Tell me about College of the Holy Cross?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They offer a full-ride scholarship every year to a student majoring in classics. My daughter, who loves Latin, is interested.

I have 2 DCs who were finalists for that scholarship; it is extraordinarily competitive.

So you just happen to have two kids who were finalists for a classics scholarship? Are you a Latin teacher?

By the way, Holy Cross is pretty liberal, similar to Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the area and my father went to Holy Cross. Worcester is a dilapidated former mill town that went really downhill and will probably never come back. There are nice pockets and my friends who stayed in the area seem to go to cute restaurants there. It does have a small community of competitive colleges (esp Clarke and WPI, also some lower tier schools like Assumption.) There's a commuter rail line to Boston.

Holy Cross itself is high caliber--it's a Jesuit school which tends to be more intensely academic than other types of Catholic schools, e.g., Boston College. Yes, the alumni are intensely loyal. I'm sure it's a preppy student body and skews Catholic.

[Anonymous]

I attended Holy Cross, but graduated in the 90s so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I got an excellent education and students there tend to be overachievers when they get into the real world. Lots of doctors and teachers (very service-oriented) plus people very successful in the business world. The alumni network is very strong and the students tend to be very well rounded.

Worcester isn't an amazing college town, but most of the student life is on campus or in the immediate vicinity. And it was a cheap place to drink at least! I thought the campus was beautiful in that classic New England sense. My only complaint is that the student body is not particularly diverse. Lots of kids from Catholic high schools in New England and the mid-Atlantic.

[Anonymous]

Peer experience, but I have two good friends who went there (both from Boston). One went to GW afterward and is now works at the World Bank, one went to Johns Hopkins and is at the cutting edge of a sub-field in tech. FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the area and my father went to Holy Cross. Worcester is a dilapidated former mill town that went really downhill and will probably never come back. There are nice pockets and my friends who stayed in the area seem to go to cute restaurants there. It does have a small community of competitive colleges (esp Clarke and WPI, also some lower tier schools like Assumption.) There's a commuter rail line to Boston.

Holy Cross itself is high caliber--it's a Jesuit school which tends to be more intensely academic than other types of Catholic schools, e.g., Boston College. Yes, the alumni are intensely loyal. I'm sure it's a preppy student body and skews Catholic.

What in the world are you talking about? BC is Jesuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They offer a full-ride scholarship every year to a student majoring in classics. My daughter, who loves Latin, is interested.

I have 2 DCs who were finalists for that scholarship; it is extraordinarily competitive.

So you just happen to have two kids who were finalists for a classics scholarship? Are you a Latin teacher?

By the way, Holy Cross is pretty liberal, similar to Georgetown.

No, just a family that values the classics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the area and my father went to Holy Cross. Worcester is a dilapidated former mill town that went really downhill and will probably never come back. There are nice pockets and my friends who stayed in the area seem to go to cute restaurants there. It does have a small community of competitive colleges (esp Clarke and WPI, also some lower tier schools like Assumption.) There's a commuter rail line to Boston.

Holy Cross itself is high caliber--it's a Jesuit school which tends to be more intensely academic than other types of Catholic schools, e.g., Boston College. Yes, the alumni are intensely loyal. I'm sure it's a preppy student body and skews Catholic.

What in the world are you talking about? BC is Jesuit.

How funny. I was raised in the absolute conviction that HC was a far superior academic experience to BC, in part because of the Jesuit distinction. Apologies for spreading the family mythology!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The College of the Holy Cross is an excellent, academically strong, liberal arts school. It is very traditional in terms of campus feel and vibe. The students are friendly and generally service oriented. It is a Catholic Jesuit school and holds close to those values. It is located about an hour away from Boston in Worcester, MA. Many students are from New England, but there are a good number from the DMV. Most of those who attend from this area went to a Catholic high school. A visit would give your daughter a better feel for the place. It is a great school!

Worcester is the armpit of New England. Awful, ugly city.

+1. I’d rather be in an isolated location than that hellhole.

Let me know where that is so I can avoid.

Exurbs of Boston -head directly west.

It is not the 80s. Worcester is fine.

[Anonymous]

I have a son at Holy Cross now and think very highly of the school. We didn't know a lot about it before he became interested but now see what an incredibly strong alum network there is -- we've met many families with multi-generation Holy Cross students and hear the alum network is huge asset for professional networking. The campus is small but very nice and there's an extremely friendly, tight-knit student community. Because it's D1 but small undergrad population, something like 25% of students are varsity athletes; there's a sporty, preppy, intellectual, Catholic vibe. Academics are very strong and challenging, with small classes and lots of opportunity to get to know professors. High proportion of students are involved in service in Worcester. Worcester is not super exciting, but there is apparently a burgeoning art & restaurant scene -- we've visited some nice restaurants. Students don't spend a lot of time in town besides service projects as most social life revolves around campus (very high percentage live on campus) but there are some sporting events & concerts downtown and some bars/restaurants students go to.

