<p>There’s a lot of debate over whether Notre Dame or Georgetown is a better overall institution, and I know that there are a million things to judge a college by, but I was interested to see how other people responded. Thanks!</p>
<p>EDIT: I just remembered Notre Dame technically isn’t Jesuit, so consider this a Catholic university ranking.</p>
<p>Here's an interesting take on this very question in a Time Magazine article 1962. At that time Holy Cross was considered far superior to BC. BC was just a commuter college at the time.</p>
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Also in the "Catholic Ivy League," and considered by many Catholics to be academically superior to Georgetown, is Holy Cross, in Worcester, Mass
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Due respect to Holy Cross, but let this be a lesson to those reveling in Georgetown's USNWR ranking now: the winds can shift a great deal in 40 years ;)</p>
<p>I heard that back in the 50s and 60s that the top Catholic colleges were on par with Ivy League colleges because the top Catholic high schools would send all of their top students there. This was in part because there was still lingering anti-Catholicism at Ivy League schools and because the priests and nuns at the Catholic high schools would ensure that their students went to Catholic colleges if at all possible.</p>
<p>I personally think both ND and Georgetown are great schools--both have their pros and both have their cons. Academically you can't go wrong with either. But there are differences, certainly, when it comes to other factors like campus (which, having been to both, ND definitely wins) and location (Washington DC definitely beats South Bend haha).</p>
<p>Fordham is often considered to be superior to Holy Cross.
I personally feel that Georgetown is superior to Notre Dame - Georgetown has diversity and no comparison with location</p>
<p>Boston College is a joke - If it weren't for Doug Flutie, it would still be a commuter school. It is not in the class of the other schools listed.</p>
<p>What? I'll admit that BC isn't quite up to par with Gtown or Notre Dame, but it's still a great school. The Carroll school is pretty well known, and its fairly selective, like 25%ish, it accepts a ton of kids who are just below "Ivy level", so that gives it a lot of strength.</p>
<p>The Carnegie Endowment in its journal Foreign Policy Magazine rated the Georgetown School of Foreign Service's Masters degrees programs first in the world in 2007. This is the first time that a Catholic institution of higher learning has had an academic program rated first ahead the Oxfords, Harvards and Yales of the world. No other Catholic college has achieved this kind of truly outstanding recognition. This is something that the great Catholic educators of the 1950s and 1960s, the Theodore Hesburghs and Edward Bunns, would have probably never dreamed of seeing. Fr. Hesburgh is a actually fortunate enough to have seen this happen.</p>
<p>All of us who value Catholic higher education, can also truly take pride that we live a world where today the Presidents of two secular Ivy League level institutions, MIT (and former provost of Yale) and Columbia's Barnard College, are degree holding alumni of Georgetown. In 1965 or even 1975, this would have been inconceivable.</p>
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I personally think both ND and Georgetown are great schools--both have their pros and both have their cons. Academically you can't go wrong with either. But there are differences, certainly, when it comes to other factors like campus (which, having been to both, ND definitely wins) and location (Washington DC definitely beats South Bend haha).
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<p>Yeah, I agree. I was choosing between these schools last year, and it was a really tough choice, since both had so much to offer in different ways. My final choice came down to science departmental strength and the fact that Georgetown has no engineering program (major drawback). The location of Georgetown is one to be envied, though.</p>
<p>I would probably say that Holy Cross is the best Jesuit school in the nation, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I have double legacy there.</p>
<p>"I would probably say that Holy Cross is the best Jesuit school in the nation, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I have double legacy there"</p>
<p>hahaha. I don't know whether to take that statement seriously.</p>
<p>I'll accept that Holy Cross may be the best Catholic liberal arts college in the country, but it's really not up to par with Georgetown or Notre Dame, or even BC for that matter.</p>
<p>Maybe for certain majors like the Classics, but not overall.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know it isn't, but my bad makes me laugh by always saying how the other Catholic schools are terrible compared to Holy Cross. I guess he had some rivalry issues when he went. Also, he is very ****ed that I am applying to BC.</p>
<p>Aside from school size (3000 versus 9000) I really don't think there is any meaningful difference between Holy Cross and BC. They are both run by the same New England province of Jesuits and many Jesuits and professors have taught at or attended both colleges. The current president of HC taught at BC for 5 years. The schools are only about 30 miles apart from each other.</p>
<p>Well, I think there is a ton of difference between the two. From academics to social life, they are very different. Undergrad vs. grad school emphasis is very different. I think if you were to ask any hiring manager which students are better as a group, it would overwhelmingly be HC.</p>