Around a quarter of Hillsdale College seniors pursue further education within six months of graduating, according to survey data.

While class rigor and a lack of grade inflation may cause some to worry about their graduate school aspirations, students nonetheless frequently gain admission to competitive graduate and professional programs — including medical and law school, according to Hillsdale’s First Destination Survey.

The survey, administered by Career Services and required of every senior, shows that 25% of the class of 2023,  25.7% of the class of 2024, and 22% of the class of 2025 reported continuing education within six months of graduation, a figure that Career Services Director of Employer Relations Sharon Rupp said has increased slowly over the past decade. Hillsdale’s self-reported data, which follows National Association of Colleges and Employers guidelines, explores graduates’ plans for masters and doctoral programs, though it also includes technical training and accelerated professional tracks, such as two-year registered nursing programs or flight school. 

Both classes said their post-graduation plans were related to their career goals, with 92% of each class agreeing with the statement. The graduates also said their liberal arts education will help them professionally — 96% of 2024 graduates and 94% of 2023 graduates agreed.

Hillsdale invests students with the skills to succeed in those programs, according to its pre-professional advisors.

“If you look at the MCAT, part of the MCAT is called critical analysis and reasoning skills, which is basically like verbal and analytical combined into one section,” said Christopher Hamilton, professor of chemistry and the college’s pre-health adviser. “There’s a lot of intensive reading and reading analysis in there, and Hillsdale students generally do extremely well in that section. Having to take those great books classes, having to write all those papers, helps them excel in those areas.” 

The majority of students pursuing further education head to advanced degree programs such as an M.D. or J.D., according to Rupp.

The First Destination Survey lists acceptances at Case Western Reserve, Cornell University, the University of Chicago, Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University, and many more schools.

While students should try to earn good grades, Rupp said their GPAs are less of a concern than they may think. While not every individual school is the same, most schools require standardized tests.

“It depends on the program they’re applying to. If there is a required standardized test — meaning MCAT, LSAT, or so forth — depending on the program, that determines the weight of the GPA,” Rupp said. “So for the majority of medical or law school applicants, their score on that test probably outweighs a GPA.”

However, Rupp added, there are exceptions to the rule.

“All graduate programs require a 3.0, so that’s the minimum,” Rupp said. “Have there been students who have been accepted with under a 3.0? One-hundred percent. There’s one student in mind that I know had a 2.9. She had a really bad semester. However, she took two years off, went and built her professional knowledge, and then reapplied and became very engaged with the program so that they understood who she was, and then she was admitted. But generally speaking, you have to have a 3.0, and some programs come right out and say, ‘We really like a 3.5.’”

Students can overcome a modest GPA, Rupp said, by looking at what previous graduate school applicants have done.

“We have the students research the last accepted cohort’s GPA, and look for other things in the application that can offset a weaker GPA,” Rupp said. “If the average accepted cohort was a 3.8, and perhaps a Hillsdale College student has a 3.6, we ask, ‘What other activities have they done that can support their evidence of being able to withstand academic rigor?’ So that’s where those extracurricular activities really fall into place.”

Rupp said Career Services partners with faculty advisers in pre-medicine and pre-law to guide students.

For medical school applicants, the data show Hillsdale students outperforming their peers. Hamilton said Hillsdale students achieve acceptance rates above 90% for M.D. and D.O. programs combined. The national M.D. average is 40-50%, and the combined M.D. and D.O. figure is near 60%. 

For many graduates, Hillsdale’s reputation at medical schools proves beneficial.

“I know admissions people at all the schools, all the medical schools in Michigan, and many outside the state,” Hamilton said. “They know that Hillsdale is tough, and they factor that into their admissions. Some of the schools are pretty straightforward. They’re going to consider a Hillsdale GPA similar to somebody who went to a really difficult school, maybe a Harvard or MIT grad, even though they certainly have more grade inflation than we do. They’re going to see Hillsdale as rigorous, and they’re going to compare that to somebody who went to two years of community college, and then maybe went to a lower-tier state school somewhere where it’s really easy at a 4.0. They’re also going to see that a Hillsdale student with a 3.5 is going to be fine in their program.”

MCAT scores can offset a lower GPA for schools that use holistic review in their admissions, Hamilton said. 

“Schools would much rather see a student who has a slightly lower GPA due to a lot of difficult classes than somebody who has a really high GPA who avoided all the hard classes,” Hamilton said.

The same applies to law school admissions, pre-law adviser and Professor of Philosophy Nathan Schlueter said.

“GPA does matter, but it’s a GPA,” Schlueter said. “You want to be in a range, but they’re not going to just look at the raw GPA. They’re going to look at the classes you’ve taken. They will look down your transcript and ask certain questions: Did you take physics? Did you take basic math or calculus? Did you take a lot of business communication classes? Or did you take classes known to be more rigorous and demanding?”

The liberal arts curriculum and its difficulty at Hillsdale are positives for students both for applying to and succeeding in graduate school, especially law school, according to Schlueter. Students frequently gain admission to top-14 programs, he said. 

This translates to disproportionate representation on law reviews and in federal clerkships, even U.S. Supreme Court clerkships — 10 Hillsdale graduates have clerked for the Supreme Court in the last 15 years, Schlueter said.

“I’ve had a lot of people at law schools tell me that Hillsdale students stand out among their peers,” Schlueter said. “They just seem to be better students: to grasp things better, to write better, to think better, to be more energetic in what they’re doing.”

Rupp agreed with the broader value of the liberal arts core. 

“It prepares them exceptionally well because of their ability to relate, communicate, and critically think,” Rupp said.