Boston College: the best of the Jesuits.

Just to get the architecture part out of the way, Boston College is a feast of neo-Gothic design. It’s an imposing aesthetic. Every building (most are massive) is so well-maintained its hard to discern if any given building is 100 or ten years old, even allowing room for the occasional 1960’s clunker.  Awash in stained glass and Catholic iconography (think statues of angels brandishing swords), it takes but a minute or two to guess this college’s heritage. But any way you look at it, BC is one of the most beautiful colleges in the US whether or not huge buildings built with hellfire and brimstone are your thing. It’s a stunning array of courtyards, quads, gardens and the aforementioned medieval monstrosities.

So the Catholic thing. Often, when I build a list of colleges for a very high achiever (BC is in the upper echelon of selectivity), who is not Catholic I am quickly informed that there will be “no Catholic colleges considered”. In many ways this makes sense as some religious colleges, usually Protestant colleges, bring a very conservative cultural package to the table, and that’s not everyone’s preference. But Catholic colleges, especially of the Jesuit order, emphasize intellectualism and social justice over dogma (of any kind. More about that in a minute), and for many serious students who are determined to blend say, an education in science with ethical and social exploration, a Jesuit education may provide a more satisfying experience than the secular powerhouses like Amherst and Williams where ethical studies are usually interwoven into the politics of the minute.  BC requires of all students, two philosophy and two theology classes. The theology classes are all over the map–many clearly are exploring the social justice/faith overlap–and could be compelling to any student believer and non-believer alike. History and English classes are more conventional (and lean toward Western civilization) than what most secular liberal arts colleges offer and ten minutes of pursuing the BC academic catalogue will make transparent that humanities programs here are informed more by the Enlightenment than intersectionality.

The College is divided into four schools: The Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences; The Carroll School of Management; The Connell School of Nursing; and the Lynch School of Education & Human Development. Carroll students graduate with a BS in management with individualized specializations, and the new engineering major (2021 opening) will be housed in the College of Arts & Sciences. The college’s core curriculum, “operates at the nexus of knowledge, beliefs, and actions. It encourages students to integrate what they learn into their everyday lives, priming them to become engaged, effective global citizens”. This is the best of the Jesuits: challenging students to ask the hard questions about who they want to be and how they are going to live.

Of the four students who led the group info sessions, two were non-religious (one was struggling with their Catholic faith but leaning toward atheism) and felt completely at home at BC. They loved the sense of community, the Jesuit approach, the big-time Atlantic Conference sports, the mid-size population of 9,000, and of course, Boston. The college is in an elegant, wealthy suburb, a twenty minute “T” ride into downtown. It’s hard to dream up a better location for a college with its proximity to one of America’s most fun cities, its verdant grounds and magnificent campus design.

It’s unfortunate many students will not consider Jesuit colleges. They are liberal yet civil, deeply engaged with politics and justice, and they invariably walk the walk in contributing to their local communities (service is a big, big deal at BC) and they take the tired liberal arts cliche of “educating the whole person” and truly integrate it into every sphere of campus life. Boston College is one of the best, most welcoming colleges in the country. Good job, Jesuits.