College of the Holy Cross?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just to help out posters: Boston area schools are BC, Tufts, Brandeis, Wellesley, Bentley, Babson, Olin, Northeastern, BU, Harvard, MiT.

Worcester has WPI, Holy Cross, Clark, Assumption, and UMass Med…

All this is true but Worcester is still awful.

I have posted before. Worcester is not awful. Except when you compare it to Boston. Worcester has a lot to offer and is a robust city. Lot better than a lot of cities near other colleges we visited.

Poor Worcester. Can’t get a break. lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My niece was lured to HC by a full ride and the promise of a 3-2 program where she could transfer to a top engineering program after three years. I tried to talk her out of it as she had better options for engineering school, but she was stubborn and really thought she wanted a small, catholic school experience. The 3-2 program turned out to be a bait-and-switch; very few students actually transfered to the engineering school and there were like 50 of them competing for 2-3 spots. I don't know why anyone would take this over a four-year, guaranteed enginering program.

She transfered out after one year. HC was VERY small, little to no diversity, little to no opportunities for clubs, ativities, etc. Plus Wooster is a miserable town. She ended up at a much larger, highly-ranked state school and is so happy there. Totally different experience for sure which goes to show that kids don't always know what they want at 18.

This has nothing to do with Holy Cross. Nobody should plan on a 3-2 engineering program. If you go to school in Worcester, just a few minutes from downtown, diversity is not a legit complaint. Anyhow, free ride poster, you sound…ungrateful for the free ride.

Well, it was my niece who got the free ride - not me. She was very grateful for it. And I totally agree with you on the 3-2 program - I didn't know what they were prior to her admission to HC, it sounded too good to be true at the time, and I would never recommend one to anyone now. The reasons she left was becuase HC was way too small and offered very little opportunities that she was seeing her high school friends have at larger universities. That included variety of courses, clubs, social activities, etc. And the campus is pretty much all white - if that matters to you.

Someone asked for feedback on HC and I'm sharing one young woman's experience. It is only one person's experience.

The OP asked to compare the three books. All have the same diversity stats. So if not your thing that is fine. I haven’t looked but HC may actually be a tiny bit more diverse.

[Anonymous]

Schools. Not books

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we visited Holy Cross it seemed very vanilla, like there was absolutely nothing distinctive or interesting about them. Their admissions presentation could have been interchanged with 1,000 other schools, and they made great pains to make it clear they weren’t really catholic. The whole thing was totally uninspiring.

Villanova felt like the only of these three schools really willing to acknowledge and lean into their catholic values in their educational approach.

We are not Catholic but kid wanted a values based education (in the sense that education is about preparing to serve your community). Holy Cross did not seem to offer that at all or at least far less than even many of the public schools we visited.

Interesting. We visited both too and Holy Cross focused on the Jesuit mission much more IMO. Have you read the recent statements by the new HC President? Maybe you had a bad tour guide. Definitely happens.

Both are great schools and as much as people like to distinguish, BC Villanova and HC are very similar and cater to same cohort.

I think if you look at the core curriculum Villanova and Fordham have 4-ish core classes that are inspired by their catholic tradition. Holy cross has only one, our tour guide told us the most popular class to meet that requirement was “defense against the dark arts” where you study Harry Potter books(?). I don’t know if BC has any. BC didn’t describe any when people asked in the admissions session although they did talk about serving the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My niece was lured to HC by a full ride and the promise of a 3-2 program where she could transfer to a top engineering program after three years. I tried to talk her out of it as she had better options for engineering school, but she was stubborn and really thought she wanted a small, catholic school experience. The 3-2 program turned out to be a bait-and-switch; very few students actually transfered to the engineering school and there were like 50 of them competing for 2-3 spots. I don't know why anyone would take this over a four-year, guaranteed enginering program.

She transfered out after one year. HC was VERY small, little to no diversity, little to no opportunities for clubs, ativities, etc. Plus Wooster is a miserable town. She ended up at a much larger, highly-ranked state school and is so happy there. Totally different experience for sure which goes to show that kids don't always know what they want at 18.

