Boston College
Encyclopedia
Boston College is a private
Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college
and preparatory school
in Boston
's South End
. It is a member of the 568 Group
and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
. Its main campus
is a historic district
and features
some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America
.
Boston College offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its nine schools and colleges. Boston College is currently ranked 31 in the National Universities ranking by U.S. News & World Report
.
Boston College is categorized as an RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Boston College sports teams are called the Eagles
, the colors being maroon and gold; the school mascot is Baldwin the Eagle. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference
in all sports (except wrestling and men's lacrosse) offered by the ACC. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East
.
In 1825, Benedict Joseph Fenwick
, S.J.
, a Jesuit from Maryland
, became the second Bishop
of Boston. He was the first to articulate a vision for a "College in the City of Boston" that would raise a new generation of leaders to serve both the civic and spiritual needs of his fledgling diocese. In 1827, Bishop Fenwick opened a school in the basement of his cathedral
and took to the personal instruction of the city's youth. His efforts to attract other Jesuits to the faculty were hampered both by Boston's distance from the center of Jesuit activity in Maryland and by suspicion on the part of the city's Protestant elite
. Relations with Boston's civic leaders worsened such that, when a Jesuit faculty was finally secured in 1843, Fenwick decided to leave the Boston school and instead opened the College of the Holy Cross
45 miles (72.4 km) west of the city in Worcester, Massachusetts
where he felt the Jesuits could operate with greater autonomy. Meanwhile, the vision for a college in Boston was sustained by John McElroy, S.J.
, who saw an even greater need for such an institution in light of Boston's growing Irish Catholic immigrant population. With the approval of his Jesuit superiors, McElroy went about raising funds and in 1857 purchased land for "The Boston College" on Harrison Avenue in the Irish neighborhood of South End, Boston, Massachusetts
. With little fanfare, the college's two buildings — a schoolhouse and a church — welcomed their first class of scholastics in 1859. Two years later, with as little fanfare, BC closed again. Its short-lived second incarnation was plagued by the outbreak of Civil War
and disagreement within the Society over the college's governance and finances. BC's inability to obtain a charter from the anti-Catholic Massachusetts legislature only compounded its troubles.
On , more than three decades after its initial inception, Boston College's charter was formally approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BC became the second Jesuit institution of higher learning in Massachusetts
and the first located in the Boston area. Johannes Bapst
, S.J., a Swiss Jesuit from French-speaking Fribourg
, was selected as BC's first president and immediately reopened the original college buildings on Harrison Avenue. For most of the 19th century, BC offered a singular 7-year program corresponding to both high school and college. Its entering class in the fall of 1864 included 22 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years. The curriculum was based on the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum
, emphasizing Latin
, Greek
, philosophy
, and theology
.
Boston College's enrollment reached nearly 500 by the turn of the 20th century. Expansion of the South End buildings onto James Street enabled increased separation between the high school and college divisions, though Boston College High School
remained a constituent part of Boston College until 1927 when it was separately incorporated
. In 1907, newly-installed President Thomas I. Gasson, S.J., determined that BC's cramped, urban quarters in Boston's South End were inadequate and unsuited for significant expansion. Inspired by John Winthrop
's early vision of Boston as a "city upon a hill
", he re-imagined Boston College as world-renowned university and a beacon of Jesuit scholarship. Less than a year after taking office, he purchased Amos Adams Lawrence
's farm on Chestnut Hill
, six miles (10 km) west of the city. He organized an international competition for the design of a campus
master plan and set about raising funds for the construction of the "new" university. Proposals were solicited from distinguished architects, and Charles Donagh Maginnis
' ambitious proposal for twenty buildings in English Collegiate Gothic style, called "Oxford in America", was selected. Construction began in 1909.
By 1913, construction costs had surpassed available funds, and as a result Gasson Hall
, "New BC's" main building, stood alone on Chestnut Hill for its first three years. Buildings of the former Lawrence farm, including a barn and gatehouse, were temporarily adapted for college use while a massive fundraising effort was underway. While Maginnis's ambitious plans were never fully realized, BC's first "capital campaign" — which included a large replica of Gasson Hall's clock tower set up on Boston Common to measure the fundraising progress — ensured that President Gasson's vision survived. By the 1920s BC began to fill out the dimensions of its university charter, establishing the Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
, the Boston College Law School
, and the Woods College of Advancing Studies
, followed successively by the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
, the Carroll School of Management
, the Connell School of Nursing
, and the Lynch School of Education
. In 1926, Boston College conferred its first degrees on women (though it did not become fully coeducational until 1970). With the rising prominence of its graduates, this was also the period in which Boston College and its powerful Alumni Association began to establish themselves among the city's leading institutions. At the city, state and federal levels, BC graduates would come to dominate Massachusetts politics for much of the 20th century. Cultural changes in American society and in the church following the Second Vatican Council
forced BC to question its purpose and mission. Meanwhile, poor financial management lead to deteriorating facilities and resources and rising tuition costs. Student outrage, combined with growing protests over Vietnam
and the bombings in Cambodia
, culminated in student strikes, including demonstrations at Gasson Hall
in April 1970.
By the time J. Donald Monan, S.J. assumed the presidency on September 5, 1972, BC was approximately $30 million in debt, its endowment totaled just under $6 million, and faculty and staff salaries had been frozen during the previous year. Rumors about the university's future were rampant, including speculation that BC would be acquired by Harvard University
. Monan's first order of business was to reconfigure the Boston College Board of Trustees. By separating it from the Society of Jesus
, Monan was able to bring in the talents of lay alumni and business leaders who helped turn around the university's fortunes. This same restructuring had been accomplished first at the University of Notre Dame
in 1967 by Fr. Theodore Hesburgh
, CSC with many other Catholic colleges following suit in the ensuing years. In 1974, Boston College acquired Newton College of the Sacred Heart
, a 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) campus 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away that enabled it to expand the law school and provide more housing for a student population that was increasingly residential and geographically diverse. No less than the university's rescue is credited to Monan who set into motion the university's upward trajectory in finances, reputation, and global scope. In 1996, Monan's 24 year presidency, the longest in the university's history, came to an end when he was named University Chancellor
and succeeded by President William P. Leahy
, S.J.
, Rhodes
, and other academic awards; setting new marks for research grants; and winning conference and national titles. In 2002, Leahy initiated the Church in the 21st Century
program to examine issues facing the Catholic Church
in light of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. His effort brought BC worldwide praise and recognition for "leading the way on Church reform." Recent plans to merge with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology
were followed by an article in The New York Times
claiming "such a merger would further Boston College's quest to become the nation's Catholic intellectual powerhouse" and that, once approved by the Vatican
and Jesuit authorities in Rome
, BC "would become the center for the study of Roman Catholic theology in the United States." On February 16, 2006, the merger was authorized by the Jesuit Conference
.
In 2003, after years of student-led discussions and efforts, the school approved a Gay-Straight Alliance, the first university-funded gay support group on campus. In 2004, between 1,000 and 1,200 students rallied behind a student-led campaign to expand the school's non-discrimination statement to include equal protection for gays and lesbians. Earlier that year 84% of the student body voted in favor of a student referendum calling for a change in policy. After several months of discussion the university's policy was changed in May 2005.
On December 5, 2007, Boston College announced the Master Plan, a $1.6 billion, 10-year plan to revamp the campus and hire new faculty. The plan includes over $700 million for new buildings and renovations of the campus, including construction of four new academic buildings, a sharp reduction in the size of the legendary "dustbowl" campus green, a 200000 ft2 recreation center to replace the Flynn Recreation Complex, a 285000 ft2 university center to replace McElroy Commons (which is slated for destruction), and the creation of 610 beds for student housing, as well as many other constructions and renovations. The plan has been criticized by Boston city officials. On February 21, 2008, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino warned the school to construct new dormitory building on its main campus, rather than on property acquired from the Archdiocese of Boston. The school was long an institution that targeted commuter students from the Boston area, however in the school's pursuit of a national legacy, that function has been forgotten as the number of commuter students enrolled dropped from well over 50% to a mere three students, according to statistics published by the alumni magazine.
On June 10, 2009, Mayor Menino and Boston's zoning commission approved the Boston College Master Plan, signaling an end to the long approval process, while allowing the school to enter design and planning phases.
Boston College's main campus in Chestnut Hill, 6 miles (9.7 km) west of downtown Boston, is 175 acres (708,200.5 m²) and includes over 120 buildings. Set on a hilltop overlooking the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
the sprawling campus includes an ever-increasing number of ever-larger buildings, and markedly reduced green areas. A "Boston College
" streetcar station on metro Boston's "T", or public transit system is located at St. Ignatius Gate. It is the western terminus of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
(MBTA) Green Line
's B-branch (also known as the "Boston College" line) and connects the school to Boston's city center and to destinations in the Boston metropolitan area. Due largely to its location and presence of buildings featuring gothic towers reaching into the sky, the Boston College campus is known generally as the "Heights" and to some as the "Crowned Hilltop". The main campus
is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Designed by Charles Donagh Maginnis
and his firm Maginnis & Walsh
in 1908, the Boston College campus is a seminal example of Collegiate Gothic architecture. Combining Gothic Revival architecture with principles of Beaux-Arts planning, Maginnis proposed a vast complex of academic buildings set in a cruciform
plan. Maginnis's design broke from the traditional Oxbridge
models that had inspired it — and that had till then characterized Gothic architecture on American campuses. In its unprecedented scale, Gasson Tower
was conceived not as the belfry
of a singular building, but as the crowning campanile
of Maginnis' new "city upon a hill
". Though Maginnis' ambitious Gothic project never saw full completion, its central portion was built according to plan and forms the core of what is now BC's iconic middle campus. Among these, the Bapst Library has been called the "finest example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in America" and Devlin Hall won the Harleston Parker Medal
for "most beautiful building in Boston". The 1895 Louis K. Liggett
Estate was acquired in 1941 and developed into a Tudor-style upper campus, while an architecturally eclectic lower campus took shape on land acquired by filling in part of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
. Modernism had an enormous impact on development after the 1940s, though some of the modernist buildings at BC maintained non-modern rough stone facades in keeping with Maginnis's original designs.
