We all know that there are schools outside CUNY, SUNY, NYU and Columbia, but we tend to ignore them for multiple reasons.  One of the major reasons that I found common among my peers when it came to the topic of transfer was because they didn’t want to leave the city of New York. Don’t fear!  Boston University might be an option for you.

         I’ve always heard about Boston University, but I did not look into it until now. If you love the city like me, then you will love Boston University. Riding on the Boston T line, my LaGuardia peers and I did not take longer than 10 minutes from the South End train terminal to reach the campus. Boston University offers the campus and city an environment that is impossible not to admire. I was walking down the streets of the city and the campus simultaneously. Although Boston University has a community of more than 17,000 students, you still get the small community within each sub-school.  Alongside with my group, we embarked on our self-made tour of the whole campus.

         I visited the School of Management, which has 2,100 students. As a business major, I definitely had Boston University on my radar and it should be on any student’s radar. Students will be majoring as Business Administration, but will have the opportunity to concentrate in one or two other interests. For example, if you are interested in accounting, health, law, finance, information systems and so forth, you can concentrate on whatever your interests are.  In your junior year, you take a cross-functional course that comprises of finance, marketing, and law. In that course you work with a team of 8 students to develop and carry out a new service or product. I got the opportunity to sit down with Admissions Associate Director, Erik Linnane, who provided me with a detailed look into what it would be like to transition as a LaGuardia student to BU. All of the courses across the board are 4 credits. So what about my three credit courses? They will still accept them, but the one credit remained can be met with electives. Overall, a transfer student spends 5 to 6 semesters to complete the BU curriculum. How will I finance my education? Well, BU offers 5 half-tuition Phi Theta Kappa scholarships, and there are many other scholarships that you can apply as a transfer BU student.

      At Boston University you will experience a culture shock, but everyone from the administrators to faculty and to the students are very receptive and are always glad to lend a hand to help you in anything.  I personally got an inside experience of what it really is like to be a student at Boston University through my high school friend.  I got to sit with him and other BU students at Bay State Dinning Hall where I got to enjoy an array of delicious food. During lunch, I met different students majoring in different areas of studies and who are also actively involved in school. The tour continued to his dorm where I got to look into what it really feels like to dorm. I didn’t want to leave because I was sold to transfer to BU.

       At the end of the day, you can read all you want on the college’s website, but until you go out there and take the time to visit. You will actually get a true grip and feel about what the 4-year institution is like. So I recommend you to think outside of the box and explore the thousands of possibilities.