Boston College Vs Boston University (Cambridge, Quincy: taxi, campus, medical center)

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

Well my cousin went to BC high did not get in even though his dad went there. My cousin is VERY smart, not just saying that I could care less really but he's very smart...he ended up going to McGill, which some might say is better academically. His dad was pissed.

He probably had more fun up there!

[Whatsnext75]

He's still there haha, he graduated a year or two ago. Total hippie with long hair...he sort of was in high school as well so i dont think he would have fit in at BC. McGill was definitely the right environment for him.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Correct.

Colleges do not provide financial aid to international students.

That depends. They do for the athletes.

[yaeger07]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

That depends. They do for the athletes.

That's not financial aid, those are athletic scholarships.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by yaeger07

That's not financial aid, those are athletic scholarships.

If the school can't give athletic scholarships and some of them can't like the Ivy league and others, they give financial aid. There are more schools than you think that aren't permitted to give athletic scholarships. I was surprised to learn that.

[mdovell]

On a lower level it is a bit interesting with international students. Public school can only admit a international student for one year, private has no such limit. With some of the debates with charter schools one possible compromise might be to have them be considered private for international students. Charter schools would then have access to more students without costing their public school district.

[CaseyB]

I think that might defeat the purpose of charter schools, no?

[bjimmy24]

To comment on toefl- I've actually tutored TOEFL and have taught many international students preparing for university. They mostly just need to learn strategies to pass the test. Knowledge of English is truly secondary. For example for every multiple choice question- one is obviously conpletely wrong and ridiculous. Another one will be pretty clearly wrong, but sure, you might need to know a couple grammar points to make that out. So basically every multiple choice question is basically a 50/50 shot. Not bad. The listening, speaking, and writing sections all boil down to recognizing patterns and how to formulate thoughts, which aren't really English specific concepts. I know some people who have scored much higher than they seem they would. Likewise some incredibly good speakers have scored low because they didn't study strategies, only English- silly them!

And yes, cheating is a big thing in asia. So many international students just need a paper that had an American University name on it. Everything else is secondary.

[bostonguy1960]

My nephew spent one year at boarding school in New England after a strong school district in another region -- but that wasn't enough for him to get into BC. His hockey skills got him in but he still had to take additional courses and play independent hockey in the Boston area in order to fully get accepted a year later. I don't think they simply accept any good athlete without good academics?

Yes, his father earns a very nice salary...so the BC white rich kid stereotype is probably still true.
I'm surprised another poster mentioned BC High couldn't get his relative into BC. Isn't BC High a springboard to BC...or it was long ago?

I applied to BC in 1978 but was put on the waiting list; it's now even more selective, I'm certain. I went to BU in the College of Liberal Arts after the School of Communication there rejected me even with light experience as a writer at my high school monthly paper. I never was a standout student either in high school or college...so I likely couldn't get into BC or BU now.

[Vanderbiltgrad]

My dad and mom got into Harvard because they are wicked smart.