Boston College's eight research libraries contain over two million printed volumes. Including manuscripts, journals, government documents and microform items, ranging from ancient papyrus scrolls to digital databases, the collections have some twelve million items. Together with the university's museums, they include original manuscripts and prints by Galileo, Ignatius of Loyola
, and Francis Xavier
as well as world renowned collections in Jesuitana, Irish
literature, sixteenth century Flemish
tapestries, ancient Greek
pottery, Caribbean
folk art and literature, Japanese prints
, U.S. government documents, Congressional
Archives, and paintings that span the history of art from Europe
, Asia
, and the Americas
. Opened in 1928, Bapst Library was named for the first president of Boston College (Johannes Bapst
, S.J., 1815 to 1887) and it was one of the few structures built according to Charles Donagh Maginnis' original "Oxford in America" master plan. Bapst served as the university's main library until 1984. A guide to the building's stained glass windows is available online. The Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections is home to more than 150,000 volumes, some 15 million manuscripts and other important works, including a world-renowned collection of Irish literature. A rare facsimile of the Book of Kells
is on public display in the library's Irish Room, and each day one page of the illuminated manuscript
is turned. It also houses the papers of prominent Boston College alumni. The library is named after the Honorable John. J. Burns (1901 to 1957), Massachusetts Superior Court Justice and a member of the Boston College Class of 1921.
Located in Devlin Hall, the McMullen Museum of Art houses a prominent permanent collection and organizes exhibits from all periods and cultures of art history
. Recent exhibits and acquisitions, including works by Edvard Munch
, Amedeo Modigliani
, Frank Stella
, Françoise Gilot, John LaFarge
, and Jackson Pollock
. Admission to the Museum is free and open to the general public.
In the fall of 2010, Boston College began construction of Stokes Hall, a 183000 square feet (17,001.3 m²) academic building on what was formerly known as the Dustbowl. Stokes Hall is the first academic building to be constructed on the Middle Campus since 2001 and its construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2012.
, an 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) retreat center in Dover, Massachusetts
, and the Centre for Irish Programmes: Dublin on St. Stephen's Green
in Dublin, Ireland
. In a new building opened in 1996, the Law Library is located on the Boston College Law School
campus in Newton.
In June 2004, Boston College acquired 43 acres (174,015 m²) of land from the Archdiocese of Boston
. The new grounds, adjacent to the main campus (on the opposite side of Commonwealth Avenue
), include the historic mansion that served as the Cardinal
's residence until 2002. The new grounds are referred to as Brighton Campus, after Brighton
, the area in Boston in which it is located; as the municipal border sits on the street intersection that the two properties meet at.
, water efficiency
, local food
, recycling
, and green computing
. Since February 2007, Boston College has submetered
electricity
in 24 of its residence halls and since 2008 the college holds an annual energy competition between residential halls. During that time and throughout the year, students can track their energy consumption in real time on their computers using an Energy Dashboard
application built by Lucid Design Group Inc. It is not known how many students participate in this program. Boston College is considering the potential of geothermal power
, solar panels, and combined heat and power plants
. A student-run organic garden was started in spring 2008. The college says it is looking into implementing the practices and ideology of xeriscaping
and sustainable landscape architecture
to minimize water use on campus grounds.
At US$
1.5 billion, BC's endowment
is among the largest in American higher education, which represents a 25% percent drop from the start of the 2008-2009 academic year. Its annual operating budget is approximately $667 million. The most recent and ongoing fundraising campaign, dubbed "Light the World", was announced on October 11, 2008. The seven-year campaign aims to raise $1.5 billion in honor of the 150th anniversary of the college. Funds raised will be used to support the strategic priorities of the university, including academic programs, financial aid, Jesuit Catholic identity, athletics, student programming, and capital construction projects.
The 112 Jesuits living on the Boston College campus make up one of the largest Jesuit communities in the world and include members of the faculty and administration, graduate students, and visiting international scholars.
The chapel
for the university is located in St. Mary's Hall, the Jesuit residential facility. The college also maintains close relations with the nearby Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The church is named after the founder of the Jesuit order, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Although not technically the university's church, Boston College provides the parish with Internet access, e-mail service, telephone and voice mail service, parking, and dormitory space for the religious education
program. Each year, several Boston College students teach in the religious education program. Jesuits priests from Boston College occasionally preside at the church's liturgies. St. Ignatius provides a spiritual home for many students during their time at Boston College and is chosen by many for wedding
s. The church building is also used by the college for some of their larger religious events.
Parish is a Catholic Church and elementary school
in Brighton
, Massachusetts
that has an alliance with BC. Under the agreement, the parish school is to be governed by a board of members and a board of trustees comprising representatives from the Archdiocese of Boston, Boston College, St. Columbkille Parish
and the greater Boston
community. The board of trustees will authorize an audit of the school's curriculum, faculty, finances, and facilities before creating a strategic plan to guide the school in the future. Lynch School of Education
faculty will work directly with the school's teachers on faculty and curriculum development, presenting new approaches to education and working to establish best practices in the classroom. The agreement, announced in March 2006 by University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap.
, is believed to represent the first such collaboration between a Catholic university and a parochial school
in the United States
.
. Admission to Boston College is among the most selective in the United States. For the class of 2012, BC received a record 31,000 applications from prospective undergraduates, admitting 26%, making it the most selective class in the school's history. BC ranks fifth (after NYU
, USC
, BU
, and Northeastern) among private American universities in the number of applications it receives, although it is nearly half the size of the other four institutions.
Boston College is a research university and comprises nine schools and colleges:
s "America's Best Colleges 2011" rankings. Boston College was added to the "25 New Ivies" list in 2006 by Kaplan
/Newsweek
. BC placed 26th in a ranking of national universities (published in Forbes Magazine) by the Center for College Affordability & Productivity, a research group in Washington, D.C.
that used data from ratemyprofessors.com
among other sources. The undergraduate school of business, the Carroll School of Management
, placed 16th in an annual survey of US undergraduate business schools by BusinessWeek
, which noted that "Alumni and professors love helping students find jobs, making BC's campus networking an invaluable resource." A study by Carnegie Communications in 2004 ranked BC 17th among national universities. The same study cited BC as the 8th "most popular" choice among U.S. high school seniors, as measured by the number of applicants who plan on applying. A Princeton Review survey of parents that asked “What ‘dream college’ would you most like to see your child attend were prospects of acceptance or cost not issues?” placed BC 6th. In 2008 U.S. News & World Report
ranked the full time BC MBA program 34th in the nation, and the evening MBA program climbed to 15th, the 5th year it has been in the top 20 nationwide. Furthermore, BC also has commendable graduate programs in the Arts and Sciences. In 2010 Financial Times
ranked the full time BC MBA Program 23rd in the US and 47th in the world. The U.S. News and World Report
rated its economics, sociology, and psychology programs 31st, 41st, and 66th in the nation, respectively. The US News ranking of its sociology program in the survey made it the second highest-ranked such program in the Boston area, trailing only Harvard.
and Marshall
scholarships.
Broadcasting
Other notable publications
Ensembles
(the Boston College Fight Song
) and was a member of the Class of 1885.
Hail! Alma Mater! Thy praise we sing.
Fondly thy mem'ries round our heart still cling.
Guide of our youth, thro' thee we shall prevail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Hail! All Hail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Lo, on the height,
Proudly thy tow'rs are raised for the Right
God is thy Master, His law thy sole avail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Hail! All Hail!
The mascot for all Boston College athletic teams is the Eagle
, generally referred to in the plural, i.e., "The Eagles". The character representing the mascot at football, hockey, and basketball games is an American bald eagle named Baldwin
, derived from the "bald" head of the American bald eagle and the word "win". The school colors are maroon
and gold
. The fight song, For Boston
, was composed by T.J. Hurley, class of 1885. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference
in all sports offered by the ACC. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East
. (Skiing, fencing, and sailing are also non-ACC.) Boston College is one of only thirteen universities in the country offering NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (Formerly, I-A) football, Division I men's and women's basketball, and Division I hockey.
In hockey and (less famously) baseball, Boston College participates in the annual Beanpot tournaments held at TD Banknorth Garden
and Fenway Park
, respectively. Boston College competes in the Beanpot against the three other major sports colleges in Boston: the Northeastern University Huskies
, Harvard University
Crimson, and Boston University
Terriers
. BC has reached the championship game 31 times and has won the Beanpot 16 times, including the 2011 championship. The less renowned baseball tournament, was first played in 1990 and out of seventeen baseball Beanpots, Boston College has won nine, last winning in 2008. The baseball team also plays an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox
at City Of Palms Park
in Ft. Myers
, Florida
during Major League Baseball
's spring training
. The men's hockey team won the 2008 NCAA Championship on April 12, 2008 with a 4-1 victory over the University of Notre Dame in Denver
, Colorado
, and the 2010 NCAA Championship with a 5-0 victory over Wisconsin on April 10, 2010.
