jamart10

Good Variety for the Meal Plan

There are several dining "options" and meal plans at Holy Cross. You get both dining dollars that can be used at any dining places around campus and dining hall meal points, which can only be used in the main Dining Hall. The main Dining Hall has good variety and is changed throughout the week, but it gets very repetitive after while. Fortunately, you get great options at Lower Kimball (lower floor of Dining Hall), CrossRoads, Upper CrossRoads, and lastly the Student Store to get great variety of snacks and meals that are customized to your choice. My favorite place was Lower Kimball and CrossRoads because it had fried juicy goodness and the fast food menu for quick meals on the go. The main Dining Hall has the best breakfast option, since it is buffet style dining, so if you are a morning person, Kimball (The main Dining Hall) is right for you! So try to get the meal plan with the most Dining Meal points. However, if you are like me, and wake up late and rather get a bite to eat right before class at the new Science Building or during lunch time, then go for the most Dining Dollars! Sorry Freshman, only upper-classman get to choose a meal plan, so watch your Dining Dollars Balance! Save as many Dining Dollars until the end of the semester, where a quick bite is better used than a sit-down meal at Kimball. Overall, great variety and choices around to eat, just wish they had more locations to eat!

Off-Campus Is Hard to Get and Afford!

Worcester is very expensive when it comes to finding your own apartment to live in. Unless you want to live in the inner-city where the environment is very trashy, then you are better off "on-campus." It is usually easier to go off campus as a sophomore, unless you know the area or have some connections in the area to help you find a place. There are student apartments/houses right across Holy Cross, but most of the students i heard lived there told me their parents paid for it, and that is was pretty expensive, depending on the number of roommates, of course. For me, I could not afford the near-by off-campus housing so I ended up renting a one-bedroom apartment in the downtown area of Worcester. It had a very horrible living environment with the hobos, drugs, and crime around it, but it was relatively cheap (550/mo). There was NO street parking so we had to pay a garage fee to park in a garage right next to the apartment building to have a parking spot. A very good investment, trust me, because Worcester LOVES to give out TICKETS and TOW any car in violation, especially in the winter snow season. So there is obviously no help from the school to help you with off-campus housing. There are several locations near-by Holy Cross and downtown areas (-5 mins away) that have good options but usually the best places are very pricey!

Punishments Are a BIG DEAL!

The Campus Safety, a.k.a. Public Safety, is usually very lenient when enforcing noise/alcohol/party policy. However, if in case any Non-Senior Dorm is raided, be WARNED you will be booked and have a First-Time Offense with possible probation and possibly affecting any Holy Cross Scholarship status. The school takes underage drinking VERY SERIOUS, so DO NOT GET CAUGHT, and if you do expect severe punishment. Mostly, however, this happens when a dorm party is being TOO LOUD or has more than 10 PEOPLE in a single room. As long as you keep the Music/Noise level to a minimum and not have people showing reckless behavior in public hallways or outside the room you are fine. For those as Seniors, well PARTY ON, most Seniors are around 21 so Public Safety is more lenient. Therefore, have fun, there are SO MANY PARTYS, but be mindful of the people at the party because you don't want to get busted because one person had to be reckless and ruin it for everyone else there. First-time offenders I believe have their parents/guardians notified, and any other continued offense usually means grounds to loosing on-campus housing. Any ACADEMIC policy breaking is VERY SERIOUS! I have rarely heard of the consequences because everyone is sure not to commit academic dishonesty. This is because at every first day of any academic class, the Prof. is sure to warn that academic dishonesty is paid with a big FAT "F" on a transcript and possible academic/scholarship suspension.