There doesn’t yet seem to be a thread of Class of 2025 and the beginning of RD decisions are due out starting 12/15 so I thought I would get this started. Please put your stats with your admission decisions: whether ED/RD, GPA, SAT/ACT, # of APs/Dual credit courses, major leadership/ECs. Please put your admission decision together with these stats instead of breaking it up into 2 posts so people can follow who got in and what their numbers were. Hillsdale is highly selective, so disclosing this helps for future applications. May you all get the news you desire!
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My son applied RD and submitted his application on 10/27. We are assuming his acceptance/rejection letter went out Dec 15th. Snail mail takes so long! Wondering if anyone has gotten their RD letters yet? On pins and needles.
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Frustrating they use snail mail. We are going out of town, so if it does not hit our box today (they mailed them Tuesday, I did get that confirmed), we will have to wait more than a week to know. Tried to log into the portal and nothing there either, even though the decision is made.
Yes, they are are old school…(which I kinda love)…no decisions posted on portal, written correspondence only. Bummer that you would have to wait a week. Maybe a neighbor could collect your mail and open it for you??? The suspense is painful, although, not knowing means there’s still hope.
OK…I just checked. I have USPS informed delivery (USPS emails you pictures of the letters you are receiving). Our Hillsdale letter is being delivered today. We live outside of Fort Lauderdale…so depending on where you are you could get yours today. The sad news for us is, it looks like a regular size letter. Back when I applied to college (30+ years ago) a small envelope was never an acceptance. You always wanted to receive the big envelopes. 
I don’t get anything like that from USPS. How would you check on that? Did they send it priority mail or registered or something?
No, Hillsdale sent it regular mail with a regular ol’ stamp on it.
You have to go to Informed Delivery - Mail & Package Notifications | USPS
and sign up for the service. Then, USPS emails you every day pictures of the mail you have coming. I’m pretty sure it’s a free service. I forget how, when and why I signed up for it, but it is convenient.
A regular envelope is definitely not good. What is your child’s stats? I am wondering if Hillsdale’s in person learning and rationale COVID work around has really increased their application load, making it harder to get it? My older son got in 2 years ago (ended up going to Colgate, but honestly, I would have preferred Hillsdale, I am a huge fan of their program) and it was a big package. Great tip for USPS mail. Not sure if our office actually has it yet, as once I signed up it showed nothing scanned for the last week. Not sure if they don’t have it there until you are officially signed up or not, but we’ll see over the next week or so. At least I will be able to see if they do it when we are gone.
How does your son like Colgate? My son applied there as well but Hillsdale was his first choice. We just received our letter, he was deferred until March 1st. They want to see his grades for this year, plus SAT if he can get them plus more writing samples. He’s a straight A student, with decent extracurriculars etc. He was homeschooled for the first 2 years of HS and then in private school for Jr and Sr year. He didn’t have SAT’s to submit as all 3 times he was scheduled to take them they were cancelled. I would think his recommendations were good, we visited the campus and did an in person interview etc, but sometimes you still get rejected. He has gotten into 5 other schools, and he’s still waiting to hear from Colgate. It’s a bummer because I think he would have gotten the best education at Hillsdale and we loved their educational philosophy. But, what can you do? I wish you and your child the best of luck and hope you get good news in the mail.
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My son loves Colgate. The community is fantastic. It is a party school, that is the only thing I do not like, as it is impossible to avoid for the most part. The campus is amazing. It will open doors for the rest of his life, that is for sure. He ended up doing EDII for them. We visited over the winter break and we spent 6 hours there. We met with the bio department head and the theatre head (he originally was a bio/Theatre double major, now neuro/theatre). The bio head came in to meet with him while on vacation (we did not know this until we met with her), which really showed their commitment to their students. The big deal there for my son is the NIH program, where it is like a study abroad in DC led by a Colgate professor and they live with Gate students for the semester and do research (of their choice) at NIH. Talk about door opening!
That said, Hillsdale is my favorite college in the nation. My best friend’s son goes there and is like a pig in mud. He absolutely loves it. It is far more conservative than Colgate, although Gate is decently balanced.
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Is your best friend’s son religious? The one thing about Hillsdale that gave my son pause was that we aren’t a religious family and my son was concerned that he would feel a bit like an outsider since we aren’t religious.
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He is religious; however, there are plenty of folks there that are not.
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My son applied RD and did not get in and was not deferred. We were very surprised. He is a 4.0 student from a top high school and has good extracurriculars. He could not take the ACT due to Covid cancellation. He took a summer class at Hillsdale and got to know many of the professors well. Hillsdale has been his dream school for three years. We are now regrouping. IMO, Hillsdale must have seen a huge surge of applicants.
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I got my rejection letter in November 
But I have since got accepted to other schools including 2 full rides. 
Hope looks great plus I got the most personalized acceptance letter I’ve ever seen. Light at the end of the tunnel.
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Thats’s so surprising that your son didn’t get in. I think you are correct, they must have received a huge number of applications.
Wow, a personalized acceptance letter…that’s the school to go to! They must really want you.
Congrats on getting into Hope. It truly is a special school. As I said before, you can really feel the joy in the students. They are clearly happy there and the school must be doing something very right.
My S21 was rejected:
4.0 WGPA
1270 SAT (did not get to take it again and maybe we blew it submitting the test scores)
Good interview
Great LORs
Wonderful resume, good job experience, lacrosse, academic programs over summer, 13 dual credit courses
Very bummed.
Thank you for starting this conversation. I’m sorry your son didn’t get in. My son was told that there has been twice as many applicants so the acceptance rate will be lower. He applied RD and is expecting a decision in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. Best of luck to your son.
I was hoping to hear from more applicants here. Maybe a lot of students are waiting and applying closer to the april 1st deadline so they have more information on potential covid restrictions and the vaccine.
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@marliemoo I suspected that was the case. With them having in-person courses, Hillsdale was a far better option for many students. It’s a huge bummer, but clearly, that wasn’t the direction for his future. Good luck with yours!
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