Random things I found out about Hillsdale:

The workload and the academics are not for the faint of heart.  It is no wonder students say, “Hillsdale College, where your best isn’t good enough!” Writing an essay the night before doesn’t work at Hillsdale.  For the incoming freshman, your GPAs will be low, just accept it and keep working hard.  Oh and for the science majors, good luck, because you’ll need it. 

There are a fair amount of home schooled/ really religious kids.  Apart from being socially awkward and fashion faux pas, they are often ridiculously bright and extremely nice. 

Students do party.  Because it is such a small school there is a major social breakdown between the classes.  Parties are more intimate and new faces are easily recognizable, but are still welcomed!  The social scene can broken into three categories, 1) People who don’t party at all (usually the homeschoolers) 2) People who only party on the weekend (the majority of students) 3) The fulltime partiers (def.  the minority of the three).  Students really value their education at Hillsdale, but at the same time know how to recuperate from a stressful week.  Oh and I should add, that because of the size of the campus, reputations form easily.  If you respect yourself and the people around you, then you will be fine. 

Greek life is big on Campus.  As much as the homeschoolers dislike the Greek system, they have to admit the students involved don’t exactly fit the stereotypes.  The frat guys and sorority girls are normal kids that maintain the standards and qualities that Hillsdale boasts of all its students and this is coming from an independent. 

The jocks are shockingly smart and hard workers.  The Collegian (Hillsdale’s student run newspaper) tried to say that it was more than coincidence that many athletes are science majors.  I don’t know how many of the Collegian journalists have taken microbiology or organic chemistry, but I tip my hat at those athletes who can do both.  I am a pre-med biology major and the science classes are anything, but easy.  Too many upperclassmen science majors have told me that they would have enjoyed college more if they had switched their major to business.  Hmmm, sounds a lot like unconditional love to me.