<p>I have read about Ignatius Scholars Awards at Holy Cross and people saying their child received it. I think that is a National merit one or top 1-2 %…maybe they don’t list them for whatever reason. Either way it’s a very rigorous school, no slackers. My daughter worked a lot harder than some of her friends first semester, but you learn to be organized.</p>
<p>Lily, I am not the one who is placing that much importance on test scores, it’s the universities which are. The single most important part of a students app is Gpa and SAT score. Holy Cross is one of the few colleges in the nation which doesn’t emphasize much importance on scores…however if they did and actively recruited those types of students then I think they would attract merit scholars. and merit scholars are not awarded that title simply off PSAT scores but gpa, letters of recommendation, volunteer work, work experience, and counselor recommendations.</p>
<p>But you are only eligible if you score in the 95%-99% percentile on the PSAT</p>
<p>exactly, and you are, for the most part, only “eligible” for top colleges if you score 95-99 percentile on the SAT. The merit competition says it is a competition for students who have shown great academic promise and potential through GPA, test scores, ECs, recommendations, etc. It doesn’t only cater to students good at tests, but is a precursor to how good a college a student will get into because filling out the merit form is in the same format as a college application. Therefore if a certain college can get many of these merit scholars it is getting students who have shown abilities in the “top 1 percentile of high school seniors.” Not just students who are good at the PSAT.</p>
<p>Sure. I was just trying to point out that there are also students with the same academic promise who score in the 94th percentile. Or the 90+ percentile that are all smart and hard working students. I was merely trying to say that not all great students are highlighted as merit scholars.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to Holy Cross so I don’t know too much about it, but I personally thought Villanova had stronger academics. I picked Villanova over a school similar to Holy Cross, Boston College, because for engineering Nova blew both out of the water. </p>
<p>I think HC is very different from Nova because it specializes in just liberal arts, whereas Nova has a larger subject course (Business, Sciences, Engineering, Nursing).</p>
<p>I personally would use the Princeton Review Academic Ratings rather than the subjective biased assessment of a moniker called VillaFan:</p>
<p>Holy Cross: 95
Villanova: 88</p>
<p>^^^That’s funny…[The</a> Princeton Review](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/schools/college/CollegeAdmissions.aspx?iid=1023831]The”>http://www.princetonreview.com/schools/college/CollegeAdmissions.aspx?iid=1023831) online has Villanova listed with an Admissions Selectivity Rating of 95, just 2 points lower than BC at 97. Pretty comparable I’d say.</p>
<p>Can anyone explain to me selectivity ratings? I know HC is 96 and Nova is 95, but there seems to be a large gap between acceptance rates (HC- 35% and Nova-45%).</p>
<p>ReqDetails- I was saying personally because for me Nova was better academically than HC because holy cross seemed strong in just a few areas, areas of which I wasn’t pursuing. Also if one wants to be so narrow minded and just go off certain data sets and certain websites so can I.
Villanova is better because SAT scores for accepted students is 30-33 wheras HC is 26-30.
HC is better because it has lower admissions rates.
Villanova is better because it has more merit scholars.
HC is better because it has more fulbright scholars.
Villanova is better because according to website CollegePro.wler it is A- for academics and HC is B+. </p>
<p>one can go on and on and on.</p>
<p>Both colleges have a 95% Freshman Retention Rate which is very impressive.</p>
<p>Both schools can boast wonderful results with their students. The rankings never are apples to apples. Liberal Arts versus National University? It is all semantics.</p>
<p>I am at Villanova. I really liked Holy Cross, but I really did not like Worcester and I attended high school in the Worcester area so HC was too close.</p>
<p>Feel like you can make things happen from either school!</p>
<p>Newsweek ranks HC as among the top 25 most rigorous colleges and universities, ahead of Yale and Stanford. No other Jesuit colleges, Catholic colleges, or Patriot League schools made top 25.</p>
<p>[College</a> Rankings 2011: Most Rigorous - The Daily Beast](<a href=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/college-rankings/2011/most-rigorous.all.html]College”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/college-rankings/2011/most-rigorous.all.html)</p>
<p>whats your point? Does it make you feel better to go to Nova’s site and report scores for Holy Cross?</p>
<p>they are both excellent schools! Let’s be happy about that!</p>
<p>VU is a fine school as is HC. It is always a hard thing to compare as each is in a different USN&WR category. I do take exception to the poster who commented that VU did their own internal assessement and that if in the National Universities Category, they would be 30th-40th: I am sure if every college did a self eval, all would be high up in the most difficult category of USN&WR; a community college would claim to offer the same education as Harvard but at 1/3 the cost and SAT requriements (surprise!). Someone else here compared VU to Fordham, which is in the National U. category and felt it is only about the number of Master and PhD degrees offered. Fordham can offer things VU can’t and vice versa, but they are in different categories for a reason. USN&WR considers many factors and each school is in a category and really should only be directly compared to another in that category. Apples and oranges are indeed fruit, but not the same as oranges and tangerines, which are the same category of fruit.</p>
<p>VU and HC are really fine schools. A person can’t go wrong with either. Pick the one that suits what you want and/or need OR all things being equal, the one that can give you the most aid.</p>
<p>^req details, what does being rigorous have to do with how good a school is? I am sure no one would agree that St.Johns U in new mexico is better than Johns Hopkins, yet st. johns is much more “rigorous”. </p>
<p>Take random lists lightly because they don’t often offer anything to the conversation.</p>
<p>I don’t know how they define “Rigorous” but some schools are known for it, even not on that list.
I know a student at Holy Cross went to Oxford for the year and when she told a professor there where she was from, his only word back to her was “Rigorous” with a nod.</p>
<p>Sorry, but that ranking of rigor is ridiculous. What were the criteria? I would imagine if the exact same math class were taught at Stanford (#25) as at Mt. Holyoke (#12), the students at Mt. Holyoke would likely have to work much harder to achieve the same test results. But that would be due to a difference in the caliber of the student and their pre-existing knowledge and intelligence–not a difference in the rigor of the material. No one in their right minds would ever believe that Holy Cross is a more difficult school than Yale, and I dare any one of you to turn down admission to Stanford or Yale in order to go to the “more rigorous” Holy Cross.</p>
<p>I think rigor may have to do with grade inflation or lack there of. My mom works at Stanford and they will inflate the average grades to Bs or B+s. Where at Holy Cross they don’t… Mt Holyoke students may have to work harder to get the same grade as Stanford students due to lack of inflation.</p>