Hi everyone,
I am planning on applying ED to Holy Cross but was just wondering how highly they consider legacy when evaluating applications. My mother and grandfather both went to Holy Cross so I’m just wondering if legacy matters at all.
My scores are ok and believe I have a good essay and recs.
Thanks
Yes, Holy Cross is big on legacies and family connections, though it is not a guarantee. You could also apply test optional if you think your scores aren’t high enough.
The common data set suggests that 81% of ED applicants are accepted. Taking athletes out of that it still leave a really great chance it would seem for a legacy who ED’s to get accepted. They do value legacy and now value full payers after removing need blind application status. I’d look into whether you could do that, or are interested.
^ The early decision process this past year was completely need-blind and it is supposed to stay that way. It was only during the regular decision applications when they became need aware.
But to answer your question, Holy Cross loves legacies.
Are legacies held to lower qualifications standards. What is the chance a strong multiple legacy full payer with no honors or AP classes to submit by ED deadline would have. No EC…
SInce ED skews wealthier in any case, any discussion of remaining need-blind on this self-selecting group (ED applicants) is essentially moot.
One would imagine a legacy applying ED (as a full payer) to HC with good grades (forget standardized tests as it is a test-score-optional school) has an excellent shot at acceptance.
81% ED is a very high number (the notion that a good number of qualifying student athletes at HC - as at other competitor schools - tend to enter via ED rather than via RD is essentially irrelevant)
Does HC offer merit scholarships? If so, are SAT scores considered?
Holy Cross will accept legacy applicants if they believe they can do the work at the college. They will no accept even a strong full pay legacy that does not appear to be able to do the work. They do not want to set someone like that up for failure. Such applicants are told to apply again as transfers. That’s rare event, however. Most applicants are well capable of doing the work.
@My5Kiddos Almost all of the scholarships are for need-based. Very limited merit scholarships are offered for Worcester residents and for music & classics departments.
^^ The last 2 admissions cycles they did offer some merit beyond what @Portenio references, but is is not apparent on their website
They offer merit now and the pot is growing.
@Btown1238
Since they are test optional are SAT used for merit? My son has high SAT scores but avg gpa but trended up…1550/3.6 unweighted/ 5.2 weighted (all honors/AP/ECE)
He visited HC and really liked it. We will go back this summer. We have 5 kids so cost is a consideration.
GPA/class rigor perhaps the most important features of application. Recently merit has gone to students with high accolades generally— not necessarily high SAT. They are slowly upping the merit ante (hoping to endow more of this fund) as many slightly lower caliber schools seem to be offering a substantial merit discount which steals kids that otherwise were intending to attend HC.
Regarding @My5Kiddos question it seems SAT/ACT test scores are frequently utilized at test-score-optional schools as a basis for academic merit aid. While this might seem a bit contradictory, one has to remember that the kids with the higher scores (and 1550 fits well within the range of a higher score at HC) tend to submit their test scores in any case. Because GPAs (varying from high school to high school) and rankings (where they even exist) are problematic comparators one can see the advantage of utilizing test scores as a major determiner for academic merit aid. (Anecdotally, it seems HC has been offering about 10K (?) in academic merit aid to its strongest applicants the last couple of years …this is beyond the limited - but established - music and classics offerings.)
The sticker price is 70k per year and they clearly are having a hard time getting over half the student body to pay that. The location and ranking prestige of the school are not in line with 70k. Not that any college is worth that price, but with a nationally recognized name, the pill is easier for wealthy folks to swallow.
For the math to work at any college (even ones with large endowments), they need over half the kids to pay sticker or close to sticker. 10-20k discount still results in 50-60k in revenue, which is better than more kids at high FA. Thus the move from need blind to need aware and merit offerings.
Especially with the muti-millions spent every year for D1 sports scholarships.
For families with high stats kids the choices likely come down to a higher ranked/more prestigious school at sticker or a similarly ranked (to HC) for 50k or less. I personally know kids who choose GT at full pay over HC full pay, and others who choose NEU with merit, Mount Holyoke with merit, Brandeis, etc… or flagship State U for less than 30k. I know some other students who choose HC full pay after being denied at BC and other higher ranked schools, full pay. The 70k is just too steep even for rich people. So they need to discount.
HC will always lose students to GT for high stat kids, but to Mount Holyoke? I am not sure about that conjecture.
Holyoke is ranked just a bit higher than HC at this point so, all things being equal, a smallish merit discount from HC might (possibly) attract a young woman who is on the fence between the two.
I do think HC’s move to smallish merit discounts for stronger academic kids was primarily aimed at winning those kids who are getting some merit from PC (a very strong applicant overlap school) or Fordham (another strong applicant overlap school), etc. This sort of strategic move not only ups the general academic quality but pays dividends regarding yield.
I don’t think schools like Georgetown (GT) or Boston College were a consideration for HC when they considered going to need-aware or considered beginning a limited-discount merit aid program. (Just being realistic here.)
Leveraging the financial benefits of going need-aware to produce some merit aid is not a terrible idea given competitive realities in the market place.
Yield is not, and realistically, has not ever been a problem at HC. They have been over-enrolled for at least 5 consecutive years with zero (or those only in the circle of trust) being pulled off of the waitlist. So that’s definitely not the reasoning of increased merit.
I’ve heard that some people look at Fordham and PC as comparable given the large applicant overlap (same can be said for Gtown, BC, Nova, Fairfield, Trinity, Umass). This is a fact: Applicant overlap means very little. An individual in-the-know recently told me that Cornell and Brown are starting to be very common applicant overlaps (as a comparison to HC applicants # obviously). Cornell and HC have pretty much nothing in common.
Of course merit can buy kids. But providence buying kids with high merit is unsustainable. HC is doing just fine and their endowment, infrastructure and alumni network have collectively quite literally never been stronger. That being said, a change in president would be a welcome add given today’s competitive, expensive, exposure hungry college environment.
“HC is doing just fine and their endowment, infrastructure and alumni network have collectively quite literally never been stronger” if that’s the case, why get rid of need blind and start giving merit?
Yield is high because of the huge percentage of the class admitted ED. The issue probably that the quality of the ED apps are lacking. Again, if a kid is accepted at GT or BC at 70K and HC at 70K, in most cases HC loses. So those schools must have come into consideration with these changes, because it may be that the merit will close the deal.
@suzyQ7 Actually the test score profile at HC has risen over the past few years, so your conjecture that the quality of the ED apps are lacking is not true.