College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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Boston University Data & Information Overview

449 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
19% Acceptance Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on Boston University, 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.

How Well Is Boston University Ranked?

#54 Best Colleges in Nation
#6 Best Colleges in MA
Criminal Justice & Corrections Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 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 449 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is criminal justice & corrections.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Boston U is ranked #54 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Boston U is also ranked #6 out of 63 schools in Massachusetts.

See all of the rankings for Boston University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Boston U?

19% Acceptance Rate
53% Of Accepted Are Women
32% Submit SAT Scores

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 19%, 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 32% 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 660 and 740. Math scores were between 700 and 780.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Boston University  ( 660 to 740 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Boston University  ( 700 to 780 )
200
800
Boston U received ACT scores from 13% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 31 and 34.

ACT Composite Scores for Boston University  ( 31 to 34 )
1
36

Learn more about Boston University admissions.

Boston University Faculty

11 to 1 Student to Faculty
73% Full Time Teachers

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 11 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 73%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  73 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Boston University

94% Freshmen Retention
84% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Boston University has a freshmen retention rate of 94%. 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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  94 out of 100
0
100

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 84%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  84 out of 100
0
100

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

Boston University Undergraduate Student Diversity

16,026 Full-Time Undergraduates
39.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.5% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 16,872 undergraduates at Boston U with 16,026 being full-time and 846 being part-time.

How Much Does Boston University Cost?

$30,395 Net Price
26% Take Out Loans
$37,900 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Boston U is $30,395. 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 +
$12,982 $11,782 $18,458 $29,925 $50,125

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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Boston U, approximately 26% of students took out student loans averaging $9,475 a year. That adds up to $37,900 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Boston U is 1.4%. 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?

$75,642 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Boston U make around $75,642 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for Boston U students since it is 78% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Boston University make the most money.

Location of Boston University

Massachusetts State
16,026 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
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.

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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

125 Majors With Completions
5,027 Undergraduate Degrees
6,381 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 125 majors graduated from Boston University. Of these students, 5,027 received undergraduate degrees and 6,381 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 638 $60,547
Communication & Media Studies 397 $41,873
Economics 281 $53,654
General Psychology 253 $36,705
International Relations & National Security 237 $38,920
Computer Science 220 $82,237
Radio, Television & Digital Communication 219 $32,475
Classical Languages & Literature 212 NA
Health Sciences & Services 212 $34,542
Biomedical Engineering 138 $61,357

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

Online Learning at Boston U

15% Take At Least One Class Online
11% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 5,442 students took at least one online class at Boston University. This is an increase from the 3,987 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 5,442 4,032
2019-2020 3,987 2,849
2018-2019 3,205 2,309
2017-2018 3,464 2,534
2016-2017 3,026 2,639

Learn more about online learning at Boston University.

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

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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