Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn addresses an incoming Freshman Class.
Courtesy | Marketing Department

Juniors and seniors know that August brings more changes than autumn leaves and new courses. Three months of stalking the class of 2020-something’s Instagram page always leads to this, year after year: a new freshman class. 

There’s got to be a more constructive way of dealing with the unsightly sea of new faces than jeering and hazing — that’s only going to make the freshmen less receptive to becoming functioning members of Hillsdale society. 

This is advice I wish I knew coming into each year of Hillsdale — advice which hopefully makes some upperclassmen less hateful and some freshmen less easy to hate. 

Freshmen: you were the best and the brightest of your high schools. From academics to athletics to community service, you were probably killing it this time last year. Now, all of those accolades are in the past. A little humility will get you a long way in your first few weeks at Hillsdale. Really internalize the fact that some of our fifth-year seniors were acing AP exams while you were still figuring out who to take to your eighth-grade dance — and better yet, now they can’t even remember which AP classes they took.  

This goes hand-in-hand with figuring out who you are here at Hillsdale. 

Life changes when you leave your parents, high school sweethearts, and friends since first grade back home in Nebraska. Take the time to really explore clubs, teams, and friendships before convincing yourself that what you’re doing now will last for the next four years. If all of us were still friends with the people we met in our first weeks on campus, this school would be a far worse place.

Sophomores: shut up. If any of you get mad at the freshmen, take a look in the mirror. You were there just three months ago. Wait until the spring semester, then we’ll talk.

Juniors: this is a brave, new, parent-less world, and freshmen are about to make all the same mistakes you did at that age. Consider the decisions you made freshman year that keep you up at night and muster up some compassion. You’re in the sweet spot of having two years left at school and being two years older than they are, making you some of the best candidates for this class’ role models. 

Seniors: I get it, you’re probably feeling a little checked out. I know I am. It can feel pointless to get to know a single one of those little people hiding away in Simpson and McIntyre. But, in a year’s time, we won’t be able to make a single other “friend from college” for the rest of our lives, so why not make an effort? Who knows, in a couple of months, you might actually like some of the freshmen. Just try not to think about how old they make you feel. 

Claire Gaudet is a senior studying Rhetoric and Media Studies and Journalism.