STUDENT COMMENTS
The business program is an excellent program but it lacks name recognition outside of Boston. Also, many students believe that the academic reputation is also brought down by allowing in students from the College of General Studies. I have noticed a clear difference between students admitted from CGS compared to students admitted into SMG freshman year. SMG often seems to hide the fact that a large majority of the graduating class are CGS students who had a weaker academic profile in high school and did not have to take difficult academic classes for their first two years at Boston University.
Boston University may be the best-kept secret in undergraduate business (though the secret is getting out). The commitment to teaming and ethics interwoven within all aspects of classes far outweigh the negatives of the harsh grading policies and the sometimes difficult administration.
I think BU's SMG has an excellent program. The only complaints that I have for BU as a whole is that they never want to give out a good grade. Sometimes no matter how much work you put into something, you don't get anything back for it. It is just very discouraging. I feel as though I have to fight for my grades. They shouldn't be as rigid in their grading policies and curves.
The career center is great, but they should force students to use their services. I know students who are seniors and didn't have a final résumé or never attended career fairs because they weren't forced to.
The administration at Boston University has a reputation around the school as being overly bureaucratic and rightfully so. For example, you have to fill out a form to request that they turn on the heat in your dorm. Additionally, the Office of Financial Assistance has a reputation with students of trying to reduce aid as much as possible after freshman year. Many of my friends saw their scholarships disappear going into sophomore year, and my own need-based aid was significantly reduced. However, the School of Management's administration is different. While there are forms to fill out, they are much more personal than the main BU administration and will often make exceptions to help you do what is best for you.
Working hard and doing well at BU is only enough to get you a B. You have to do better than everyone around you to have a shot at an A. It creates a somewhat overly competitive, negative atmosphere at times in which students often hold back assistance from each other in order to protect their own ability to do better than others. There has been a lot of talk about this issue, though, and the school seems to be moving away from it, especially as many professors voice their disdain for the unofficial policy.
BU's actual business professors are not very good, but their teachers with real-world experience are excellent.
The career center and its corporate relations led by Karen McRoberts has seen outstanding growth in the past few years. Top-name companies are now coming onto BU's campus to recruit. Recently I received five offers, all from excellent companies.I must say that our career center played a great role in helping me get these offers.
I really wasn't expecting much coming in as a freshman, but now that I'm a senior I look back and realize how much this program has taught me. It actually made me ready for the real world by teaching me not only classroom techniques, but real world skills that can come in handy in any situation. Things like teamwork, leadership skills, a comfort with heavy workloads, and strong personal foundations are only some of the things I've learned.
Boston University's business program should undoubtedly be rated higher than it currently is. With the quality (and intensity) of the program, the caliber of students, the professors, and the facilities, it is exceptional.
The program gives a broad view of business, touching on many different topics and angles to better prepare students for learning every aspect of a business. However, the career center focuses its efforts mainly toward finance and accounting majors, and so students in other, less common majors have difficulty in finding jobs and internships and receiving career advice.
While the school has provided great resources to prepare me for finding a job as well as teaching me the necessary skills to be successful, I have taken the initiative to further my skills and apply them outside of the classroom through my participation in our student-run Investment Fund and interning at Morgan Stanley during the school year.
BU is a tough school where there is no such thing as an easy A. This has hurt BU students in many ways because even though we receive a high-quality education, when compared to other B-school graduates, we look like we underperform. Many companies who recruit at SMG have to drop their GPA requirements altogether because they won’t get any applicants. And by GPA requirements I mean that a 3.0-3.2 is too high of a bar.
Boston University's School of Management has developed an undergraduate business program that excels on nearly every level. From state-of-the-art facilities to unbelievable career support and resources, excellent and challenging curriculum to expert and committed professors, the school has prepared me to succeed in a business-focused career, competing for top jobs and responsibilities against candidates from all school-levels.
Our career center is fabulous for students looking for jobs in Boston and New York, particularly in the areas of finance or accounting. Unfortunately, they cannot provide much assistance for those of us looking for jobs on the West Coast.
The program is largely defined by the junior year experience of core and the entire team-oriented learning environment. I have had many awful experiences dealing with teams and certain class assignments, but I have learned something from every experience.
Their résumé approval system makes everyone have the same résumé, which is bad for competition in the job market.
One of the best parts of my undergraduate experience was studying abroad. BU offers many options, including an internship program in several countries. For business majors, more specifically international business, this experience is immeasurable.
My undergraduate experience has been amazing. I will be sad to leave the BU School of Management community, but also extremely prepared and excited for the road ahead. Courses in the curriculum really build on the last course you took. When I look back at the freshman year course material, I really appreciate how much I've learned in terms of academics, culture, and preparation for the business world.
Not enough diversity of firms recruiting on campus—mainly finance and accounting firms. Although networking events, job fairs, and e-mails about job opportunities are plentiful, the actual career advising is rather poor. I feel very prepared and ready to enter the workforce after graduation. Overall, very strong program.
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