College profile
Hillsdale College
MI · Private nonprofit · Distant town · 2,773 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- Almost everyone who starts here finishes. 90% graduate within six years — the standard federal measure. Nationally about a third of students who start a bachelor's never finish one, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision: the debt stays, the credential doesn't.
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
SelectiveSelective but achievable for strong students.
Best for
- Strong academic profiles — students here cluster in the top test and GPA tiers (bands above)
- Students drawn to Social Sciences or Biological & Biomedical Sciences (the two biggest majors)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1340, or ACT below 30, or unweighted GPA below ~3.80 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
- With selective universities, build a balanced college list of Reaches, Targets, and Safeties ⓘ
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
Sticker price isn't every family's price. Lower- and middle-income families often pay materially less after grants — and there's no income cutoff for need-based aidGrant money based on your family's finances (via FAFSA and the college's own forms), not your student's stats., so at expensive schools even families earning $150–200K can qualify. Where need aid thins out, merit scholarships (where offered) bring the price down instead. Check the school's own net-price calculator for your number.
22% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 29% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
High-school GPA
Hillsdale College — College Profile page, "Admissions Profile, Fall 2024" ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2024-25) (source linked above). GPA basis (weighted vs. unweighted vs. 4.0-scale) varies by college and is labeled above.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Hillsdale College actually costs
The federal file doesn't carry net-price figures for Hillsdale College, so the published tuition above is the only price we can show you — and it's the price before any aid. That's a gap in the government's data, not a sign this college is expensive or stingy.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
Source: federal IPEDS (published tuition) and College Scorecard, which reports net price only for colleges meeting its cohort-size and Title-IV reporting thresholds.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Hillsdale College
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Hillsdale College actually graduates — not just what it markets.
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Alternatives to Hillsdale College
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on Hillsdale College?
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Get your child's odds at Hillsdale College →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Hillsdale College?
5 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Hillsdale College on it. Between them they printed 10 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Hillsdale College, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
All 5 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
For Parents
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantHillsdale College is a private nonprofit four-year college in MI. It admitted 21% of applicants (2,773 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1340–1510, ACT 30–33. 22% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 29% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Tuition: $33,189 in-state, $33,189 out-of-state (net price with aid not reported).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Hillsdale College: 5, 10 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Montgomery Bell Academy (0.8 per class year, 4 over 5 class years, 2022 – 2026); St Ignatius High School (0.7 per class year, 2 over 3 class years, Classes of 2023, 2024, 2025); Santa Catalina School (0.4 per class year, 2 over 5 class years, Classes of 2021-2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/hillsdale-college.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/hillsdale-college.json