Since 1983, U.S .News and World Report has been publishing college rankings, a series of annual lists cataloguing and categorizing schools based on numerous factors.
There are the “Best National Universities” (Harvard), the best “Liberal Arts Colleges” (Williams College), the “Top Public Schools” (UCLA), and even the “A Plus Schools for B Students” (Michigan State University).
For years, the Princeton Review, another outlet rating and ranking schools, even had a category of the nation’s most “Stone Cold Sober Schools.”
The methodology for all of these rankings varies and are arguably somewhat subjective. According to U.S. News, the best national school rankings are based on 19 criteria including graduation rate, student-faculty ratio and even the debt students carry to cover tuition costs.
While some rankings do take into consideration how much graduates of a particular school earn following time on campus, the ratings don’t capture to any extent how successful, interesting, meaningful or significant the careers of the graduates turn out to be.
Measuring job satisfaction is admittedly subjective, but one school that regularly and repeatedly produces top performers who love their work and are productively engaged in advancing good things is Hillsdale College.
Founded in 1844 by Free Will Baptists, the Michigan school does not accept any federal or state funding. This policy allows them to operate independent of government regulation and concentrate its efforts on students instead of placating the whims of bureaucrats.
As David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman and cofounder of the Federalist Society and the Club for Growth has observed,
“The Lord’s Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, and there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.”
Many of us appreciate the wisdom and convictions of Hillsdale College’s president, Dr. Larry P. Arnn.
“[At Hillsdale] we love freedom, we love independence, we love equality and we love learning,” he recently said. “We insist on the principle that no danger or crisis, foreign or domestic, will be solved by Americans surrendering more of their constitutional liberties, in the foolish hope that a bigger government will provide greater security.”
Notable Hillsdale College alumni have included countless state and federal elected representatives. They also claim May Gorslin Preston Slosson (1880), the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in philosophy, Bion J. Arnold, who engineered and pioneered the “third rail” technology for trains, and Kat Timpf of Fox News.
U.S. News recently ranked Hillsdale 50 out 211 National Liberal Arts Colleges. It was listed 89 in the “Best Value” category.
What won’t show up in those rankings are three recent Hillsdale alumni currently covering the White House: Philip Wegmann (’15) for Real Clear Politics, Reagan Reese Gensiejewski (’22) for the Daily Caller and Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (’24) for the Daily Signal.
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, age 22, is one of the youngest reporters inside the West Wing. At Hillsdale, she majored in journalism and was editor-in-chief of The Collegian, the campus newspaper.
In recent years, numerous Hillsdale College graduates have gone on to law school and then to coveted clerkships at the United States Supreme Court.
E. Garrett West Jr. (’15) and T. Elliot Gaiser (’12) clerked for Justice Samuel Alito, J. Manuel Valle (’11) clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, and Megan Lacy (’07) has clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. There have been others.
With a total enrollment of just over 1600 students, Hillsdale College is a relatively small college, but it’s one that packs an influential punch. It’s no wonder given its motto: “virtus tentamine Gaudet,” or “strength rejoices in the challenge.”
Parents and students looking to be challenged in their formative advanced educational years will find a rich and satisfying environment in the beautiful rolling hills of South-central Michigan. And one that may well take them to places beyond their expectation in the years to come.
Image credit: Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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