It’s easy to argue that there’s never been a more competitive time in college admissions—and Boston College is no exception.

Last year, BC admitted just 15 percent of applicants for the Class of 2027, the lowest in its history and less than half the rate of 2017, when the Class of 2021 was admitted at 32 percent. On top of that, the first-year class was tabbed as “the most academically accomplished” and diverse ever at the Heights.

So how exactly does one stand out from the proverbial crowd? It’s a question that Stephen Harrison ’24 fields a lot as a campus tour guide and a member of the Student Admission Program (SAP) Council.

“It sounds really cheesy, but I always say ‘just be yourself,’” says Harrison, a communication major in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. “And make sure you’re doing things—a job after school, an extracurricular or club—the [admissions] counselors want to see how you’re spending your time outside of the classroom. Because that’s really going to translate into how you make the community better on campus when you get here.”

That doesn’t mean applicants or current students need to be “better” than everyone else. But being “more” is a hallmark of the formative BC experience. In Jesuit-speak, the term most often associated with “more” is magis, a derivative of the Society’s unofficial motto Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, or “For the Greater Glory of God.” Think quality instead of quantity.

“At BC there are so many different ways to get involved to better the community while you’re also bettering yourself emotionally, socially, and spiritually,” Harrison says. “The campus and the people really push you to be involved, to be with others, to push your personal growth along—which I think is really special.”

As a graduate of a Jesuit high school in the Philadelphia area, Harrison had participated in Kairos before arriving at BC. The Covid-19 pandemic prevented him from joining a retreat in his first two years at the Heights, so he pursued other opportunities, like 48 Hours and SAP. Harrison was finally able to lead a Kairos retreat last fall.

For Astrid Umanzor Andino ’24, magis focuses on the choices she makes. “My BC experience has really challenged me around some of the most important questions in my life and some of the most important issues in the world. And challenged in a way not to just think about them, but to do something about them,” says the applied psychology and transformative educational studies major in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.