<p>I know choosing a college based on where you friends are going to go is never a good thing. However, I have recently been accepted to Boston College and Holy Cross and my best friend, who is like my sister and my best friend since fifth grade, was accepted to Holy Cross too but she was waitlisted for Boston College. We both received a really good financial aid package from HC. So far, she is going to HC.
I have heard that BC is more "prestigious" because of their acceptance rate than HC. But they both have a really good pre-med program.
Should I go to BC, for its name and prestige or HC, where I will be with my best friend?</p>
<p>P.S. I know some of you guys will tell me that not going to college with your best friend is a good thing because it will allow us to make new friends. However, I just wanted to let you know that my best friend and I are really, really close but we also have enough space to leave our comfort zone and make new friends separately.
So please, keep in mind that meeting and making new friends will not be an issue for us even if we end up going to the same school :)</p>
<p>No real difference in prestige between BC and Holy Cross. Among the general public, BC is more well known due to their ACC football team and due to the college being named after a prominent city. Academically they are quite comparable with HC having a reputation as being more challenging than BC. Suggest picking the college that you like better. HC is 1/3 the size of BC and all one campus, not spread across two separate campuses 2 miles apart like BC. BC has better location in Chestnut Hill than HC’s Worcester.</p>
<p>Seriously, Par 72, a diehard, Holy Cross stalwart, will undoubtedly try to sway you to THAT place, and will portray Boston College as a place populated by Neanderthals…</p>
<p>If only The College of the Holy Cross had not adopted ‘purple’ as its color, perhaps its proponents would not be such royal pains…</p>
<p>Holy Cross has one of the better pre-med programs in the country and its med school acceptance rate is very high. The HC alumni network is fantastic. Holy Cross along with Notre Dame and Georgetown are highly ranked by US News.</p>
<p>Last year I had the option of BC or HC and went with HC. I just felt more at home there. Prestige-wise they are essentially the same. The difference in acceptance rates is only a couple percent and scores are very similar. BC is a national university and HC is a liberal arts college so they are very different places. I think you should find which one is best suited for you.</p>
<p>@required_details
The Newton and Chestnut Hill campuses are only slightly over a mile apart, not two miles. Plus, the majority of students never have to go to the Newton Campus if they do not feel the need, it’s only the law school and 40% of the freshman class that lives there. Differences in academics are also largely based on the subject one wants to study. </p>
<p>@par72
While the HC alumni network may be great, BC is also well known for having alumni that will go out of their way to secure opportunities for current BC students, whether it be internships, research, or job openings. BC is also highly ranked with ND and GT, with ND coming in at #19, GT at #22, and BC at #31 in the national university rankings. </p>
<p>@collegerooki
You should definitely choose the school which you feel suits YOU better. Whichever of the two aligns more closely with your academic, social, and financial needs, is the school you should attend. If it happens to be BC, just know Worcester and Chestnut Hill aren’t that far apart. You can still visit your friend, even if only for an afternoon.</p>
<p>You should choose based on aid and what fits you better. All things being even Holy Cross has a much better pre-med program that in academic circles is one of the best in the country. If you decide to go Bio or Chem Holy Cross also tends to have better hard science programs than BC</p>
<p>“Holy Cross has one of the better pre-med programs in the country and its med school acceptance rate is very high…” [AND that is because HC only allows the best and brightest to even go through the motions of obtaining a Committee Rec to apply to med school. Heck, if one is not on the official premed track “list”, one might not even be able to register for the premed prereqs if they are full - official listers receive reg priority.]. :)</p>
<p>That being said I agree with Chris and Lily. Choose the school that YOU like better, LAC or mediums-sized Uni. Your bff should be of no consequence.</p>
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<p>I strongly disagree with that statement. BC’s Chem department is excellent. Bio has just been revamped so that first year’s are now participating in real research. OTOH, since BC is lacking an Engineering program (as is HC), Physics is just ok.</p>
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<p>Source, please? </p>
<p>And besides the artificially-inflated admission number, how many HC students matriculate to Harvard Med, Yale Med, Hopkins, WashU, Chicago? (“one of the best in the country” should be sending its students to the best med schools in the country, should it not?)</p>
<p>oops, my bad: I just checked the rankings…BC’s physics department is well regarded by the academics. NRC puts BC physics at a midpoint of 45, a few spots higher than it’s Chem dept.</p>
<p>Thanks for providing some facts regarding Boston College academics bluebayou.</p>
<p>Not too long ago, BC built an entire building dedicated to chemistry – Merkert, and has since hired a number of outstanding faculty that have garnered considerable national and international praise for research they are conducting.</p>
<p>The Physics building --Higgins – was recently remodeled and enlarged; new faculty taken on and cutting-edge research in things like nanotechnology have raised that department’s stature to a high degree.</p>
