Ucla, Pepperdine , Bc Or Bu?!!!

[TriniLiciousSs]

thank you all for all that info!
Deff helped!

Here are some answers:

I chose those schools because they are the the areas i liked-
i love CA for its weather and beachy atmosphere- like where i am from
but i love MA because it is a city with the Red Sox - who i love!!!- and because its not too big! 1/3 the size of NY! - perfect. but the weather is so coldd!!!! yuck!
So those schools just appealed to me because of their location and reputations.!!


I am coming from NJ . so i know what im getting myself into as per the cost of college...

Now with the whole *religion in school** thing
like what do you mean it matters ? Do we have to attend mass and such?

[CaseyB]

Just a suggestion - if you go the general forums area of city-data, there is a forum about education. You could inquire about lots of colleges there.

[TriniLiciousSs]

thanks!

[FinkieMcGee]

I went to Northeastern so I'm pretty familiar with BU and BC since a lot of my friends went to those schools.

BU is huge, so if you're looking for a large school I would consider either that or UCLA. If you're looking to go into something scientific or engineering based, I would probably veer towards UCLA. If you want a research opportunity you could definitely snag something there if you get to know the professors (which can be difficult with large class sizes, so you'll need to be somewhat aggressive). I'd go to BU if I was looking for something on the liberal arts edge. I know people that went through their engineering program, and while most engineering programs are pretty similar I thought I got a more hands on experience and learned a lot more at NEU.

BC requires a certain type of person if you're going there for Undergrad. It's got a lot of "Yah Doodz" so if you're down for that go there. If you value diversity you will probably hate it. I wouldn't go there for anything engineering related but their liberal arts program is good. The religion thing isn't that big of a deal, though I believe you're required to take some kind of religious studies class. It was bigger for a friend of mine that went to Purdue, since most of the people he knew were religious. He's not religious at all and he ended up going to mass regularly because of his girlfriend.

BC will also have more of a campus feel, so if you hate the people on campus you're kind of doomed. Getting in and out of there without a car is a massive pain. It's not even in Boston, it's in Newton. You'll have to rely on the Green Line to get anywhere (and this is a curse).

If you get instate tuition at UCLA I'd also guess that it would be cheaper than all those schools if you're not pulling down scholarship money.

[smarty]

Once you visited Pepperdine... I don't know any one wants to go to another school in the east...

[findingmesomeday]

Tuition/fees, etc. at BC is close to $50K/yr and they have one of the smallest endowments around for a private school--meaning you won't see much in the way of financial aid from them.

BU is pricey too. Don't know about financial aid (except for the fact that I was almost full scholarship there for 4 years).

UCLA is huge. I have several friends who went there--undergrad and grad (out of state and in-state) and the school has a solid rep, as does most of the UC system.

Don't know much about Pepperdine.

[TriniLiciousSs]

Thank youuu!

[RemiJP]

I'd say visit as many schools as you can before applying. (I'm guessing you haven't applied yet because of the current time of year.) If you can't visit the school, read up as much as you can about them in books, on their websites, and on collegeboard. Chat with current students. Create a list of schools you're interested in with reaches and safety schools with your guidance counselor or a teacher who knows your well. It's fine to apply to many schools all over the place for many different reasons and then decide where to go once you've been accepted at a few. All four of the schools you've listed are pretty competitive! BC only accepts 27% of their applicants. UCLA only accepts 24%, it's well-known that it's VERY difficult to be accepted at a UC from out of state. Only 6% of undergrads at UCLA are from out of state.

[TriniLiciousSs]

Wow...6%? I didn't know that!
Thanks for the info!

[smarty]

BU, one of the biggest private school... has a relatively small endowment. Undergrad BU 17K vs BC 9K. Grad BU 11K vs BC 3K. I think BC students get more financial aid than average BU student. Of course, to attract the bright ones, BU gives full scholarship to a number of kids.

Endowment Assets (000)
1 Harvard 18,844,338
2 Yale 10,084,900
3 Stanford 8,649,475
4 Princeton 8,398,100
5 MIT 6,475,506
6 Emory 5,032,683
7 Columbia 4,263,972
8 Washington (Mo.) 4,234,599
9 Texas A&M 3,932,469
10 Chicago 3,828,664
11 Cornell 3,436,926
12 Rice 3,372,458
13 Northwestern 3,368,233
14 Michigan 3,329,637
15 Pennsylvania 3,200,812
16 Notre Dame 3,089,007
17 Duke 2,663,891
18 Dartmouth 2,490,376
19 Vanderbilt 2,314,935
20 UC-Berkeley 2,168,671
21 Southern California 2,152,589
22 Johns Hopkins 1,825,212
23 Minnesota 1,809,305
24 Virginia 1,738,984
25 Texas 1,611,050
26 Case Western Reserve 1,550,600
27 Cal Tech 1,535,702
28 UCLA 1,447,371
29 Brown 1,416,052
30 Williams 1,357,589
31 Purdue 1,301,976
32 Ohio State 1,294,923
33 Rochester 1,278,774
34 Georgia Tech 1,141,666
35 Pomona 1,109,410
36 North Carolina 1,105,254
37 Wisconsin 1,080,363
38 Richmond 1,068,708
39 Boston College 1,044,542
40 NYU 1,030,800
41 Pittsburgh 1,018,015
42 Texas Christian 988,127
43 Wake Forest 969,618
44 Cincinnati 963,907
45 Swarthmore 963,676
46 St. Louis 925,955
47 Boston University 913,207
48 Amherst 912,399
49 Washington 911,804
50 Delaware 911,521