Principal athletic facilities include Alumni Stadium
(capacity: 44,500), Conte Forum
(8,606), Kelley Rink (7,884), Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field (1,000), the Newton Soccer Complex (1,000), and the Flynn Recreation Complex. The Yawkey Athletics Center opened in the spring of 2005. BC students compete in 31 varsity sports as well as a number of club and intramural teams. On March 18, 2002, Boston College's Athletics program was named to the College Sports Honor Roll as one of the nation's top 20 programs by U.S. News & World Report
.
Although a founding member of the Big East Conference
, the Eagles left the Big East and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference
on July 1, 2005. Boston College athletes are among the most academically successful in the nation, according to the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate
(APR). In 2006 Boston College received Public Recognition Awards with fourteen of its sports in the top 10% of the nation academically. The Eagles tied Notre Dame
for the highest total of any Division I-A university. Other schools having ten or more sports honored included Navy
(12), Stanford
(11), and Duke
(11). Teams honored were football, men's fencing, men's outdoor track, men's skiing, women's rowing, women's cross country, women's fencing, women's field hockey, women's indoor track, women's outdoor track, women's skiing, women's swimming, women's soccer, women's tennis, and women's volleyball. Boston College's football program was one of only five Division I-A teams that were so honored. The other four were Auburn
, Navy, Stanford, and Duke.
The Boston College Eagles have achieved occasional success in college football. On November 16, 1940, BC's Frank Leahy
-coached championship team took a win from two-season undefeated Georgetown in the final seconds in a game that renowned sportswriter Grantland Rice
called the greatest ever played. The Eagles completed their only undefeated season with a bowl victory over Tennessee that year, and many historians argue that the Eagles deserved a share of the national championship. In 1942, the team spent three weeks ranked at #3 in the nation and one week at #1, but they were upset by a then-dominant Holy Cross
, 55-12. As a result, the team canceled a party at the Cocoanut Grove, which ended up as a wise thing to do because that night the club caught fire
.
Boston College's two most famous football victories came in dramatic fashion, on the final play of the game. On the day after Thanksgiving, November 23, 1984, before a national audience on CBS
, Doug Flutie
became a legend when his 48 yards (43.9 m) Hail Mary
found its way into the arms of Gerard Phelan for a 47-45 victory over Miami in the Orange Bowl. This was also the year Flutie won the Heisman
; the only Eagle to date so honored. (See also: Flutie effect
) Nine years later almost to the day (November 20, 1993), the Eagles went into South Bend and defeated top-ranked Notre Dame 41-39 on a 41-yard field goal by David Gordon
as time expired. A win would have completed Notre Dame's season at 11-0 with a berth in the national championship game. (See also: Holy War (Boston College vs. Notre Dame)
) An additional nine years later, BC again thwarted a potential Notre Dame perfect season, defeating the #2 Fighting Irish in South Bend, 14-7. Boston College ran their football winning streak over Notre Dame to five games in 2007 with a 27-14 victory, helping the Eagles rise to #2 in the BCS rankings.
Two of Boston College's alumni hold special places in the NFL record-books. Mike Woicik
, a history major, holds the record for most Super Bowl
rings
won by a non-head NFL coach. He gained (as a strength and conditioning coach) three with the New England Patriots
and three with the Dallas Cowboys
. Bill Romanowski
, a business major, holds the defensive record as an NFL player for most consecutive games played at 243, is the only linebacker in history to start in 5 Super Bowls, and also shares a record as one of only three players in NFL history to win back to back Super Bowls with two different organizations, the San Francisco 49ers
and the Denver Broncos
. On October 21, 2007, Boston College received its highest ranking since 1942, coming in at #2 nationally in both the AP Poll
and in the USA Today
/Coaches' Poll.
The Eagles beat Virginia Tech
on October 25, 2007, led by Matt Ryan
with two touchdown passes in the final 2:11 of the game. This win solidified their spot at #2 in both the AP and Coaches' Poll as well as the BCS rankings. The team faced Virginia Tech again on December 1, 2007 in Jacksonville
, Florida
in the 2007 ACC Championship Game
as Atlantic Division champions, but lost 30-16. Boston College won the Atlantic Division for the second consecutive year in 2008 but would again fall to Virginia Tech
in the conference championship game
. The Eagles won the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl
over Michigan State
, extending their bowl winning streak to eight consecutive victories—at the time the longest active bowl win streak in the nation. The streak ended the following year with their loss to Vanderbilt
in the 2008 Music City Bowl
.
Ryan broke the Boston College single-season touchdown record previously held by College Hall of Famer
, Doug Flutie
. He was awarded the 2007 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
, given annually in the United States to the nation's most outstanding senior quarterback in college football and was selected third in the 2008 NFL Draft
by the Atlanta Falcons
, making him the highest-chosen BC player in NFL Draft
history.
, composed by T.J. Hurley in 1885. It has two verses but the most commonly sung one is the first verse. Boston-based band Dropkick Murphys
covered this song on their album Sing Loud, Sing Proud!
.
" — and its hilltop location, an area initially designated as "University Heights". The name has lent itself to a number of campus organizations, most notably the principal student newspaper, The Heights
. BC students were universally called "Heightsmen" until 1925 when Mary C. Mellyn became the first "Heightswoman" to receive a BC degree. "Heightsonian" was originally conceived as a way to gender neutralize the original term "Heightsmen", though "Eagles", once exclusively used for members of the University's athletics teams, is more commonly used. Contrary to its occasional usage by misinformed sportswriters and announcers, the term "Golden Eagles" refers strictly to BC graduates who have celebrated their 50th anniversary reunion.
There are 143,000 alumni in over 120 countries around the world. Boston College students have enjoyed success in winning prestigious post-graduate fellowships and awards, including recent Rhodes
, Marshall
, Mellon
, Fulbright
, Truman
, Churchill
, and Goldwater
scholarship
s, among others. BC's yield rate for Fulbright awards is the highest in the country. In 2007, the German
department was awarded a record 13 Fulbright scholarships, five more than the previous number from a single department. Though formal numbers are not kept, the number of award winners from one department to study in a specific country is thought by academic scholars to be the largest in the 60-year history of the Fulbright program.
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...
, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
and preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's South End
South End, Boston, Massachusetts
The South End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.-Geography:The South End lies south of the Back Bay, northwest of South Boston, northeast of Roxbury, north of Dorchester, and southwest of Bay Village...
. It is a member of the 568 Group
568 Group
The 568 Group is a consortium of American universities and colleges practicing need-blind admissions. The group was founded in 1998 in response to section 568 of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994.-History:...
and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities is a consortium of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and two theological centers in the United States committed to advancing academic excellence by promoting and coordinating collaborative activities, sharing resources, and advocating and...
. Its main campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
is a historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
and features
Boston College Main Campus Historic District
Boston College Main Campus Historic District located at 140 Commonwealth Avenue in the village of Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts was added to the National Register of Historic Places on .-National Register listing:...
some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Boston College offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its nine schools and colleges. Boston College is currently ranked 31 in the National Universities ranking by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
.
Boston College is categorized as an RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
Boston College sports teams are called the Eagles
Boston College Eagles
The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams representing Boston College. They compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East. The women's crew team competes in the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing...
, the colors being maroon and gold; the school mascot is Baldwin the Eagle. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
in all sports (except wrestling and men's lacrosse) offered by the ACC. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East
Hockey East
Hockey East Association is a NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference....
.
Early history
Benedict Joseph Fenwick
Benedict Joseph Fenwick, S.J. was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. A Jesuit, he served as Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death in 1846.-Early life and education:...
, S.J.
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
, a Jesuit from Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, became the second Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Boston. He was the first to articulate a vision for a "College in the City of Boston" that would raise a new generation of leaders to serve both the civic and spiritual needs of his fledgling diocese. In 1827, Bishop Fenwick opened a school in the basement of his cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
and took to the personal instruction of the city's youth. His efforts to attract other Jesuits to the faculty were hampered both by Boston's distance from the center of Jesuit activity in Maryland and by suspicion on the part of the city's Protestant elite
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
. Relations with Boston's civic leaders worsened such that, when a Jesuit faculty was finally secured in 1843, Fenwick decided to leave the Boston school and instead opened the College of the Holy Cross
College of the Holy Cross
The College of the Holy Cross is an undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA...
45 miles (72.4 km) west of the city in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
where he felt the Jesuits could operate with greater autonomy. Meanwhile, the vision for a college in Boston was sustained by John McElroy, S.J.
John McElroy (Jesuit)
John McElroy, SJ was born in Ireland in 1782, and came to the United States in 1803. Fr. McElroy enrolled in Georgetown University in 1806, the same year in which he joined the Society of Jesus as a lay brother. His brother Antony also became a Jesuit. Fr. McElroy assumed the management of...
