<p>I've posted before but was a bit nervous about asking this question. We're a conservative Catholic family. My son was all set to start at Hillsdale College(which he has visited and liked) in their Honors Program when we unexpectedly received a financial offer from ND that made it possible for us to consider sending our son there. My husband and son are at ND now touring the campus. Even with the scholarship offer, Hillsdale would still be significantly less since they also made a generous offer and they are less to begin with, plus they have smaller classes and there are only 30 kids a year in the honors group. My son is interested in studying History and is also thinking about going on for graduate work in that discipline. I know things can change but assuming those desires stay they same, what is your opinion about the academics and prospects for the future at both institutions. I know that Hillsdale will not appeal to the liberals out there but my son is very staunchly conservative, so for him that's not a problem. We truly want what is best for him and will ultimately let him make the decision but I've been trying to gather information. My son needs to let the head of the Honors Program at Hillsdale know one way or the other the day after he returns from his Notre Dame visit. Needless to say, I'm a bit stress about the whole thing. Thanks for any help you can give.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Notre Dame. I would have been very comfortable with him attending Hillsdale, but given the choice you are facing, I can recommend Notre Dame without hesitation. The quality of the academic programs will equal or exceed what Hillsdale can offer in every respect, and the reputation of a Notre Dame degree is both high and well-deserved.</p>
<p>Your son may find the Notre Dame student body to be more liberal than what he'd find at Hillsdale, but a conservative Catholic will still feel at home at Notre Dame. And, football weekends on campus are just magical. :)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Dear Radionicist,
Thank you for your response. Is there some way you could describe how Notre Dame's academics are superior to Hillsdale's? I know that ND's reputation is superlative.</p>
<p>Hillsdale is a very good school so you really can't go wrong. My roommate was at a conference this weekend and came back raving about their students. I think your son is going to do very well at either school, but I would look at what defines the schools. Is your son a Catholic first and then a conservative, or a conservative who happens to be Catholic? Hillsdale will appeal more to the latter, whereas ND will appeal more to the former.</p>
<p>The best I can tell you is just see what he thinks of the campus tour and let him go where he feels most comfortable. I think either way he will get a good education. Just one thing that is worth mentioning...if he is looking into graduate school in History ND may be a better option because, as much as you hate to say it, certain grad schools may look down on Hillsdale due to the political bend. Notre Dame played very well for me when applying to graduate school, I could tell it was a plus, but I am not sure how professors would look at Hillsdale unless they happened to be conservative. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response Irish, what about the more intimate relationships with professors at Hillsdale that a smaller group of students would seem to indicate. What at ND, beyond the reputation, do you think would counterbalance that?</p>
<p>I think you are assuming that ND doesn't have that when that isn't the case. Many friends of mine, including my roommate, have every close relationships with professors here and talk several times a week, even when they are not in their class anymore. I personally meet with my adviser at least once a week for my thesis, though we usually have just focused on thesis since that is such a huge project. I have been invited to and attended Thanksgiving dinner at a professors house a few years ago and I still keep in touch with a former ND professor who still genuinely cares about my success and where I am going in life. For those reasons, I really feel like we have that same environment. Yes, we may have more students, but the environment is there. I think it all goes back to the Notre Dame family, it just is the way things are here.</p>
<p>I would second Irish's comment on entry into graduate history programs. Admission rates to PhD programs at top schools are often under 10%. The relationships that undergrad faculties have with graduate school faculties can be valuable in standing out in the crowd, so a larger school with more distinguished faculty will have broader contacts in that regard. Even with a name undergraduate school like Notre Dame, it can be very difficult to be admitted. From a much less well known school like Hillsdale, even a top student can have considerable difficulty being admitted to a high quality PhD program. If you read some of the other posts on this board, there are people debating between Notre Dame and Yale -- ND and Hillsdale would, for most people, not even be a question.
In reading your post, an important fact for you to consider is that the Catholic spirit permeates everything at Notre Dame. Last night there was a 10 pm memorial Mass for the victims of VT. With little publicity and next to no advance notice, the Basilica was literally filled to overflowing. Masses on the weekend in dorms also reinforce the shared faith of the student body, 85% of whom are Catholic. That's something that will be totally lacking at Hillsdale, a nondenominational school. If your son returns from a day at Notre Dame and wants to go to Hillsdale, I'd be surprised, but if he does there will be a grateful student on the wait list.</p>
<p>Dear irishbrigrade and other irish,
Thank you both for your help. It was much appreciated as was the private message another poster sent me. I spoke with my son and husband last night, at the end of their day spent at ND. They're coming home today. Both of them were quite impressed with the school, both the spiritual aspects and the academics. The history program sounds challenging and enjoyable. My son said that the student body seemed more obviously happy to be there than at any other school he'd visited. He said that it made him want to be a part of it all. I suspect he'll be there in the Fall. Brigade, I have seen the ND vs. Yale line. I'm not immune to the prestige factor connected to a school or the price tag that comes with it. However, if those were our only concerns, my son would be going to UCLA in the fall where he was also accepted and where we would be paying instate tuition. Hillsdale has qualities that we find very attractive: a great core curriculum, small class sizes, a very observant group of Catholic students(about a third of the student body), and a significantly lower cost. I don't feel that it's insulting to ND to compare it to Hillsdale. I've actually spent time at Yale, and was a grad student at U. of Penn. They're both great schools but in different ways. I don't know that I feel either one of them nurtures a persons character as well as their intellect in the way that I think both ND and Hillsdale do.</p>
<p>On a side note, I would consider the hireability of your son after college. Notre Dame graduates' hireability is among the top of higher education. Hillsdale - not so much.</p>
<p>4mom4 -- I'm glad your son and husband had an enjoyable visit. As I said, I didn't think that after visiting ND your son would choose Hillsdale -- not that it is insulting to compare Hillsdale to ND, just that the positives for ND would, in most people's views, be far superior to Hillsdale. You see the same question, although as you note in more extreme form, in some of the Yale partisans on the ND-Yale thread who think no rational person could fail to pick Yale. In your son's case, should he choose ND, I doubt in 20 years he'll wonder how things might have been different had he chosen Hillsdale. If the choice were Hillsdale, that question might puzzle him from time to time. Good luck to you and your family. Putting your son in an environment (Hillsdale or ND) that will support his beliefs, and not belittle him or them, is a choice you'll never regret.</p>
<p>It actually depends: Notre Dame will probably give you worldly success no matter how much you slack off, due to the big name, and that’s fine for some people. Hillsdale, on the other hand, is a little more true to its founding principles and its mission, so the educational and moral qualities might run a little deeper for you. I guess if you’ve read Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead”, you’ll get what I mean when I say that Notre Dame is like Peter Keating, while Hillsdale is like Howard Roark. I don’t know, you be the judge.</p>