Day 3: Northeastern University

On our 3rd day of College visits in Boston, we went to Northeastern University, which is in the middle of the vibrant city. The campus is a bunch of square blocks of the city. There is a train station right through the campus. It’s a big private school, with all majors, Engineering to Arts. It’s right next to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Another wet tour, but it was fine. Mix of old and new facilities. There’s access to any building from any direction; wide open. For better or worse. It’s pretty close to Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox). Overall, it was okay, not horrible, not omg-i-gotta-go-there.

Day 3: Boston College

We took the T (slow slow subway) to the end of the line to Boston College. BC sits at the edge of the city. BC is a very beautiful campus. Almost all the buildings are lovely neo-Gothic church-like buildings, with stone & brick in a soft grey/green palette. Even the colored slate on the roofs match. It was actually hard to tell which buildings we were going in and out of, since they looked so similar. The admissions schpiel was long but interesting. The students were great. The tour was great. First rate classrooms, athletic facilities. They are definitely into sports. Since the campus is on the Boston Marathon Course, at the top of Heartbreak Hill, the students all line up and cheer the runners on Patriots Day. Housing is first rate too. Although we didn’t go inside, you could tell from the outside it was like a hotel, with the shade of blending to the neo-Gothic stone & brick. They have a second off-site campus with 60% of freshman housing and classrooms, about 10 minute shuttle ride away.  You would pay top dollar here, but at least it shows. Urban myth: there is one building Fulton Hall, with a pseudo-Wizard of Oz theme inside: Tinman chandeliers, brick road, Glenda-shaped trusses. BC is an interesting size. It’s squarely medium sized: 10,000 undergrads. Big universities are 20,000+, while Small colleges are typically ~5,000. In the end, BC is large for a liberal arts schools.

Day 3: Boston University

After a snack, we rode the T Green Line, back to the city and stopped halfway at Boston University. BU is definitely in the city. It’s on a stretch of land that is squeezed between the parallel lines of (1) the Massachusetts Turnpike, (2) Commonwealth Ave, (3) the Green T line, another big street (4) Storrow Ave, and (4) the Charles River. It’s comprised of pretty much high rise buildings and traffic noise. M had a friend from school at a summer program there. We met her friend and took a walk around campus, our own “self-guided tour”. This one was too urban for M’s taste.