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The Power is Yours

It’s great to be a high school senior right now. Yeah, that’s right, I said great. Not stressed to the point of nausea or overwhelmed to the point of tears, but truly GREAT. Know why?

Because you hold all the power.

Last fall, when we were giving information sessions and visiting you at your school and interviewing you, the amorphous title of “Admissions” dictated the flow of events. (Or it probably seemed that way.) As a student, you were learning about schools, and then visiting campuses, and then expressing your interest to specific institutions, and then working tirelessly on applications that you hoped would be enough to make you stand out in a pool of 7,400.

Finally, after all that, you waited. And waited. Maybe you called or e-mailed, inquiring about our decision mail date. Eventually, you received the big acceptance packet you deserved. In all likelihood, you now own acceptance packets from a number of fine colleges and universities.

And with that, the tables have turned. Today, and for the next four days, admissions offices are now anxiously waiting for YOU. We hope you do get that a-ha! moment and find that Holy Cross is the right choice. We hope you have questions, find time to visit once more, or call us up just to chat, because we can’t wait to give you a million more reasons to clad yourself in purple and find a home on The Hill.

Zach Wielgus
Admissions Counselor
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Why Holy Cross? The People.

When no one is watching, in the dim early morning light, employees scurry around this campus like parents on Christmas Eve.

Some are planting perfectly placed impatiens on Linden Lane while others apply the final glaze to the decadent chocolate doughnuts in Kimball Dining Hall.  Other times of the year they might be sanding and salting sidewalks in front of Dinand Library or delicately seasoning the clam chowder at Crossroads.  Perhaps my favorite would be this – on mild spring mornings, as the sun rises and warms O’Kane Hall, I look out the window of my office and see one veteran school employee turn on the fountain in Memorial Plaza so that when students parade to class an hour or two later, they might be soothed by the sound of the bubbling water and tempted just for a minute to test the temperature with their hand.

No matter the time of year, each and every day, while students sleep, there are literally hundreds of people preparing this campus and this school just for them.  I’m often asked what my single favorite thing about Holy Cross is and I know for a fact that I’ve given more than just one answer to that question.  But if someone asked me today, I’d say this: my favorite thing about Holy Cross is the people – those employees who care enough to make sure the flowers are perfectly aligned and those curious students who stop just for a moment to run their hand through the warm water of the fountain and appreciate where they go to school.

Andrew N. Carter
Associate Director of Admissions