, who saw an even greater need for such an institution in light of Boston's growing Irish Catholic immigrant population. With the approval of his Jesuit superiors, McElroy went about raising funds and in 1857 purchased land for "The Boston College" on Harrison Avenue in the Irish neighborhood of South End, Boston, Massachusetts
South End, Boston, Massachusetts
The South End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.-Geography:The South End lies south of the Back Bay, northwest of South Boston, northeast of Roxbury, north of Dorchester, and southwest of Bay Village...
. With little fanfare, the college's two buildings — a schoolhouse and a church — welcomed their first class of scholastics in 1859. Two years later, with as little fanfare, BC closed again. Its short-lived second incarnation was plagued by the outbreak of Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and disagreement within the Society over the college's governance and finances. BC's inability to obtain a charter from the anti-Catholic Massachusetts legislature only compounded its troubles.
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and the first located in the Boston area. Johannes Bapst
Johannes Bapst
Johannes Bapst was a Swiss Jesuit missionary and educator. He became the first President of Boston College.-Life:...
, S.J., a Swiss Jesuit from French-speaking Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
, was selected as BC's first president and immediately reopened the original college buildings on Harrison Avenue. For most of the 19th century, BC offered a singular 7-year program corresponding to both high school and college. Its entering class in the fall of 1864 included 22 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years. The curriculum was based on the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum
Ratio Studiorum
The Ratio Studiorum often designates the document that formally established the globally influential system of Jesuit education in 1599...
, emphasizing Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
.
Move to Chestnut Hill
Boston College High School
Founded in 1863, Boston College High School is an all-male Jesuit Roman Catholic college preparatory secondary school with historical ties to Boston College. It has an enrollment in grades 7-12 of approximately 1,500 students and is located on a campus on Morrissey Boulevard in the Dorchester...
remained a constituent part of Boston College until 1927 when it was separately incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
. In 1907, newly-installed President Thomas I. Gasson, S.J., determined that BC's cramped, urban quarters in Boston's South End were inadequate and unsuited for significant expansion. Inspired by John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
's early vision of Boston as a "city upon a hill
City upon a Hill
A City Upon A Hill is a phrase from the parable of Salt and Light in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:14, he tells his listeners, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."-American usage:...
", he re-imagined Boston College as world-renowned university and a beacon of Jesuit scholarship. Less than a year after taking office, he purchased Amos Adams Lawrence
Amos Adams Lawrence
Amos Adams Lawrence , the son of famed philanthropist Amos Lawrence, was a key figure in the United States abolition movement in the years leading up to the Civil War, and instrumental in the establishment of the University of Kansas and Lawrence University in Appleton,...
's farm on Chestnut Hill
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...
, six miles (10 km) west of the city. He organized an international competition for the design of a campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
master plan and set about raising funds for the construction of the "new" university. Proposals were solicited from distinguished architects, and Charles Donagh Maginnis
Charles Donagh Maginnis
Considered the father of American Gothic architecture, Charles Donagh Maginnis was born in County Londonderry, Ireland on January 7, 1867. He was educated in Dublin, emigrated to Boston at age 18 and got his first job apprenticing for architect Edmund M. Wheelwright as a draftsman. In 1900 he...
' ambitious proposal for twenty buildings in English Collegiate Gothic style, called "Oxford in America", was selected. Construction began in 1909.
By 1913, construction costs had surpassed available funds, and as a result Gasson Hall
Gasson Hall
Gasson Hall is a building on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is named after the 13th president of Boston College, Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, considered BC's "second founder."-History:...
, "New BC's" main building, stood alone on Chestnut Hill for its first three years. Buildings of the former Lawrence farm, including a barn and gatehouse, were temporarily adapted for college use while a massive fundraising effort was underway. While Maginnis's ambitious plans were never fully realized, BC's first "capital campaign" — which included a large replica of Gasson Hall's clock tower set up on Boston Common to measure the fundraising progress — ensured that President Gasson's vision survived. By the 1920s BC began to fill out the dimensions of its university charter, establishing the Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is a top-tier research institution offering programs in humanities, natural sciences and social sciences at Boston College.-About:...
, the Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School is one of the six professional graduate schools at Boston College. Located approximately 1.5 miles from the main Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Boston College Law School is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts.With approximately 800 students and...
, and the Woods College of Advancing Studies
Woods College of Advancing Studies
The Woods College of Advancing Studies is one of the eight constituent schools of Boston College and offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs...
, followed successively by the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
The Graduate School of Social Work is one of the professional schools of Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. is central to Boston College's mission of social justice. Its major goal is to assist and empower the disadvantaged members of society...
, the Carroll School of Management
Carroll School of Management
Established in 1938, The Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, or "CSOM", as it is colloquially known, is the business school of Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States....
, the Connell School of Nursing
Connell School of Nursing
The Connell School of Nursing is a graduate and undergraduate nursing school and one of the professional schools of Boston College.-See also:*List of nursing schools in the United States...
, and the Lynch School of Education
Lynch School of Education
The Lynch School of Education is a professional school of Boston College. Joseph O'Keefe, S.J. is the current dean.The Lynch School of Education offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human development. The mission of the school is to improve the human condition...
. In 1926, Boston College conferred its first degrees on women (though it did not become fully coeducational until 1970). With the rising prominence of its graduates, this was also the period in which Boston College and its powerful Alumni Association began to establish themselves among the city's leading institutions. At the city, state and federal levels, BC graduates would come to dominate Massachusetts politics for much of the 20th century. Cultural changes in American society and in the church following the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
forced BC to question its purpose and mission. Meanwhile, poor financial management lead to deteriorating facilities and resources and rising tuition costs. Student outrage, combined with growing protests over Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the bombings in Cambodia
Operation Menu
Operation Menu was the codename of a covert United States Strategic Air Command bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia and Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the Vietnam War...
, culminated in student strikes, including demonstrations at Gasson Hall
Gasson Hall
Gasson Hall is a building on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is named after the 13th president of Boston College, Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, considered BC's "second founder."-History:...
in April 1970.
The Monan era
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Monan's first order of business was to reconfigure the Boston College Board of Trustees. By separating it from the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
, Monan was able to bring in the talents of lay alumni and business leaders who helped turn around the university's fortunes. This same restructuring had been accomplished first at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
in 1967 by Fr. Theodore Hesburgh
Theodore Hesburgh
The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC, STD , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is the namesake for TIAA-CREF's Hesburgh Award....
, CSC with many other Catholic colleges following suit in the ensuing years. In 1974, Boston College acquired Newton College of the Sacred Heart
Newton College of the Sacred Heart
Newton College of the Sacred Heart was a small women's liberal arts college in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. It opened in 1946 and merged with Boston College in June 1974....
, a 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) campus 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away that enabled it to expand the law school and provide more housing for a student population that was increasingly residential and geographically diverse. No less than the university's rescue is credited to Monan who set into motion the university's upward trajectory in finances, reputation, and global scope. In 1996, Monan's 24 year presidency, the longest in the university's history, came to an end when he was named University Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
and succeeded by President William P. Leahy
William P. Leahy
Leahy's memberships include the American Catholic Historical Association, the American Historical Association, the History of Education Society, and the Organization of American Historians....
, S.J.
Recent history
Since assuming the Boston College presidency, Leahy's tenure has been marked with an acceleration of the growth and development initiated by his predecessor. BC's endowment has grown to $1.83 billion, it has expanded by almost 150 acres (607,029 m²), while dramatically reducing the greenery of its middle campus. During this period, undergraduate applications have surpassed 31,000. At the same time, BC students, faculty and athletic teams have seen indicators of success — winning record numbers of FulbrightsFulbright Award
The Fulbright Award is a scholarship awarded as part of the Fulbright Program to foster international research and collaboration. The program also awards a fellowship to Ph.D.'s to lecture and teach in foreign universities...
, Rhodes
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
, and other academic awards; setting new marks for research grants; and winning conference and national titles. In 2002, Leahy initiated the Church in the 21st Century
Church in the 21st Century
- Foundation and History :Initiated by President William P. Leahy, S.J., in September 2002, the Church in the 21st Century initiative was originally conceived as a two-year project to examine the underlying issues raised by the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church...
program to examine issues facing the Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in light of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. His effort brought BC worldwide praise and recognition for "leading the way on Church reform." Recent plans to merge with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology
Weston Jesuit School of Theology
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Brighton, Massachusetts, United States is the graduate divinity school of Boston College and an ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for service, especially within the Roman Catholic Church...
were followed by an article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
claiming "such a merger would further Boston College's quest to become the nation's Catholic intellectual powerhouse" and that, once approved by the Vatican
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
and Jesuit authorities in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, BC "would become the center for the study of Roman Catholic theology in the United States." On February 16, 2006, the merger was authorized by the Jesuit Conference
Jesuit Conference
The Jesuit Conference is the name of the governing body of the Society of Jesus in the United States. The Conference comprises the provincial superiors of the ten Jesuit provinces in the US , known collectively as the US Assistancy...
.
On December 5, 2007, Boston College announced the Master Plan, a $1.6 billion, 10-year plan to revamp the campus and hire new faculty. The plan includes over $700 million for new buildings and renovations of the campus, including construction of four new academic buildings, a sharp reduction in the size of the legendary "dustbowl" campus green, a 200000 ft2 recreation center to replace the Flynn Recreation Complex, a 285000 ft2 university center to replace McElroy Commons (which is slated for destruction), and the creation of 610 beds for student housing, as well as many other constructions and renovations. The plan has been criticized by Boston city officials. On February 21, 2008, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino warned the school to construct new dormitory building on its main campus, rather than on property acquired from the Archdiocese of Boston. The school was long an institution that targeted commuter students from the Boston area, however in the school's pursuit of a national legacy, that function has been forgotten as the number of commuter students enrolled dropped from well over 50% to a mere three students, according to statistics published by the alumni magazine.
