Hillsdale moves up in rankings, nabs Wall Street Journal attention
School beats Vanderbilt, Georgetown, among others
Michael McDonald
Issue date: 9/10/09 Section: News
Hillsdale College moved up eight places in a college ranking score this past year. US News and World Report Rankings moved Hillsdale up to 89th place amongst liberal arts colleges, up from 97th place last year.
Hillsdale made several other college ranking lists as well. Forbes ranked Hillsdale at 76th place out of 600 for 2009, beating colleges such as Vanderbilt University, Georgetown University, Duke University and University of Pennsylvania.
"Being ranked higher is a good thing, but we will take these ratings with a grain of salt," Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis said.
Lantis said that the rankings in US News and World Report were "suspect because of the weight given to the peer assessment score and measurement."
Hillsdale also performed well for two of the Princeton Review's college categories. Hillsdale ranked second out of 20 in most conservative students and fourth out of 20 in most religious students. Lantis believed these scores were accurate, but freshmen seemed more surprised.
"I don't believe that's true because I definitely know more religious and conservative schools," freshman Josh Taccolini said.
"I think this is a conservative school, but not number two based on what I've seen and heard this first week," freshman Kurt Masciovecchio said.
Hillsdale also made national news on June 2 when William McGurn published an article entitled, "How Hillsdale Beats Harvard," in The Wall Street Journal. The article argued that Hillsdale treats visiting military recruiters with more respect than does Harvard.
"I was very proud to be a Hillsdale student," said sophomore Liz Shell concerning the article. "I wasn't overly surprised; Hillsdale is a better college than Harvard. Just money alone doesn't mean Harvard is a better college."
Hillsdale made several other college ranking lists as well. Forbes ranked Hillsdale at 76th place out of 600 for 2009, beating colleges such as Vanderbilt University, Georgetown University, Duke University and University of Pennsylvania.
"Being ranked higher is a good thing, but we will take these ratings with a grain of salt," Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis said.
Lantis said that the rankings in US News and World Report were "suspect because of the weight given to the peer assessment score and measurement."
Hillsdale also performed well for two of the Princeton Review's college categories. Hillsdale ranked second out of 20 in most conservative students and fourth out of 20 in most religious students. Lantis believed these scores were accurate, but freshmen seemed more surprised.
"I don't believe that's true because I definitely know more religious and conservative schools," freshman Josh Taccolini said.
"I think this is a conservative school, but not number two based on what I've seen and heard this first week," freshman Kurt Masciovecchio said.
Hillsdale also made national news on June 2 when William McGurn published an article entitled, "How Hillsdale Beats Harvard," in The Wall Street Journal. The article argued that Hillsdale treats visiting military recruiters with more respect than does Harvard.
"I was very proud to be a Hillsdale student," said sophomore Liz Shell concerning the article. "I wasn't overly surprised; Hillsdale is a better college than Harvard. Just money alone doesn't mean Harvard is a better college."
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