Providing an outstanding undergraduate education to a diverse array of future leaders, inventors, and contributors to society is no easy task, but at CAS it is part of our core mission.
Curriculum
This past year, we continued to develop our curriculum to ensure our students have access to the highest-caliber academic offerings across a variety of disciplines.
Brett Driben (CAS'18), one of the researchers showcased at UROP's 20th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held October 13 in the Metcalf Ballroom, explains his study, Sequencing Time within a Comics Panel, to John Celenza, new UROP director. Photo by Maddie Malhotra (COM'19)
In 2016/2017, the college launched three new minors. The Persian cultural studies minor allows students to explore the fields of the humanities and social sciences within the framework of Persian society, especially as it relates to Iran’s diverse cultural traditions and complex connections in the Middle East. The Core Curriculum interdisciplinary minor draws on students’ experiences and learning during their Core course sequence and offers students an opportunity to engage further, giving greater depth to their study of texts, works of art, music, and key ideas of Western and other cultural traditions. Lastly, the Holocaust & genocide studies minor will give students the opportunity to not only learn history but also learn from history. This new minor, offered through the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, will provide students with a look into the most horrific state-sponsored mass murders, from the Nazi Holocaust to Rwanda and beyond, while offering historical context and teaching humane vigilance.
In addition to these new minors, CAS introduced 71 new courses, including 26 in the humanities, 20 in the natural & computational sciences, and 25 in the social sciences.
BU Hub
The BU Hub is a visionary, University-wide, learning outcome–based general education curriculum that spans a student’s four years of undergraduate education and incorporates co-curricular elements to give students a broad set of knowledge and skills to equip them for lifelong learning and success. The freshman class of Fall 2018 will be the first class at BU to share in this curriculum, which offers to all students the foundations of a liberal education that we in the arts and sciences have long extolled. Developing and implementing the BU Hub was and remains a priority—one that has required a great commitment from many faculty members and one where CAS has played a leading role.
Career Preparation
While preparing our students with the academic knowledge they need to be successful, we also work hard to equip them with the practical life skills they need to be independent and prosperous. To that end, this year we created SY 101: Intro to Adulting. This new course provides seniors with an opportunity to learn how to manage everything from renting apartments, to preparing to buy homes, to making financial investments, to managing relationships after college, to cooking.
We have also been busy developing additional opportunities for experiential learning. This summer, we launched the BU in San Francisco project, a collaboration with BU Spark! and Study Abroad to provide internships in Silicon Valley combined with coursework on tech entrepreneurship for computer science students. The summer experience is helping CAS students gain an understanding of the range of business types and strategies present in the technology industry, exposing them to real-world product goals and allowing them to develop practical skills in entrepreneurship within the technology sector.
We also continued to expand the CAS On-Campus Internship Program in its second year. Through work experience and mentorship in a broad range of offices around campus—along with a course to help them develop the skills and competencies necessary to be successful in the workplace—this program helps our students develop the link between their academic and career goals.
Access to Education
The hard reality is that about half of the outstanding young people who are admitted to BU—a great many of them to CAS—cannot fully pay for their college educations. We are as committed as ever to providing access to the premier education that we offer regardless of a student’s socioeconomic status. One way we can best achieve this is through BU’s Century Challenge, through which alumni and donors provide endowed, need-based scholarship funds of at least $100,000. This year, CAS received donations of five Century Challenge Scholarships to help ensure that students of all socioeconomic backgrounds have access to an education here at CAS.
Additionally, BU increased the number of Pell-eligible students to 18.2%, a significant 3.6% jump from the previous year (14.6%). This population shift resulted from a new initiative to meet the full calculated financial need, without loans, of admitted students with exceptional financial need and outstanding academic achievement and promise. We are excited to be able to offer a world-class education to these exceptional students regardless of their economic status.
Think Tank
The CAS Think Tank, located on the first floor of the College of Arts & Sciences building, opened its doors to students on May 1. This new and high-tech space was conceived following an appeal in 2015 from the CAS Student Government for an area that CAS students could call their own. The Think Tank will serve as much more than that. Complete with several huddle rooms, two larger conference rooms, and plenty of cutting-edge technological features, the Think Tank serves a multitude of purposes and provides a space for students to imagine, collaborate, analyze, and innovate.
Results
At CAS, we are continuously looking for ways to measure the results of our educational programming and career services, and to improve upon our offerings to ensure our graduates are prepared to thrive in the professional world. The First Destination Report, a survey of recent graduates’ employment and activities, concludes in December following graduation and provides us with a means to track and evaluate the results of our efforts. This year’s report helps to highlight areas in which our programs and services are helping students take critical first steps in their post-graduation lives, while also showing areas in which we can continue to improve moving forward.
As of December 2016, 88% of the previous academic year's graduates were either employed full time, attending graduate school, preparing for graduate school, engaged in military service, traveling, or involved in volunteer/service activities. The remaining 12% of graduates were still seeking employment.
The information from the survey illustrates the strong affiliation between student participation in an internship and post-graduation employment. Forty-eight percent of respondents who participated in at least one internship reported that they were employed full time, while only thirty-seven percent of students who did not participate in an internship had full-time employment. Additionally, students with internship experience had a much higher salary, on average $48,725, while those without internship experience were just under $41,000. These data help to underscore the important work being done at CAS to increase undergraduate participation in internships through the CAS Internship Program. This past year, 78% of graduating students had participated in at least one internship (with the average number of internships being two). The benefits of internships are clear, and we will continue to grow our highly successful and popular internship programming.