Physics represents the natural major for pre-engineering and Holy Cross graduated 12 physics majors in a recent year. Based on this, it's unclear to me who the ~50 aspirants to a 3-2 engineering program might have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just to help out posters: Boston area schools are BC, Tufts, Brandeis, Wellesley, Bentley, Babson, Olin, Northeastern, BU, Harvard, MiT.

Worcester has WPI, Holy Cross, Clark, Assumption, and UMass Med…

All this is true but Worcester is still awful.

“Worcester is not as bad as Hartford, downtown Philly, Baltimore, or the south side of Chicago” what a flex, huge win for Holy Cross lmao.

I have posted before. Worcester is not awful. Except when you compare it to Boston. Worcester has a lot to offer and is a robust city. Lot better than a lot of cities near other colleges we visited.

Poor Worcester. Can’t get a break. lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And just to help out posters: Boston area schools are BC, Tufts, Brandeis, Wellesley, Bentley, Babson, Olin, Northeastern, BU, Harvard, MiT.

Worcester has WPI, Holy Cross, Clark, Assumption, and UMass Med…

All this is true but Worcester is still awful.

I have posted before. Worcester is not awful. Except when you compare it to Boston. Worcester has a lot to offer and is a robust city. Lot better than a lot of cities near other colleges we visited.

Poor Worcester. Can’t get a break. lol.

“Worcester is not as bad as Hartford, downtown Philly, Baltimore, or the south side of Chicago” what a flex, huge win for Holy Cross lmao.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My niece was lured to HC by a full ride and the promise of a 3-2 program where she could transfer to a top engineering program after three years. I tried to talk her out of it as she had better options for engineering school, but she was stubborn and really thought she wanted a small, catholic school experience. The 3-2 program turned out to be a bait-and-switch; very few students actually transfered to the engineering school and there were like 50 of them competing for 2-3 spots. I don't know why anyone would take this over a four-year, guaranteed enginering program.

She transfered out after one year. HC was VERY small, little to no diversity, little to no opportunities for clubs, ativities, etc. Plus Wooster is a miserable town. She ended up at a much larger, highly-ranked state school and is so happy there. Totally different experience for sure which goes to show that kids don't always know what they want at 18.

Physics represents the natural major for pre-engineering and Holy Cross graduated 12 physics majors in a recent year. Based on this, it's unclear to me who the ~50 aspirants to a 3-2 engineering program might have been.

We met with the professor who was head of the 3-2 program. He said most applicants were Physics, Math, or Comp Sci majors. So not just Physics.

[Anonymous]

The key thing about Holy Cross its academic reputation is much better than BC and Villanova. HC is the only Jesuit LAC and since US News began ranking Holy Cross is always been in top 25. In 2026, HC ranked 27(with 3 service Academies in LAC groups). Colgate is 22 and Colby at 24-those are its peers not BC 36 in National category or Villanova at 57. Nova has fallen off a cliff. The most important difference between HC and BC and Nova is prestige alumni outcomes of HC vs the other 2. Holy Cross has produced many more highly successful grads Dr Fauci, Clarence Thomas, Chris Mattews. Nobel Prize winner in 1990 for Medicine 2 of the 4 Med school presidents in Massachusetts are HC doctors at UMass and Tufts. Its alumni giving rates is in top 10 nationally higher than most Ivies and double that of BC. It’s business/corporate outcomes are phenomenal CEO of Jet Blue, former CEO of Ecolab, Danaher, Wellington investments, current CEO of UHaul. Currently HC grads are on board of directors at CVS, Target, Home Depot, Dicks Sporting Goods, Lyft, Dell, HP etc. Lastly Several pp have said HC has historically been much better than BC And Villanova and Holy Cross has been this Saturday, Holy Cross homecoming opponent is Harvard a school HC has played for over 100 years. Speaking of Harvard the vice chair of the Harvard Management Corporation is a Holy Cross grad. At $90 k a year most parents want successful economic outcomes and prestige, HC is the Catholic Colgate,

[Anonymous]

