<p>I need a bit of insight/help on deciding which college I should attend.
I know it's ultimately up to me, but I just want some advice and experience.</p>
<p>I'm planning on majoring in Psychology, but eventually either majoring
in Education or taking a Teacher's Certificate Program so I can become a teacher.
I heard both schools are fairly decent in Psychology, but is one better than the other? and what about the education aspect?</p>
<p>Just because HC is more academically challenging to get into, does that mean that it is also just as more demanding in classes?</p>
<p>Would really appreciate your help, thank you</p>
<p>I’m a 1975 graduate of Holy Cross, so my personal experience may be a bit dated–however, my older daughter graduated in 2009 as a psychology major. HC is more difficult to get into and my daughter would confirm that the academics are demanding. She had a tremendous four years, including a JYA in Spain, and said attending Holy Cross was the best decision she had ever made. She liked the psychology curriculum at The Cross and plans to go to grad school. Currently she is teaching in Spain and working with a university professor there (from her JYA program) on his psychology researc projects.</p>
<p>I’m a 1977 graduate of Northeastern’s MBA school but I don’t have any real insights into NU’s current undergrad programs.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Northeastern are vastly different schools. Northeastern is a big school right in the middle of Boston–major streets running through the campus. Boston, of course, is a great, great city. Holy Cross is a much smaller school and has a traditional campus-absolutely beautiful-on the outskirts of Worcester. </p>
<p>Holy Cross has all professors–no teaching assistants. I don’t know if NU uses TA’s but I’m sure you could check easily. I’d bet that you’d have much smaller classes and more teacher attention at HC. </p>
<p>Ultimately you’d want to visit both campuses get a “feel” for where you might best fit in.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, as I was typing this message my younger daughter called to say that she received her acceptance from Holy Cross in today’s mail!!!</p>
<p>Northeastern is very well known for its co-op program so if you have a career plan formed really early on it works great. Holy Cross, being a LAC, simply won’t have the same level of specialization. However, all thoughts aside, Holy Cross is generally regarded as being more prestigious and of a higher academic caliber (top Catholic LAC in the US). Also if it’s Jesuit education you’re looking for, Holy Cross is one of the best (alongside BC and Gtown).</p>
<p>i’m a holy cross grad - it is not demanding academically. if you want to teach or go into psych, go to northeastern - more practical exposure. no brainer.</p>
<p>also, i don’t mean to be rude, but holy cross is nowhere near georgetown’s academic level - not even close. and bc, given their sports’ reputation, has vastly surpassed holy cross on admittance.</p>
<p>hchchc, harsh. Holy Cross is clearly superior academically to Northeastern. And from what I gather, they have an excellent teacher education program. I would feel confident in becoming an excellent teacher and securing a job if I did the TEP at Holy Cross. On the other hand, I would also feel the same from an education at Northeastern. Both will get you where you want to go.</p>
<p>At this point, I would say your choice lies more between what type of college you want, not between the quality of their teaching/psychology programs. Do you want to go to a small liberal arts college with personal teaching and small classroom sizes, or do you want a large university with TA’s, but a busy and exciting city life?</p>
<p>@secondonein - sorry for the impression i’ve given, i don’t hate holy cross at all. i’m too terse in my comments, perhaps. i have gained great friends (and a spouse, in fact) from my time spent there. having said that, i assume the site encourages negative comments as well as positive ones. the fact is, i did not find the school to be particularly challenging academically, though i had a few terrific professors. i did not find the student body to be diverse, which i consider a drawback in this day and age. finally, i found the lack of accessibility to a true “city” environment to be a negative. it’s a very socially campus-centered school, which certainly suits some students, but did not suit me. just using that jesuit training to throw that other perspective out there!</p>
<p>Way back in the dark ages when I went to college, Northeastern was largely a commuter school for less than stellar high school students and HC was typically one of the target colleges for top students in New England. I know that Northeastern has improved dramatically but would find it hard to believe that it has reached anywhere near parity with HC. At the very least, the class sizes and opportunity for interactions with professors has to be worse at NEU due to the student body size difference (3000 students at HC versus 16000 at NEU). Academic quality could vary by major selected. I was a mathematics major at HC and it was rough sledding, much more rigorous than the University of Michigan where I got my MBA.</p>