On June 10, 2009, Mayor Menino and Boston's zoning commission approved the Boston College Master Plan, signaling an end to the long approval process, while allowing the school to enter design and planning phases.
Chestnut Hill
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a reservoir created in 1870 on existing marshes and meadowland to supplement the city of Boston's water needs. It is surrounded by Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood which consists of parts of Boston, Brookline, and Newton. The reservoir, though, is located entirely within...
the sprawling campus includes an ever-increasing number of ever-larger buildings, and markedly reduced green areas. A "Boston College
Boston College (MBTA station)
The Boston College station is the western terminus of the MBTA Green Line's B-branch . It is located at St Ignatius Square on the Boston College campus in Brighton, Massachusetts, near the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Lake Street.Originally called Lake Street, the station was once the...
" streetcar station on metro Boston's "T", or public transit system is located at St. Ignatius Gate. It is the western terminus of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
(MBTA) Green Line
Green Line (MBTA)
The Green Line is a streetcar system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States. It is the oldest line of Boston's subway, which is known locally as the 'T'. The Green Line runs underground downtown and on the surface in outlying...
's B-branch (also known as the "Boston College" line) and connects the school to Boston's city center and to destinations in the Boston metropolitan area. Due largely to its location and presence of buildings featuring gothic towers reaching into the sky, the Boston College campus is known generally as the "Heights" and to some as the "Crowned Hilltop". The main campus
Boston College Main Campus Historic District
Boston College Main Campus Historic District located at 140 Commonwealth Avenue in the village of Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts was added to the National Register of Historic Places on .-National Register listing:...
is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Charles Donagh Maginnis
Considered the father of American Gothic architecture, Charles Donagh Maginnis was born in County Londonderry, Ireland on January 7, 1867. He was educated in Dublin, emigrated to Boston at age 18 and got his first job apprenticing for architect Edmund M. Wheelwright as a draftsman. In 1900 he...
and his firm Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh was an architecture firm started by Charles Donagh Maginnis and Timothy Walsh in 1905. It was known for its innovative design of churches in Boston in the first half of the twentieth century....
in 1908, the Boston College campus is a seminal example of Collegiate Gothic architecture. Combining Gothic Revival architecture with principles of Beaux-Arts planning, Maginnis proposed a vast complex of academic buildings set in a cruciform
Cruciform
Cruciform means having the shape of a cross or Christian cross.- Cruciform architectural plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross,...
plan. Maginnis's design broke from the traditional Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...
models that had inspired it — and that had till then characterized Gothic architecture on American campuses. In its unprecedented scale, Gasson Tower
Gasson Hall
Gasson Hall is a building on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is named after the 13th president of Boston College, Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, considered BC's "second founder."-History:...
was conceived not as the belfry
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
of a singular building, but as the crowning campanile
Campanile
Campanile is an Italian word meaning "bell tower" . The term applies to bell towers which are either part of a larger building or free-standing, although in American English, the latter meaning has become prevalent.The most famous campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa...
of Maginnis' new "city upon a hill
City upon a Hill
A City Upon A Hill is a phrase from the parable of Salt and Light in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:14, he tells his listeners, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."-American usage:...
". Though Maginnis' ambitious Gothic project never saw full completion, its central portion was built according to plan and forms the core of what is now BC's iconic middle campus. Among these, the Bapst Library has been called the "finest example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in America" and Devlin Hall won the Harleston Parker Medal
Harleston Parker Medal
The Harleston Parker Medal was established in 1921 by J. Harleston Parker to recognize “such architects as shall have, in the opinion of the Boston Society of Architects. ....
for "most beautiful building in Boston". The 1895 Louis K. Liggett
Louis K. Liggett
Louis K. Liggett was an American drug store magnate who founded Rexall and was later chairman of United Drug Company.-Early life:...
Estate was acquired in 1941 and developed into a Tudor-style upper campus, while an architecturally eclectic lower campus took shape on land acquired by filling in part of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a reservoir created in 1870 on existing marshes and meadowland to supplement the city of Boston's water needs. It is surrounded by Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood which consists of parts of Boston, Brookline, and Newton. The reservoir, though, is located entirely within...
. Modernism had an enormous impact on development after the 1940s, though some of the modernist buildings at BC maintained non-modern rough stone facades in keeping with Maginnis's original designs.
Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus and was its first Superior General. Ignatius emerged as a religious leader during the Counter-Reformation...
, and Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534...
as well as world renowned collections in Jesuitana, Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
literature, sixteenth century Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
tapestries, ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
pottery, Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
folk art and literature, Japanese prints
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
, U.S. government documents, Congressional
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Archives, and paintings that span the history of art from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. Opened in 1928, Bapst Library was named for the first president of Boston College (Johannes Bapst
Johannes Bapst
Johannes Bapst was a Swiss Jesuit missionary and educator. He became the first President of Boston College.-Life:...
, S.J., 1815 to 1887) and it was one of the few structures built according to Charles Donagh Maginnis' original "Oxford in America" master plan. Bapst served as the university's main library until 1984. A guide to the building's stained glass windows is available online. The Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections is home to more than 150,000 volumes, some 15 million manuscripts and other important works, including a world-renowned collection of Irish literature. A rare facsimile of the Book of Kells
Book of Kells
The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier...
is on public display in the library's Irish Room, and each day one page of the illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
is turned. It also houses the papers of prominent Boston College alumni. The library is named after the Honorable John. J. Burns (1901 to 1957), Massachusetts Superior Court Justice and a member of the Boston College Class of 1921.
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
. Recent exhibits and acquisitions, including works by Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Françoise Gilot, John LaFarge
John LaFarge
John La Farge was an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.-Biography:...
, and Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
. Admission to the Museum is free and open to the general public.
In the fall of 2010, Boston College began construction of Stokes Hall, a 183000 square feet (17,001.3 m²) academic building on what was formerly known as the Dustbowl. Stokes Hall is the first academic building to be constructed on the Middle Campus since 2001 and its construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2012.
Other properties
In addition to the main campus at Chestnut Hill, BC's 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) Newton Campus, formerly Newton College of the Sacred Heart, is located 1 miles (1.6 km) to the west and houses the law school and residential housing for roughly one third of the freshman class. Other BC properties include a 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) seismology research observatory and field station in Weston, MassachusettsWeston, Massachusetts
Weston is a suburb of Boston located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Boston metro area. The population of Weston, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, is 11,261....
, an 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) retreat center in Dover, Massachusetts
Dover, Massachusetts
Dover is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,589 at the 2010 census.Located about southwest of downtown Boston, Dover is a residential town nestled on the south banks of the Charles River. Almost all of the residential zoning requires or larger...
, and the Centre for Irish Programmes: Dublin on St. Stephen's Green
St. Stephen's Green
St Stephen's Green is a city centre public park in Dublin, Ireland. The park is adjacent to one of Dublin's main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named for it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies and the city terminus of one of...
in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. In a new building opened in 1996, the Law Library is located on the Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School
Boston College Law School is one of the six professional graduate schools at Boston College. Located approximately 1.5 miles from the main Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Boston College Law School is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts.With approximately 800 students and...
campus in Newton.
In June 2004, Boston College acquired 43 acres (174,015 m²) of land from the Archdiocese of Boston
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States. It comprises several counties of the state of Massachusetts...
. The new grounds, adjacent to the main campus (on the opposite side of Commonwealth Avenue
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill...
), include the historic mansion that served as the Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
's residence until 2002. The new grounds are referred to as Brighton Campus, after Brighton
Brighton, Boston, Massachusetts
Brighton is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located in the northwest corner of the city. It is named after the town of Brighton in the English city of Brighton and Hove...
, the area in Boston in which it is located; as the municipal border sits on the street intersection that the two properties meet at.
Sustainability
In publicity materials, Boston College claims to utilize sustainable energySustainable energy
Sustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources include all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal...
, water efficiency
Water efficiency
Water efficiency can be defined as:# The accomplishment of a function, task, process, or result with the minimal amount of water feasible;# An indicator of the relationship between the amount of water required for a particular purpose and the amount of water used or delivered.Though the two are...
, local food
Local food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
, recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
, and green computing
Green computing
Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. In the article Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, San Murugesan defines the field of green computing as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers,...
. Since February 2007, Boston College has submetered
Utility submeter
Utility Submetering is the implementation of a system that allows a landlord, property management firm, condominium association, homeowners association, or other multi-tenant property to bill tenants for individual measured utility usage...
electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
in 24 of its residence halls and since 2008 the college holds an annual energy competition between residential halls. During that time and throughout the year, students can track their energy consumption in real time on their computers using an Energy Dashboard
Home energy monitor
A home energy monitor provides prompt, convenient feedback on electrical or other energy use. Devices may also display cost of energy used, and estimates of greenhouse gas emissions...
application built by Lucid Design Group Inc. It is not known how many students participate in this program. Boston College is considering the potential of geothermal power
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
, solar panels, and combined heat and power plants
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
. A student-run organic garden was started in spring 2008. The college says it is looking into implementing the practices and ideology of xeriscaping
Xeriscaping
Xeriscaping and xerogardening refers to landscaping and gardening in ways that reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental water from irrigation...
and sustainable landscape architecture
Sustainable landscape architecture
Sustainable landscape architecture is a category of sustainable design concerned with the planning and design of outdoor space.This can include ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainability...
to minimize water use on campus grounds.