^Agree, the prestige difference favors Holy Cross which in the last 100 years was aligned with Georgetown and Notre Dame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key thing about Holy Cross its academic reputation is much better than BC and Villanova. HC is the only Jesuit LAC and since US News began ranking Holy Cross is always been in top 25. In 2026, HC ranked 27(with 3 service Academies in LAC groups). Colgate is 22 and Colby at 24-those are its peers not BC 36 in National category or Villanova at 57. Nova has fallen off a cliff. The most important difference between HC and BC and Nova is prestige alumni outcomes of HC vs the other 2. Holy Cross has produced many more highly successful grads Dr Fauci, Clarence Thomas, Chris Mattews. Nobel Prize winner in 1990 for Medicine 2 of the 4 Med school presidents in Massachusetts are HC doctors at UMass and Tufts. Its alumni giving rates is in top 10 nationally higher than most Ivies and double that of BC. It’s business/corporate outcomes are phenomenal CEO of Jet Blue, former CEO of Ecolab, Danaher, Wellington investments, current CEO of UHaul. Currently HC grads are on board of directors at CVS, Target, Home Depot, Dicks Sporting Goods, Lyft, Dell, HP etc. Lastly Several pp have said HC has historically been much better than BC And Villanova and Holy Cross has been this Saturday, Holy Cross homecoming opponent is Harvard a school HC has played for over 100 years. Speaking of Harvard the vice chair of the Harvard Management Corporation is a Holy Cross grad. At $90 k a year most parents want successful economic outcomes and prestige, HC is the Catholic Colgate,

You can't compare rankings between LAC and National Universities. Nice try though.

Both my kids visited HC and thought it was too small, just ok. Both ended up at ND.

[Anonymous]

Of course one can compare LAC rankings with National Universities. Is it apples to apples of course not. Analogy everyone would say top ranked LACs Williams and Amherst are better than Vandy, ND or Emory. Both BC and Villanova were not ranked by US News until the 1990s as both were regional schools. But another fact HC at 3,000 kids has graduated 5 Rhodes Scholars while BC at 10,000 enrollment just 2.

[Anonymous]

This Rhodes Scholar stuff is so dumb. My kid goes to Colorado College, which has 2,200 students and has graduated 12 Rhodes Scholars, more than double HC's 5. Is it a better school?

[Anonymous]

Rhodes Scholars were picked by regions Colorado doesn’t have a lot of schools but guessing Air Force Academy has more than 12. Prime example is West Virginia University with whopping 25. PP us correct in comparing Holy Cross with BC as they are both in highly competitive Massachusetts but 2 for BC is embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key thing about Holy Cross its academic reputation is much better than BC and Villanova. HC is the only Jesuit LAC and since US News began ranking Holy Cross is always been in top 25. In 2026, HC ranked 27(with 3 service Academies in LAC groups). Colgate is 22 and Colby at 24-those are its peers not BC 36 in National category or Villanova at 57. Nova has fallen off a cliff. The most important difference between HC and BC and Nova is prestige alumni outcomes of HC vs the other 2. Holy Cross has produced many more highly successful grads Dr Fauci, Clarence Thomas, Chris Mattews. Nobel Prize winner in 1990 for Medicine 2 of the 4 Med school presidents in Massachusetts are HC doctors at UMass and Tufts. Its alumni giving rates is in top 10 nationally higher than most Ivies and double that of BC. It’s business/corporate outcomes are phenomenal CEO of Jet Blue, former CEO of Ecolab, Danaher, Wellington investments, current CEO of UHaul. Currently HC grads are on board of directors at CVS, Target, Home Depot, Dicks Sporting Goods, Lyft, Dell, HP etc. Lastly Several pp have said HC has historically been much better than BC And Villanova and Holy Cross has been this Saturday, Holy Cross homecoming opponent is Harvard a school HC has played for over 100 years. Speaking of Harvard the vice chair of the Harvard Management Corporation is a Holy Cross grad. At $90 k a year most parents want successful economic outcomes and prestige, HC is the Catholic Colgate,

You can't compare rankings between LAC and National Universities. Nice try though.

Both my kids visited HC and thought it was too small, just ok. Both ended up at ND.

I am sure you are missing a lot of people from your CEO list. One is former CEO or Under Armour…