<p>Bowdoin has about 1700 students while Holy Cross has 2900 students. Comes down to a class size of 425 vs HC’s 725 per year-some people might be more comfortable with larger student body. As mentioned Bowdoin is in a nice small town while Holy Cross is in mid size city-40 miles from Boston. Bowdoin is 120 miles from Boston. Holy Cross has a feel to it as a result of Div1 sports-one of the very few if not only top30 LAC’s that competesat that level in football(1aa), basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse etc.</p>
<p>IF you can get into Bowdoin (which is VERY hard), I think this is a no brainer. The academics are supposed to be super. Also, even if it’s 45 minutes to get into Portland, there’s a lot of shopping in Freeport very close by, so it is really not rural middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>If you are a sports fan, Holy Cross is the no brainer.</p>
<p>Isn’t Worcester somewhat sketchy? I have CHC friends who haven’t really ventured yet because of rumors. </p>
<p>But I hear CHC has a pretty nice campus.</p>
<p>In the latest Payscale ranking of graduates’ mid-career salaries, Holy Cross was in the top 25 of all schools(Universities and LAC’s)beating out Bowdoin and Ct. College. HC’s alumni network is a big asset whether on Wall Street or corporate world. In addtion HC has very active Washington political alumni network with 3 US Supreme Court affiliations, 1 US Senator, 3-4 Congressmen, Chris Matthews, and Obama’s chief speechwriter.</p>
<p>^ Keep in mind that payscale.com only counts the salaries of alumni with terminal Bachelors degrees. In an attempt to isolate the effects of the undergraduate degree, they disregard salaries of alumni with graduate and professional degrees. So a school may be at a disadvantage if relatively many of its highest-achieving alumni do earn higher degrees.</p>
<p>Bowdoin seems to be a top feeder school to leading law, medical, and business schools (it ranked 20th in a 2003 Wall Street Journal study ; HC and CC were outside the top 50). Bowdoin also ranks relatively high for per capita PhD production (32nd for Science & Engineering Doctorates; Holy Cross and CC are outside the top 50 ).
<a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/nsf08311.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/nsf08311.pdf</a></p>
<p>Here are a few other data points to consider: </p>
<p>School …75th%ile SAT M+CR … Research Expenditures/Year … Avg FT Faculty Salary … FT:PT Faculty Ratio
Bowdoin … 1510 … $2.19M … $92,193 … 7:1
Conn Coll … 1410 … $1.02M … $81,250 … 3:1
Holy Cross … 1350 … $0.99M … $78,573 … 5:1</p>
<p>Endowment Per Student
Bowdoin: $754M for 1,777 students (~$424K/student)
HC: $570M for 2,817 students ($202K/student)
CC: $165M for 1,844 FT students (~$89K/student)</p>
<p>Sources
Scores, Salaries, and FT:PT ratio: stateuniversity.com
Endowment: Wikipedi (see also:<a href=“Page not Found”>Page not Found)
Research Expenditures:
[Liberal</a> Arts College Rankings 2010 | Washington Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2010/liberal_arts_rank.php]Liberal”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2010/liberal_arts_rank.php)</p>
<p>These comparisons may or may not mean much to you. These are three good LACs. Best to go visit them if you can.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>LOL. This is an old argument. Worcester, Providence, New Haven, Hartford, and Bridgeport all claim to be “the second largest city in New England,” and each probably has some legitimate claim, depending on how you count. I haven’t seen 2010 census figures, but in the 2000 census the city of Providence slightly edged out the city of Worcester, 173,618 to 172,648. It may be that Worcester has now taken the lead—or not, but at any rate it’s a virtual tie.</p>
<p>But that’s measuring only the city proper. If you measure metropolitan populations including suburbs, it’s not even close. The federal government uses a special category called NECTA (New England City & Town Area) to measure metropolitan areas in New England. Providence’s NECTA had a population of 1.307 million in the 2007 estimate, versus Worcester’s 563,000. By that measure, Worcester comes in 7th in New England, after Boston, Providence, Hartford, Bridgeport, Springfield, and New Haven, in that order.</p>
<p>Or you can use Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), defined slightly differently. By that measure, Worcester (807,000 in 2010) is 6th in New England, after Boston (4.6 million), Providence (1.6 million), Hartford (1.2 million), Bridgeport (907,000), and New Haven (850,000). </p>
<p>Then again, you could count by county. By that measure, Bridgeport (Fairfield County) comes out on top, followed closely by Hartford and New Haven; a little further back is Worcester (despite a much larger land area), then Providence. Of course, most of the suburbs in Fairfield County are New York City suburbs, not Bridgeport suburbs, and in addition to Bridgeport Fairfield has several other “core” cities (e.g., Stamford, Norwalk, Danbury), so Hartford and New Haven would say the Fairfield County population shouldn’t count toward Bridgeport’s total.</p>
<p>Bottom line, Worcester is one of a half-dozen or so mid-sized New England cities, but by most measures not the second-largest population center in the region.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Bowdoin are very good LAC’s with some common features-both schools are SAT optional and have great alumni giving rates>50%(HC’s alumni giving rate was 54%). Bowdoin competes at DIV3 level in athletics while HC has perhaps the most storied athletic program for a selective LAC. Holy Cross football has played in the Orange Bowl and has produced several NFL stars over its 100 years of football.The HC basketball team has won both the NCAA title and NIT while the baseball team has 1 NCAA championship. The HC hockey team scored one of the biggest upsets when they beat Minnesota in the NCAA’s. Both HC and Bowdoin are very good options.</p>
