Last week, I interviewed guys from every grade about their perceptions of us “typical” BC girls. Personally, I was tired of the general assumption on the Heights that I am just one of many versions of the same girl. So I created a survey based off some of the generalizations and stereotypes; after one short week, the results are in! We received responses from an overwhelming 430 girls currently at Boston College in order to break the stereotypes that we’re all eating Chobanis and wearing yoga pants while heading to the Plex. (Side note: it looks like the Chobani thing is actually spot-on…).
I was pretty surprised at how false some of these stereotypes are, as well as which ones are pretty factual. Keep in mind that the number of surveys completed represents roughly 10% of the undergrad female population here. And the questions really don’t delve that deep. Nonetheless, the results prove that there is no typical BC girl. BC boys and girls, check out what we found!
Let’s start with the basics.
What’s that about “daddy’s credit card”?
Do we really work out and diet all the time?
Work hard, play hard… right?
Apparently not every girl gets hot n’ bothered when a big football player walks by!
But we do mostly want boyfriends
Screw gold diggers, we’re looking for a good personality and some humor! But is anyone else a little surprised how unimportant intelligence is? Or are we just stereotyping BC boys to already be smart by default?
Make a move, boys!
We all joke about “Call Me, Maybe,” but looks like the line would work! Take some risks, guys, and approach us (but only if you have a good personality).
So about those yoga pants…
Honestly, there’s no way around it… I’m currently wearing yoga pants. They’re comfortable, functional, practical, and cute. Obviously not every BC girls wants them, but a good chunk love theirs.
And we really do love Chobanis
Curveball: go to Hillside to get a cheeseburger and a Chobani! That makes for one happy BC girl!
That salad line is always long, but pizza takes the lead! This also proves what I’ve long suspected, which is that no one really cares about the calzones.
Not all of us are obsessed with Diet Coke and Iced Coffee
And we’re not 100% b*****s… just sometimes
And we definintely ain’t ignant
Forget Facebook stalking – get to know more about us here!
What a variety… it’s beautiful!
Who is your role model?
Top responses: my mom, my dad, my grandma, my sister, my brother, my aunt, my grandpa, my friends, my past teacher, my mentor, Jesus, God, Oprah, Hillary Clinton, Tina Fey, Audrey Hepburn, Michelle Obama, Amy Poehler, Meryl Streep, Taylor Swift, JK Rowling, Beyonce, Kristen Wiig, Condaleeza Rice, Jane Goodall, Ellen Degeneres
Other role models: Rachael Ray, Hilary Duff, Elle Woods, Natalie Portman, Donald Glover, Benazir Bhutto, Marie Curie, Tyra Banks, Paris Hilton, Coco Chanel, Tim Lunghino, Erin Andrews, Elizabeth Blackwell, Zooey Deschanel, Joy Aldrich, Ke$ha, Sara Bareilles, Lorne Michaels, Jane Austen, Keira Knightley, Gandhi, Selena Gomez, Margaret Thatcher, Emma Stone, Dr. Seuss, Patti Smith, Perez Hilton, Emma Watson, Kate Middleton, Blair Waldorf, Walt Disney, Mother Theresa, John Lennon, Elizabeth Gilbert, Darren Criss, Nicholas Kristof, DTH van der Merwe, Julian Casablancas, Adele, Rosie O’Donnell, Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Conrad, Jackie Kennedy, Gloria Steinem, Queen Elizabeth, Fr. Leahy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Christiane Amanpour, Christine Lagarde, Ann Curry, Giuliana Rancic, Bethenny Frankel, Jennifer Aniston
What’s your favorite movie?
Top responses: Good Will Hunting, Remember the Titans, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, (500) Days of Summer, Pride and Prejudice, Titanic, The Sound of Music, Bridesmaids, Notting Hill, Princess Bride, Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man, Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, Mean Girls, When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually, The Notebook, Crazy Stupid Love, Forrest Gump, Wedding Crashers, Zoolander, Beauty and the Beast, Garden State, Stand By Me, The Lion King, Almost Famous, Finding Nemo, Casablanca, The Holiday, You’ve Got Mail, The Departed, Miracle, Midnight in Paris, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Other favorite movies: Crash, The Godfather, Superbad, Life is Beautiful, Dodgeball, The Prestige, Gone Baby Gone, Dark Knight, Baby Mama, Step Up, Little Miss Sunshine, Friday Night Lights, Rent, Friends with Benefits, The Fighter, Spirited Away, Across the Universe, My Girl, The King and I, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Serendipity, A Cinderalla Story, Pan’s Labyrinth, Tangled, Erin Brockovich, Caddyshack, Edward Scissorhands, Harry Potter series, Wizard of Oz, The Other Guys, Because I Said So, Mulan, Grease, Troy, Chocolat, The Guardian, The Help, The Devil Wears Prada, Heavy Weights, Two Weeks Notice, A Walk to Remember, American Beauty, Ocean’s Eleven, Up, Social Network, V for Vendetta, Eat Pray Love, The Parent Trap, Penelope, Moulin Rouge, My Best Friend’s Wedding, A Roman Holiday, Matilda, The Blind Side, 27 Dresses, Shawshank Redemption, Step Brothers, Easy A, Slumdog Millionaire, The Italian Job
What’s your favorite book?
