<p>Can someone give me some more information about Holycross other than basic information you get at the school website. Is it really religious? Do people have fun there? Just some information because I know it's really good place to go for medicine.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is no more religious than the other leading Catholic colleges like Georgetown, Boston College, Fordham, and Notre Dame. Holy Cross is run by the Catholic Jesuit religious order that also runs Georgetown and BC. (Notre Dame is latin for Our Lady" referring to Mary the mother of Jesus but most people seem unaware of this.)
People seem to assume Holy Cross is more religious because of the name but it is not. Catholic mass is available. There is a chaplain's office but this is true for all Catholic colleges. Beyond this, it is secular in approach. There are people there from other faiths such as Jewish, Muslim, etc. I recall seeing an article in an alumni magazine on a recent grad becoming a rabbi. Like BC and Georgetown, there are no requirements for Mass attendance or anything related to religion. The same Jesuits who founded Georgetown also founded Holy Cross and BC. The princeton review gave Holy Cross its highest academic rating (98) of all Catholic colleges. This is due in part to very small class sizes (10-19) and the fact HC is undergraduate only. Professors are totally focused on undergrads and not distracted by grad students. No grad students means no grad students teaching class which is common at large universities. (NOTE: This is College of the Holy Cross near Boston 2700 students founded in 1843, not the 500 student college located in Notre Dame, IN founded in 1966)</p>
<p>Holy Cross offers free bus service to nearby Boston and Providence and has great sports teams. The men's basketball has won at least 20 games in five of the last seven seasons. Has also advanced to postseason play five times in the last seven seasons, taking part in the NCAA tournament four times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2007) and National Invitation Tournament once in 2005. The women's team went to the NCAA torunamen last year as well. Lots of activities and speakers come to campus. You are in a mid-size city in the center of New England so less than an hour to Boston, Providence, Cape Cod. Even NYC is only 4 hours away. Commuter rail is also available from Worcester to Boston.</p>
<p>Princeton Review seems to polarize all the religiously-affiliated schools:</p>
<p>Holy Cross, American, Georgetown, Boston College, etc. are almost no different than going to a non-affiliated school, while</p>
<p>Sacred Heart, Centre, BYU (this one is probably true), Wake Forest, and Baylor are like going to Jesus camp.</p>
<p>I can't possibly believe there is no middle ground.</p>
<p>I was not aware that Wake Forest was religious. I just scanned its web site and could not find anything mentioning religion.</p>
<p>I can speak for the Jesuit schools (Georgetown, Holy Cross, Boston College, etc). There are Catholic services available (Mass, religious retreats, etc) but there are also courses in other religions and philosophies so that students get exposed to leading philosophical ideas and world religions. There are a number of Jesuit priests still teaching typically in philosohoy and religious studies but also other areas. One of the nation's leading Islam experts for 20 years taught at Holy Cross and recently moved to fellow Jesuit school Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Boston College has the largest population of Jesuits living there than anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>Money talks.</p>
<p>Holy Cross has one of the highest alumni giving rates in the nation at 53%. This is typically a strong indicator of student/alumni satisfaction.</p>
<p>Yeah, I heard that. I just didn't know if you were suppose to be Catholic to go there....but thanks guys! Oh, are any of you by any chance a student or were a student there that could tell me about their experience? I really like the school but I don't think I'd be able to get in. Well, thanks anyways!</p>
<p>I didn't know that about Wake Forest either.....</p>
<p>NOT true about Wake.</p>
<p>I was a student there 25 years ago and enjoyed it very much. Very supportive small community and great professors. Gorgeous campus with some really beautiful architecture. It is situated on one of the seven hills of Worcester so great views of the surrounding area but lots of steep staircases to get you around between the different buildings depending on what elevation the building is at. Worcester itself is unattractive because it is a former manufacturing city so there are a lot of three deckers and brick warehouses there. These are all scars of the industrial revolution around the early 1900s when Worcester was the world's leading manufacturer of wire. But with 13 colleges in Worcester and the DCU Center, there are always lots of activities, social events, and great restaurants. There is a free shuttle between all the colleges. I would often take it to the Clark Univ library to study for a change of venue. Also free shuttles to Boston and Providence and local malls on Firdays and Saturdays.</p>
<p>The Wake Forest remark is an example of the danger of boards where anyone can post their opinions- Yes, they are useful, but we must remember that much of what we are reading is from people who are still in highschool, some of whom may have never been out of their own towns, never mind different states. My son goes to Wake and finds no such thing. Wake is a great school if you are intellectual, fun loving and like being around non-practicing catholics!</p>
<p>How are the people at Holy Cross? Since I'm not Catholic, it's not going to be weird or anything is it?</p>
<p>Not weird at all. Holy Cross students and faculty are tolerant and accepting of all. Even though the student body is largely Catholic, the school welcomes people of all faith traditions -- or none at all.</p>
<p>I must've confused Wake with another school. My mistake.</p>
<p>Edit: Actually, what caught me was the report from a friend of mine who visited Wake and said it was too religiously conservative for her.</p>
<p>I understand, 2-Iron. That is more clear. Although my son visited twice before he applied and never felt that, I guess he never interviewed people, and if he did I doubt he would have found a majority of conservative students. It is a definite mix, right and left, religiously conservative and not. A great opportunity to learn respect for others viewpoints.</p>
<p>However, she also said the campus was beautiful. Please don't think I'm trying to throw WF under the bus.</p>
<p>Wake is a school of under 5000 UG's yet it has a top-notch athletics program. This is more often than not a sign of a good school...it means they can afford to really pick and choose who goes there...Notre Dame is another school like this that comes to mind.</p>
<p>2-Iron: By that logic Holy Cross must be a really great school since it is only about half the size of Wake Forest and Holy Cross' men's basketball has won at least 20 games in five of the last seven seasons, in the NCAA tournament four times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2007) and NIT in 2005 (beating Notre Dame BTW). The HC women's team has made 12 postseason appearances (11 NCAA Tournaments and one WNIT).</p>
<p>This is fun. </p>
<p>I went to Wake. My wife went to Holy Cross. We were both raised Catholic. She has since joined a liberal episcopal church. I'm liberal and agnostic.</p>
<p>The campus is pretty evenly divided politically according to Facebook. And while there are a fair number of devout students at Wake Forest, I'd suggest that anyone who visits our campus on a Sunday morning will decide that far more students sleep in than attend a service...</p>
<p>Actually most slept in on Sunday mornings at Holy Cross as well. About half the students went to the 10 pm Mass on Sunday evenings ;-></p>
<p>It is daunting when you go on the tours of catholic schools to see all of the landmarks and monuments regarding the religion. It is certainly something you cannot ignore on tour. However, I spent years at a Catholic college working in an outreach program. I was so used to the buildings, plaques, etc that I did not even see them and not once in all those years did I even feel like I was at a Catholic school. A great many of the faculty and students were not Catholic and most who were did not seem to be observing. It was totally a non issue. I was surprised when a mom asked me about how religious the school was, and if a non Catholic would be uncomfortable there. When they toured the place they saw all of the Catholic signs, and were made very aware of the religious affiliation. I had no problem telling them that it was not something that was even brought up on a day to day with the students.</p>