Boston College
Boston College is a research university located on a 240 acre campus in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts just 6 miles west of Boston. Boston College considers itself a leader in the liberal arts, scientific inquiry and student development.
Boston College was founded in 1863 by the Jesuits to serve Boston’s Irish Catholic community in Boston’s South End. The college moved to a 31 acre site Chestnut Hill in 1909 after it outgrew its original site.
Boston College’s 15,409 students come from all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands as well as internationally. Students of color make up 34.6% of the student population and international students make up an additional 7.4% of students at Boston College.
According to Boston College’s website, it currently has an endowment of $3.8 billion.
Distinguished alumni from Boston College include numerous leaders from a diverse array of fields including business, finance, sports, politics and government, media and entertainment, healthcare, tech, non-profits, and diplomacy.
Costs of attending Boston College 2022-2023
Tuition costs - $62,950
Housing - $10,120 - $13,520
Meal Plan - $6,000
Health insurance - $3,758
Total cost of attendance* - $82,828 - $86,228
* Does not include cost of books and supplies and personal and travel expenses
Access Boston College’s Net Price Calculator here.
Boston College Statistics at a Glance
Data from Boston College website and Common Data Sets.
| / | STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS | FINANCIAL AID | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrollment | 9,532 | % receiving financial aid | 66% | ||
| Women | 53% | Average financial aid | $49,580 | ||
| Men | 47% | % Pell Grant recipients | ND | ||
| Students of Color | 35% | ||||
| International Students | 7% | ACADEMIC INFORMATION | |||
| First Generation (Class of 2025) | 11% | Student - faculty ratio | 10.8:1 | ||
| Instructional faculty (fulltime) | 880 | ||||
| ACCEPTANCE RATES | Average class size | 27 | |||
| Class of 2026 | 19% | Classes with 19 students or less | ND | ||
| Class of 2025 | 16% | ||||
| First year retention rate | 95% | ||||
| ACADEMIC STATISTICS | 6 year graduation rate | 93% | |||
| Average GPA | ND | ||||
| Number of majors | 45 | ||||
| Standardized Test Scores | Number of courses | ND | |||
| SAT 25th to 75th percentile | 1430-1510 | ||||
| % submitting SAT scores | ND | Number of students who study abroad | 12% | ||
| ACT 25th to 75th percentile | 33-34 | ||||
| % submitting ACT scores | ND | STUDENT LIFE | |||
| % submitting test scores | ND | Number of student organizations | ND | ||
| Students who live on campus | 85% | ||||
| Class Rank | |||||
| % in top 10% of HS class | 79% | ||||
| % in top 25% of HS class | 94% | ||||
| % submitting HS class rank | ND |
Sports at Boston College
Boston College belongs in NCAA Division 1, and the NCAA rules and calendar for athlete recruitment apply to athletes interested in being athlete recruited to Boston College.
Boston College with a total student enrollment of 15,409 students plays a total of 35 NCAA sports, 16 of them for men with 317 athletes and 19 of them for women with 387 athletes . In the 2021/2022 season, Boston College had a total of 704 NCAA athletes comprising about 5% of the total student body.
See:
What NCAA sports does Boston College play?
Boston College’s athlete recruitment policies
What you can expect from Boston College
Boston College prides itself on being an internationally respected research university that builds on its Jesuit traditions. It is focused on taking its students on a journey of discover that integrates their intellectual, personal, ethical and religious formation. Boston College is rooted in a world view that calls on each individual to learn, to search for truth and to live in service to others. In furtherance of this world view, Boston College welcomes a diverse student body from many religions and traditions.
Boston College seeks to be a leader in liberal arts education, it also seeks to provide model programs to help students in their development and it seeks to find solutions to directly address some of the world’s most urgent problems as researchers, educators, leaders and caregivers.
Is it hard to get into Boston College?
With a 16% acceptance rate for the class of 2026 compared to an acceptance rate of 19% for the class of 2025, Boston College has become increasingly hard to get admitted into. That said, a 16% acceptance rate makes Boston College a moderately hard college to get accepted into.
Boston College did not disclose data on how many of its matriculated students actually submitted test scores, but we do know that the middle 50% range for the Class of 2025 was 1430-1510 for the SAT and 33-34 for the ACT, both of which are quite challenging metrics to beat.
While applicants must still present as academic high achievers, applicants can also expect to be held to a higher bar for uniqueness of activity and quality of essay than earlier cohorts of admitted students to Boston college given the newly competitive test optional world where the number of applications Boston College now receives is 36% greater than before.
Where do Boston College graduates work and what do they earn?
According to Boston College, 93% of its graduating class of 2021 were either employed (73%), or in graduate school (20%) 6 months after graduation. The median starting salary for the graduating class of 2021 was $62,000 across the 4 schools, with the median salary at Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences coming in at $55,000, Lynch School of Education and Human Development coming in at $46,000, Carroll School of Management at $70,000 and Connell School of Nursing at $67,250.
The top industries that Bates graduates ended up working in include:
Financial services, real estate (25%)
Healthcare, life and physical sciences (19%)
Business services, consulting, management (12%)
Technology, engineering, startups, entrepreneurship (11%)
Communications, media, publishing, marketing (6%)
Government, law, public policy (6%)
Accounting (6%)
Consumer products, retail, manufacturing (5%)
Education (4%)
Arts, entertainment, sports, recreation (3%)
Non-profit, social services (3%)
Trade, transportation, utilities (1%)
Highlights of employers who hired Boston College graduates:
E&J Gallo Winery
Goldman Sachs
McClean Hospitals
Forbes
CBRE
Success Academy Charter Schools
Dell Technologies
Epsilon
HubSpot
Boston Children’s Hospital
UBS
Liberty Mutual
TJX Companies
Wayfair
Epic
Ropes and Gray
Teach for America
MINT7
PWC
Broad Institute
Massachusetts General Hospital
Vertex
Earnings Data for Boston College Graduates
With the costs of attending college becoming prohibitively expensive, it is hard to treat the college experience as a strictly educational and developmental one. You have to think about your earnings potential as well. Unless you are very lucky, chances are that you will graduate with some student debt. Whether you can afford to pay it off in reasonable time, and not have this debt interfere with your ability to live your life without a overhanging debt burden depends on what you can earn when you graduate from college.
Knowing what you can earn with the the degree you earn and the college you earned it at is essential for planning your life. The data we provide here is meant as a guideline only as there will be variance between individuals based on many factors including the types of jobs and employers they pursue.
Data from Payscale based on 1,390 responses
| Median Starting Salary | $60,400 | Number of respondents | 1,390 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average Base Salary | $80,000 | |||
| YEARS OF EXPERIENCE | ||||
| BY MAJOR | Entry level | 6% | ||
| Computer and Information Sciences | $80,500 | Early career | 35% | |
| Mathematics and Statistics | $77,700 | Mid career | 26% | |
| Physical Sciences | $72,900 | Late career | 13% | |
| Health Professions and Related | $69,800 | Experienced | 20% | |
| Business, Management, Marketing and Related | $67,000 | |||
| CAREER AVERAGES | ||||
| Early Career Salary (1st 5 years) | $69,000 | |||
| Mid-Career Salary (10+ years experience) | $126,800 | |||
| BY JOB TITLE | ||||
| Director of Operations | $120,000 | |||
| Executive Director | $99,000 | |||
| Software Engineer | $86,594 | |||
| Project Manager | $76,069 | |||
| Marketing Manager | $75,987 | |||
| Research Analyst | $70,937 | |||
| Operations Manager | $68,986 |
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