BU-University of Commonwealth Avenue

Boston University has made the transition from a somewhat regional pre-professional university to a national research powerhouse in a matter of decades. This mid-size (17,000 students) urban university’s undergrad program is divided into ten distinct colleges: arts &sciences, fine arts, hospitality administration, communications, engineering, education & human development, health & rehab sciences, global studies, business and the honors college. With its pre-professional emphasis and location in one of the country’s most economically and culturally dynamic cities, the possibilities for internships and hands-on experience are unparalleled: BU is deeply connected to the business, technology and arts communities in Boston.

The Honors College offers smaller classes, a common living environment, and common core of classes built around the idea of understanding world problems in an interdisciplinary way. Unlike many universities of this size, BU makes internal transfers between its undergraduate colleges close to effortless, and they have a liberal approach to awarding credit for strong AP exam scores.

The “Hub”, the university’s core course of studies, is focused on skills and competencies like scientific literacy and communications as opposed to a list of distribution requirements across disciplines. Despite the university’s size, faculty office hours are easy to sign up for (one engineering prof likes to hold his hours at BU hockey games) and the university has a huge budget for undergraduate research across all disciplines. International study is very common and the university’s Common Ground program helps students engage in healthy inter-cultural dialogue throughout the school year.

Greeks comprise only about a quarter of the student population, so the mass of students find their social lives revolve around dorm life and the over 500 clubs and organizations. And amazingly, this urban university guarantees housing all four years, a huge benefit in one of the most expensive housing economies in the US. Housing ranges from beautiful brick townhouses to characterless Soviet-style dorms. To their credit the tour took us to the latter and then made the case for guaranteed housing in a very expensive city. I was convinced.

Our tourguides were a Dominican woman from rural Alabama and a young man from rural Georgia. Both oozed with love for their time at BU. They deeply appreciate the city, the liberal feel of BU’s community, the friends that have made and their academic programs. “Never would consider going anywhere else” they both said.

BU’s campus–if you could call it that–will not work for everyone. And it’s a very loud environment. Bordered and bisected by two of Boston’s busiest thoroughfares, Commonwealth Avenue and Storrow Drive, the cocophony of traffic is a constant. Essentially, BU’s campus is both sides of a mile-long stretch of Commonwealth Avenue. If you’re looking for a grassy quadrangle where you can sit in an Adirondack chair and read Toni Morrison to the gently rustling of oak leaves, forget it. Behind the beautiful chapel, there is in fact a lovely grassy lawn where I saw students lying in the sun reading, but it abuts Storrow Drive. The tour guide said ” we call this BU beach, because if you close your eyes, the sound of Storrow Dr. can sound like waves”. Well, maybe.

That said, the BU stretch of Comm Ave is alive with cafes, restaurants, live music venues, vintage clothing shops and thousands of college students.

BU’s academic programs are profession-focused and are strong across the board. The university offers amazing opportunities for both liberal arts exploration, career preparation and hands-on learning, all of it in one of the best locations in the US. BU admits a mere 18% of applicants: you need to bring strong academic chops and impressive extra curricular resume to punch your ticket here.