Boston College

I am a graduate student studying finance at BC.
The campus has a foul odor of pretence, of affectation, of spoiled affluence, and it pervades throughout the student body. You will smell it in the buildings, on the shuttles, and on your clothes when you get home.

BC students are friendly, cordial and approachable, and they will return your smile on the street; they are also pretentious, "fake", and lack sincerity in their actions.

In retrospect, my undergraduate education was a coming-of-age, a process of maturation and finding place in the world. I consider myself lucky that I did not start that process at BC: the pervasive social disease of campus social life will empty your soul of authenticity, of genuine belief, of sincerity.

Last week, I observed construction crews working on a campus building being renovated. The massive foundation stones of the castle-like St. Mary's Hall were only cladding. As the workers removed thin sheets of expensive stone, layers of common brick wall were exposed.

And this, I thought, was a full characterization of BC, and an indictment of its persona as a school: verba non acta. All words, and no deeds.

All appearances' sake and window-dressing, and neither truth nor genuine friend. Definitely would have felt inwardly lost at this school.

After two years, I owe $60,000 in loans. While I received a quality education, it was not worth $60,000. If it were possible, I would request a refund as I would with any other product, IOW, I would not receive a degree, but I wouldn't pay anything either.