Boston College is a private Jesuit Catholic research university located in the affluent village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States, 6mi west of downtown Boston. It has 9,100 full-time undergraduates and almost 5,000 graduate students. The university's name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college and preparatory school in Dorchester. It is a member of the 568 Group and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Its main campus is a historic district and features some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America.Boston College is currently ranked 31st in the National Universities ranking by U.S. News & World Report and 49th in the Forbes 2017 edition of "America's Top Colleges". Boston College is categorized as an R1: Highest Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Students at the university earned 15 Fulbright Awards in 2017, ranking the school in the top twenty Fulbright-producing American research institutions. At $2.06 billion, Boston College has the 40th largest university endowment in North America
