Frequently Asked Questions

Traditionally all first-year students are required to work in Dining Services. A first-year student can work in dining and hold another position on campus. Student employees who need to request an exemption from the policy to work in Dining Services on the basis of a disability or qualifying medical condition or a sincerely held religious belief should contact the Office of Accessibility Services and Human Resources. 

The College is required to verify that all employees hired are legally entitled to work in the United States. All new student employees must complete a Form I-9 and provide the necessary documentation, specified on the Form I-9, to establish identity and employment eligibility to Human Resources for verification. Review the list of acceptable identification documents.

The I9 process has two basic steps: 

● Filling out the I-9 form online in HR Self-Service 

● Bringing original, unexpired documents to HR to verify the I9 (Photocopies will NOT be accepted per federal law). 

Students cannot begin working until they have completed the full I-9 process with the Office of Human Resources. 

Yes, a first year student can work on campus if they do not have federal work study

No. Federal Work-Study is an opportunity for students to work in order to earn money to pay for college expenses, as well as to gain valuable employment experience. It is one component of an aid package that may be composed of loan, scholarship/grant, or work awards. A student may choose to decline the work offer. However, if a student does not work their eligibility for future work-study aid may be impacted.

Yes! Students are paid the Massachusetts minimum wage for hours worked on a weekly basis. Students will be required to sign up for Direct Deposit.

Depending on the Dining location you choose, most students work a minimum of 4-6 weekly hours and are not to exceed a total of 20 hours per week.

Students will submit six seminars of interest to them via the Montserrat Course Preference form by June 14, 2024. Students are encouraged to read the seminar descriptions in full.

The Registrar will release schedules no later than July 8, 2024. Your schedule will include your Montserrat seminar and one additional course from your preference list.

The Class Dean and Registrar’s Office will be communicating information about course enrollment this summer. Students can email their class dean at classdean2028@holycross.edu with additional course questions. 

First-year academic advisors are assigned in late summer. Students' first-year academic advisor will reach out to meet with them in the first week of classes. In addition, students will have the opportunity in June to have an online advising appointment with a faculty member to discuss course enrollment for their fall classes, which will take place this summer.

Residential students will automatically receive the Standard Food Plan which is Unlimited meals in Kimball dining hall, $425 dining dollars per semester and 8 meal swipes per week at participating retail locations.  Apartment students will automatically receive an Apartment Food plan that gives you dining dollars on your one card.  You have the ability to choose from two other Apartment Food Plan options that include meal swipes at Kimball dining hall or you can choose the Residential Standard Food Plan.  For more information or questions please contact Willow Davey

Students with food allergies should visit this page to learn more about what we offer Food Allergies- Dining Services Site.  For more information or questions, please contact Brad Shannon, Senior Assistant Director of Culinary Development & Nutrition.

Students with medically documented food allergies and conditions are eligible for our Food Allergy and Special Diet Program.  To apply, please contact the Office of Student Accessibility Services. Once approved, students should contact dining services to be enrolled into the allergy program. 

For additional dining services questions, please visit the FAQ portion of their website.

The Bursar”s Office is responsible for student accounts including: semester bills for tuition and fees, account credits for the payments made as any financial aid you receive, and manages the repayment portion of the Federal Perkins Loan program. There is a robust section of frequently asked questions on the Bursar’s Office website. 

For additional questions, contact the Office of the Bursar (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST) at (508) 793-2521 or email bursar@holyross.edu.

For questions regarding financial aid forms or packages, contact the Financial Aid Office. Questions regarding tuition and bills should be directed to the Bursar’s Office.

Students will receive notification that their Holy Cross gmail account has been set-up in late May. If students believe they have not received it, they should check their spam folder. If they still cannot find it, email helpdesk-request@holycross.edu, and ITS can issue a new activation email. Review instructions for setting up student email accounts.

The College does not provide or sell computers. We recommend a computer that is using at least Windows 11 or Mac OS within the last 3 versions (currently v14 Sonoma.) Learn more about support of student hardware.

