<p>I am headed to one of theses schools with the intention of transferring after freshman year to a school like Cornell, Columbia, USC, Duke, or Northwestern. Which one would look better and give me a better chance of transferring into one of those schools? Thank you!</p>
<p>LOL Maggie go with the cheapest school</p>
<p>Agreed with Bud because you’ll be switching anyways.</p>
<p>Well, you should also choose the one you like the best, just in case the transfer doesn’t work out…</p>
<p>Go to Holy Cross. I want to keep BC’s retention rate at 96-98%</p>
<p>I agree with Reddune. Princeton Review gives HC an Academic Rating of 98 and gives BC an Academic Rating of 88.</p>
<p>go to BC. I got into both, and chose BC last year. BC is much more well-respected, although I loved HC. Also, don’t go to school with the mind-set of transferring. BC is a great place!</p>
<p>BC is much more well-respected, although I loved HC. </p>
<p>LOL, that was the funniest post I have come across so far! I hope that is a joke. BC is not as respected as HC. BC is a good school but HC has been a top academic school for a long time. </p>
<p>I am going to refer you to a 1962 article to give you some historical perspective. Notre Dame and HC were historically the academic powers among catholic colleges. Boston College was a “commuter college.” Boston College has improved it’s profile but is still considered a step below ND, GTown and HC.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938328,00.html[/url]”>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938328,00.html</a></p>
<p>Here’s a recent thread: [What</a> are the Best Catholic Universities in America? - Yahoo! Answers](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20080805040835AADXz53]What”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20080805040835AADXz53)
Notice how Notre Dame and Holy Cross were mentioned.</p>
<p>History lesson for you, TominVT:</p>
<p>It should be noted that Boston College (BC) had been overlooked and underappreciated for its first 100 years or so, trying to make its mark in Boston – that bastion of Puritan/Protestant oppression (to all things Catholic) – coupled with its academic arm, Harvard, from whose long shadow it was particularly hard to emerge. What college would not pale next to the most famous one in the land – possibly the world?!</p>
<p>It was class warfare, pure and simple. Boston “society” kept the “less than white” Irish immigrants “in their place”, while Harvard ensured that the “heathen” Irish would not gain entry to its hallowed halls – even to the extent of denying BC graduates recognition that their degrees were adequate for entry to any of Harvard’s graduate and professional schools. Funny thing is that if one looks at the debating competitions between the two over the years, one will find that BC more than held its own against the Bluebloods from Cambridge.</p>
<p>That BC rose from those improbable odds to its present stature is testimony to its resolve – that even the likes of Harvard was not going to keep BC down…</p>
<p>Hmm… I wonder how the “better” Catholic colleges would have fared in similar circumstances. Do you suppose that they, too, would have been less well thought of?
I am trying hard but I cannot think of any that had to compete in the way that BC did – and still does!</p>
<p>This is a really silly thread. ALL of the religious-affiliated colleges are not as well thought of as secular colleges, for all kinds of reasons. It just is.</p>
<p>stick in the mud – care to elaborate?</p>
<p>IMO, religious-based colleges take a hit on their Peer Assessment, thus they are lower ranked than they otherwise would/could be based on all other factors. And since PA is based in part, on “prestige” (however defined)…</p>
<p>So Holy Cross, Boston College, Notre Dame and Georgetown are not as highly regarded as Suffolk University, Middle Tennessee State, SUNY Potsdam and Quinnipeac University? Funny, I’d never heard that before. I guess you’re never too old to learn something new.</p>
<p>Dear maggie123 : If you are not able to reach your dream schools as a freshman, please be aware that your expected success rate at many of these schools is smaller as a transfer than as a freshman. Transfer acceptance rates are governed by the number slots that become available in the class of your desired year in addition to applicant quality. Our recommendation is to choose a college or university not based on a transfer platform, but based on a four year commitment.</p>
<p>Dear Reddune : You have nailed this thread in your comments. Retention rate is very important in college rankings and Boston College does not need collections of students looking to hang their hats for a year.</p>
<p>Dear TominVT : The College of the Holy Cross is now generally seen as the safety school option to Boston College. Midpoint SAT scores among many other factors indicate that this is clearly the case. This does not dismiss that Holy Cross provides its own unique character campus and flavor. Too much is put into college ranking polls that bear no reality to what the average student feels on a campus when all alone on a rainy midweek afternoon.</p>
<p>Dear bluebayou : There are many reasons to agree with your point regarding religiously affiliated institutions versus secular schools. One key point is that there is a natural filtering that takes place with many applicants considering affiliated schools. There have been numerous discussions recently that the Boston College football program feels this on a national level when the bowl selection process takes place.</p>
<p>Dear hudsonvalley51 : If you are going to deride schools, at least have the courtesy to spell them correctly.</p>
<p>If you’re going to transfer, you’ll need a really high gpa. Holy Cross, with its Worcester location, offers far fewer off-campus distractions, giving you more time to study.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to enter college with the intention of transferring. Why not enter with an open mind and see if you like it wherever you choose? Holy Cross and BC are good schools that a lot of people would be thrilled to gain admission to. Why are you so focused on attending a college that turned you down? Go somewhere where they want you.</p>
<p>“Why are you so focused on attending a college that turned you down?”</p>
<p>I’m guessing the OP is one of those poor souls who has absolute faith in the US News rankings, and/or has an acute case of Groucho-itis (wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member). It’s odd that the schools she wants to transfer are higher ranked than BC and HC, but they are notoriously depositories for Harvard/Yale/Princeton rejects, as opposed to BC and Holy Cross, which although they have their share of Ivy wannabes, they seem to have a lot of folks who really want to be there for the unique Jesuit atmosphere. </p>
<p>A lot of people feel uncomfortable with not being at the top, and having others looking down on them. It’s something one has to get used to, though. If you’re at Cornell, people at Columbia will be looking down on you. If you’re at Columbia, those at HYP will be looking down on you. If you’re at Harvard, Harvard undergrads in more difficult majors will be looking down at you. If you’re in Harvard’s most difficult majors, grad students will be looking down on you. If you’re a grad student, professors will be looking down on you. If you’re a professor, other professors who get more research money and have to teach less classes will look down on you. And if you’re the top research professor at Harvard, your wife is possibly pining to get uncomplicatedly ravished (with no references to Shakespeare or Einstein) by the buff carpenter who lives across the street. There’s no magic door you can walk through that puts you in a 100% secure position in life.</p>
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<p>Nah, that is all about the fact that BC is in the ACC, a “basketball” conference, as was the Big East. :D</p>
<p>Good post Schmaltz.</p>