What I Like (and Don’t) About Holy Cross (For Pre-med/science)

So I’ve heard Holy Cross sent out it’s letters of admission, and I’m here to tell you congrats! (if you didn’t get one, I’m sorry.. there are plenty of other colleges out there..).

Are you stuck between two schools or you are just re-thinking about what you want to do and where you want to go? Well I’ll give you my prospective, and here is the full transparency, I don’t get paid to say these things about the College, I’m just given the privilege to write my opinions and feelings about daily life and people read it. Other colleges may pay their bloggers or may not, who knows.. anyways this is what I like and don’t like about Holy Cross:

For starters.. if you come here declaring pre-med advising or the biology major, then I have good and bad news for you. The good news is, the professors are amazing in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (aka STEM) areas and I can only give you information on this because basically all my class this past year have been just that (Intro to Bio, Chem/Orgo, Calc1/2, and Montserrat).

The professors have office hours throughout the week and are really available whenever you need them and I’ve enjoyed all my professors so far. Your classes will be somewhat larger from regular high school classes, but here at a small school; large is like 50 students MAX in intro courses (I know for certainty big universities and other colleges there intro courses can go up to over a 100 and state schools probably past 300 but if you applied to other small colleges your class size should be similar). The professors are willing to work with you and chat about their research and I’ve really liked that part of Holy Cross. Although you do have to go out to seek help from the professors yourself first, they aren’t going to go up to you and ask you to be your best friend.

Once you get to know your professor, classes become much more enjoyable and you will find out for ALL the professors here (from what I’ve seen so far) is that they are really into the subject they are teaching. That’s probably the most enjoyable thing you will see, is that the professors are really passionate about the subject their teaching. Be it in intro bio 1 with my professor really excited to teach you about viruses, in intro bio 2 with your professor giving you the map of the T and telling you how similar it is to how botany will be set-up, and then raving on to tell you about how awesome botany can be, or how math can be enjoyable and have all practical uses in any career path you pursue (believe me, I almost considered switching my area of concentration from what they told me). The professors here really enjoy teaching and talking about their own subjects.

What is also nice about the sciences is if you actually like the subjects it’ll be much easier to learn and you have access to a ton of help and resources if you’re stuck. In every science department there are going to be various tutors (in addition to office hours already available) throughout the week to help you with what you need. In chemistry, you will get tutors through PAL (peer assisted learning not a TA), who are required to go to your chemistry class and sit in on a course they have already taken (even if it is at 8AM) and take notes so they can help you reinforce the material so you can get a better understanding of the subject. For math you will have the calculus workshop which basically runs for 5 days a week where you can drop by and just ask for help. Biology is run the same way with tutors available during certain days. These are all pluses in the sciences..

The bad news is that if you’re going in Bio/pre-med major… well your freshman life is basically limited to constant studying, stress, anxiety, and chaos (but that’s what life is normally like anyways.. subject to entropy and disorder). I’m almost positive no matter where you go and you’re going to be on this track, the feeling is going to be mutual (My friends at other colleges all feel the same stressed out tension as I do and I can’t really compare their classes to mine). Even though the professors are great and are willing to help you, and you have plenty of resources, it does not make the coursework or material any easier. You can go to office hours as much as you want, but if you do not study yourself and spend time by yourself to learn what is taught, it almost makes you going out and seeking help moot. You can learn in office hours and help/review sessions but it may or may not be enough for you to really learn everything you need to know. So the gist is the work and material you learn is hard, tough (unless you’re one of those prodigies or really study all the time).

Also something that is not fun is the amount of work assigned at Holy Cross.. and this isn’t just in the sciences it seems, some of my peers have told me that they get a lot of assignments and readings so this may be exhibited throughout the other top tier schools because my friends at those school seem to be getting a lot of work too in general, so this may not be just a Holy Cross thing. Regardless, you should keep in mind that you should be expected to work and work hard when you get here.

Other things that are pretty cool here: The science complex is pretty sweet and everything looks fancy.. the other large building Stein looks really cool too, but when you’re taking all STEM classes you are most likely going to be stuck in the science complex.
Montserrat is its own topic that I will discuss later in detail. I believe it has it’s pros and cons and a touchy subject for me but I’ll do that in another post since this one is already so long.

Also what I would like to make just as a general remark about choosing colleges in general, is to look at the opportunities that the colleges provide you for while you are in school and when you graduate, I’ve heard great things about the Holy Cross alumni network and what people do after they graduate. You should also look at location to see if places are good for you but the main point I would like to stress is if you are going to a private school, you’re going to be paying $56k approximately per year, where do you think that best $56k is going to be spent and if you get financial aid, which college gives you the most? In cost Holy Cross isn’t better than any other school so you weigh what you can gain from the college with what you pay. If any college doesn’t give you a good experience or something meaningful and useful after you graduate then you’re just wasting $56k a year (with inflation and rising costs maybe up to $250k for 4 years w/o financial aid). So you should also make the time at college worth the money you spend.

I wish you best with your decisions, and if you have any questions just leave them below and I’ll answer them on Friday, for question Fridays.

-Dan Luu

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “What I Like (and Don’t) About Holy Cross (For Pre-med/science)”

1. Elizabeth Williams says:

   December 20, 2013 at 8:16 pm

   Hi Dan,

   This was a great letter. I am a parent and my son seems to be happy at Holy Cross. He states he is interested in premed. In the interest of transparency, I know the pre-med program is very good. However, there seems to be no information regarding how many people from HC apply to medical school. There is no information regarding the range of GPA in the pre-med program. Also, there is no information regarding which students get a pre-med letter of recommendation and who does not. I ask these questions because I don’t want him to waste his time.

   Regards

2. Dan Luu says:

   January 16, 2014 at 2:04 am

   He will get an extensive list of papers that would show him all that information, however I do not have access to that information right now, still on break. If he is that interested in the program, he could contact the pre-med office (http://academics.holycross.edu/healthprofessions/contact) directly to see if they can give you a more direct answer. Sorry I couldn’t help much.

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