<p>I applied to the Management School at BC, was waitlisted, and then admitted, but only to the College of Arts and Sciences. So, the BC college of arts and sciences or Holy Cross?</p>
<p>Freshman at Holy Cross are on campus whereas at BC you are located on a separate campus and bussed in every day. However, Boston is prettier than factory town Worcester. Traditionally HC has had stronger academics but BC's admissions have gotten more competitive due to rising athletic profile.</p>
<p>Robbie, you are <em>so</em> lucky...I'm <em>very</em> jealous...</p>
<p>I deposited at HC already and cant wait to be a Crusader and all, but believe me if I got off the BC waitlist I'd jump ship in a heartbeat! and I dont think innocent is right about stronger academics at HC. I mean cmon, BC is way more prestigious.</p>
<p>Dear South,</p>
<p>I wouldn't consider myself that lucky because this is possibly the hardest decision of my life and here's why. Both BC and HC were my number one picks. I got into and enrolled at HC and I was completely thrilled to be a Crusader. I even didn't really care if I got into BC or not; or that is what I thought until I actually got in. The problem is that I am 100% sure that I want to study business, specifically finance. Unfortunately, I applied to the BC Management School and was not admitted because it was full. I only got into the BC Arts and Sciences off the wait list. The things is, there is no guarantee that I will be able to transfer from the BC A&S to the BC Business. If that is the case, it will be a miserable four years and I will come out with a degree i don't want. My other option would be to major in finance from Holy Cross and do either the pre-business or pre-law program. Also, I like the HC campus better and the size of the school but Worcester sucks. So as of now I am still going to HC but let me know what you think because I have until Friday to let BC know.</p>
<p>No...you <em>really</em> are lucky because at least you have that choice to make unlike the rest of us (theres a <em>ton</em> of other BC rejects going to HC next year).</p>
<p>You should go with what feels right. If you like the HC campus more than BC maybe thats your answer. Im the exact opposite since I love the "Harry Potter" feel of BCs buildings and that the subway stop is right there on campus. I dunno about business tho. But even if you were a painting major, after you graudate, people would be like "Wow, Boston College"...verses "Um Holy Cross? Wheres that?" Plus couldnt you major in economics in a&s at BC even if you cant transfer into their business school?</p>
<p>Good luck either way...and if you choose HC tell them to take me off the waitlist!</p>
<p>go to Boston College</p>
<p>I think that the school's alumni giving rate is a good indicator of their overall happiness with the school. Holy Cross's alumni giving rate is 50% where as BC's is an embarrassing 25%.</p>
<p>college or university
residential campus v freshman busing
academics or athletics
liberal arts v business, management, nursing etc</p>
<p>jack hc '78
elaine bc'78</p>
<p>South, do you think BC is more prestigious because of its athletics? Academically BC and HC are both very good schools but, if you want what a liberal arts college offers thn HC is a better choice. If you interested in pursuing Medicine, HC is a great choice. As I understand it, HC pre-med sequence is not for the weak at heart. The program is highly regarded by Medical Schools as well. We should not confuse prestige with better academics. Imho, BC's prestige is based on its athletic program more than its academics. Don't get me wrong, BC is a very nice school but it is known because of athletics</p>
<p>"BC's prestige is based on its athletic program more than its academics."</p>
<p>This is an incredibly unfounded assumption. I posted a reply to this on the BC forum and I'm going to copy what I wrote.</p>
<p>I thought to myself, can one 'Hail Mary' be that much more compelling in increasing a school to the national stage. What about national championship, or repeated championships? Surely, a school that won many championships would raise its fame much better than just one play in a non-bowl game, therefore attracting better students and improving the school caliber overall, and ultimately its prestige, right? Right? So I checked every college football champion since 1984--the year Flutie said the famous prayer--and see how their ranking works out for them versus BC's current 35th rank in the US News World Report. The USNWR ranking does not tell us what school is better academically, but it gives us a relative gauge at the intangible "prestige" element.</p>
<p>1984 BYU (USNWR-79th)
1985 Oklahoma (108th)
1986 Penn State (48th)
1987 U. Miami (52nd)
1988 Notre Dame (19th)
1989 U. Miami (52nd)
1990 Colorado (79th)
1990 Georgia Tech (35th)
1991 U. Miami (52nd)
1991 Washington (42nd)
1992 Alabama (91st)
1993 Florida State (112th)
1994 Nebraska (91st)
1995 Nebraska (91st)
1996 Florida (49th)
1997 Michigan (25th)
1997 Nebraska (91st)
1998 Tennessee (96th)
1999 Florida State (112th)
2000 Oklahoma (108th)
2001 U. Miami (52nd)
2002 Ohio State (57th)
2003 LSU (Third-Tier...!...300ish)
2003 USC (27th)
2004 USC (27th)
2005 Texas (44th)
2006 Florida (49th)</p>
<p>The average ranking for the 27 national champions (including ties) is an incredibly low 73rd rank. Even if we take out LSU third-tier status, the average rank would be 64.9 or 65th. In fact, with the exception of Notre Dame, Michigan, and USC, no other national champion's ranked higher than BC. Even without sport Notre Dame would still be an incredible school with prestige in hand; USC was ranked in the top 40s-30s even before Pete Carroll returned it to a national power house in football. Although NC/ranking is not a scientific study, it does give me a feeling that football, or sports in general, quite frankly does not do much for one's prestige or national ranking. There has to be a lot more tangible benefits and qualities to a school just to get students to look at them, let alone deciding to attend or not. Next time someone tells me that Flutie made BC the school it is today, I'll reply "tell that to Miami and its six national champions, or better yet, the next ivy LSU."</p>
