Acceptance rates: BC 27%, Wellesley 22%, BU 19%, Northeastern 18%, Tufts 15%, (Boston, Amherst: school districts, university)

[msRB311]

Wow umass over MIT. I guess sometimes you go where the money is.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Wow umass over MIT. I guess sometimes you go where the money is.

I mean I got into Colby, Bates, UF, Univeristy of Miami, Colgate and Georgetown.

I chose a SUNY because it was the cheapest, like by far. It was basically a free ride.

Why pay for UGrad when the degree isnt all that marketable. Grad school matters.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

For more on this, watch the Varsity Blues movie on Netflix -sickening. These schools have become big businesses subject to the same unethical BS we see with crony capitalism and they exploit the same unhealthy obsessions in people.

I thought Varsity Blues was really well done. Largely stuck to the facts (quite literally by using actual transcripts) and let the viewer draw their own opinions.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I mean I got into Colby, Bates, UF, Univeristy of Miami, Colgate and Georgetown.

I chose a SUNY because it was the cheapest, like by far. It was basically a free ride.

Why pay for UGrad when the degree isnt all that marketable. Grad school matters.

SUNY expanded the heck out of their campus the past ten or so years. The polytechnic is a huge campus in Albany. I drove past it years ago

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by newmassphd

The most capable engineers I have had the pleasure of working with were consistently from Tufts and WPI.

My career experience was RPI for the same reasons, probably.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by mdovell

SUNY expanded the heck out of their campus the past ten or so years. The polytechnic is a huge campus in Albany. I drove past it years ago

Yeah most suny campuses are growing fast. Mine was. My tuition was 7k a year and with a scholarship.. -2k lol

It was a meh school, but I got a full ride to Tufts for a Masters, and fully funded to Rutgers, Texas and partially funded to UC and UPenn.

People crap on small state schools. Elitism at it's finest

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

Wentworth and to Ulowell seem to be filling the void that NU is creating by being more competitive and less local.

Yeah I'm honestly shocked that NEU is more selective than any of the schools on this list. My dad took night classes there in the 80s and says it was kind of run down and definitely wouldn't have been in the same sentence as these schools.

Even like 10 years ago it had this reputation as the school for rich preppy kids who couldn't get into BU/BC/Tufts+

There was a lot of preppy kids then but they also gave out a lot of scholarships. If you got a high enough PSAT score you got to go there for free, which is a life changer for some people.

If you read the stereotypes of NEU now it's still the same pretty much

https://www.unigo.com/colleges/north...at-your-school

Emily
It's a preppy rich-kid school. It doesn't have good academics.


Lucy
That it is not a challenging school, that it isn't a real university or a good school.

Blake
The only ones i can really think of is that we are the kids who didnt get into BU or BC, but i didnt even apply for either of those and neither did most of my friends.

a lot of ones like this lol

Frankly I feel like Ulowell is just a practical school with a solid engineering program but it's not like what NEU was in the 80s. Maybe like what NEU was in the 90s or 00s. Wentworth just seemed to me like an overpriced school for what you get (which is pretty much every school, but even more so)

[msRB311]

Eh...I mean I question whether just because a school has a huge number of applicants and a small acceptance rate does that always mean better?

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Eh...I mean I question whether just because a school has a huge number of applicants and a small acceptance rate does that always mean better?

Nope. Anecdotal, but a lot of family went to Harvard, Brown and Yale.. a few to Brandeis, Bentley and BU. They are working dull corporate jobs in misery from what I experience. My family members who went to less prestigious universities seem to be a lot happier, with better jobs.

Im also a huge proponent of State Schools, good or bad. Much more diversity, far better down to earth students where students aren't spoon fed SAT prep to go to university.

My two sense.

[bostonguy1960]

I'm the OP, and one reason I started this thread is I'm baffled how Boston College has "fallen" in regards to Boston University and Northeastern University -- at least in terms of acceptance rate.

There's lies, damn lies and statistics....may or does apply here? (Whatever that phrase is!)

*Generally*, despite the acceptance rates I posted, l still think Boston College has more prestige locally and regionally at least for undergraduates than BU or Northeastern? I believe that has been the case for...forever? I shouldn't really advise, though, as I haven't been in school in decades. And the graduate programs in each school possibly differ widely, according to many applicants and graduates. Hmm...

Plus, it seems BC has always had a much smaller student body, so no surprise it may be or will be harder to get into, with likely a more selective acceptance rate.

As we know in New England, BC really launched when Doug Flutie and Gerald Phalen had that "Hail "Mary" playoff game in 1985. BC seemed to me (and many?) to suddenly become a "cool school" (but not that it wasn't?). BC alums and students, even today, would possibly never believe the disparity now between acceptance rates of BC...vs. BU and Northeastern.

I do like BC for their traditional campus, as well as their major team sports programs: BU and Northeastern cancelled their football programs long ago, and their basketball teams play in a lower level than BC; only in hockey do BU and NU play on the same elite level as BC.

BC seems much more diverse than decades ago? Not all white and Catholic? But it still seems, to me, to have many white, privileged students, stereotypically with summer family homes in Nantucket and such? Am I correct? I don't mean privileged as entitled, though I feel most would automatically consider any privileged students as "entitled." To me, that's probably not fair. My nephew is a recent BC grad and from a higher income family, but I'm sure some BC students need to, or want to, work at times or during their entire undergraduate experience.

...

I read long ago that BC has one of the best-looking student bodies. Maybe it's still true?

...

A friend's grandson is at NU in engineering, and already has a co-op internship early in his studies, which I think is normal there under their co-op program.

...

So as I mentioned, someone advised me last year to not simply look at acceptance rate alone, but together with SAT scores. Seems too much effort for me than just Googling acceptance rates!

...

Personally, I was placed on the waiting list at Boston College in 1978, so went to BU. Was denied entrance to the BU School of Communication, so enrolled in their College of Liberal Arts (now College of Arts and Sciences). Then went to Northeastern in 1984 for a grad-level certificate in software technical writing. It was a hot field back then, but I never did anything with the certificate, as I didn't do that well; NU even offered a Master's in Technical and Professional Communication which I was considering.

(I believe BU, and BC, were much easier than nowadays to get admitted....like many competitive programs in America nowadays from what I've read.) But it possibly would have been better for me, and some others, perhaps, to enroll at a state school in 1978, as BU was probably no more selective or prestigious as some or most state schools -- and yes, I do realize that certain state schools are very, very selective.

I mentioned above that at least locally and regionally, I feel that BC has been traditionally more pretigious to some or most, whether they study there or not. But nationally, even nowadays, I bet that many not from the region don't know the difference; they think it's the same school! I can understand the confusion. After all, there's New York University, buty not a New York College, right? One older professional woman interviewing at Boston Medical Center five years ago or so was confused when I mentioned the location of BC vs. BU. A bit confused, she asked: "oh...did they change the name!?" And someone ten years ago told me that BU is a state school! I was so "insulted," as it costs so much more than most state schools, though admittedly no better or even less so than certain state schools.