Boston College

Boston College is a private Jesuit Catholic university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, founded in 1863. It grew from a college serving Boston's immigrant Catholic population into a research university while remaining under the Society of Jesus. The main campus occupies Chestnut Hill on the Boston–Newton line; the law school is on the Newton campus.

Eight schools include the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, the Carroll School of Management, the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, the Connell School of Nursing, the Law School, the School of Social Work, the School of Theology and Ministry, and the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Theology, philosophy, education, business, and law are the graduate concentrations most associated with the university. The Burns Library holds Jesuit and Irish collections used by researchers.

About 15,000 students enroll, including roughly 9,500 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate and professional students. International students are a modest share, around 10 percent. Notable alumni include U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Speaker of the House Thomas P. Tip O'Neill, and performer Amy Poehler.

Graduate degrees include the Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A., M.Ed., M.S.W., and ministry degrees. Coursework is central in law, business, and education; research doctorates in the Morrissey College follow a dissertation model. The calendar is semester-based. Funding includes assistantships and school fellowships. Graduate students use Chestnut Hill and Newton and typically live in the western Boston suburbs rather than in a downtown campus cluster.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Boston College lists 95 graduate programs across 26 subjects: 57 master's programs and 35 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in education, languages & linguistics and psychology. Boston College holds rank 346 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.