Organization and administration
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1.5 billion, BC's endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
is among the largest in American higher education, which represents a 25% percent drop from the start of the 2008-2009 academic year. Its annual operating budget is approximately $667 million. The most recent and ongoing fundraising campaign, dubbed "Light the World", was announced on October 11, 2008. The seven-year campaign aims to raise $1.5 billion in honor of the 150th anniversary of the college. Funds raised will be used to support the strategic priorities of the university, including academic programs, financial aid, Jesuit Catholic identity, athletics, student programming, and capital construction projects.
Catholic and Jesuit
The chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
for the university is located in St. Mary's Hall, the Jesuit residential facility. The college also maintains close relations with the nearby Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The church is named after the founder of the Jesuit order, Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Although not technically the university's church, Boston College provides the parish with Internet access, e-mail service, telephone and voice mail service, parking, and dormitory space for the religious education
Religious Education
Religious Education is the term given to education concerned with religion. It may refer to education provided by a church or religious organization, for instruction in doctrine and faith, or for education in various aspects of religion, but without explicitly religious or moral aims, e.g. in a...
program. Each year, several Boston College students teach in the religious education program. Jesuits priests from Boston College occasionally preside at the church's liturgies. St. Ignatius provides a spiritual home for many students during their time at Boston College and is chosen by many for wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
s. The church building is also used by the college for some of their larger religious events.
Affiliated institutions
St. ColumbkilleSaint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
Parish is a Catholic Church and elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
in Brighton
Brighton, Boston, Massachusetts
Brighton is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located in the northwest corner of the city. It is named after the town of Brighton in the English city of Brighton and Hove...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
that has an alliance with BC. Under the agreement, the parish school is to be governed by a board of members and a board of trustees comprising representatives from the Archdiocese of Boston, Boston College, St. Columbkille Parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
and the greater Boston
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
community. The board of trustees will authorize an audit of the school's curriculum, faculty, finances, and facilities before creating a strategic plan to guide the school in the future. Lynch School of Education
Lynch School of Education
The Lynch School of Education is a professional school of Boston College. Joseph O'Keefe, S.J. is the current dean.The Lynch School of Education offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human development. The mission of the school is to improve the human condition...
faculty will work directly with the school's teachers on faculty and curriculum development, presenting new approaches to education and working to establish best practices in the classroom. The agreement, announced in March 2006 by University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM, Cap.
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
, is believed to represent the first such collaboration between a Catholic university and a parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Admissions
The middle half of the class of 2012 had test scores that ranged from 1950-2220 on the SAT and 30-33 on the ACTACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
. Admission to Boston College is among the most selective in the United States. For the class of 2012, BC received a record 31,000 applications from prospective undergraduates, admitting 26%, making it the most selective class in the school's history. BC ranks fifth (after NYU
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, BU
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, and Northeastern) among private American universities in the number of applications it receives, although it is nearly half the size of the other four institutions.
Schools and colleges
- Boston College College of Arts & Sciences
- Boston College Graduate School of Arts & SciencesBoston College Graduate School of Arts & SciencesThe Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is a top-tier research institution offering programs in humanities, natural sciences and social sciences at Boston College.-About:...
- Carroll School of ManagementCarroll School of ManagementEstablished in 1938, The Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, or "CSOM", as it is colloquially known, is the business school of Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States....
- Lynch School of EducationLynch School of EducationThe Lynch School of Education is a professional school of Boston College. Joseph O'Keefe, S.J. is the current dean.The Lynch School of Education offers graduate and undergraduate programs in education, psychology, and human development. The mission of the school is to improve the human condition...
- Connell School of NursingConnell School of NursingThe Connell School of Nursing is a graduate and undergraduate nursing school and one of the professional schools of Boston College.-See also:*List of nursing schools in the United States...
- Boston College Graduate School of Social WorkBoston College Graduate School of Social WorkThe Graduate School of Social Work is one of the professional schools of Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. is central to Boston College's mission of social justice. Its major goal is to assist and empower the disadvantaged members of society...
- Boston College Law SchoolBoston College Law SchoolBoston College Law School is one of the six professional graduate schools at Boston College. Located approximately 1.5 miles from the main Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Boston College Law School is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts.With approximately 800 students and...
- Boston College School of Theology and Ministry
- Woods College of Advancing StudiesWoods College of Advancing StudiesThe Woods College of Advancing Studies is one of the eight constituent schools of Boston College and offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs...
Rankings
BC ranked 16th on the Forbes.com 2009 edition of "America's Best Colleges" and 31st (tied with College of William & Mary) among national universities in U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
s "America's Best Colleges 2011" rankings. Boston College was added to the "25 New Ivies" list in 2006 by Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...
/Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
. BC placed 26th in a ranking of national universities (published in Forbes Magazine) by the Center for College Affordability & Productivity, a research group in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
that used data from ratemyprofessors.com
RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors.com is a review site, founded in May 1999 by John Swapceinski, a software engineer from Menlo Park, California, which allows college and university students to assign ratings to professors and campuses of American, Canadian, and United Kingdom institutions. The site was originally...
among other sources. The undergraduate school of business, the Carroll School of Management
Carroll School of Management
Established in 1938, The Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, or "CSOM", as it is colloquially known, is the business school of Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States....
, placed 16th in an annual survey of US undergraduate business schools by BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, which noted that "Alumni and professors love helping students find jobs, making BC's campus networking an invaluable resource." A study by Carnegie Communications in 2004 ranked BC 17th among national universities. The same study cited BC as the 8th "most popular" choice among U.S. high school seniors, as measured by the number of applicants who plan on applying. A Princeton Review survey of parents that asked “What ‘dream college’ would you most like to see your child attend were prospects of acceptance or cost not issues?” placed BC 6th. In 2008 U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranked the full time BC MBA program 34th in the nation, and the evening MBA program climbed to 15th, the 5th year it has been in the top 20 nationwide. Furthermore, BC also has commendable graduate programs in the Arts and Sciences. In 2010 Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
ranked the full time BC MBA Program 23rd in the US and 47th in the world. The U.S. News and World Report
rated its economics, sociology, and psychology programs 31st, 41st, and 66th in the nation, respectively. The US News ranking of its sociology program in the survey made it the second highest-ranked such program in the Boston area, trailing only Harvard.
Presidential Scholars Program
The Presidential Scholars Program is a competitive undergraduate program offered to a subset of early action applicants of Boston College. Students who accept an invitation to apply for the program are asked to spend a weekend at Boston College, where they complete several interviews and participate in a mock honors program seminar. The Presidential Scholars Program is very competitive; out of the Boston College applicants invited to apply to the PSP program, 15 are awarded the scholarship. Since the entire early application pool is evaluated in determining who to grant application invitations to, the overall admissions rate of the program is less than 1%. The scholarship includes a number of enrichment opportunities such as several summer programs, among them a summer-long international study program for language proficiency and academic or professional advancement and "high-level" internships. Students who have completed the Presidential Scholars Program have often gone on to attend prestigious graduate schools and have successful professional careers. They have been the recipients of some of the highest awards including RhodesRhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
and Marshall
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...
scholarships.
Scholarly publications
- C21 Resources, a progressive journal of contemporary Catholic issues, published by BC's Church in the 21st CenturyChurch in the 21st Century- Foundation and History :Initiated by President William P. Leahy, S.J., in September 2002, the Church in the 21st Century initiative was originally conceived as a two-year project to examine the underlying issues raised by the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church...
Center. - Guide to Jesuit Education
- Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment
- Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review
- Boston College Law ReviewBoston College Law ReviewThe Boston College Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship and student organization at Boston College Law School. It has been continuously published since 1959. Up until 1977, it was known as the Boston College Industrial & Commercial Law Review...
- International & Comparative Law Review
- Third World Law Journal
- Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest
- New Arcadia Review
- Religion and the Arts Journal
- Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, the official journal of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR) and is published by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College and the Boston College Libraries.
- Teaching Exceptional Children / Teaching Exceptional Children Plus
- The Eagletarian, published by The BC Economics Association.
Development Programs
- Shaw Leadership ProgramShaw Leadership ProgramThe Shaw Leadership Program is a nationally recognized four-year intensive leadership development program at Boston College. Twenty incoming freshman to Boston College who complete a separate application for the program are selected each year to become members. It was established in 1993 by Dr....
, a nationally recognized four-year intensive leadership development program
AHANA
- AHANAAHANAAHANA is a term that refers to persons of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent. The term was coined at Boston College in 1979 by two students, Alfred Feliciano and Valerie Lewis, who objected to the name "Office of Minority Programs" used by Boston College at the time...
is a term coined (and trademarked) by BC students in 1979 to refer to students of African-American, HispanicHispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, AsianAsian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
, or Native American descent. In 2009-10, AHANA students comprised 24.4% of BC undergraduates. International students make up an additional 5.3% of the student population.
Student Media
Newspapers- The HeightsThe Heights (newspaper)The Heights is the independent student newspaper of Boston College. The paper, published twice weekly during the academic year, is editorially and financially independent from the University. The paper's Editorial Board consists of 39 editors and managers who are responsible for the operations of...
