<p>Worcester actually is not that bad…if you know where you’re going. Lots of very good restaurants, nice, remodeled downtown area…and geez, easy driving distance to the mecca of Boston and easier access to Western MA and VT. HC remains superb. HC, similar to Brandeis in a different way, often gets overlooked amidst the New England obsession with the NESCACs.</p>
<p>If you want a large school with 14,000+ students go to BC, if you like a comparatively tiny school with 2891 students go to HC.</p>
<p>[Enrollment</a> Statistics - Office of Student Services - Boston College](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/stserv/enroll.html]Enrollment”>http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/stserv/enroll.html)
[Facts</a> & Figures](<a href=“http://offices.holycross.edu/about/glance]Facts”>http://offices.holycross.edu/about/glance)</p>
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<p>According to the USNWR site, 52% of BC classes have < 20 students, and 6.4% have >= 50. 52.5% of HC classes have < 20 students, and 1.1% have >= 50.</p>
<p>It’s really the atmosphere that is different. As I’ve said, I know many who have gone to either with a choice of both, and it really depends on the person. More will choose BC because of the name recognition, ratings. When it comes to reputation, within academia and those who know both schools, HC has some advantages. Its classics department is fantastic and it does a great job preparing premeds. I’ve seen some bright unfocused kids go there that have been quite transformed. BC is not as personal, can’t be.</p>
<p>Why is it that Holy Cross boosters only every talk about how HC “used to be the most prestigious catholic school” and “was prestigious before BC gained recognition”? Not to also mention the compulsive listing of alumni as if anyone really cares that Chris Matthews went there. </p>
<p>Fact of the matter is that HC is not as prestigious as it used to be, is not considered a peer of the ivies regardless if they play boring football games with them, and is not as desirable or as selective as BC anymore.</p>
<p>I suppose that none of this really matters though. As people have stated before, go with fit and feel. If you want to be in small, relatively isolate LAC, attend HC. If you want to attend a mid-size U relatively near the city, attend BC.</p>
<p>Wow. Sounds like HC should just be boarded up and mothballed. Don’t really see how not being a peer of the Ivies correlates to an opinion of being inferior to BC. The relatively impressive student body will be glad to hear that they are wasting their time at a school of a long bygone era in an “armpit” city. What should the woefully inadequate LACs ranked 35-100 do? Should they even entertain apps this upcoming year?</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my daughter has a friend at Holy Cross and he really loves it. From what I hear, there’s a lot of school spirit and strong sense of community there.</p>
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<p>Its acceptance rate is 5% lower than BCs</p>
<p>^^^^It must be a decent school since when you factor in how horrible Worcester is the admit rate should be at least twice as high as BC. Not sure how crap school in crap city could yield admit rate the same or lower than BC. You must be using stats from the 1940s.</p>
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<p>No it’s not. Nice try though.</p>
<p>[Facts</a> & Figures](<a href=“http://offices.holycross.edu/about/glance]Facts”>http://offices.holycross.edu/about/glance)
[Facts</a> & Figures - Boston College](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/about/facts.html]Facts”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/about/facts.html)</p>
<p>HC: 34%
BC: 29%</p>
<p>Not to also mention that HC’s mid-point M+CR+W SAT score (1955) is ~100 points lower than BC (2040) despite being 3x smaller.</p>
<p>I meant higher.</p>
<p>icheetah,</p>
<p>finalchild doesn’t deal well with actual facts…just that LAC’s rule. finalchild, HC should not be boarded up…unless you volunteer to be inside when it happens.</p>
<p>Bigdog, BC over other crappers like Colby and Colgate, too, right?</p>
<p>You are a real sweetheart.</p>
<p>BC all day long over those two…although at least they are in the woods and not in lovely Worcester! So Colby and Colgate way over HC.</p>
<p>Haha, bigdog. I guess we really do prefer different schools. I got a masters in philosophy at BC but neither my kids nor I had a bit of interest in BC for them. Where would you draw the line on LACs over BC? None? Please don’t tell me BC over Wesleyan, Vassar, Davidson, Haverford and above.</p>
<p>OP- search the HC and BC forums to see if perhaps there is a more useful debate on the differences between these schools.
