Boston College Data & Information Overview
This overview covers the essential stats on Boston College, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.- Rankings
- Admission and Acceptance
- Faculty
- Retention and Graduation Rates
- Diversity
- Cost
- Student Debt
- Average Earnings
- Location
- Majors
- Online Learning
- Related Schools
How Well Is Boston College Ranked?
2022 Rankings
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Boston College was awarded 2,007 badges in the 2022 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is educational evaluation and research.
Overall Quality
Boston College is ranked #45 out of 2,576 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Boston College held the #61 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Boston College is also ranked #8 out of 72 schools in Massachusetts.
See all of the rankings for Boston College.
Is It Hard to Get Into Boston College?
Acceptance Rate
With an acceptance rate of 26%, Boston College is one of the most selective schools in the country. Good grades and high test scores alone may not be enough to get you into the school, so do your best to submit a stellar application.
Average Test Scores
About 64% of students accepted to Boston College submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 660 and 730. Math scores were between 670 and 770.
Learn more about Boston College admissions.
Boston College Faculty
Student to Faculty Ratio
The student to faculty ratio at Boston College is about average at 14 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
Percent of Full-Time Faculty
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Boston College is 67%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Retention and Graduation Rates at Boston College
Freshmen Retention Rate
Boston College has a freshmen retention rate of 93%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
Graduation Rate
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Boston College the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 88%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Boston College.
Boston College Undergraduate Student Diversity
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 9,780 undergraduates at Boston College with 9,571 being full-time and 209 being part-time.
How Much Does Boston College Cost?
The overall average net price of Boston College is $35,899. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.Net Price by Income Group for Boston College
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6,353 | $8,951 | $17,113 | $22,285 | $49,115 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Boston College, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
Student Loan Debt
It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Boston College, approximately 37% of students took out student loans averaging $4,003 a year. That adds up to $16,012 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Boston College is 1.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
Get more details about paying for Boston College.
How Much Money Do Boston College Graduates Make?
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Boston College make about $72,500 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Boston College students since it is 82% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.
See which majors at Boston College make the most money.
Location of Boston College
Boston College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.Get more details about the location of Boston College.
Contact details for Boston College are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 |
| Phone: | 617-552-8000 |
| Website: | www.bc.edu/ |
| Facebook: | https://www.facebook.com/BostonCollege |
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/BostonCollege |
Boston College Majors
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 58 majors graduated from Boston College. Of these students, 3,037 received undergraduate degrees and 1,845 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Finance & Financial Management | 344 | $75,413 |
| Economics | 316 | $68,643 |
| General Biology | 213 | $35,060 |
| Communication & Media Studies | 212 | $50,105 |
| Political Science & Government | 172 | $42,682 |
| General English Literature | 142 | $43,798 |
| Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology | 142 | $42,682 |
| Marketing | 127 | $60,226 |
| Accounting | 118 | $70,680 |
| Nursing | 109 | $71,144 |
Online Learning at Boston College
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2019-2020, 12,621 students took at least one online class at Boston College. This is an increase from the 728 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 | 12,621 | 1,505 |
| 2018-2019 | 728 | 285 |
| 2017-2018 | 505 | 189 |
| 2016-2017 | 435 | 140 |
| 2015-2016 | 238 | 39 |
Learn more about online learning at Boston College.
Find Out More About Boston College
Related Schools
If you’re considering Boston College, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
- Cornell College
- Gustavus Adolphus College
- Lewis & Clark College
- Middlebury College
- Saint Michael’s College
Curious on how these schools stack up against Boston College? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Notes and References
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
- National Center for Education Statistics
- College Scorecard
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
- Image Credit: By Harvey D. Egan under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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