, the principal student newspaperStudent newspaperA student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
, published twice-weekly; established in 1919 - The Observer, a conservative student newspaper founded on the principles of the Catholic Church
- The Gavel, an independent progressive student newspaper; launched on October 27, 2009. The Gavel is a mainly web-based publication and updates twice-weekly, while it prints monthly.
- The New England Classic, a satirical newspaper unrecognized by the University but regularly published and distributed on campus; launched in Fall 2007 and is independently funded.
Broadcasting
- The BC, a widely-acclaimed parody of The OC featuring students, Jesuits, and administrators
- UGBC-TV, the student-run cable television stationTelevision stationA television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
featuring the campus' longest running TV show, Now You Know, a news-variety show occasionally including taped broadcast coverage of campus events - WZBCWZBCWZBC is a radio station broadcasting an Alternative format. Licensed to Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the station serves Boston and its western suburbs. The station is currently owned by Boston College....
, 90.3 FM, the student-run radio stationRadio stationRadio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
which provides independent and experimental music
Other notable publications
- Sub Turri, the Boston College yearbookYearbookA yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...
, published since 1913 - The Stylus of Boston CollegeThe Stylus of Boston CollegeThe Stylus is the literary magazine of Boston College. Founded in 1882, it is the oldest club at Boston College and one of the oldest literary magazines in the country.- History :...
, the undergraduate art and literature magazine, founded in 1882 - Elements Undergraduate Research Journal, the premier undergraduate research journal of Boston College, published biannually
- Al-Noor: The Boston College Undergraduate Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journal, one of the only undergraduate Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Journals in the world.
Ensembles
- "BC bOp!", the Boston College jazz bandJazz bandA jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section, in the early days often trumpet, trombone, and clarinet with rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass or tuba, and drums.-Eras:SwingDuring the swing era in the mid-twentieth...
- Boston College "Screaming Eagles" Marching BandBoston College Marching BandThe Boston College Marching Band, also known as the "Screaming Eagles" Marching Band or BCMB, is the marching band for the Boston College Eagles. Founded in 1919, The Band is the largest and most visible student organization at Boston College...
- "Pep Band", the ensemble that performs at Boston College Hockey and Boston College Basketball games
- "University Wind Ensemble of Boston College"
- "University Symphonic Band"
- University Chorale of Boston College
Alma Mater
Alma Mater was written by T.J. Hurley, who also wrote For BostonFor Boston
"For Boston" is the traditional fight song of Boston College. It was written and composed by T.J. Hurley, a member of the Boston College Class of 1885. It is known as the oldest fight song in the United States...
(the Boston College Fight Song
Fight song
A fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
) and was a member of the Class of 1885.
Hail! Alma Mater! Thy praise we sing.
Fondly thy mem'ries round our heart still cling.
Guide of our youth, thro' thee we shall prevail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Hail! All Hail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Lo, on the height,
Proudly thy tow'rs are raised for the Right
God is thy Master, His law thy sole avail!
Hail! Alma Mater! Hail! All Hail!
Athletics
The mascot for all Boston College athletic teams is the Eagle
Eagle
Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
, generally referred to in the plural, i.e., "The Eagles". The character representing the mascot at football, hockey, and basketball games is an American bald eagle named Baldwin
Baldwin the Eagle
Baldwin the Eagle, an anthropomorphized bald eagle, is the mascot of the Boston College Eagles.The nickname "Eagles" goes back to 1920 when Rev. Edward McLaughlin, unhappy at seeing a newspaper cartoon which represented Boston College as a cat after a track victory, wrote to the college newspaper...
, derived from the "bald" head of the American bald eagle and the word "win". The school colors are maroon
Maroon (color)
Maroon is a dark red color.-Etymology:Maroon is derived from French marron .The first recorded use of maroon as a color name in English was in 1789.-Maroon :...
and gold
Gold (color)
Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of orange-yellow color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold....
. The fight song, For Boston
For Boston
"For Boston" is the traditional fight song of Boston College. It was written and composed by T.J. Hurley, a member of the Boston College Class of 1885. It is known as the oldest fight song in the United States...
, was composed by T.J. Hurley, class of 1885. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
in all sports offered by the ACC. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East
Hockey East
Hockey East Association is a NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference....
. (Skiing, fencing, and sailing are also non-ACC.) Boston College is one of only thirteen universities in the country offering NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (Formerly, I-A) football, Division I men's and women's basketball, and Division I hockey.
In hockey and (less famously) baseball, Boston College participates in the annual Beanpot tournaments held at TD Banknorth Garden
TD Banknorth Garden
TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, N.A. and is often simply referred to by local Bostonians as, The Garden, The Fleet Center, or the traditional Boston Garden...
and Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
, respectively. Boston College competes in the Beanpot against the three other major sports colleges in Boston: the Northeastern University Huskies
Northeastern Huskies
The Northeastern University Huskies are the athletic teams representing Northeastern University. They compete in thirteen varsity team sports: men's and women's hockey ; men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's field hockey and volleyball, swimming, and men's and women's soccer , and...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Crimson, and Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
Terriers
Boston University Terriers
The Boston University Terriers are the nine men's and twelve women's varsity athletic teams representing Boston University in NCAA Division I competition. The men compete in basketball, cross country, ice hockey, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, and wrestling...
. BC has reached the championship game 31 times and has won the Beanpot 16 times, including the 2011 championship. The less renowned baseball tournament, was first played in 1990 and out of seventeen baseball Beanpots, Boston College has won nine, last winning in 2008. The baseball team also plays an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
at City Of Palms Park
City of Palms Park
City of Palms Park is a stadium in Fort Myers, Florida primarily used for baseball, although the City of Fort Myers uses the venue for the occasional concert. Former Boston Red Sox left fielder Mike Greenwell is from Fort Myers, and was instrumental in bringing his team to the city for spring...
in Ft. Myers
Fort Myers, Florida
Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
during Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's spring training
Spring training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
. The men's hockey team won the 2008 NCAA Championship on April 12, 2008 with a 4-1 victory over the University of Notre Dame in Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and the 2010 NCAA Championship with a 5-0 victory over Wisconsin on April 10, 2010.
Principal athletic facilities include Alumni Stadium
Alumni Stadium
Alumni Stadium is a football stadium located on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, approximately sixmiles west of downtown Boston. The stadium lies within the city limits of Boston, although its postal address is Chestnut Hill. It is the home of the Boston College Eagles...
(capacity: 44,500), Conte Forum
Conte Forum
The Silvio O. Conte Forum, commonly known as Conte Forum, Kelley Rink , or simply Conte, is an 8,606-seat multi-purpose arena which opened in 1988 on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts that lies within the Brighton neighborhood of Boston...
(8,606), Kelley Rink (7,884), Eddie Pellagrini Diamond at John Shea Field (1,000), the Newton Soccer Complex (1,000), and the Flynn Recreation Complex. The Yawkey Athletics Center opened in the spring of 2005. BC students compete in 31 varsity sports as well as a number of club and intramural teams. On March 18, 2002, Boston College's Athletics program was named to the College Sports Honor Roll as one of the nation's top 20 programs by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
.
Although a founding member of the Big East Conference
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...
, the Eagles left the Big East and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
on July 1, 2005. Boston College athletes are among the most academically successful in the nation, according to the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate
Academic Progress Rate
The Academic Progress Rate, sometimes also known as Academic Performance Rating and generally abbreviated as APR, is a metric established by the NCAA to indicate the success of collegiate athletic teams in moving student athletes towards graduation . It was instituted in February of 2005...
(APR). In 2006 Boston College received Public Recognition Awards with fourteen of its sports in the top 10% of the nation academically. The Eagles tied Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
for the highest total of any Division I-A university. Other schools having ten or more sports honored included Navy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
(12), Stanford
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(11), and Duke
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
(11). Teams honored were football, men's fencing, men's outdoor track, men's skiing, women's rowing, women's cross country, women's fencing, women's field hockey, women's indoor track, women's outdoor track, women's skiing, women's swimming, women's soccer, women's tennis, and women's volleyball. Boston College's football program was one of only five Division I-A teams that were so honored. The other four were Auburn
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
, Navy, Stanford, and Duke.
Football
Frank Leahy
Francis William Leahy was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive...
-coached championship team took a win from two-season undefeated Georgetown in the final seconds in a game that renowned sportswriter Grantland Rice
Grantland Rice
Grantland Rice was an early 20th century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.-Biography:...
called the greatest ever played. The Eagles completed their only undefeated season with a bowl victory over Tennessee that year, and many historians argue that the Eagles deserved a share of the national championship. In 1942, the team spent three weeks ranked at #3 in the nation and one week at #1, but they were upset by a then-dominant Holy Cross
College of the Holy Cross
The College of the Holy Cross is an undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA...
, 55-12. As a result, the team canceled a party at the Cocoanut Grove, which ended up as a wise thing to do because that night the club caught fire
Cocoanut Grove fire
The Cocoanut Grove was Boston's premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 40s. On November 28, 1942, occurred the scene of what remains the deadliest nightclub fire, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more...
.
