The Daily Free Press
Year xli. Volume lxxxii. Issue lxxxvi.
Campus & City
UP ON DOWNEY: SNL writer receives satire award
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University Sports MUSE
BEST OF THE BEST: BU students vying for Jack Wills internship page 5
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HUSKIE HEARTLAND: Streaking softball team visits Storrs page 8
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Admissions accepts 45 percent of Class of ‘16 applicants MBTA receives more By Emily Overholt Daily Free Press Staff
Boston University accepted slightly more than 45 percent of applicants for the Class of 2016, marking a decrease from last year’s acceptance rate, officials said. Kelly Walter, executive director of admissions, said BU’s acceptance rate marks a nearly 4-percent drop from the acceptance rate in spring 2012. BU received a record-breaking applicant pool for the fall 2012 semester with 43,979 applications for admission, Walter said. Although Admissions did not provide the exact number of applicants admitted, the total number of applicants and percentage accepted indicate slightly less than 20,000 students were accepted. Students accepted for the Fall 2012 semester come from all 50 states, as well as D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico, Walter said. Regular-decision applicants were notified of BU’s decisions via the Applicant Link Saturday. ”This is an admit rate of which we should all be proud,” Walter said. “This is a reflection of Boston University’s growing reputation, our growing prestige and our position in the marketplace.” Walter said the value in students’ degrees is “increasing exponentially” as BU increases its selectivity and matriculates stronger classes.
than 6,000 complaints, ideas for budget crisis By Samantha Tatro Daily Free Press Staff
GRACE DONNELLY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Admissions accepted 45 percent of its applicants to Boston University and expects a class size of 3,900 students for the class of 2016.
BU has a target class of 3,900 students – smaller than the Class of 2015 – Walter said. Of those accepted early decision, 505 students committed. A number of students were offered admission for spring 2013 instead of the fall semester. “Because our pool was so large and so strong we made a decision to offer a number of students a place in our class, but for January,” Walter said. “Rather than having these students reapply for January, we’re
giving them the option to begin their studies in the January semester.” Kelly Hallowell, a high school senior from Eden Prairie, Minn., was accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences. Hallowell said BU was in the top half of schools to which she applied. “I was really excited [when I got my acceptance],” Hallowell said. “It was the first one I heard back from so it’s kind of excit-
Admissions, see page 2
Students aim to balance unpaid internships and paid work By Megan Allison Daily Free Press Staff
Officials in the Center for Career Development said Boston University students may often find themselves juggling unpaid internships and paid work. “We know that BU students do . . . many different activities,” said Eleanor Cartelli, associate director for marketing and communication at the CCD, in a phone interview. “Doing an unpaid internship doesn’t mean you don’t have time for a summer job.” The CCD recently began collecting data on BU students’ summer plans, starting with surveys for returning students in the fall semester. While the CCD is waiting on more survey data to compile employment breakdowns, results so far reflected a wide range of summer internships and jobs among BU students, Cartelli said. While paid internships may be difficult to
find, Cartelli said those opportunities exist and students should seek to attain them. A summer job, however, can serve as a “beneficial” experience in the long term as well. “They’re not mutually exclusive and both have benefits,” she said. “A summer job is work experience too.” Cartelli said skills learned in a work environment outside of an internship could help students gain real-world experience. “Students working as wait staff, for example, are learning customer service skills, as well as how to keep up in a fast-paced work environment,” she said. “They also might be training new people.” Nadine Mansour, a freshman in the College of Communication and Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, has to choose between a human resources internship at Texas Instruments and an internship at Vogue for this summer.
However, Mansour said an internship is not the only way she will be spending her time over the summer. “I’m probably going to have to do summer classes as well as a job to tide me over,” she said. Jay Schwartz, a COM and College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said he will be balancing two jobs, one as a sales associate and another as a head counselor at a day camp, alongside an online magazine internship in the summer. “Last year, I had two jobs and no internship, and that was still 60 hours a week, which is intense,” he said. Schwartz said he plans to make his schedule work by staying up late because an internship is important for his future. “I feel like at this stage at the game, I’m 20,
Summer, see page 4
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s electronic and physical mailboxes were filled to capacity with complaints and suggestions for the T’s impending budget changes. The transit system received 5,783 emails and about 400 letters in the last three months after soliciting comments about the T’s proposed fare hikes and service cuts, according to a preliminary analysis of the public’s response the MBTA released last week. “[The response] was pretty mixed,” said MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera. “You do have some people who don’t want a fare increase at all and others who would not mind an increase but would not enjoy service reductions.” Of the email comments analyzed, 78 percent of customers said they oppose cuts to the T’s services, while only 24 percent mentioned that they oppose fare increases, according to the report. More than half of the emails came from bus customers and about 60 percent of all the emails asked the MBTA to maintain bus services. The MBTA has also received more than 50 letters from elected officials – 65 percent of which oppose service reductions – and more than 100 letters on behalf of various organizations. The report also listed preliminary tallies the MBTA gathered during the 30 public meetings it held across the Boston area after proposing two scenarios in January that would help the T close its estimated $161 million budget gap. During the meetings, the MBTA garnered 1,808 comments from the 5,924 people who attended, according to the report. Attendees expressed their opposition to weekend commuter rail cuts – nearly 180 people spoke against them – but the report noted that similar amounts of people also opposed cuts to bus services, fare increases and cuts to late-night commuter rail service. These preliminary numbers – which
MBTA, see page 2
Massachusetts ranks eighth for freshest food in nation, tastes better, consumers say By Grace Rasmus Daily Free Press Staff
Star Market customer Hanna Reeves wound her way through the store’s fruit section with two young, giggling daughters in tow, pausing to consider the stack of bananas. “I try to buy fresh food whenever I can,” she said, putting a bunch of bananas in her cart. “It’s healthier, it tastes good and it makes you feel like a good parent when you give your kids a fresh apple instead of a Kit Kat bar.” A recent study pointed to evidence that Bostonians such as Reeves, who focus on buying fresh foods, may be in luck. The Hub ranked eighth in a survey published Friday by Ziploc of U.S. metro areas with the freshest food available to consumers. Ziploc, which based the survey off a 2011 Sperling’s Best Places study, defined the freshest cities as those “where residents are seeking and eating the freshest food options available, through farmer’s markets and gardening habits.” Hartford, Conn., San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., took the top three spots on the list, while D.C. and Minneapolis fell right be-
low the Hub. Boston’s high ranking on the list is “not surprising at all,” said Marlo Fogelman, a representative from the Boston Public Market Association, a non-profit organization that seeks to establish a permanent year-round farmers market, according to its website. “Boston is a hotbed of local culinary innovation from its talented cadre of chefs and home cooks invested in putting local and sustainable food on their table,” she said in an email. Boston’s education and income level may have influenced its ranking, said Erin Willett, the head farmer and head beekeeper of Smaht Fahm in Lunenburg, which contributes to Boston University’s Fall Farmers’ Market every year. “I think that we see a lot of highly educated people at Whole Foods and farmers markets, and I don’t see the same for lower income people,” she said. Boston’s rating may originate from the generally healthy Bostonian lifestyle, said Paula Quatromoni, an associate professor at BU’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation
Fresh, see page 4
ABIGAIL LIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Friday’s Ziploc survey ranked Boston as the 8th freshest city in the country, due to the Hub’s high quality farmer’s markets and widespread gardening habits.