Boston University Data & Information Overview

Get the facts about Boston University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more. Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you'll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump 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 University Ranked?

2021 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Boston University was awarded 198 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is psychology.

Overall Quality

Boston U is ranked #49 out of 1,715 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2021 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Boston U also holds the #8 spot on the Best Colleges in Massachusetts ranking.

See all of the rankings for Boston University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Boston U?

Acceptance Rate

Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into Boston U since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 25%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.

Average Test Scores

About 63% of students accepted to Boston U submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 640 and 720. Math scores were between 660 and 760.

Boston U received ACT scores from 52% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 29 and 32.

Learn more about Boston University admissions.

Boston University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at Boston U it is much better at 10 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Boston University is 70%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Boston University

Freshmen Retention Rate

Boston University 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

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Boston U for first-time, full-time students is 80%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Boston University.

Excellent Overall Diversity at Boston U

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 18,515 undergraduates at Boston U with 17,396 being full-time and 1,119 being part-time.

Boston U Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 98.58 out of 100, Boston U is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Boston University.

How Much Does Boston University Cost?

The overall average net price of Boston U is $30,729. 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 U

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$15,661	$13,211	$20,801	$32,265	$47,586

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 U, 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 U, approximately 32% of students took out student loans averaging $11,099 a year. That adds up to $44,396 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Boston U is 1.7%. 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 University.

How Much Money Do Boston U Graduates Make?

The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Boston U make about $65,300 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Boston U students since it is 64% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Boston University make the most money.

Location of Boston University

Boston University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Boston, Massachusetts. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of Boston University.

Contact details for Boston U are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	One Silber Way, Boston, MA 02215
Phone:	617-353-2000
Website:	www.bu.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/BostonUniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/BU_Tweets

Boston University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 122 majors graduated from Boston University. Of these students, 4,780 received undergraduate degrees and 6,718 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
Business Administration & Management	778	$56,300
Communication & Media Studies	432	$42,900
Economics	289	$50,000
General Psychology	229	$33,700
Computer Science	211	$78,200
International Relations & National Security	208	$36,200
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	190	$32,000
Health Sciences & Services	186	$35,700
Mechanical Engineering	143	$66,900
Biomedical Engineering	129	$55,300

Learn more about the majors offered at Boston University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Boston U

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 2017-2018, 3,464 students took at least one online class at Boston University. This is an increase from the 3,026 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	3,464	2,534
2016-2017	3,026	2,639
2015-2016	2,994	2,658
2014-2015	2,663	2,380
2013-2014	2,530	2,354

Learn more about online learning at Boston University.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Boston University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Bryn Mawr College
• Dickinson College
• Hampshire College
• The College of Wooster
• Trinity College

Curious on how these schools stack up against Boston U? 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 Cmcnicoll at English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.