Boston College's two most famous football victories came in dramatic fashion, on the final play of the game. On the day after Thanksgiving, November 23, 1984, before a national audience on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie
Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League...
became a legend when his 48 yards (43.9 m) Hail Mary
Hail Mary pass
A Hail Mary pass or Hail Mary route in American football refers to any very long forward pass made in desperation with only a small chance of success, especially at or near the end of a half....
found its way into the arms of Gerard Phelan for a 47-45 victory over Miami in the Orange Bowl. This was also the year Flutie won the Heisman
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
; the only Eagle to date so honored. (See also: Flutie effect
Flutie effect
The Flutie Effect or Flutie Factor refers to the phenomenon of having a successful college sports team increase the exposure and prominence of a university...
) Nine years later almost to the day (November 20, 1993), the Eagles went into South Bend and defeated top-ranked Notre Dame 41-39 on a 41-yard field goal by David Gordon
Holy War (Boston College vs. Notre Dame)
The Holy War is an American college football rivalry between the Boston College Eagles football team of Boston College and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team of the University of Notre Dame...
as time expired. A win would have completed Notre Dame's season at 11-0 with a berth in the national championship game. (See also: Holy War (Boston College vs. Notre Dame)
Holy War (Boston College vs. Notre Dame)
The Holy War is an American college football rivalry between the Boston College Eagles football team of Boston College and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team of the University of Notre Dame...
) An additional nine years later, BC again thwarted a potential Notre Dame perfect season, defeating the #2 Fighting Irish in South Bend, 14-7. Boston College ran their football winning streak over Notre Dame to five games in 2007 with a 27-14 victory, helping the Eagles rise to #2 in the BCS rankings.
Two of Boston College's alumni hold special places in the NFL record-books. Mike Woicik
Mike Woicik
Mike Woicik is an American football strength and conditioning coach for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. He holds the record for Super Bowl rings won by a coach with six, winning three with the Cowboys and three with the New England Patriots...
, a history major, holds the record for most Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
rings
Super Bowl ring
The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the winners of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl...
won by a non-head NFL coach. He gained (as a strength and conditioning coach) three with the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
and three with the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
. Bill Romanowski
Bill Romanowski
William Thomas "Bill" Romanowski is a former American football player. He was born in Vernon, Connecticut. A linebacker, he graduated from Rockville High School in 1984, Boston College in 1988 , and then went on to a 16-year career in the NFL, playing for the San Francisco 49ers , Philadelphia...
, a business major, holds the defensive record as an NFL player for most consecutive games played at 243, is the only linebacker in history to start in 5 Super Bowls, and also shares a record as one of only three players in NFL history to win back to back Super Bowls with two different organizations, the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. On October 21, 2007, Boston College received its highest ranking since 1942, coming in at #2 nationally in both the AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...
and in the USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
/Coaches' Poll.
The Eagles beat Virginia Tech
2007 Virginia Tech Hokies football team
The 2007 Virginia Tech Hokies football team represented Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season...
on October 25, 2007, led by Matt Ryan
Matt Ryan (American football)
Matthew Thomas "Matt" Ryan , nicknamed "Matty Ice," is the starting American football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League. He was drafted in the first round as the third overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft...
with two touchdown passes in the final 2:11 of the game. This win solidified their spot at #2 in both the AP and Coaches' Poll as well as the BCS rankings. The team faced Virginia Tech again on December 1, 2007 in Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in the 2007 ACC Championship Game
2007 ACC Championship Game
The 2007 Dr. Pepper Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game featured the Boston College Eagles and the Virginia Tech Hokies in a regular-season college football game that determined the conference's champion for the 2007 season. Virginia Tech defeated Boston College 30–16 to win the ACC...
as Atlantic Division champions, but lost 30-16. Boston College won the Atlantic Division for the second consecutive year in 2008 but would again fall to Virginia Tech
2008 Virginia Tech Hokies football team
The 2008 Virginia Tech Hokies football team represents Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University during the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team's head coach is Frank Beamer. Prior to the season, the Hokies were expected to be in a rebuilding mode, recovering after the...
in the conference championship game
2008 ACC Championship Game
The 2008 ACC Championship Game was a college football game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Boston College Eagles. The game, sponsored by Dr. Pepper, was the final regular-season contest of the 2008 college football season for the Atlantic Coast Conference...
. The Eagles won the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl
2007 Champs Sports Bowl
The 2007 Champs Sports Bowl was the 18th edition of the college football bowl game. It was part of the 2007-08 NCAA football bowl games season, and was played on December 28, 2007 at the Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando, Florida....
over Michigan State
2007 Michigan State Spartans football team
The 2007 Michigan State Spartans football team represented Michigan State University in the 2007–2008 college football season. Mark Dantonio began his first season as the Spartans' head coach. The Spartans play their home games at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.-Schedule:-2008 NFL...
, extending their bowl winning streak to eight consecutive victories—at the time the longest active bowl win streak in the nation. The streak ended the following year with their loss to Vanderbilt
2008 Vanderbilt Commodores football team
The 2008 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented Vanderbilt University during the 2008–09 college football season. The team's head coach was Bobby Johnson, who served his seventh season in the position...
in the 2008 Music City Bowl
2008 Music City Bowl
The 2008 Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl was the eleventh edition of the college football bowl game played at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee. The game started at 2:30 pm US CST on Wednesday, December 31, 2008. The game, telecast on ESPN, pitted the Vanderbilt Commodores against the Boston...
.
Ryan broke the Boston College single-season touchdown record previously held by College Hall of Famer
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
, Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie
Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League...
. He was awarded the 2007 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's outstanding senior quarterback in college football. It was established in 1987 by a foundation named for Johnny Unitas , the Hall of Fame quarterback who played his college career at the University of...
, given annually in the United States to the nation's most outstanding senior quarterback in college football and was selected third in the 2008 NFL Draft
2008 NFL Draft
The 2008 NFL Draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 26 and April 27, 2008. For the 29th consecutive year, ESPN televised the draft; the NFL Network also broadcast the event, its third year doing so...
by the Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, making him the highest-chosen BC player in NFL Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
history.
Fight Song: For Boston
"For Boston" is America's oldest college fight songFight song
A fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
, composed by T.J. Hurley in 1885. It has two verses but the most commonly sung one is the first verse. Boston-based band Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys are an Irish-American punk rock band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The band was initially signed to independent punk record label Hellcat Records, releasing five albums for the label, and making a name for themselves locally through constant playing and yearly St....
covered this song on their album Sing Loud, Sing Proud!
Sing Loud, Sing Proud!
Sing Loud, Sing Proud! is the third studio album from Boston punk rock band the Dropkick Murphys. Before the album's release in 2001, guitarist Rick Barton left the band. He announced James Lynch of Boston punk band The Ducky Boys as his successor. As well as Lynch, the band also recruited then...
.
Notable persons
"The Heights" is a nickname given to Boston College. It recalls both BC's lofty aspirations — the college motto is "Ever to ExcelEver to Excel
"Ever to Excel" is the English translation of the Ancient Greek αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν . It has been used as motto by a number of different educational institutions.-History:...
" — and its hilltop location, an area initially designated as "University Heights". The name has lent itself to a number of campus organizations, most notably the principal student newspaper, The Heights
The Heights (newspaper)
The Heights is the independent student newspaper of Boston College. The paper, published twice weekly during the academic year, is editorially and financially independent from the University. The paper's Editorial Board consists of 39 editors and managers who are responsible for the operations of...
. BC students were universally called "Heightsmen" until 1925 when Mary C. Mellyn became the first "Heightswoman" to receive a BC degree. "Heightsonian" was originally conceived as a way to gender neutralize the original term "Heightsmen", though "Eagles", once exclusively used for members of the University's athletics teams, is more commonly used. Contrary to its occasional usage by misinformed sportswriters and announcers, the term "Golden Eagles" refers strictly to BC graduates who have celebrated their 50th anniversary reunion.
There are 143,000 alumni in over 120 countries around the world. Boston College students have enjoyed success in winning prestigious post-graduate fellowships and awards, including recent Rhodes
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
, Marshall
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...
, Mellon
Mellon
- People :* Ailsa Mellon Bruce , daughter of Andrew William Mellon, philanthropist* Alfred Mellon , British composer and conductor* Andrew W. Mellon , one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries in history...
, Fulbright
Fulbright Award
The Fulbright Award is a scholarship awarded as part of the Fulbright Program to foster international research and collaboration. The program also awards a fellowship to Ph.D.'s to lecture and teach in foreign universities...
, Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, and Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s, among others. BC's yield rate for Fulbright awards is the highest in the country. In 2007, the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
department was awarded a record 13 Fulbright scholarships, five more than the previous number from a single department. Though formal numbers are not kept, the number of award winners from one department to study in a specific country is thought by academic scholars to be the largest in the 60-year history of the Fulbright program.
See also
- Boston College Coat of Arms
- Double and Triple EaglesDouble and Triple EaglesAn Eagle, in general, is a nickname for a person who graduated from Boston College High School or a Boston College school, typically as an undergraduate, or as a graduate student, including Boston College Law School...
- Jesuit IvyJesuit Ivy"Jesuit Ivy" is the title of a commencement speech delivered at and, subsequently, a nickname given to Boston College, a Jesuit university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. The term was coined in a 1956 commencement address by then-Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy...
- Presidents of Boston CollegePresidents of Boston College*Johannes Bapst, SJ *Robert W. Brady, SJ *Robert Fulton, SJ *Jeremiah O'Connor, SJ *Edward V. Boursaud, SJ *Thomas H. Stack, SJ *Nicholas Russo, SJ...