’ve never felt like the CAS class rooms or halls are dirty or run down in the way you make them seem. I can understand the high school vibe with the lockers and whatnot, but the halls sure are a lot nicer than my old high school. What exactly were you expecting a “grand” class room to look like?</p>
<p>I guess OP expected the interior to not look like a typical high school hallway. Not exactly grand per se, but something more “upscale” than an ordinary- looking high school hallway. Probably the beauty of BU buildings belies the interior aesthetics It’s ok though, I’ve generally heard positive things about BU’s academics.</p>
It’s ok though, I’ve generally heard positive things about BU’s academics.</p>