Is Boston University a prestigious school?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by jude84, Dec 11, 2011.

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  1. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    Considering an online degree in project management. I don't know a lot about higher education so I am wondering if someone could please tell me if BU is considered an academically reputable university. What other schools can it be compared to?

    Is it prestigious?
     
  2. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Hi jude84. Warm welcome to Degree Info. Here's why your posts don't show up right away: http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/35100-new-users-ask-where-did-my-posts-go.html No need to post more than once. The delay in your post appearing depends on whether there is a mod online or not and also how quickly we notice your post.

    BU is a great school. Boston University is ranked #53, which is a very high ranking. I wouldn't quite consider it to be ivy league, but it's still right up there. I'm not sure if their online degrees hold as much prestige as their B&M degrees, but, most of the time, there is no indication on the degree or the transcript to indicate that your earned your degree in their online program. I don't know about that for sure at BU, but it's common.
     
  3. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    Concur completely. I live in the Boston area and people know it's a good school like Harvard, Boston College and others. BU is right up there indeed. Reputation around these parts is impeccable. Highly respected.
    And that's saying something, with all the colleges and universities in this immediate area.
    In fact, I have never heard anything bad said about BU.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 11, 2011
  4. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    Excellent! I already have an Ivy-ish school caliber traditional degree ("Southern Ivy") but now that I am working so much I need to a part time online degree from a reputable school to couple it.

    I was just wondering what the academic rep of BU was especially since it seems to be overshadowed by MIT and Harvard up there.

    Before I shell out some cash for an expensive degree, I need to have the assurance that the school itself is considered an academically prestigious university.
     
  5. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    This is just my opinion (naturally)---but Harvard and MIT prestige can be greatly exaggerated. True, the names Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, all have this aura of prestige, built into the name.

    But Boston University, Boston College, Suffolk University, etc, those are all good schools in Boston and the Boston area. Really good.

    They can't compete with the name "Harvard", in people's minds. This is one of our prejudices, as humans, that we can't seem to shake.

    But rest assured that BU is mentioned any time really good schools are discussed.
    As I said, Suffolk University, where I went as an undergrad, is also a good school, but even there, Suffolk cannot compete with the name Boston University. People around here think Harvard and Yale and MIT are the be all and end all, and maybe to some extent they're right----but this viewpoint makes it seem as though any other school is substandard by comparison.

    Not so at all.......I would go so far as to say that besides Harvard and MIT, the next two as far as general reputation in this area of the country is concerned---are BU and BC
     
  6. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    I can try to put you in touch with a guy who lives in Richmond, VA but teaches history at BU in the summers. He would certainly know a lot of the ins and outs of this whole area of discussion as it regards BU....let me know
    Just sent him an email inviting him to join this discussion or to PM you.........
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 11, 2011
  7. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    excellent forum. Already getting some great info!



    That's good news. I mean the school seems to have a better reputation abroad than in the States according to the international rankings.

    What would you consider BU's peer schools?
     
  8. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    I wouldn't know which schools to compare BU to----My days at Suffolk were long ago and then law school and now a trial attorney in the inner-city Boston courts, criminal law----I am as out of touch re reputation of schools comparable to BU as anyone you could imagine. LOL.......I can ask around for you at court this coming week, a lot of those folks went to BU Law or are grads of the colleges around here.....I'll gather some info for you and PM you this week about it.

    Ah, got your PM just now-----will contact you after I gather info Tues Wed Thurs---sorry to tie up this thread so much
     
  9. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    not at all, you've been very helpful!
     
  10. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    Not bad for a new guy with twenty something posts :)
     
  11. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    New, but already a respected member. :smile:
     
  12. mark74

    mark74 New Member

    SurfDoctor,

    To back up you statement on the degree not indicating it was done online. (in particular, the PM one he is looking at)

    Is this online degree any different from the one that is earned on-campus at Boston University?
    No, you will receive an official Boston University diploma. Our online master's degrees carry the same excellence as those earned in a traditional classroom setting.
    FAQs - Master of Science in Project Management - Boston University Metropolitan College
     
  13. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    excellent.
     
