How to Write the Boston College Admissions Essays

 Boston College Excerpt

According to Boston College admissions (via their website):

 

Boston College's admission process stands out for its holistic approach. While they consider academic achievements, their primary focus is assembling a diverse class with a wide range of talents and backgrounds. We are keen to understand how each student can contribute to the vibrant BC community.

 

BC challenges students to use their education to address society’s pressing needs, inwardly and outwardly reflect on their growth, and translate their contributions to the common good. 

 

Guided by the principles of our Jesuit founders, Boston College fosters a unique learning environment. We encourage students to explore their inner selves and extend their reach to others. Our goal is to help you develop your mind and talents to the fullest and inspire you to use them in service to others.

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In History, it

is clear that students researched Boston College.  The supplemental essays had strong examples of BC specifics.  The essays were detailed and purposeful.  They demonstrated a pivotal learning experience and vivid reflection. They dug deep in their research and correlated BC with their future goals.  They could view life through different perspectives and reflect on their behavior, values, and thought processes.  

Supplemental Essay Example:

Prompt: Each year at University Convocation, our incoming class engages in reflective dialogue with the author of a common text. What book by a living author would you recommend for your incoming class to read, and why would this be an important shared text? 

In history class, the dialogue surrounding the Civil Rights Movement often presents African Americans as a unified group fighting to resist racist policies. But James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, written in 1963, helped me understand that the nuances of African American resistance have often involved strained personal relationships within African American families.

Early in this book, Baldwin retells a childhood experience in which his father discouraged him from staying in school because he thought a higher level of education didn’t help African Americans enter the professional sphere. Baldwin recalls encountering “too many college-graduate handymen,” but he refuses to drop out of school, mostly as an act of defiance towards his father. 

Baldwin continues to describe experiences that heightened the tension between him and his father—particularly regarding religion, parental control, and life on the streets. 

Although resisting white oppression was difficult for Baldwin, resistance often caused divides in his personal relationships, which was more draining. Before reading this book, it had never occurred to me that overcoming the barriers perpetuated by racism in some cases involved taking a break from one’s traumatized community, which in this case was Baldwin’s own father.

I can relate. My father and I have differing methodologies for informing ourselves of current events and choosing to support a political candidate. My father makes his decision based on the political party, overall impact the candidate will have in the government, and major news headlines, while I believe in learning all the details about the candidate, doing extensive research on their speeches and personal history, looking at which influencers support them, and following their updates on social media. These small differences have caused my father and I to disagree in some political conversations. I used to doubt my own perspective when my father and I discussed politics, but Baldwin’s essay taught me to hold my own ground while also respecting my father’s opinion. It also taught me to critically reflect upon my own values.

Social problems play out in personal ways. The Fire Next Time has helped me find the balance between acknowledging strains in personal relationships and learning how to grow as an activist. Reading about Baldwin’s experience has helped me draw parallels to my personal struggles and combat my unconscious assumption that all African Americans have experienced the consequences of white oppression in the same way.