[Anonymous]

I dont know much about the school itself but an impression of its alums. I went to grad school in Boston and was struck by how many Holy Cross grads I ran into. Holy Cross people held a large number of leadership roles in govt and industry. It occurred to me that graduates from higher ranked colleges (Harvard, MIT, Tufts) might not come from Mass or stay there after college. That translates into an excellent professional network in the area. Overall I was impressed with the smarts of my Holy Cross classmates and generally saw them as community-oriented, can-do people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a son at Holy Cross now and think very highly of the school. We didn't know a lot about it before he became interested but now see what an incredibly strong alum network there is -- we've met many families with multi-generation Holy Cross students and hear the alum network is huge asset for professional networking. The campus is small but very nice and there's an extremely friendly, tight-knit student community. Because it's D1 but small undergrad population, something like 25% of students are varsity athletes; there's a sporty, preppy, intellectual, Catholic vibe. Academics are very strong and challenging, with small classes and lots of opportunity to get to know professors. High proportion of students are involved in service in Worcester. Worcester is not super exciting, but there is apparently a burgeoning art & restaurant scene -- we've visited some nice restaurants. Students don't spend a lot of time in town besides service projects as most social life revolves around campus (very high percentage live on campus) but there are some sporting events & concerts downtown and some bars/restaurants students go to.

NP. Thanks for an informative and current evaluation. We have yet to visit Holy Cross, but plan to do so this summer. DS is currently a junior in a Catholic school here and he is very interested in BC and Notre Dame. The description you give seems to be the environment he is looking for and it's nice to know there are great alternatives to his current top choices! Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a son at Holy Cross now and think very highly of the school. We didn't know a lot about it before he became interested but now see what an incredibly strong alum network there is -- we've met many families with multi-generation Holy Cross students and hear the alum network is huge asset for professional networking. The campus is small but very nice and there's an extremely friendly, tight-knit student community. Because it's D1 but small undergrad population, something like 25% of students are varsity athletes; there's a sporty, preppy, intellectual, Catholic vibe. Academics are very strong and challenging, with small classes and lots of opportunity to get to know professors. High proportion of students are involved in service in Worcester. Worcester is not super exciting, but there is apparently a burgeoning art & restaurant scene -- we've visited some nice restaurants. Students don't spend a lot of time in town besides service projects as most social life revolves around campus (very high percentage live on campus) but there are some sporting events & concerts downtown and some bars/restaurants students go to.

NP. Thanks for an informative and current evaluation. We have yet to visit Holy Cross, but plan to do so this summer. DS is currently a junior in a Catholic school here and he is very interested in BC and Notre Dame. The description you give seems to be the environment he is looking for and it's nice to know there are great alternatives to his current top choices! Thank you!

We visited last month and my daughter really liked it. It is small, contained, and the students we met were really friendly, articulate, and happy with their choice of Holy Cross. Worcester isn't a town I'd choose for a vacation, but it's def on the upswing and not terrible. Proximity to Boston is great. Facilities are nice, and alumni network seems very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
DD is starting to look and is interested in a school a little bigger than the 1500-2000 student SLACs and not geographically isolated. (So many of them are.) Holy Cross seems a good possibility but we don't know that much about it in terms of feel, etc.


My impression is that it has ultra-loyal alumni who will make sure alumni have jobs.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the area and my father went to Holy Cross. Worcester is a dilapidated former mill town that went really downhill and will probably never come back. There are nice pockets and my friends who stayed in the area seem to go to cute restaurants there. It does have a small community of competitive colleges (esp Clarke and WPI, also some lower tier schools like Assumption.) There's a commuter rail line to Boston.

Holy Cross itself is high caliber--it's a Jesuit school which tends to be more intensely academic than other types of Catholic schools, e.g., Boston College. Yes, the alumni are intensely loyal. I'm sure it's a preppy student body and skews Catholic.

Hilarious.

BC rejects go to Holy Cross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The College of the Holy Cross is an excellent, academically strong, liberal arts school. It is very traditional in terms of campus feel and vibe. The students are friendly and generally service oriented. It is a Catholic Jesuit school and holds close to those values. It is located about an hour away from Boston in Worcester, MA. Many students are from New England, but there are a good number from the DMV. Most of those who attend from this area went to a Catholic high school. A visit would give your daughter a better feel for the place. It is a great school!

Worcester is the armpit of New England. Awful, ugly city.

+1. I’d rather be in an isolated location than that hellhole.

When was the last time you visited. I just came back from a trip last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised. It had the amenities of a small city, relatively clean, and reminded me of Richmond. An easy train from Boston, there’s lots to like actually.