The work being done at CAS is not only exposing our students to opportunities that will help them in the beginning stages of their careers, it’s also imparting to them the skills necessary to succeed throughout their careers and lives. When asked how well their BU education had helped them develop five key skills identified by employers as the most important for college graduates entering the workforce (teamwork, communication, problem solving, organization, and gathering and processing information), respondents said that it had helped a moderate amount to a great deal—a fairly positive response but pointing to room for improvement. The survey results indicate that a CAS education, combined with the internship opportunities available to them during their undergraduate years, is having a positive impact on our students’ initial success in and preparedness for the working world.
Class of 2020
This past September, we welcomed another class of outstanding and eager undergraduates to CAS. These students exemplify the high academic standards that BU embodies and have myriad academic and extracurricular interests.
The Class of 2020 comprises 1,636 students from 46 states and 47 different countries. Nearly two-thirds of the class is female. In terms of ethnicity, 36% are Caucasian American (up from 33% the previous year), 35% are Americans of other ethnicities (the same as the previous year), and 23% were international students (down from 28% the previous year). The largest amount of domestic students (273 students) came from Massachusetts (up from the previous year), while the largest number of international students originated from China (including Hong Kong), with 175 students (down from 241 the previous year).
Similar to last year, the most popular intended majors were biology, economics, psychology, and international relations. There was an increase in interest in computer science as well as in biochemistry & molecular biology. Mathematics returned to the top 10 intended majors (it was not in the top 10 the previous year), while political science dropped out of the top 10.
The Class of 2020 recorded a higher level of SAT performance than any previous class, with a composite average score of 1990, 21 points higher than the Class of 2019 and 20 points higher than the Class of 2018. We continue to attract students from the very top of their high school classes, with 43% of students coming from the top 5% of their high school classes and nearly 72% of students coming from the top 10% of their classes.
For the complete snapshot of this past year’s incoming class, see the Class of 2020 profile and the chart on First-Year Student Enrollment.
Student Spotlight
Clarinda Blais (CAS’17), a recent philosophy graduate, started the Free Philosophy Project as a sophomore after serving breakfast at a homeless shelter and wanting to do more. Since then, the Free Philosophy Project has expanded to dozens of shelters in Boston and Cambridge as a way to help the homeless learn about themselves and the world around them. “Philosophy is actually the most accessible of all academic fields—it just requires you to reflect on your experience, and everyone has their own experience,” says Blais. Through recruitment and training of Boston University and Harvard University students, Blais has been able to expand her program in the Greater Boston area and is now seeking grants to make the project a sustainable nonprofit. While Blais doesn’t think she can solve the problem of homelessness through philosophy alone, her goal is to construct a bridge between the experiences of homeless and non-homeless people and to offer help, support, and resources for the homeless to learn about themselves and each other in order to build meaningful relationships and mutual trust.
When Maxwell T. Robidoux (CAS’17) started on his CAS path in 2010, he had no idea that it would eventually lead him to a place at the podium as his class’ Commencement student speaker. A psychology and sociology major, Robidoux is working toward a career in criminal prosecution. The vice president of the BU Pre-Law Review, Robidoux says he values the skills his CAS education has provided him, and believes his education has given him the responsibility to ask critical questions, make decisions informed by fact and reason, and speak up against injustice and dishonesty—all themes that he emphasized in his speech in May to his fellow graduating seniors. The skills Robidoux has learned in the classroom have been strengthened by his experiences outside the classroom as a certified Boston Municipal Court mediator. Robidoux was also the recipient of an American Sociological Association Departmental Prize and is a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society. He plans to attend law school and ultimately use his knowledge and commitment to the intellectual values of integrity, reason, and rationality to improve society.
Annual Report 2016/2017
From the Dean
The 2016/17 academic year was an exciting one for the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. We made tremendous progress on important fronts, including working to increase faculty and student diversity, providing enhanced experiential educational opportunities, expanding our research impact, and enhancing our academic programs.
Improving Undergraduate Education
Providing a world-class undergraduate education is no easy task, but at CAS it is part of our core mission. In 2016/17 we made curricular improvements, launched new career preparation programs, increased access to our world-class education, and gave our students a space to call their own, the CAS Think Tank.
Strengthening Graduate Education
The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ evolution continued in and out of the classroom, with a 10% increase in master’s applications in 2016/17 and continued high PhD acceptance rates affirming the strength of our programs.
Enhancing a World-Class Faculty
The quality of CAS’ academics and research depends on the quality of its faculty, and so we work hard to hire the best and brightest. In 2016/17, CAS hired 30 new professors across the humanities and the social, natural, and computational sciences.
Conducting Pathbreaking Research
Discoveries and innovations at CAS helped put BU at 32nd on the list of U.S. News & World Report’s top research universities in the world. Our faculty earned numerous prestigious awards and grants, helping to advance human understanding in the fields of biogeoscience, religion, computer science, and biology, just to name a few.
Building Our Future Together
In 2016/17, the seventh year of the Campaign for Boston University, numerous alumni, friends, and parents have helped to raise $121.6 million for CAS—far exceeding our aggressive goal of $100 million.
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