The College of the Holy Cross or Holy Cross is a private, undergraduate Roman Catholic, Jesuit liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States.

Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the United States.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Holy Cross 25th in the U.S. among liberal arts colleges in 2014.

Holy Cross is the only Catholic college among the top 50 liberal arts schools on the U.S. News list.

The Society of Jesus, S.J., SJ or SI) is a male religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain.

The members are called Jesuits.

The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents.

Jesuits work in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits.

Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice and ecumenical dialogue.

Worcester (is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States.

Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population was 181,045, making it the second most populous city in New England after Boston.

Worcester is located approximately west of Boston, east of Springfield and north of Providence.

Due to its location in Central Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth", thus, a heart is the official symbol of the city.

However, the heart symbol may also have its provenance in lore that the mass-produced Valentine's Day card was invented in the city.

The liberal arts (Latin: artes liberales) are those subjects or skills that in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free person (Latin: liberalis, "worthy of a free person") to know in order to take an active part in civic life, something that (for Ancient Greece) included participating in public debate, defending oneself in court, serving on juries, and most importantly, military service.

Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were the core liberal arts, while arithmetic, geometry, the theory of music, and astronomy also played a (somewhat lesser) part in education.

Undergraduate education is the post-secondary education previous to the postgraduate education.

It includes all the academic programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree.

For example, in the United States an entry level university student is known as an undergraduate, while students of higher degrees are known as graduates.

In some other educational systems and subjects, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a master's degree; this is the case for some science courses in Britain and some medicine courses in Europe.