Does Boston College do ‘back-door’ admissions for the wealthy? What we know
Two years ago, Boston College created Messina College , a unique program offering first-generation, high-financial-need students a two-year associate's degree with a pathway to the 4-year college.
But last month, an article from the college's student newspaper, The Heights, reported that another program at the Messina College campus, the Foundations Program, was offering "back-door admission" to a few wealthy, connected applicants.
The student journalists said some students had been rejected by Boston College before an admissions counselor reached out to ask whether they wanted to attend the Foundations Program.
The student journalists spoke with one former Foundations student and around four of the 15 current students in their reporting, all of whom were identified using pseudonyms in the article.
The college administration refutes the narrative that it is a back-door program for legacy or wealthy applicants, calling it "patently false" and saying that students interviewed by the student reporters felt misrepresented.
"We feel that the article was a gross misrepresentation of the Foundations Program at Boston College," said Jack Dunn, a Boston College spokesperson. "The student journalists, while well-intentioned, made mistakes in the accuracy of their reporting that we feel compelled to address."
The Heights leadership said in a statement that the outlet stands by its reporting.
At the same time, Grant Gosselin — dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid at Boston College — said the college did take an unorthodox approach to admissions in its first cohort that arrived on campus in 2024 by accepting previously rejected applicants, as reported by The Heights.
He said it was in part because the program hadn't been fully crystallized until late in the admissions cycle.
Offering admission to rejected applicants is no longer their practice, Gosselin said.
"We did reach out to students whose applications had fallen just short of admission. With an applicant pool of almost 42,000 students and only 2,300 spaces in our class, every year, we are forced to deny fully qualified students. And so in that year, we reached out to students who we knew wanted to be here, who were a great fit for BC," Gosselin said.
What is the Foundations Program at Boston College?
The Foundations Program was created in 2024, around the time Messina College was established, and was intended for both to be housed at the former Pine Manor College campus in Brookline, given enrollment limitations at the Chestnut Hill campus.
It was created to expand access to Boston College for students who align with the mission of a Jesuit education and who would benefit from learning in a smaller, more personalized environment, Gosselin said.
He didn't expand more on how the students are chosen.
"We identify students who are fully qualified academically from the applicant pool. We contact those students ahead of time to talk about the program, to determine if the student feels that it would be a good match for what they want to achieve in their first year. And then we extend offers of admission accordingly," he said.
Students in both programs take classes together and learn from the same professors at the Brookline campus, miles away from Boston College's main Chestnut Hill campus.
Both programs allow students to join the Chestnut Hill campus if they earn a GPA of 3.4 or higher.
Similar programs exist at other institutions, including a one-year program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, with a guaranteed transfer agreement
Despite being on the same campus, there are clear differences between the two programs: the Foundations Program is a one-year, non-degree-granting program with around 15 students, and Messina is a two-year program with around 100 students each year that culminates with an associate's degree.
Students at Messina are largely from low-income backgrounds, and students in the Foundations Program aren't eligible for federal financial aid because it isn't a degree-granting program.
As such, Foundations students pay the standard tuition, board and fees of $91,792, but their room and board costs are slightly higher because the program is 11 months long, Dunn said.
Messina students apply directly to that program. Admissions counselors select Foundations students from Boston College's general applicant pool.
Messina College, at the former Pine Manor College campus, on Thursday, August 15.Juliet Schulman-Hall
This year, 13 of the students who will be part of the Foundations Program were in the early decision pool, and 2 applied to Boston College for regular decision for the 2026-2027 academic year.
He said the program isn't widely promoted because there would be more interest than the college could handle, but it is listed on the college's website.
"Our top priority on the Brookline campus is our Messina College students. And we don't want this program to grow to a point where it seems that this program is a priority," Gosselin said. "It's a small program in the context of a larger campus experience. But Messina College associate's degree students are the priority here on the Brookline campus."
Is the Foundations Program a 'back-door' entry to Boston College?
Some of the Foundations students quoted in The Heights article said they were told to act as leaders on campus and that there has been a clear divide between Messina and Foundations students.
"There was a very big, 'We're us, they're them' at the beginning of the summer," one student said. "It was just awkward at first, because it's just such different, like, it's, like, such different programs."
Dunn said they haven't received any complaints from Messina students about the Foundations Program and that the students are "co-equals."
The student journalists determined, through public documents, that 20% of this year's Foundations class had familial donations to the school ranging from thousands of dollars to over a million.
Two had endowed sports scholarships and two had family serving on the university board of regents, which supports the president and board of trustees, The Heights said.
The college wouldn't expand on any specific student in the Foundations Program due to privacy reasons. Donations are private and any figures cited by The Heights are speculative, Dunn said.
However, Gosselin said the program is "more likely than not" to attract students who are financially well-off and can afford it.
That being said, some Foundations students are first-generation and others come from families that have a teacher or homemaker as a parent.
Gosselin said Foundations students are "fully qualified to be here" and that The Heights left out key information from students and him about the program's positive aspects.
He said that set a "false narrative" on campus that the students don't deserve to be at Boston College.
"The general narrative that they have seen set on campus, that around the percentage of students who are children of alumni, who are members of boards, who are scholarship donors, is inaccurate," he said.
About half of the two admitted Foundations cohorts from 2024 and 2025 have familial ties to the college, Gosselin said.
Messina College, at the former Pine Manor College campus, on Thursday, August 15.Juliet Schulman-Hall
Dunn said this isn't surprising since the college hasn't widely publicized the program, meaning those with close ties to the institution are more likely to hear about it.
Boston College doesn't consider an applicant's ability to pay as part of the admissions process, and the financial or familial ties a student has to the institution aren't a factor for reaching out to a student for the program, Gosselin said.
While the institution doesn't have data on the average high school GPA of Foundation students compared to the college, he said 9 of the 10 students in the first cohort transitioned to Boston College after earning a GPA of 3.4 or higher.
Overall, the program feels like a "great success," Dunn said.
"The Foundation students and the Messina College students have spoken about how much they've appreciated the program and how much they've benefited from it. And they told us that those comments that they shared with the student newspapers were not included in the article, much to their dissatisfaction," he said.
The college is attempting to meet with students at the paper to go over some of these inaccuracies, he said.
"It's an excellent program that provides a pathway to a Jesuit education at Boston College, one of the world's best schools, and it should be celebrated," Dunn said. "And unfortunately, the students inaccurately portrayed it as something that it's not. So that's disappointing."
The Heights leadership has agreed — and continues to offer — to meet with administrators, The Heights leadership said in a statement.
"BC administrators canceled a previously planned discussion on this story because of a disagreement on the terms of the meeting, but The Heights hopes a substantive conversation on its reporting can still take place," the outlet said.
More Higher Ed
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
