Boston University is no small operation. With over 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 130 countries, nearly 10,000 faculty and staff, 17 schools and colleges, and 250 fields of study, our three campuses are always humming, always in high gear. Meet the people and places that keep the University running smoothly.
Boston University is an international, comprehensive, private research university committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world. Boston University is committed to generating new knowledge to benefit society.
We remain dedicated to our founding principles: that higher education should be accessible to all. Research, scholarship, artistic creation, and professional practice should be conducted on the broader community's local and international service. These principles endure in the University's insistence on the value of diversity, its tradition and standards of excellence, and its dynamic engagement with the City of Boston and the world.
Boston University comprises a remarkable range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs built on a strong liberal arts and sciences foundation. With the support and oversight of the Board of Trustees, the University, through our faculty, continually innovates in education and research to ensure that we meet students' needs and an ever-changing world.
BU has been educating students of all stripes for more than 150 years: high school graduates, foreign scholars, masters and doctoral candidates, medical residents, and non-traditional students seeking a flexible schedule. Boston University defines an international student to be a non-US citizen or non-US Permanent Resident Green Card Holder. Exceptions apply if you are currently in the US in one of the following statuses: Refugee, Asylum, Parolee, or Confidential Entrant.
Once you have submitted a financial aid application and been admitted to Boston University, the Financial Assistance office will calculate your financial eligibility. If you are eligible for need-based aid based on these calculations, we will develop a customized package for you. It may include University grants and a combination of funds from federal and state grants, federally subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and on-campus student employment. Whether on the local or global level, community interaction has always been integral to Boston University's mission. Metropolitan College & Extended Education upholds that principle by making the University's resources—intellectual, academic, and physical—accessible to a broad audience of working professionals and students of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities.
Metropolitan College & Extended Education provides both opportunity and flexibility for students who might not otherwise participate in learning at the University. Employing the principles of excellence, accessibility, and innovation, we strive to reach out to diverse populations with relevant, challenging, and rewarding programs.
Pick your odyssey. Explore BU's 250+ programs of study, check out courses, or find student resources and University policies.
Our slice of Boston is a mosaic-like no other:
- a swirl of languages
- faces and religions
- over 500 student clubs
- shows and lectures
- a state-of-the-art fitness center
- a slew of pubs and restaurants
- the thrills and spills of Terrier hockey
Oh, and do not forget the tailgate parties. Our world, yours for the taking.
Boston University's founders opened its doors to all students without regard to religion, race, or gender. Building and sustaining a vibrant community of scholars, students, and staff remains essential to our mission of contributing to and preparing students to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.
We strive to create environments for learning, work, and live enriched by racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. We seek to cultivate an atmosphere of respect for individual differences in life experience and religious belief. We aspire to be free of intellectual parochialism, barriers to access, and ethnocentrism. Success in a competitive, global milieu depends upon our ongoing commitment to welcome and engage the wisdom, creativity, and aspirations of all peoples. The excellence we seek emerges from the contributions and talents of every member of the Boston University community.
The arts at BU are a vibrant and vital part of the BU experience. Each year thousands of students take art courses, while the campus is host to hundreds of arts events, most of which are free and open to the public. Add to that more than 70 arts groups through student activities, and you have a university that is alive with creativity!
A semester of study abroad is an integral part of a BU undergraduate experience. While abroad on a BU program, students can fulfill their major and minor degree requirements, and beginning in Fall 2019, students will also be able to fulfill HUB requirements on many BU-administered programs. Exchange Programs and Direct Enrollment courses offered at other universities will not carry HUB credit.
The BU HUB and Study Abroad are meant to integrate with a student's significant studies. Through the learning experience that a BU Study Abroad program provides, students continue to develop the HUB's essential capacities. Together with an academic advisor, students will select programs and courses abroad that align with their academic, personal, and professional goals.
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