Boston College Overview

Boston College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Chestnut Hill is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

What Is Boston College Known For?

• The 1% student loan default rate at Boston College is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at Boston College is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 67% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Boston College with a bachelor's degree make about $72,500 a year. That's 78% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• The average Boston College student graduates in 4.1 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Boston College Rankings

Boston College is ranked #44 out of 2,587 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. It is also ranked #7 out of 72 schools in Massachusetts.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Boston College has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#35	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#69	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#112	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Boston College.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Theology & Religious Vocations Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Foreign Languages & Linguistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best English Language & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#28	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#34	Best Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#41	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Boston College has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#7	Best Communication & Journalism Schools	College Factual
#15	Best English Language & Literature Schools	College Factual
#24	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#30	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual
#31	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#32	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual

Where Is Boston College?

Contact details for Boston College are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone:	617-552-8000
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/BostonCollege
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/BostonCollege

How Do I Get Into Boston College?

You can apply to Boston College online at: www.commonapp.org/

Admission Requirements for Boston College

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Boston College?

With an acceptance rate of 26%, Boston College is one of the most selective schools in the country. If the admissions department requests additional materials, be sure to submit them promptly. This could be a sign that you're on the border line of being accepted or denied.

Approximately 46% of accepted students are men and 54% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 29%, and the acceptance rate for women is 24%.

Average Test Scores

About 64% of students accepted to Boston College submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 660 and 730. Math scores were between 670 and 770.

Boston College received ACT scores from 36% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 33 and 35. Math scores were between 28 and 33. Composite scores were between 31 and 34.

Can I Afford Boston College?

The overall average net price of Boston College is $59,048. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Boston College, approximately 37% of students took out student loans averaging $4,003 a year. That adds up to $16,012 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Boston College is 1.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Boston College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 9,780 undergraduate students at Boston College, with 9,571 being full-time and 209 being part-time.

There are also 5,154 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 9,571 full-time undergraduates at Boston College, 47% are male and 53% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Boston College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,012
Black or African American	402
Hispanic or Latino	1,075
White	5,537
International Students	739
Other Races/Ethnicities	806

Geographic Diversity

Massachusetts students aren't the only ones who study at Boston College. At this time, 47 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 104 countries are represented at Boston College. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, South Korea, and Spain.

Online Learning at Boston College

In 2019-2020, 12,621 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Boston College has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 60th most popular in Massachusetts for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Growth Rankings of Boston College

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Boston College was 193.2%. This is the #286 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Boston College regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Boston College Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Finance & Financial Management	344	0	41	2	387
Economics	316	0	45	11	372
Business Administration & Management	100	0	271	0	371
Law	0	0	0	247	247
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	142	0	78	4	224
Social Work	0	0	217	4	221
General Biology	213	0	1	4	218
Communication & Media Studies	212	0	0	0	212
Accounting	118	0	71	0	189
Political Science & Government	172	0	6	1	179
General English Literature	142	0	26	2	170
Curriculum & Instruction	0	4	130	13	147
Marketing	127	0	0	0	127
Nursing	109	3	0	0	112
General Psychology	109	0	1	0	110
Philosophy	78	0	24	7	109
Theological & Ministerial Studies	15	0	77	15	107
Other Health Professions	0	0	105	0	105
Applied Mathematics	0	0	70	31	101
Computer Science	94	0	0	0	94
Mathematics	86	0	0	4	90
Information Science	85	0	0	0	85
Educational Administration	0	1	55	29	85
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	82	0	0	0	82
International Studies	81	0	0	0	81
History	62	0	6	4	72
Sociology	45	0	4	4	53
Teacher Education Grade Specific	48	0	0	0	48
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	47	0	0	0	47
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	43	0	43
Chemistry	15	0	6	14	35
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	31	0	3	0	34
Information Technology	0	0	34	0	34
Health & Physical Education	0	0	32	0	32
Entrepreneurial Studies	30	0	0	0	30
Romance Languages	20	0	10	0	30
Other Education	3	0	25	0	28
Physics	15	0	2	10	27
Legal Professions (Other)	0	0	21	0	21
Natural Resources Conservation	20	0	0	0	20
Child Development & Psychology	0	0	16	4	20
Fine & Studio Arts	15	0	0	0	15
Drama & Theater Arts	11	0	0	0	11
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	8	0	0	0	8
Classical Languages & Literature	5	0	2	0	7
Religious Studies	7	0	0	0	7
Teacher Education Subject Specific	6	0	0	0	6
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	6	0	0	0	6
Geological & Earth Sciences	2	0	4	0	6
Music	6	0	0	0	6
Educational Assessment	0	0	1	3	4
Criminal Justice & Corrections	4	0	0	0	4
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	3	3
Natural Sciences	3	0	0	0	3
Ethnic Studies	2	0	0	0	2
Area Studies	0	0	1	0	1
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	1	0	0	0	1
Religious Education	0	0	0	1	1
Other Business, Management & Marketing	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	3,037	8	1,428	417	4,890

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Harvey D. Egan under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.