Chestnut Hill, MA: Recently, I've been spending a lot of time on the Boston College campus, which isn't surprising since it will be my school for the next several years. Last June I had the opportunity to attend the two-day Freshman Orientation.

The large campus's main parts are the lower and middle campuses. The lower campus houses the theater and athletic facilities. The attractive middle campus is where the main administration and academic buildings are located. Gasson Hall, with its Gothic tower is featured in most of the college's literature.

The O'Neill library is an impressive modern building with over 800,000 volumes, 8000 periodicals and 120,000 government documents. The older library, the Bapst, contains 90,000 rare books and manuscripts.

The academics at Boston College are great, and there are a number of interesting majors to choose from. I especially like the core curriculum, which offers a variety of courses in the natural and social sciences, math, history, English, philosophy and theology. The College of Arts and Science allows students to take courses in speech communication and theater as a substitutes for math, if they choose.

There are plenty of sports to choose from at BC. The men's and women's varsity teams compete at the NCAA Division I level. I was glad that the college offers a women's golf team. Most of the other colleges I looked into had a golf team for men only, and I would have been really disappointed if I were not able to play my favorite sport in college. The athletic facilities are all first-rate. The Conte Forum, used for basketball and hockey, is considered one of the finest facilities of its kind in the nation.

The food at Boston College is pretty enjoyable. The second day of the orientation we ate lunch in the cafeteria in McElroy Hall. There was a variety of good food to choose from, and the pizza and salad were especially good.

The professors at the college were all friendly and easy going, not "stuffy" as people tend to think college professors are. Most of the professors I saw were cheerfully chatting with students. Professor Weiss, who was a registration advisor, was very helpful in assisting me with my course schedule.

The orientation was well organized and my first experiences at Boston College were pleasant ones. I knew at once that BC was the place for me. Perhaps you'll find that it's the place for you too. n




Reviewed in 1991