| Location: | Northeast |
| Setting: | Mid-size City Setting |
| Type: | Private |
| Affiliation: | Roman Catholic |
| Size: | Medium (2,000 to 5,000 Undergrad) |
| Mascot: | Crusaders |
The College of the Holy Cross is an exclusively undergraduate Roman Catholic liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Holy Cross is the oldest Roman Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the United States.
Opened as a school for boys under the auspices of the Society of Jesus, it was the first Jesuit college in New England. Today, Holy Cross is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and is part of a consortium with other Worcester colleges, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University. On July 1, 2000, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. became the current president of the college. As of June 2007, the Holy Cross endowment was valued at $660 million.
Holy Cross was founded by Benedict Joseph Fenwick, SJ, second Bishop of Boston, after his efforts to found a Catholic college in Boston were thwarted by the city's Protestant civic leaders. From the beginning of his tenure as the second Bishop of Boston, Benedict Joseph Fenwick of the Society of Jesus aimed to establish a Catholic College within the boundaries of his diocese.
Relations with Boston's civic leaders worsened such that, when a Jesuit faculty was finally secured in 1843, Fenwick decided to leave the Boston school and instead opened the College of the Holy Cross west of the city in central Massachusetts where he felt the Jesuits could operate with greater autonomy. The site of the college, Mount Saint James, was originally occupied by a Roman Catholic boarding school, run by the Rev. James Fitton, with his lay collaborator, Joseph Brigden, since 1832. On February 2, 1843, Fr. Fitton sold the land to Bishop Fenwick and the Diocese of Boston to be used to found the Roman Catholic college that the bishop had wanted in Boston. Fenwick gave the College the name of his cathedral church, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The Bishop’s letters record his enthusiasm for the project as well as its location:
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| Percent of Students International: | 0% |
| On-Campus Housing Available: | Yes |
| Percent of Students Living On-Campus: | 84% |
| Freshman Students Required to Live on Campus: | Yes |
| Member of: | NAA, NCAA |
| Sports Include: |
Football (Patriot League) Basketball (Patriot League) Baseball (Patriot League) Track (Patriot League) |
| Tuition & Fees (undergraduate) | Expenses | ||
Published Tuition and Fees: |
$ 31,444 | ||
Average Tuition for Full-Time Undergrads: |
$ 30,960 | ||
Required Fees for Full-Time Undergrads: |
$ 484 | ||
| Financial Aid | Avg. Amount Received | % of Students Receiving Aid | |
Federal Grants: |
$ 5,475 | 10% | |
State and Local Grants: |
$ 3,327 | 8% | |
Institutional Grants: |
$ 16,670 | 50% | |
Student Loans: |
$ 4,811 | 50% | |
Any Aid: |
57% |
| Acceptance Rate: | 48% (Highly Selective) |
| Application Fee: | $ 50.00 |
| Formal Demonstration of Competencies: | Not Required |
| High School Diploma or Equivalent: | Recommended |
| High School GPA: | Recommended |
| High School Rank: | Recommended |
| High School Record: | Required |
| Recommendations: | Required |
| TOEFL: | Required |
| Test Scores: | Not Required |
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Best Answer
Both of these schools are highly respected, but they are both kind of second level schools behind their more famous cousin schools like Boston College, Georgetown or Notre Dame.
You will get a good education at either one of these schools. I personally would tend to favor PC over Holy Cross because PC is in a nicer city with more going on (in Providence there are six other colleges full of students to meet including Ivy League Brown), but there is really little to choose between them.
Try to visit them before you decide.
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