<p>And when I say lesser scale, I don't mean Umass-Boston, I mean in term of other LAC. Furthermore, Holy Cross has claim to smaller class sizes and intimate relationship with professors. BC doesn't match it in those categories at the moment, but the scary thing for is with BC's willingness to spend its respectful endowment on bringing down class sizes to the level of a LAC. Holy Cross, on the other hand, cannot afford all the amenities BC offers: big time sports, numerous majors, and etc. So although HC has an edge right now in term of students-professor ratio, it doesn't mean it will keep that edge in the future.</p>
<p>BC ratio: 13:1
HC ratio: 11:1
Not exactly a big gap to fill.</p>
<p>Furthermore, BC (1260-1410) has already lead HC (1210-1380) in the SAT by 50 points at the lower end and 30 pts at the higher. The SAT is not a perfect indicator of great students, but it gives you a relative gauge of the growing difference</p>
<p>And? Better student life? School pays for your books? You can give us numbers all you like, but what do they say about the different between the two? Endowments are piggies for a rainy day, reserve to build later project, and to use as leverage when you borrow money to build in the immediate.</p>
<p>My question to you is "What does Holy Cross plan to use its endowment on?"</p>
<p>NYU's traditional endowment was pathetic for the school its size and fame, but it was because it was willing to spend spend spend.</p>
<p>Here is a more telling number, the annual operating expenditures/per student.</p>
<p>HC spends a respectful $45,138 per student (some what equivalent to tuition+room board)
BC spends a a little more with $70,865 per student. (tuition+room board is not even close to cover this cost)</p>
<p>For all what BC has to offer, it has to shell out more dollars. In the foreseeable future this gap would increase exponentially. This phenomenon is not BC's alone, all across higher education, every major university is on an arm race to spend and expand.</p>
<p>Boston College Facts (Boston</a> College Facts - Boston College)
by the numbers
ENROLLMENT
14,500 total enrollment
9,000 full-time undergraduates
800 evening undergraduates (full- and part-time)
4,700 graduate and professional students (full- and part-time) </p>
<p>For Holy Cross:
Total Full Time Enrollment 2,817
No evening students, no part-time students, no graduate students.</p>
<p>Endowment per student means very little in term of expenditure per student. You haven't answered my previous question regarding the significant of HC's endowment for its student. Georgetown's endowment, until recent years (2006 I think), hovered around the hundreds of millions, and yet it could afford to give its students very generous financial aid. So endowment doesn't translate into spending for students. </p>
<p>800 evening undergraduates (full- and part-time)
4,700 graduate and professional students (full- and part-time) </p>
<p>A) These students do not live on campus so they do not use as much as resources as undergraduate.<br>
B) BC has to pay grad students to grade, do some teaching, and to work with professors. They COUNT as expenditures on resources rather than source of revenues.</p>
<p>So let count the grad students and part time students into the mix for expenditure. </p>
<p>BC still spends $46,000 per students for all 14500 students from all departments at all levels, despite having a smaller endowment per student as you like to point out. Imagine that. My original post points out the growing gap in expenditures and this clearly proves the huge difference. BC is willing to spend to make itself more attractive at a national level, and eventually international. HC cannot spend due to its position. It doesn't mean HC cannot afford to spend, it has the money to, but as a college it only sticks with liberal arts. BC, on the other hand, is doing a business, nursing, education, heavily research in sciences, social work, theology, and law. This makes BC very attractive to many students, not all, however, but it's a building up of a reputation. BC is a university and HC is a college. Despite that, its expenditures on student still keep pace with a LAC and in term of numerous other factors (professor/student ratio for one, heavy sport involvement at all levels). They have become two different breeds. BC is competing with Universities and not Colleges. This goes back to my original point: "they are competing in different league, at different level, on different scale."</p>
<p>I actually think BC is a great school and located in a nice setting. I am a HC grad and just like to stir the pot sometimes with our rival Jesuit school ;-></p>
<p>When I was at HC, I went into one of the dorms....to be frank, it looked like a pile of crap. Really small and awful. BC seemed much nicer. Did I get the wrong impression, or is that accurate?</p>
<p>The quality of the dorms varies significantly at HC from exceptional to not so great depending on the age of the dorm. Some are in need of an overhaul. Others are nearly brand new. The one positive is that there is sufficient housing for all students and it is all on one campus.</p>
<p>On most college campuses, freshman often get the lower quality dorms and upper class men get the better dorms. You probably visited a predominantly freshman dorm.</p>
<p>I graduated from a Boston-area high school in 1974, went to a Worcester-area junior college for my first year of college, and graduated from BC in 1978. Holy Cross was a Division I school then (don't think they had Div. IAA football back then). HC was BC's big rival in football and basketball then.</p>
<p>There is NO doubt in my mind that HC was the more academically prestigious school until Flutie went to BC and HC dipped to Div. IAA (which I think happened in the same general timeframe). After those 2 things happened, BC's national reputation and prestige skyrocketed and Holy Cross's fame (though not prestige) kind of receeded a bit and it became more of a regional school (people in thier 70s and 80s will remember Holy Cross winning national basketball championships and going to major bowl games--it was at least as famous as BC decades ago).</p>
<p>I'm quite certain that nowadays HC and BC are about equal in academic rep and fame from NYC northward. But in the rest of the country, BC is quite well known, while Holy Cross is not known at all except by fans of the Jesuit way of teaching.</p>
<p>Don't the Patriot League and Holy Cross offer basketball scholarships. One kid I'm an acquaintance with is going to HC on basketball scholarship. Just curious.</p>