Is your son interested more in the clinical and human-services side of psychology, or in the academic/research side?
Holy Cross is very well-networked in the local area and has a strong commitment to serving the community. Their Academic Internship Program includes both class work and field work, and the list of local organizations and institutions that have offered psychology-related internships in recent years is long and varied. (They also have a clinical psychology track within the major.) If this kind of community engagement is what your son is looking for, then HC might be the best of the three. (Trinity also says they provide opportunities in the Hartford community, but the info is a lot less specific. Lafayette is in a more remote area, so the opportunities for off-campus involvement may be more constrained, although of course summer internships can be anywhere.) I would lean toward HC for a kid who wanted a strong community-engagement component, whereas for undergraduate research and pre-PhD, Lafayette might have the edge, although I’m sure all three have plenty of strength.
I have to say that I cringed a little at Trinity’s psych-department page where they brag that “In 2015, Trinity’s Psychology Department was ranked number 7 out of 50 great small colleges for a bachelor’s in Psychology.” The source for this is a website called “The Online Psychology Degree Guide.” Seriously? A decade-old listicle from site for marketing online programs is the best and only accolade you want to highlight? I’m sure it’s a fine and reputable department, but that isn’t a great look IMHO.
A lot of schools are quick to shut down financial aid appeals, unless there has been a dramatic change in circumstances. That isn’t an indication that the level of aid will be at risk in subsequent years. They just really aren’t interested in making aid a negotiation. It sounds like what you got was this: “Holy Cross Grant: Eligibility for a Holy Cross Grant is determined based on financial need as demonstrated through the financial aid application process. Nearly 450 first-year students are awarded Holy Cross Grant funding each year. Amounts range from $2,500 to more than $60,000, depending on financial need. Students must reapply each year for a Holy Cross Grant. Our goal is to renew this grant each year, although it is subject to change based on demonstrated need. The level of financial assistance in future years will be impacted by income and asset fluctuations as well as changes in the number of dependent family members enrolled as undergraduate students in a college or university. Eligibility for all Holy Cross funded grant and scholarship assistance is limited to eight semesters.” So basically, this is normal, need-based aid. If your grant aid was consistent with what the Net Price Calculator predicted, I would expect that to be the case in subsequent years as well.
If you look at the financial aid section of a school’s Common Data Set, you can see how first-year aid compares to the aid given to all undergraduates. At Holy Cross, as at many schools, the need-based loan and work-study amounts go up slightly after the first year, and the grant amounts go down by a corresponding amount. https://www.holycross.edu/sites/default/files/2023-03/CDS_2022-2023%20(FINAL).pdf But there’s no pattern of the total amount of aid dropping. They guarantee that they will meet need.
Does the aid package at all three schools include loans and work-study?