Opinion of Boston University?

[RadioRaheem84]

I know I come in here a lot to get people's opinions about universities but I was wondering if Boston University would be a good school to attend?

It seems like it's reputable enough to where there are ample opportunities and resources to do things, but at the same time it's not totally an elite school like Harvard to where it's fundamentally designed to breed the next generation of establishment leaders?

IDK, what is the general impression people have of BU?

[Who?]

I almost went there, it's a pretty cool place. I don't really know what you're looking for though. I decided not to attend because it was a little too big for my taste. I don't know if that's an issue for you.

[RadioRaheem84]

Big, as in impersonal? Looking for a reputable school without the high brow snobbiness of Harvard.

[Who?]

Big, as in impersonal? Looking for a reputable school without the high brow snobbiness of Harvard.

Yes, as in impersonal. It wasn't what I was looking for in my undergraduate education. BU is a great school and it certainly lacks the snobbiness you would find at Harvard and the like. What do you want to study?

[RadioRaheem84]

Yes, as in impersonal. It wasn't what I was looking for in my undergraduate education. BU is a great school and it certainly lacks the snobbiness you would find at Harvard and the like. What do you want to study?

City Planning.

Would you say the school itself has a good reputation? Is it academically reputable, especially since it's in the vicinity of Harvard and MIT?

[Who?]

I wouldn't quite put it in the same league as MIT and Harvard. It does however have an excellent reputation, similar to NYU. Why don't you apply to a school like Columbia? I hear they actually plan on doing away with legacy admissions soon.

[eyeheartlenin]

Harvard is Ivy League, and MIT is the top engineering school in the country; BU is different from those two schools. I got a graduate degree from BU in one field in the humanities, and I did real work for that degree (the professors and the courses I took were great -- it was a challenging program). That was back in the seventies, but I doubt BU has declined since then. If I were you, I would visit BU and/or communicate with the Department you want to study in and ask them about their academic standing in their field. Boston itself is a great place to be a student and to be a leftist. The city is very student-oriented. I had a great time living in Boston. If you decide to attend BU and you have any questions about Boston, feel free to contact me.

[RadioRaheem84]

I wouldn't quite put it in the same league as MIT and Harvard. It does however have an excellent reputation, similar to NYU. Why don't you apply to a school like Columbia? I hear they actually plan on doing away with legacy admissions soon.

Columbia would be a dream but it's horribly expensive. I think the program I wanted to apply for, each class was 4500 bucks and little to no financial aid.

So you would say that BU and NYU are academic peers?


Harvard is Ivy League, and MIT is the top engineering school in the country; BU is different from those two schools. I got a graduate degree from BU in one field in the humanities, and I did real work for that degree (the professors and the courses I took were great -- it was a challenging program). That was back in the seventies, but I doubt BU has declined since then. If I were you, I would visit BU and/or communicate with the Department you want to study in and ask them about their academic standing in their field. Boston itself is a great place to be a student and to be a leftist. The city is very student-oriented. I had a great time living in Boston. If you decide to attend BU and you have any questions about Boston, feel free to contact me.

Boston seems like it would be a great place to be a college student and to be progressive. Although it seems like a place that more liberal left than radical like you would find in Berkeley Bay Area and NYC.

Is this right?

I did picture BU to be like NYU a lot though.

[RadioRaheem84]

Basically, what are BU's academic peers?

[Who?]

I would say NYU and BU are academic peers.

[eyeheartlenin]

Boston seems like it would be a great place to be a college student and to be progressive. Although it seems like a place that more liberal left than radical like you would find in Berkeley Bay Area and NYC.

Is this right? ....

I think what you wrote comparing Boston to the Bay Area and NYC is exactly right. There used to be a socialist left in Boston, both Maoists (RCP and Albanians), and a modest variety of Trotskyists (SWP and Spartacist League), but that was decades ago. The hard left has sort of withered there, it seems; where the RCP had a bookstore, there is now a dress shop, apparently, judging from what I saw the last time I was in Boston. There must be an antiwar coalition there, since they have periodic demonstrations; I think there are anarchists (NEFAC and the IWW), who are thoroughly radical and decent folks.

[MarxSchmarx]

Basically, what are BU's academic peers?

As has been noted, NYU, I'd add George Washington, Case Western, Auburn, USC, Tulane and probably Temple.

A few that would probably be slightly above it are Washington in St. Louis, Northwetern, Emory, Georgetown, and a few slightly below it are Rochester, BYU and University of Pittsburgh.

But that's just overall impression, based primarily on how the undergraduate programs are perceived esp. viz how difficult they are to get into - since these schools are expensive but most hard-working students can probably get accepted, there's a bit of a perception that they are places that have a very, very homogeneous student body - mostly children of white, middle to upper middle class background who apply themselves but aren't academic stars. It takes a bit more to get into the tier above, however. But this is just my impression at the undergraduate level. Having said this, in some things like law NYU is outstanding and in areas like biology Georgetown is a bit meh.

The problem is that there aren't many really large private schools in America - most of the schools with tens of thousands of students are in the public schools.

[Die Neue Zeit]

City Planning.

Would you say the school itself has a good reputation? Is it academically reputable, especially since it's in the vicinity of Harvard and MIT?

Good luck with your City Planning studies, and good luck at Boston University or elsewhere!

[RadioRaheem84]

As has been noted, NYU, I'd add George Washington, Case Western, Auburn, USC, Tulane and probably Temple.

I would have thought Tulane, Emory, UT-Austin, NYU, GWU and USC.

BU to me is academically reputable as some of the top state schools like UT Austin or U. Washington.

[RadioRaheem84]

Good luck with your City Planning studies, and good luck at Boston University or elsewhere!

Thanks DNZ!

I am hoping I can really make a contribution, probably expand John Bellamy Foster's theory of metabolic rift.

Anyone know of any good leftist planning books out there?

I read a lot of the MR school and Bellamy Foster.

[MarxSchmarx]

I would have thought Tulane, Emory, UT-Austin, NYU, GWU and USC.

BU to me is academically reputable as some of the top state schools like UT Austin or U. Washington.

Anyway we are basically in agreeyment; I guess I wonder therefore why you ask?

I deliberately didn't put state schools in that list; as I said:


The problem is that there aren't many really large private schools in America - most of the schools with tens of thousands of students are in the public schools.

One thing that complicates the situation for state schools is that their admissions process (at the undergraduate level, I emphasize again) is quite different from those of private schools. Most are mandated to take a certain percentage of students from the state, and moreover, many have the advantage that they are often the school of choice for the very top graduates in their state. Indeed, it is common for places like UT Austin, UCLA/UC Berkeley, UMichigan (I don't know about U Washington) to have students who attend there instead of Ivy League type schools. For a similar reason, to some extent it may be that a given graduate of a top-tier state school is actually a gifted individual who simply had no interest in going out of their way to somewhere like Cambridge MA or Palo Alto and paying a lot less for an equally superb academic environment. Issues like that make the comparison to state schools a bit hard to make, which is why I think large private schools really are in a separate group of their own.

[La Comédie Noire]

I know a lot of people who go there and they like it, but it's expensive as fuck. Plus a lot of people walk around with a chip on their shoulder because they live in "the city".

But it's a fun place to party and has a lot of cultural and historical activities, but I'd never want to live or attend school in the city(I live just outside of Boston and go to school in Worcester.)