Good luck with your decision :)</p>
<p>OP, you are making a big decision. This thread skewed heavily towards BC with BC hype. If you actually prefer BC you should go there. They are both great schools. No matter what you’re hearing here, there is virtually no quality/reputation difference between the two academically. HC is a superb, highly reputable school and the academic experience will be more intimate if that matters to you. And any name brand advantage BC has is purely because of athletics. Obviously Boston is a nice city, arguably the best in the world for college students, but BC also is not in the heart of the city, and HC is within a very driveable distance to Boston. In your initial post you said something about feeling you fit better with the kids at HC. If that is true, do NOT underestimate that. Fit among comparable schools is critical, or else it can be a long 4 years.</p>
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<p>Personally as a finance/biz major, I would pick BC over all of those schools except Haverford. </p>
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<p>It honestly isn’t. Only one person (informative) actually hyped BC as being “significantly better than HC” and some other comments stated BC has a bigger rep, while others cited HC being a more intimate environment. But of course the Holy Cross inferiority complex/defense mechanism switch had be turned on and the boosters need to insist that HC is a SUPERB ACADEMIC SCHOOL WITH LOTS OF FAMOUS ALUMNI AND TREMENDOUS ALUMNI SUPPORT etc. etc.</p>
<p>Seriously though, what is with this need to keep stating that HC is a great academic environment? Has anyone said it isn’t?</p>
<p>Oh my god finalchild, if you had told me long ago you had a masters in philosophy I would have excused the majority of your posts. Explains why at times you carry on so about things with no answer. Now I feel badly.</p>
<p>My D got in BC but it wasn’t a “fit” for her. She really wanted one Boston school.</p>
<p>As for HC I actually do hate to generalize but I think the fit for the school is the very nerdy type. Again this is based on a sister, sister-in-law, neighbor and several work associates. Nothing wrong with that at all btw…just who I think fit well.</p>
<p>I’m just not a fan of LAC’s finalchild - you confuse that with me saying they aren’t solid schools. They are very good but for me (and my kids…on their own) a few things come into play 1) having more options when they don’t know what they want to study or be when they grow up and 2) high school is over. Time to grow more and branch out into the big bad world. Before you go on the attack this isn’t a right or wrong discussion - an opinion.</p>
<p>See I’m one of those MBA types so I think differently than you (or wait, in your world are business majors capable of thoughts?) Kidding…</p>
<p>cheetahdude and my dearest of friends bigdog, this is getting tedious. I have no stake in either school. At all. I am unaware of whether HC has a boisterous alumni base. I’m not Catholic. I think I’m vaguely Methodist. My reaction here is that a kid is making a big decision, and I hate to see him choose based on some very distorted posting that creates an image of HC as a good school long ago that is now decrepit and crumbling and now 2nd or 3rd tier. I think that is a huge disservice to the kid. HC ad BC, while obviously different, are very much in the same universe quality, prestige and reputation-wise. You are blowing smoke to suggest anything otherwise. If the kid actually prefers BC I hope he picks BC. I’d just hate to see him not pick HC based on some very distorted information.</p>
<p>As for LACs, I do like a lot of and them and some not so much. As you know bigdog, my kid was waitlisted at Michigan and Wash U and either would have been a top contender if accepted. NYU was her dream school and she got in, but with no money we took it out of consideration. She also got in GWU, Northeastern, American, Brandeis and Bryn Mawr. Mostly, non-LACs there. And her final choice came down to Macalester vs Rochester, and she is picking Rochester, so she picked the non-LAC. </p>
<p>You think you knew my bias because of the Colgate debacle and your Colby gratuitous slam, but you don’t. The debate could be between two non-LACs, two LACs, or whatever. What I don’t like is when I feel, like in this case, that preference is argued vehemently in the direction of one school over another suggesting a margin wider than I believe is accurate. Every kid can’t get into a top 10 school, or the money doesn’t work. I think it is a disservice to suggest that other excellent schools are somehow 2nd rate when there are extremely talented kids out there who have worked very hard to get in those schools or can’t get in. Obviously we can disagree, but most often I jump in when I see characterizations that I think are unfair.</p>
<p>And no worries, I got my Ph.D. in something slightly more practical than philosophy (but I do credit a professor I had at BC for having a major impact on the next phase of my academic/professional life).</p>