Top responses: Harry Potter series, Tattoos on the Heart, The Alchemist, Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, My Year with Eleanor, The Kite Runner, Half the Sky, The Giver, The Bell Jar, Time Traveler’s Wife, Lord of the Rings, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone with the Wind, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Tuesdays with Morrie, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Wuthering Heights, Les Miserables, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Things They Carried, The Truth About Forever, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Eat Pray Love, The Da Vinci Code
Other favorite books: The Sparrow, The Rose that Grew From Concrete, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Pact, Catalyst, Half the Sky, Siddhartha, To the Lighthouse, Firefly Lane, The Camel Club, Brideshead Revisited, The Last Lecture, Heart of the City, Brothers Karamazov, The Sun Also Rises, My Sister’s Keeper, Alice in Wonderland, Nineteen Minutes, Something Borrowed, Catch-22, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Into the Wild, 100 Years of Solitude, This Lullaby, Atonement, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The 5 People You Meet in Heaven, Atlas Shrugged, Unbearable Lightness, The Art of Racing in the Rain, She’s Come Undone, The Help, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Don Quixote, Lolita, Naked, Fahrenheit 451, Life of Pi, The Glass Castle, In the Time of the Butterflies, Outliers, 11 Seconds, Twilight, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Road, The Notebook, The Poisonwood Bible, Slaughterhouse Five, The Lovely Bones, Memoirs of a Geisha, Heart of Darkness, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Crime and Punishment, East of Eden, Water for Elephants, Power of One, Persuasion
What’s your favorite show?
Top responses: Friends, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, The Office, Law and Order SVU, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, Entourage, Mad Men, Pretty Little Liars, Parks and Recreation, Top Chef, Downton Abbey, NCIS, Real Housewives, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Criminal Minds, 30 Rock, Revenge, Friday Night Lights, Bones, Castle, New Girl, Friday Night Lights, Gilmore Girls, Lost, The OC
Other favorite shows: The Mentalist, One Tree Hill, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Scrubs, Parenthood, House, Seinfeld, Gossip Girl, The Bachelor, Lizzie McGuire, Chuck, Boy Meets World, So You Think You Can Dance, What Not to Wear, Vampire Diaries, Monk, Will and Grace, Sons of Anarchy, Arrested Development, The Challenge, Big Bang Theory, Chopped, The Wire, Supernatural, True Blood, Weeds, Doctor Who, Boardwalk Empire, CSI, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Desperate Housewives, Pan Am, The Voice, Psych, Cupcake Wars, The Amazing Race, Sex and the City, Shameless, Project Runway, That 70’s Show, Skins, Ellen, Burn Notice
What’s your favorite thing about BC?
Top responses: everything, the people, my friends, Appa, beautiful campus, Boston, everyone’s uniqueness, the Jesuit tradition, Marathon Monday, sports, football, the professors, opportunities, community, tailgating, service opportunities, conversations, hockey, LSOE, the atmosphere, school spirit, the boys, balance between work and play, the New England Classic
Other favorite reasons: the mods, the classes, meeting people, Convocation, Commencement, the library, Chorale, Marching Band, the Acoustics, Hillside, alumni engagement, study abroad, Gasson, Bapst, The Bostonians, the seasons, WZBC, size, Frips, culture clubs, thrown in the air after touchdowns, springtime, Devlin art studios, weekends
The responses to that last question were overwhelmingly “the people.” So in conclusion, we are all wildly different, which is why we enjoy meeting new people and experiencing new ways of life and different backgrounds. The next top responses were surprisingly “the Jesuit tradition,” “the professors,” and “the service opportunities.” So although there is a stereotype about BC girls only caring about working out, getting drunk, and hooking up, it looks like we have other values on our minds.
What’s to be learned from all this information? We go on service trips, enjoy our classes, eat New England Classics and Chobanis… and occasionally wear yoga pants. We understand most sports, we look up to our mamas, a lot of us love Good Will Hunting and the Harry Potter series. Sure, many occasionally participate in the hookup culture, but most of us would actually prefer a relationship. And we’re receptive to new guys with good personalities, so should you come up to us on campus, we’d talk back! We’re definitely not all the same, so come get to know us.
Find any of this interesting? Let us know what you think and help us spread the word! Post these survey results on your Facebook and Twitter. We’ll keep the survey live for a while if you want to encourage your friends and roommates to take it themselves! The more results, the better we know just how non-stereotypical we BC girls actually are!
Photo Source:
Maggi Burdge