3.8UW GPA
Psychology major
No rank
From competitive Massachusetts High School
Rigor- 3 AP classes (school does not offer many) rest are honors
Awards- National honor society, italian and Latin honor society, Italian and Latin National exam awards, Italian club leadership award.
EC’s- Gymnastics and Dance for 15 yrs, president/treasurer of 3 clubs, volunteer at a catholic nursing home, summer program at Harvard, mentor elementary school students, teach ballet to little kids, own my own business.
I can’t chance you but short of no test (59% submitted last year), you look good. They place in interview in the important category so if they feel it went well it will help. Your ECs are very solid and if you tapped out the APs you have good rigor. And you are doing the best form of demonstrated interest by EDing .
So I think you have a very good chance, very good.
Holy Cross is going to be hard to predict this year because more students decided to enroll last year than they had expected. The result is that they are a little overcrowded. In reaction to this, I expect that they will aim for a smaller freshman class for next year to ease the overcrowding.
Applications were up by 8% last year, so acceptance rate dropped by 7%. I expect that applications will continue to rise this year and the acceptance rate will continue to fall. It will be harder to get in.
Rigor of the high school curriculum is important to HC but unfortunately your high school doesn’t offer many AP’s. Somehow you will have to overcome that. The essay is very important to them as well, so you are going to have to work hard on that. You should write something that helps them to really get to know you, what your aspirations are and perhaps something that shows an example of how you’ve overcome obstacles in the past. Have someone proof read it.
I would be cautiously optimistic about your chances but with emphasis on cautious. Holy Cross is simply going to be much harder to get into than it’s been in the past.
I have no idea where the info in the link below was sourced - but this shows the ED acceptance rate at HC as very high…for what it’s worth but @Bill_Marsh obviously has very relevant info about recent trends.
In the end, make sure you have a balanced list - i.e. make sure you have a ‘sure thing’ school that you’ll love - and then the pressure is off.
No one can know what the ED acceptance rate will be from year to year because that is an internal decision. But as @tsbna44 has pointed out, Holy Cross’ ED acceptance rate has been very high - exceptionally high, it’s been over 80% for at least the last couple of years.
I think that applying ED to Holy Cross is a great strategy right now! I expect that their ED acceptance rate will be as least as high as it’s been in the past.
ED exists for the benefit of the college, not the applicants. It gives them a measure of predictability in what is otherwise an unpredictable process. They set the cut off during the regular admissions cycle, based on statistical models which “predict” how many students will come to their school at a certain cut off. Last year the statistical models were off, which is why they are now overcrowded. So, this year they will want even tighter control over how many students will be coming. The best way for them to do this is by admitting a high number of ED applicants because those applicants are committed to come if accepted. They’re a sure thing for the college.
So my advice again is to apply ED and don’t look back! Even if you aren’t accepted during ED - and there’s a good chance you will be - the ED application will make you more competitive in the regular admissions cycle because they know that HC is your top choice and that you will likely come if accepted. That predictability is important to them right now.
I seem to recall the HC ED acceptance rate was exceptionally high but that it was a small percentage of the overall admitted class compared to other LACs and they have a large number of Div I athletes and legacies. That should be checked.
drdre4000, with 424.6K followers is a venerable Organic Chem rock star. My kid had a different Orgo professor, but knew him from the department, and apparently he really is fab!
Would love to see the breakdown of HC applicants according to their other schools. How many applied REA to ND? ED1 to BC? I imagine ED2 gets a number of strong students (at least from the NE) coming from the students rejected during ED1.
I think you would have a solid shot during ED, as Bill mentioned they are struggling a little with their overall yield rate and looking to provide some level of predictability into the process. There is certainly a lot to like about HC, great endowment, great alumni network, beautiful campus. Continuing to invest in growth and infrastructure. Best of luck
Yes, but their number of ED applications increased by 38% last year over the year before. If they continue to increase at that rate, then the number becomes increasingly significant.
46% of this year’s freshman class was filled via ED acceptances, but more significantly, the ED acceptances were 52% of the target freshman class size.
I think that schools like Holy Cross are receiving downward pressure. As similar schools ranked above them like BC and Villanova have seen big drops in acceptance rates recently, applicants are looking to the next tier below them - which would be Holy Cross.
Great analysis of that new data. Fully agree. Same dynamic seems to have played out at Denison, Macalester and other colleges in HC’s tier with greatly reduced overall acceptance rates in 2022.
In a recent AO presentation, they mentioned that in recent admission cycles, HC receives more qualified applications than they can accept. With that, and an increasing interest of top academic tiered students to enroll, the holistic review will help the OP in ED2. They look for more than stat drones and really look for academic fit, interest and other factors to meet their institutional priorities. You have good stats, Honors and AP’s, community service (meaningful and altruistic), extracurriculars and come from a well regarded school. Good luck, you sound terrific.
The new college president is the former Dean of Law School at BC, and is doing great things to elevate HC as an institution of choice. So far so good and it’s going to be a tough admission cycle.