<p>Both department’s, and numerous others in all of BC’s schools, have also benefitted from the university having established (and continuing) a good number of endowed professorships, thereby attracting a very high caliber faculty.</p>
<p>This year, alone, four of BC’s young faculty were awarded prestigious Sloan Fellowships to help further their research.</p>
<p>Last, to those who wish to post about BC’s supposed lack of “hard” academics, be aware that your information is probably ignorant and surely outdated.</p>
<p>The Holy Cross pre-med program is fantastic and its medical alums include a Nobel Prize winner, one of the top doctors at NIH, and several med school president. Most class sizes are small taught by full time professors not grad students. Holy Cross enjoys one of the highest alumni giving rates at 55% in the same company of Williams, Amherst and Dartmouth. Also in the recent Payscale salary study HC was ranked 12th among all schools and in the same range as Colgate, Duke, Stanford.</p>
<p>As if you could not tell there is a fierce rivaliry between HC & BC. Both are fine schools but are very different. You should visit both and see which best suits you.</p>
<p>The Biology Major and Premed (now called Health Professions) at Holy Cross are very selective, as only 120 are admitted to the Bio Major. The first two years are very tough as the 120 often drops down to about 40 after the second year, or even the 3rd semester. Many probably still stay in Premed but switch majors to Psychology or something easier, although a great number do not achieve well enough in Organic Chem and Bio to be serious candidates for Med School. I think this explains in part why Holy Cross has a high Med School admittance rate of about 85%. Anyone who can get through the rigorous premed program, with so many tough courses with labs, with a GPA of 3.5 should be an excellent candidate for Med School on academic performance. I was told by one prestigious Med School that a Holy Cross GPA of 3.5 is equal to 3.7-3.8 or higher at many schools.
I think Boston College is also very good but</p>
<p>The Biology Major and Premed (now called Health Professions) at Holy Cross are very selective, as only 120 are admitted to the Bio Major. The first two years are very tough as the 120 often drops down to about 40 after the second year, or even the 3rd semester. Many probably still stay in Premed but switch majors to Psychology or something easier, although a great number do not achieve well enough in Organic Chem and Bio to be serious candidates for Med School. I think this explains in part why Holy Cross has a high Med School admittance rate of about 85%. Anyone who can get through the rigorous premed program, with so many tough courses with labs, with a GPA of 3.5 should be an excellent candidate for Med School on academic performance. I was told by one prestigious Med School that a Holy Cross GPA of 3.5 is equal to 3.7-3.8 or higher at many schools.
I think Boston College is also very good but I doubt that it has a better/more rigorous Chem or Bio Department as Holy Cross.
If bluebayou would check, he would see that Holy Cross premed graduates have been admitted to all top Med Schools such as Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc. and that 45-50 students are admitted to various Med Schools each year.</p>
<p>These aren’t really peer schools. BC is a national university in Boston with a prestigious undergraduate and graduate academic profile. Holy Cross is a small LAC in Worcester with a decent reputation.</p>
<p>Do NOT listen to informative. These are peer schools. One is just bigger with higher profile sports on the edge of a great college city. But HC is excellent and very highly regarded in New England and around the country. And it’s actually a large LAC within less than an hour of a the same great college city.</p>
<p>Both schools are run by the Jesuits. Holy Cross was founded 20 years before BC and there has always been a fierce rivalry between the two schools as they are only 40 miles apart and attract similar caliber students. HC is a LAC with less than 3000 students on one campus and BC is a university comprised of several colleges of 14,000 students on multiple campuses.</p>
<p>BC’s organic chem is recieving national acclaim.</p>
<p>BC’s frosh bio lab program is unique among colleges. Students get to do real research during their bio lab time. (It’s a new program started two years ago.)</p>
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<p>What really explains HC’s self-claimed rate is that FACT that HC will not provide recommendations for students for med school if HC does not think that they measure up. Heck, it was only a couple of years ago, that HC would not even allow non-approved students into the premed classes if they were full. (Not sure if this is current policy.) </p>
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<p>It’s great if you are part of the 120, but not so great if you don’t make the cut. Personally, I find this rather unwelcoming for a Jesuit Uni, but it works for HC. By eliminating any questionable student from applying, its stats skyrocket. However, I’m sure its not the admission stats that they are concerned with; rather, its lab space. Lab courses are expensive to operate and by essentially capping premeds, they manage costs.</p>
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<p>Historically, that is true. But in the past decade the attraction of Boston apparently beats Worchester. Besides SAT scores, my favorite stat:</p>
<p>Percent of students graduating in top decile of HS:</p>
<p>HC = 60%</p>
<p>BC = 85+%</p>
<p>But as I’ve posted repeatedly: if you like a LAC, HC is a great choice. But if a LAC feels too small–and LACs feel too small for many–apply elsewhere.</p>