<p>Then again, maybe football is a fluke. Maybe it's not that important. Well, let try Basketball. We all love March Madness and those crazy names that substitute for those crazy finals (semi, quarter, etc). I will start with the 1980 since this is when BC made its ascension according to some.</p>
<p>1980 Louisville* (Third-Tier—200ish)
1981 Indiana (75th)
1982 North Carolina (28th)
1983 North Carolina State (85th)
1984 Georgetown (23rd)
1985 Villanova** (unranked)
1986 Louisville (Third-Tier-200ish)
1987 Indiana (75th)
1988 Kansas (85th)
1989 Michigan (25th)
1990 UNLV (Third-Tier-219th)
1991 Duke (8th)
1992 Duke (8th)
1993 North Carolina (28th)
1994 Arkansas (124th)
1995 UCLA (25th)
1996 Kentucky (122nd)
1997 Arizona (96th)
1998 Kentucky (122nd)
1999 Connecticut (64th)
2000 Michigan (25th)
2001 Duke (8th)
2002 Maryland (54th)
2003 Syracuse (50th)
2004 Connecticut (64th)
2005 North Carolina (28th)
2006 Florida (49th)
2007 Florida (49th)
<em>Louisville is three spots above prestige mega-house Umass-Lowell.<br>
*</em> Villanova is not tallied in the final calculation because it’s not ranked nationally, which everyone else is. Although #1 in Master’s North, that’s a regional ranking. </p>
<p>The average rank of NCAA men basketball champions is 69.25 or just plain 69th. If we take out Duke’s high 8th ranking, we would have the average jumps down to 76.6. BC has not won a single men’s basketball champion, ever. Heck, we haven’t even reached the Final Four. So this theory that BC’s prestige is from athletic is preposterous. We haven’t won a modern championship in any highly televised college sport except for rating “power-house” Hockey in 2001. If athletic has such an incredible prestige building property, Louisville—two time champions since 1980s—wouldn’t be a third-tier school trying to break the top 100 while a small time sport school like Northeastern has achieved the feat based on its plan to improve its academics and competitiveness of its students. That fact that BC's ranking twice higher than the national average of national champs from two of the most popular sports in the NCAA despite having solid but no championship caliber teams should tell us that sport does not equal prestige by a long shot. Heck, you would have a better case with UCLA and Georgetown with their highly successful basketball programs than with BC. What sport does is that it gives you some exposure and draw in potential applicants from places far away--this happened when BC joined the ACC. Whether your school gets the students or not entirely depends on its academic quality, campus quality, location, and financial aid. BC is just great school that happens to have good sports. Sport didn't make BC as much as it didn't make Louisville. </p>
<p>I have demonstrated to you my point. If you want to defend "BC's prestige is based on its athletic program more than its academics," then please provide some empirical data for this. I’m all ears.</p>
<p>Go to Boston College. It's definitely the better school.</p>
<p>i went to BC for grad school and considered it for undergrad but ultimately chose HC for undergrad. i would choose holy cross a million times over BC. why? relationships with faculty members and small class sizes. the biggest class i was ever in at HC was 36 students. i still have incredibly strong relationships with faculty members there and i graduated 4 years ago. i do have good relationships with a couple of profs at BC but they are not of the same depth and strength of those with my professors at HC. the faculty at holy cross go out of their way to mentor students-- the same cannot be said for faculty at BC in my experience. i was also never taught by a TA at BC. if name recognition is more important to you, then go to BC. if you want a small, nurturing environment choose holy cross. i recommend visiting the schools to get a taste of the difference in the student body. sit in on a freshman class in your proposed major. this was my personal experience but HC was the right fit for me.</p>
<p>If you want small class sizes and close relationships with professors and small caring community, go to HC. If you prefer an ACC style education with large class sizes with heavy emphasis on sports (football and basketball) are the driving forces on campus, then pick BC or any of the other fine ACC schools. The sports venues at ACC schools remind me of the better funded Pro franchises. Maryland's Comcast Center is as nice or nicer that the Verizon center where the Washington Wizards play.</p>
<p>^You do realize that Robbie already chose BC last year, right? The thread is soon to be a year old.</p>
<p>"If you prefer an ACC style education with large class sizes with heavy emphasis on sports (football and basketball)"</p>
<p>This doesn't even make any sense. ACC education is about large classes teaching sports?</p>
<p>Looks like BC and HC are both in last place in Men's basketball right now for their conferences. Let's hope they both come back to life for the conference tournament.</p>
<p>I prefer BC because it has been my dream to live on a separate campus a mile and and a half away and be bussed to the actual real campus whenever I need to go to classes. Sounds like the perfect set up for me.</p>
<p>^And isn't amazing that ten of thousand of students every year would gladly pay $49,500 for that privilege? I'm glad you are one of them.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed taking the bus in high school so I will feel right at home!</p>
<p>BC lost a tough one to NC tonight 90-80 and are in tenth place. Going to be a rough tournament.</p>
<p>I read that Villanova has a smilar situation as at BC where freshman live at a different campus and take a bus to main campus. Holy Cross only has one integrated campus.</p>