Has anyone here gone to Hillsdale College in Michigan?
 

Well I am just curious if anyone here went there or knows/knew someone who went there. I'm a junior in high school now seriously looking into this college and think this is where I want to spend 4 years of my life. I'm thinking history maybe a marketing degree. I will probably end up in law school afterwards, but just wanted to know what any grads thought, if there are any here of course.
Thanks
David

I am not a grad of the school, but somehow I ended up on their mailing list. If you want a school with a strong right wing ideological commitment, it might be a good place for you.

It's a crap hole town though, but Kerry is right it's a very very good school.

LOL

LMAO. That's what I was thinking.

I still can't believe there is at least one school with a non-left-leaning-liberal agenda.

There are lots of schools out there with deliberate non-left or rightist agendas. Lots of evangelical church colleges are like this.

But there are also lots of schools with no agendas at all. Large state universities have no official agenda. While there may be a lot of liberal or leftist professors, there is a big difference between individual professors agendas and an official institutional agenda. You will find Marxists in the social science departments and Capitalists in the economics and business departments.

There are serious drawbacks to small schools with institutional agendas. I know since I attended one. There is a distinct possibility that the institutional agenda will turn into propaganda at some point. By that I mean that the opposing points of view are not given a fair and objective hearing in the classroom and other parts of the college. Perhaps a bigger problem is that such schools attract a very homogenous student population that is unlikely to spur acts of deviant thought.
If a person wants a clear understanding of Marxism and Capitalism, or Theism and Atheism, it might be much better to go to a huge state or private university that has very large departments with lots of different kinds of people teaching there. Add to this the fact that uniformity of ideas amongst students at such schools is virtually non-existent and the value of the experience increases exponentially.

Both you and Ted's friend seem to have survived the indoctrination and come out completely (and in the school's eyes) malevolently transformed. I think the same thing often happens in leftwing schools--my boss went to undergrad and grad school at Berkely and is a Bircher (okay, he isn't a Bircher but he's definitely right-wing). Some of my best friends and colleagues went to lefty schools (though I wouldn't want my sister to marry one...). Some came out lefty and some came out right-tighty.

A student with a good mind and strong ego will come through school improved for the adventure--regardless of the political slant of his/her profs. Weak minds and egos might get swayed, but they probably didn't gain much from the experience, anyway.

Botnst

Oh, THAT Hillsdale! Wasn't the disgraced president in tight with W.F. Buckley, you know, the rightwing doper? Golly, I remember there was wickedly vicious accusations but I don't remember the substance of them nor what finally happened.

But it was a famous battle, all the same.

Botnst

they dont take federal money either so no quotas or stuff like that. No federal shackles for sure. Its also one of their hallmarks free of federal intervention.

Yes, I think the former president did a little extra curicular activity with the coeds and resigned.

I Want my kid to go to a small liberal arts college. Went to a big 10 (now anyway) Wholesale college with a bigger football stadium that could house most American medium cities.

I survived a 'leftist' agenda. I am a practically extinct Rockefeller
Republican (sans his drug laws!!)

As I recall the scandal, the president was poking his daughter in law. Is that correct?
I wasn't intending to imply that people couldn't survive that kind of education. I suspect the results are mixed with lots of graduates continuing to be right wingers but a substantial percentage turning left at graduation.
I turned left at graduation. My complaint is not that the school I attended was right wing. I chose to go there knowing it was right wing. My complaint is that the education lacked a serious grasp of other points of view resulting in a poorer education. The school had a reputation to uphold and alumni donors to please so they simply wouldn't hire a leftist professor. A good right winger is best educated by a left winger and it just doesn't happen at institutions like that. I'll bet the school has very few serious right wing intellectuals amongst its graduates.
I think a good undergraduate education exposes students to a wide range of intellectual positions held by professors who take the views seriously.

Now you're talking.

I've tried to get my kids to look at small liberal arts colleges or jucos for undergrad (they wanna go big-time). In small institutions you get a lot of TLC from small classes and profs who love to teach. Compare that to major universities with hundreds of freshmen to a classroom and profs on closed-circuit TV, unable to take time from their research schedules to help students.

Many profs in major universities deeply resent having to teach--they took the job for research, not teaching. The result is you get piss ant profs and underpaid grad students to teach the freshmen--the kids who should get the most attention.

$0.02

Botnst

I went to a California state public university and a private university also in California, and both were politically neutral.

While both schools had professors on both sides of the political spectrum, liberals by far out-numbered conservatives.

During the last presidential election, one of the obscure political magazines did a survey on how professors on college campuses classified themselves, and nearly 100% identified with the left / liberal side of politics.

Needless to say, I came out as a passionate-moderate-conservative, with a pronounced libertarian twist.;)

I had a small farm near Hillsdale(mid eighties) which I signed over to my X wife when we split up. The town of Hillsdale is about as interesting as a rest area in kansas. Big name evangelist send their kids to school there..........

LOL

I know that Hillsdale is right-wing, which is one of the things I like about it. I have a brother in graduate school at Madison, WI. He is off the scale left. He still doesn't own a car because he can walk and he is saving the environment. He went to Dayton for college and that is a Catholic one. I am Roman Catholic and proud to be one at that. He was already liberal before he went there. The things I like about Hillsdale is the size, the small classrom size, only 1 1/2 hours away. Now don't get me wrong, there are tons of small schools, but not like Hillsdale. They have intersting speakers all the time and their classes teach real subjects, not how to save the earth. They had Clarence Thomas come and teach a week long course on the constitution, you don't get that at IU. The average marketing class is 15, at IU they have freshman English classes with 300! in a lecture hall. At Hillsdale, students are constantly invited to professor's homes for dinner, etc. You don't find that kind of teacher/student relationship many other places. They are one of about 6 schools that doesn't receive federal money. There are many Hillsdale grads in DC, partially becasue of a program that they send their students there to work for congressman, etc. during the summer breaks. They are very involved with Washington and are big on political science which I am considering for a major, but haven't yet decided.
Yes, there was a scandal involving the ex-president and his daughter in-law. They were having an affair and then she blew her brains out on campus, (I think that's where it happened).

Thanks for your opinions and keep letting me know of your opinions.
David