Fast Facts
Here’s a quick snapshot of Boston University. For more detailed information about everything from double majors to double cheeseburgers on campus, browse through our Admissions website and the BU Visitor Center.
| Student Body | 31,766 |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate | 18,534 |
| Graduate & Doctoral | 13,232 |
| Faculty | 2,622 |
| Student / Faculty Ratio | 15:1 |
| Average Class Size | 27 |
| Boston campuses | 2 (Charles River & Medical Center) |
|---|---|
| Classrooms | 481 |
| Libraries | 23 |
| Laboratories | 2,006 |
| Undergraduate Schools & Colleges | 10
College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College |
|---|---|
| Programs of Study | More than 250 |
| Study Abroad Programs | Over 70 in more than 20 countries |
| Varsity Sports | 23 (13 Women’s, 10 Men’s)
M/W Basketball M/W Rowing M/W Cross Country Women’s Golf M/W Ice Hockey M/W Indoor Track M/W Outdoor Track Women’s Field Hockey Women’s Lacrosse M/W Soccer Women’s Softball M/W Swimming M/W Tennis Men’s Wrestling |
|---|---|
| Club Sports | 33 |
| Intramural Sports | 15 |
| Fitness & Recreation Classes | More than 400 credit and noncredit classes |
| Total on Campus | Nearly 500
Just a sampling: Alianza Latina Amnesty International Boston Scholars Club Film Society French Cultural Society Hillel Students Organization International Students Consortium Outing Club Photography Club Ski & Snowboard Club Students in Free Enterprise Zen Society |
|---|
| Students | 50 U.S. states, over 100 countries |
|---|---|
| Student Cultural Organizations | 55 |
| Student Religious Organizations | 31 |
| Black / African American | 4.2% |
|---|---|
| Hispanic / Latino American | 9.5% |
| Native American / Alaskan Native | 0.6% |
| Asian American | 18.0% |
| White | 51.6% |
| International | 13.0% |
| Other | 3.1% |
| Catholic | 34.2% |
|---|---|
| Protestant | 21.7% |
| Jewish | 11.6% |
| Other | 12.4% |
| No preference / none | 20.1% |
*Enrolled undergraduates, based on students reporting
Faculty
- There are currently three Nobel Prize winners teaching at BU: Sheldon Glashow (1979, Physics), Elie Wiesel (1986, Peace) and Derek Walcott (1992, Literature).
- Among our many other award-winning faculty are a former U.S. Poet Laureate (Robert Pinsky), a two-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a National Book Award winner (Ha Jin) and a winner of the Broderick Award for Excellence in Research (Yrjo Koskinen).
- Professor Jim Collins became the first bioengineer ever to receive a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award.” Professors Nancy Kopell and Derek Walcott are previous recipients of this prestigious award as well.
- In the College of Communication, Dean and Professor Tom Fiedler is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his reporting work at the Miami Herald, Professor Robert Zelnick is a two-time Emmy Award winner and Professor Sam Kauffman’s documentary film Massacre at Murambi won six awards at various 2007 film festivals.
- Twenty-three BU professors are currently Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. More than 35 professors have received Guggenheim Fellowships.
- Professors Anne Donohue (COM), Augustus Richard Norton (CAS), Elsie Vergara (SAR) and Jenny White (CAS) were all recently named Fulbright Scholars. They join a long list of professors from across the University who have enjoyed this distinction.
Notable BU Facts
Academics & Research
- In 1965, Boston University established the nation’s first combined cancer research and teaching laboratory at its Medical Center.
- BU established the nation’s first academic program in public relations in 1947.
- In 1875, BU professor Alexander Graham Bell received a year’s salary advance to pursue his research. The following year, he invented the telephone in a BU lab.
- In 1971, Boston University began a collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study, the largest project to study the root causes of cardiovascular disease, following three generations of participants in the town of Framingham, MA. BU continues this collaboration today.
- In 1985, Professor Charles DeLisi initiated what would become the Human Genome Project.
Women’s Rights
- BU was the first university to open all divisions to female students (1872).
- Boston University Medical College was the first coeducational medical college in the world (1873).
- BU was the first American university to award a Ph.D. to a woman, classical scholar Helen Magil (1877).
Civil Rights
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received his Ph.D. in Theology from BU in 1955. After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he presented his manuscripts, records and personal papers to the University’s Mugar Memorial Library.
- Rebecca Lee, the first black woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S. (and perhaps the world), graduated in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College, which became a part of Boston University.
- African-born Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, an 1897 graduate of the School of Medicine, became the nation’s first black psychiatrist and the first person in the U.S. to perform significant research on Alzheimer’s Disease.
- In 1953, Howard Thurman became Dean of Marsh Chapel, the first black dean at a predominantly white university.
Triumphs & Trivia
The History of BU: You probably wouldn’t have guessed that Boston University began as a Methodist seminary in Vermont. Its founder was an ardent Bostonian abolitionist who raised $15,000 to start a progressive secondary school in 1839. Originally named the Newbury Biblical Institute, the school moved to New Hampshire in 1847 and to Boston in 1867. It was chartered as Boston University in 1869.
- BU is the fourth-largest independent, nonprofit university in the U.S.
- The BU Men’s Hockey team ranks second in NCAA Frozen Four appearances (Hockey’s Final Four). BU has won four National Championships and five runner-up trophies.
- There are 18 former BU students currently playing in the NHL. We have sent more students to professional hockey teams than any other college or university.
- The BU Bridge is the only spot in America where a plane can fly over a car driving over a train going over a boat, all at the same time.
- The first class enrolled at the College of Arts & Sciences (the College of Liberal Arts at the time) included only 22 students. Today there are about 1,800.
- Rhett, the BU mascot, was “born” on May 5, 1922. (And he looks so young!)
- BU was one of the first universities to send students abroad. We now sponsor over 70 international programs.
- The current Nickerson Field was formerly Braves Field, home of the National League Boston Braves. They played the longest baseball game in history there versus the Brooklyn Dodgers – it lasted 26 innings.
- One of BU’s most popular traditions, The Great Debate, is modeled on the Cambridge and Oxford University Union Societies’ public discussions. Attendees pick the winner by “voting with their feet.”
- Each year, the Redstone Film Festival, one of New England’s premier film venues, showcases short films written and directed by graduate and undergraduate filmmakers from the College of Communication to sold-out crowds.