<p>Connecticut College is also SAT optional and is a member of the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference), as is Bowdoin. Last year the men’s lacrosse team won the league title with a 14-1 record, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.</p>
<p>Conn’s sailing team is Div I and is perennially ranked among the best in the nation.</p>
<p>The campus is lovely and has a commanding view of Long Island Sound.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe hockey is the big sport at Bowdoin which this year as often in the recent past is one of the top contenders in NESCAC, a pretty tough college hockey league despite its Div 3 status. </p>
<p>Holy Cross does have a storied football history. It’s Division 1, but in football it’s FCS (formerly Division I-AA), competing in the Patriot League against the likes of Lehigh, Georgetown, Lafayette, Bucknell et al—not exactly football powerhouses. In fact, the Patriot League doesn’t allow football scholarships, so it’s hard to imagine them drawing the top athletes. I suspect it’s been a while since a Holy Cross football player made it big in the NFL. RB/CB Gordie Lockbaum was a Heisman contender in 1987 but never made it in the NFL. More recently, QB Dominic Randolph was a 3-time Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year in 2007, 2008, and 2009 but he never made it in the NFL either. The most famous Crusader (yes, that’s their team name, for better or for worse) athlete is probably Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy. But his college career ended 60 years ago.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is a nice little college with very good academics. Academics at Bowdoin are better, one of the very best among LACs.</p>
<p>Holy Cross remains the only college in the entire northeast (which includes New England and the MidAtlantic regions) ever to win the College Baseball World Series.</p>
<p>In March 2006, the Holy Cross men’s hockey team made history by defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first round of the NCAA Division I Tournament by the score of 4–3, in overtime. The upset was the first time a fifteen or sixteen seed beat a number one or two seed, since the field was expanded to sixteen teams.</p>
<p>
In 1952. HC’s last appearance in the series was in 1963. How is that relevant?</p>
<p>
Due to this difference, Bowdoin is able to be much more generous with aid, plus it eliminated loans for all students. </p>
<p>Conn College can afford to do so only for families making less than $50K per year; Holy Cross cannot afford to do so at all. The average indebtedness at Conn College and Holy Cross is $18.5K and $18K, respectively, and neither is as generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>Average Cost after Financial Aid (COA, FA)
Bowdoin: $15,525 ($50,485, $34,960)
…
HC: $21,539 ($50,832, $29,293)
CC: $21,653 ($53,110, $31,457)</p>
<p>(Note that the financial aid amounts for HC and CC include loans, so the disparity is actually greater.)</p>
<p>
Ditto. Bowdoin seems an easy pick. </p>
<p>If one is extremely picky about athletic life, it makes the most sense for a Bowdoin-caliber applicant to aim for Davidson (which, incidentally, is also loan-free for all students).</p>
<p>For students who want very good academics and Division 1 sports competition, HC is a good choice. HC is the biggest non-Ivy sports rival of Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale. HC’s past athletic success contributes to a sense of alumni pride and alumni giving rate at 54% among the best in the country. There are several top LAC’s with higher US News rankings where athletics is not a big factor-Swartmore, Haverford, Wesleyan , and Bowdoin.</p>
<p>Holy Cross listed in USA Today article “10 great places to get pumped for NCAA action”:</p>
<p>Hart Recreation Center
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Mass.</p>
<p>“This is another tiny gem, seating just 3,600,” Feinstein says. "When it’s packed, it really rocks — the student section is called The Hart Attack, which tells you all you need to know. Hanging from the rafters are championship banners from 1947 and 1954, a reminder that this is the school where Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn played before going on to the Celtics and the Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>[10</a> great places to get pumped for NCAA action - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-01-17-10-great_N.htm]10”>http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2008-01-17-10-great_N.htm)</p>
<p>I don’t understand why sports are being discussed. Are they that big of a deal?</p>
<p>10character mistake post</p>
<p>In the past decade, the Holy Cross men’s basketball team has earned a spot in the NCAA Division 1 basketball tournament four times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2007) and won in the first round of the NIT against University of Notre Dame 78-73 in 2005.</p>
<p>All of these schools are good, but Worcester is a dump and HC isn’t even remotely close to Boston. I love how any school in new england can now claim to be “close” to Boston, lol. You are never going to commute into Boston from Worcester (over an hour with traffic) to go out for a night on the town. This is like saying Connecticut College is “close” to NYC, or that Bowdoin is “close” to Boston. </p>
<p>None of these schools are in or near urban centers (sorry, worchester and portalnd). However, I have visited all of these schools and will attest that Brunswick is a beautiful part of New England. It has more of a New England feel than post-industrial Worchester.</p>