<p>Any thoughts? I'm trying to decide between the two schools.</p>
<p>The biggest difference between Holy Cross and BC is simply the size of the schools. HC has less than 3000 total students (all undergrad). BC has over 9000 undergrads plus several thousand grad students for a total of over 14,000 students.</p>
<p>Yes size is one difference although I didn’t get the feel that BC was as big as it is on my visit. The other big difference is Freshmen housing. you’ll probably not be on the main campus Freshmen year at BC-it’s 2 or 3 miles away and you’d be taking a shuttle every day which I would thing would get old quickly. Personally it would make me feel like I wasn’t part of the “main” campus. Also, Boston vs. Worcester-'nough said on that topic.</p>
<p>Basically the same school with the two major differences in size and location. Worcester really isn’t a great place, but there are free shuttles to Boston on the weekends so that’s really nice. I chose HC over BC and really love the small size. Without grad students there are so many opportunities even for underclassmen. Boston is really nice though, and I wish I were closer to it… really you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>The other major difference is that HC sits on one walkable campus whereas BC is on two campuses 2-3 miles apart with bus service between the two. HC is all on one very walkable hilltop campus. BC’s Newton Campus is in a different town, but it is just a few miles down the street. There is a different mailing address for the Newton campus, and there is a full service mailroom right next to the dining hall, Stuart, where students on Newton have mailboxes and where packages can be picked up and mail sent out. </p>
<p>The Newton bus is not a school bus, it is more similar to a city bus or the T. There are seats around the perimeter and a lot of room to stand in the middle. They run school busses continuously on game days from Newton to main campus to accommodate the students as well as the alumni who park there. There has to be a lot of busses since they are transporting 600 kids every day to the main campus. The bus runs extremely frequently around 8-9 when everyone is going to class, around every three minutes and goes straight from Newton to main gate of main and back. During other hours its more like 5-15 minutes and it makes several stops around the BC campus. BC runs a similar bus, the Commonwealth Ave bus, up and down Comm Ave to service many popular off-campus sites and apartments. There are overcrowding issues, usually from 8am-10am, when students are getting to classes and at 1,2,3,and 4, when students are returning from classes. The busses tend to get crowded wednesday nights (around 6:30) because students will be going to class for perspectives.</p>
<p>Is it still true that housing is not guaranteed at BC? I had a friend who told me she went abroad junior year because it was cheaper than trying to find an apartment. </p>
<p>HC does have a worse area but they don’t seem to advertise well, they have free shuttle every weekend to Boston, Providence and local areas.</p>
<p>Housing is not guaranteed for junior year at BC.</p>
<p>Acceptance letter received here specifically stated guaranteed 4 years of housing. I think it depends on the applicant.</p>
<p>official answer:</p>
<p>At BC, all admitted freshman applicants are guaranteed at least three years of on-campus housing, and half are guaranteed four years of on-campus housing. Boston College is unique in that our students choose to live off campus in their Junior year and return to campus in their Senior year. In fact, nearly 99% of Juniors living off-campus last year returned to campus for their final year.</p>