  14. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    That BU Metropolitan College program is outstanding. I looked at that years ago but was unable to enroll or apply, for some forgotten reason, but I remember it was excellent. The whole school is.

    And, SurfDoctor, I appreciate the kind words. Thank you.
     
  15. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Thank you. Now I know.
     
  16. jude84

    jude84 New Member

    I have looked up its rankings and it seems like BU ranks somewhere in between Tulane and UT-Austin. Would you guys say this is true?
     
  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Honestly, these sorts of ranking are meaningless attempts to create a pecking order. They really deserve to be taken a lot less seriously than you seem to be doing here.
     
  18. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    True---beyond a doubt, true....those lists can be quite arbitrary.
    AND, even if there were a kernel of truth in the lists, you would not have, in reality, a school that is number 44, and one that is 45 etc---you would have about a hundred schools tied for seventh place, that kind of thing.
    No list can accurately delineate a school's exact "position" relative to other schools. It's impossible. All they can do is approximate.
    So there are probably a hundred or more schools as good as BU, and several hundred that are not as good.

    Generally speaking, as someone said earlier, BU is "up there" with the rest of the good schools. It may not be that well known outside of New England, but around these parts it is definitely a top university.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2011
  19. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I agree that all the schools you listed are good. However, and I say this as a born-and-raised, lifelong (except for military service) Massachusetts resident....mentioning Suffolk in the same sentence as B.U. and B.C. is a bit misleading.

    Suffolk has an excellent *local* reputation, probably because it seems like the entire Massachusetts Legislature are alums, especially from the law school, but to suggest that Suffolk has even near the same national cache as B.U. and B.C. is beyond a stretch. Just because half the people at the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Breakfast have attended Suffolk, doesn't make it an elite school on the national level.

    I know you're a Suffolk alum, but it needed to be said. Feel free to crap on my "Can't go to college, go to Curry" degree.....I'm okay with it, because it's led to better things. And in any case, I would counter with "Suffolk Sidewalk College" :wink1:

    As for Boston University, they have an outstanding reputation nationally......however; I remain suspect of their online Metropolitan College programs. The last I checked (which was several years ago), their online Master of Criminal Justice program was administered through a private company in Florida, who seemed to have paid B.U. for the rights to the program (it may have been more benign than that, but my warning flags went up). I don't know anything about their other online MET programs, other than they are fiercely expensive, and may not be worth the cost (depending on your situation).

    When I was in the market for a Master's program in Criminal Justice, I narrowed my choices to either Boston University or UMass-Lowell; both were non-traditional residential programs (pre-online days), and besides the enormous cost difference (I was willing to pay for a quality program and a brand name), the kicker for me was that UMass-Lowell had/has an active Criminal Justice Department (which recently started a Ph.D. program) where the full-time faculty actively engage in research. Boston University doesn't have a C.J. Department, just some doctorally-qualified faculty assigned to the Metropolitan College. The final nail in B.U.'s coffin for me was when the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences rated UMass-Lowell as having one of the best C.J. Master's programs in the country, and I signed-up.

    As I'm prone to do, I went off-topic......yes, Boston University is one of the top schools in the country, but I advise caution in proceeding with their MET College online programs. Do your research before you write a check.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2011
  20. dcb188

    dcb188 Member

    I knew I should have mentioned Suffolk in a separate sentence. :)
    However, (there is always a "however"), if you once again read the sentence of mine that you quoted, I said "in the Boston area"...so I never intimated that Suffolk is known nationally. I doubt if anyone west of Route 128 has ever heard of it. LOL.
    I never mentioned "elite" or on the "national level". My only point was that they are good schools in the Boston area.
    Now, if I were to say that, in the area of minerology, diamonds and jasper are good-looking minerals, you might gasp and say oh, you think the two are on the same level? Not at all. They are both pleasing to the eye, but that is as far as the sentence takes us. I don't say jasper is as valuable or as useful. Just so, mentioning Suffolk as a good school in the Boston area is no different than saying that Brown University, Providence College, U Mass, Harvard are all good New England schools.
    They are all in the same sentence, true, but nowhere within that sentence is it even remotely implied that they are on the same level or rated equally.
    And now I step down off my soapbox and stretch my legs, figuratively. :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2011

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