Boston University

Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, is a institution of about 37,000 students, about half of whom are undergraduates with 10 undergraduate colleges and hundreds of majors. It feels urban: while Bay State Road is a stunning enclave of brownstone residences and university offices, most of the action is on Commonwealth Avenue, which is a gritty wide boulevard of university buildings interspersed with private businesses. If you're looking for green spaces and ivy-covered buildings, head 3 or 4 miles west to Boston College - a whole different universe.
The average class size at BU is 30, the student faculty ratio is 10:1, and on-campus housing is guaranteed for 4 years - all very impressive for a large, urban university. Furthermore, a third of every freshman class comes in undeclared, and with rare exception (performing arts, for example), students can choose to declare any major they like sophomore year.

A few nuggets about specific academic programs worth noting: the School of Hospitality partners with Marriott Corporation which provides many internships. Also, there's a beautiful new Facility for Computing and Data Science that was built only 2 years ago that houses only the data science major, which has doubled in the past 2 or 3 years. The computer science department is in the College of Arts and Sciences and the computer engineering department is in the College of Engineering.

I was particularly interested in learning about the College of General Studies, which, years ago, was the backdoor into BU with a low GPA. Not anymore. Today, students can apply into CGS, which is a 2-year liberal arts program directly, or they can indicate interest as a second choice on their application. And CGS admitted students have the same average academic unweighted GPA as students admitted to all the other schools and colleges at BU: 3.9. I was told that about half of CGS students apply directly in, and the other half is placed in when they didn't make the cut for their competitive major. This cohort of students, however, does not start their freshman year in September with everyone else; they begin in January after a gap semester. Then the summer before sophomore year, they spend six weeks together on the BU campus in London, living in a BU dorm and studying with BU professors. This term counts as one semester so students end up graduating on time. After two years in the College of General Studies, everyone writes an eighty page research paper as a capstone project before moving on to their selected major anywhere else in the university.

There are many other academic departments worthy of discussing but no space to list them here. Boston University is a hot school right now, but deserves a visit to ensure good fit!