Is Boston College a decent school?

[kevinc]

Hi y'all,

I have a question to ask you guys about Boston College.

I've been doing some research on BC's law program, and I've discovered that BC has a horrendous reputation when it comes to its faculty, as compared with institutions that are comparably ranked with BC - like BU, GW, Fordham, UIUC.

So if it's true that the faculty at BC isn't so great, why is the school so highly ranked on USNews. Is their rank overinflated? Has my research led me to the wrong conclusions? Is BC's faculty, in fact, good?
 
I'm interested in this information because I think I will most likely have to attend BC in the fall. And if it's true that their faculty isn't so great, I think I might wait another year and apply to those others schools I mentioned earlier, like BU, GW, and Fordham. With my numbers, I should be able to get into those schools. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[abmarz]

I know people that have gone to BC law and they have loved it. Their law school is absolutely beautiful. It's not exactly in Boston, so don't expect to be living in the city. Regardless, BC law grads get great jobs. 

[moxygal]

yay BC! from what I've heard, it's an excellent school- I haven't heard anything about the faculty being terrible. On their students' website, you can see how students rated previous years' classes and the professors. At any rate, from what I know, BU and BC are close in reputation in Boston, but BC edges BC in terms of prestige in Boston (I may be a bit biased, as I am most likely heading there this fall!)

[your-o-pean]

I came across the same info regarding BC's faculty.  Not sure how to interpret, but I think the reputation of faculty has more to do with personal academic accomplishments of each professor, e.g. works published, works cited, undergraduate and law institutions attended.  Statistics on law school faculty rarely account for the effectiveness of teaching and satisfaction of students... unfortunate but true.  Don't be misled too much here.  Talk to BC students and ask them what they think.  BC has a great rep in Boston and their grads get great jobs.  IMO, you don't need to wait another year to re-apply to comparably ranked schools.

[kevinc]

Hey everyone,

Thank you very much for your feedback. It was very helpful.

[your-o-pean]

This may help as well...go to Princeton Review's law school discussion board (princetonreview.com/law/) and type in keyword "BC" (be sure to adjust the search criteria to include posts dating back several days).  There are a bunch of threads with lengthy discussions on BC.  I read through it all the other day...seems as though all BC 1Ls love the school.

[ichiban]

Hey kevinc, I was wondering where exactly you were doing your research for the data for "awful" faculty.  I'm not trying to call you out on bad sources, rather, I was trying to find some alternate sources of information for my own research.  So far, the only way I have found quality of faculty "rankings" has been the EQ (Educational Quality) rankings that some professor in Texas made...I think.

[1L2004]

Sen. John Kerry went to BC and he's half way to being Leader of The Free World. Does that answer your question?

[toiysam]

Hey, I think that the adm. of this website is from UC.

[Andrew]

I'm a little confused toiysam... you're right that I went to UC (Santa Barbara - for undergrad) - but this thread is about BC (Boston College).

In anycase, I go to Boston University now and at least a few of our professors also teach at BC - so at least a percentage of the professor quality is *exactly* the same.  The consensus around here is that BC grads are favored a little in Boston, whereas BU grads are favored a little in New York.