For more ITS frequently asked questions, visit the ITS first-year student FAQ section. 

Details regarding required medical forms and how to upload them can be found on the Health Services website. Forms are due on Monday, Aug.12, 2024, or 1 week prior to students arrival on campus, whichever comes earliest.

The required forms can be found on the Health Services website. Any questions can be directed to the Sports Medicine office at (508) 793-2627.

Descriptions of each of these programs can be found on the Orientations & Information for Incoming Students page. All new students are expected to participate fully in Gateways Orientation.

The schedule for Fall Orientation will be updated over the summer.

Parents/Guardians can update their contact information (email, phone, mailing address) using the Family Information Form. Please note that the student will still need to submit their parents’/guardian’s contact information updates in STAR for emergency contact and/or authorized users (receiving access to view grades and bills in the Parent Portal) as applicable due to student privacy guidelines outlined in The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). 

Students control who has access to their information. Students can grant access by granting authorized users in their STAR account. Authorized users are able to view student grades and financial aid and billing information via the parent portal. Students have been emailed instructions on how to complete this, should they choose to do so. Students need to update their records themselves due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA gives parents/guardians certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the students when they reach the age of 18 or attend a school beyond the high school level.

The Office of Parent and Family Engagement will be working with parents/guardians/support people throughout the summer to assist in onboarding them to the Holy Cross community and helping them navigate how to support their student during the transition to college. The office will send bi-weekly emails highlighting key resources, approaching deadlines, and conversation ideas. Additionally, there will be several webinars offered during the summer as part of the From The Hill to You series. Finally, we look forward to meeting and connecting with you in person on move-in day.

Holy Cross is on the Google/Gmail Platform so please log out all other Gmails. If that does not work please clear your browser cache. If you are still having problems contact Holy Cross ITS at 508-793-3548 or HELPDESK@holycross.edu.

Roommates are assigned based on Montserrat cluster assignment.  We use the roommate matching questionnaire to match and place students into the first year halls.  When students participate in the Housing Selection Process for their sophomore, junior and senior years, they do indeed get to select their roommate, hall and room they will live in as an upperclass student.

Move-in for the Class of 2028 is Wednesday, August 21. Additional details will be shared with students and families later in the summer. Move-in for transfer students will be Wednesday, August 21, and move-in for upper-class students will begin on Sunday, August 25.

We've put together a detailed list of recommended items to pack and prohibited items.

Move in is generally between 8am and 12pm.  Students, their families and belongings come to campus and are directed to their building that will be their fall assignment.  Once at the building, we have a large group of student volunteers to assist in moving the students' belongings to their assigned room and welcoming them. Students will need to complete some additional tasks, including: verifying health forms and picking up their student ID. There will be some programming on campus for families, including Mass of the Holy Spirit. Families are asked to depart campus by 5pm so students can begin their fall orientation program. Some additional information can be found on the Residence Life and Housing website. A detailed schedule will be available in late summer.

The Office of Student Accessibility Services provides accommodations to qualifying students, including academic, housing, dining, transportation and parking, and temporary accommodations.

As of July 15, 2024, all first-year students with a disability are encouraged to submit their formal housing or dining accommodation(s) request to the Accommodate portal with their appropriate documentation.  Please see our website for the direct link to the Accommodate portal and the documentation guidelines.

If you are a student with a disability and would like to apply for housing accommodation(s), the deadline to formally request housing accommodations is June 28, 2024.  If you do not meet this deadline (request submitted to Accommodate and complete documentation), submitted housing requests that are received after this date and approved may not be able to be granted for the 2024-2025 academic year, since the availability for certain types of housing accommodations may be limited post-deadlines. 

The Office of Student Accessibility Services recommends that all students with a disability(ies) register with our office for accommodations.  Even if you are not sure that you will require all previously received accommodations, it is recommended that you have accommodations in place if you find you want to use them.  Approved accommodations are not retroactive and all complete accommodations requests can take up to two-three weeks (dependent on time of year) to process.  Note: specific approved accommodations may be different from high school in comparison to college.