The mission of Hope College is to educate students for lives of leadership and service in a global society through academic and co-curricular programs of recognized excellence in the liberal arts and in the context of the historic Christian faith.

OVERVIEW (updated 6/10)

Hope Occupies a special place in the vast array of educational opportunities offered in the United States. It makes its contribution to the vitality and diversity of American higher education through the distinctiveness of its educational philosophy and program. As a liberal arts college offering education within the context of the historic Christian faith, Hope is a place of open inquiry, acceptance of intellectual challenge, rigorous engagement with hard questions, and vigorous but civil discussion of different beliefs and understandings; in the words of the Covenant of Mutual Responsibilities between the Reformed Church in America and its colleges, it is a place characterized by "an atmosphere of search and confrontation that will liberate the minds, enhance the discernment, enlarge the sympathies, and encourage the commitments of all students entrusted to (it)." For more than a century, Hope has cherished the conviction that life is God's trust, a trust which each of us is called to personally activate by an insistent concern for intelligent involvement in the human community and its problems.

Hope's Reason for being is each individual student. It seeks to develop the growth of each student as a competent, creative, and compassionate person. Its design is to provide a complete opportunity for the fulfillment of each individual student, not only for his or her self-gratification, but also for what can be given to others in service to God and humanity.

Hope Believes that a vital faith, which provides both the incentive and dynamic for learning and living, is central to education and life.

Hope Welcomes capable men and women of all social and economic levels. Hope is interested in students who sincerely seek to enlarge their minds, to deepen their commitments, and to develop their capacities for service.

Hope Provides an adventure in learning and living, not only for knowledge and wisdom, but also for understanding, meaning, and purpose. As partners in this seeking fellowship, Hope students find a faculty of professionally distinguished scholars who have a genuine concern for the total development of each student. Hope's finest professors teach introductory as well as advanced courses. Independent work on a self-directed basis is encouraged.

Hope Offers a well-equipped and friendly environment. Campus life pivots around residence halls, which serve as social centers and provide congenial surroundings for students to learn with one another. The diversity of student backgrounds, geographic and ethnic origins, and personal interests adds variety and richness to the group living experience. The campus is accessible to students who are mobility impaired. Examples of all housing options (residence hall, apartment and cottage), as well as most major academic buildings, are accessible to mobility-impaired persons. Many co-curricular activities and cultural events provide a variety of rich opportunities for learning and personal development.

Hope Prepares men and women who are persons in their own rights — uncommon men and women who have a personal dignity based on intelligence, a sense of responsibility, and a deeply rooted faith. For more than a century, Hope has prepared alumni to go to the four corners of the world — alumni who have enriched their professions and humanity far out of proportion to their numbers. Hope graduates aim to go beyond specialization toward a synthesis of all learning in life.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE (updated 6/10)

Faculty Achievements
Hope in the News
Experts Guide
Press Releases

Hope has long been recognized as a leading educational institution whose alumni have gone on to achieve distinction in their chosen professions. Distinguished academic, religious, political and business leaders are among Hope's graduates.

Government and foundation grants to individuals, to departments and to the college demonstrate the quality of the institution. In the spring 2010 semester, for example, departments and faculty held 71 grants totaling more than $11 million.

Hope tied for fourth nationally in the "Undergraduate research/Creative projects" category in the America’s Best Colleges 2003 guide published by U.S. News and World Report for its success in teaching through active learning; Hope continues to be named to the annual listing, although the schools are no longer ranked. In addition, the guide’s 2010 edition includes Hope among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation.

The 2010 Fiske Guide to Colleges includes Hope as one of the country’s “best and most interesting” colleges and universities, noting that “Hope’s academic and athletic programs continue to grow and prosper,” and quoting one senior as observing that “Hope is a place where students are challenges to become better students, but, more importantly, better people.” Mother Jones magazine in September/October 2009 included Hope in its listing of 10 “cool schools that will blow your mind, not your budget,” citing the college as a Best Value for artists with a spiritual side.

The new edition of the book Colleges That Change Lives cites Hope as one of 40 “life-changing” colleges that are “outdoing the Ivies and the major universities in producing winners” and describes the college as a place that “raises higher education’s moral and intellectual levels.” Hope is among 50 colleges recommended by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in its guide All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals and People of Faith, which notes that “The students and faculty we spoke with confirm that the school walks its talk; Hope College is both academically serious and theologically earnest.”

Hope is one of only 10 church-related colleges and universities nationwide highlighted in the book Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully. The institutions were included specifically for being “individually and collectively distinguished and distinctive in fostering holistic student development.”

Evidence of excellence abounds at Hope. For example, the Van Wylen Library was named the national winner in the college category of the 2004 “Excellence in Academic Libraries Award” presented by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). The award recognizes staff for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution.

For the past five consecutive years, the college has been named one of the “101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” in West Michigan through a program coordinated by the Michigan Business and Professional Association and the National Association for Business Resources.

Hope College Theatre’s production of Rose and the Rime, which was written at the college, was one of only three full-length college- or university-staged plays in the country invited to be presented during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF) National Festival in Washington, D.C., in 2008.

Hope is the only private, four-year liberal arts college in the United States with national accreditation in art, dance, music and theatre. Hope is also the only college or university in Michigan where business students can participate in the George F. Baker Scholars Program, which provides a wide range of real-world experiences beyond the classroom.

Hope has one of the largest summer undergraduate research programs in the nation; each year, approximately 160 students participate in summer research at the college. Hope holds more grants through the NSF’s “Research Experiences for Undergraduates” (NSF-REU) program (five in 2010) than any other primarily-undergraduate institution nationwide, and more than all but a handful of major research institutions. According to Research Crossroads, Hope has received more federal grants since 1992 than any undergraduate institution in Michigan and more than all but six PhD.-granting universities. Hope is the only college or university in the country to have received “Beckman Scholar Award” support for student research from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation of Irvine, Calif., since the foundation began the program in 1998.

The college’s Phelps Scholars Program has been recognized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as an exemplary diversity program in higher education, with Hope one of only 32 institutions nationwide included in the AAC&U publication More Reasons for Hope: Diversity Matters in Higher Education.

The DeWitt Tennis Center was named the national 2010 “Public Facility of the Year” by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR), which is the largest global organization of tennis-teaching professionals. As one manifestation of the positive town-gown relationship between Hope and the Holland community, the Holland Area Chamber of Commerce presented the college with its second-annual “Corporate Leadership Award,” which recognizes companies and organizations that have made a significant impact in the community through a history of local investment and job creation. The Kletz Snack Bar received the “Silver” award in the “Small School” division of the “Retail Sales – Single Stand-Alone Concept/Outlet” category of the 2010 Loyal E. Horton Awards Contest of the National Association of College & University Food Services.

There is a wide diversity of honor societies at Hope. These organizations, open by invitation, give recognition to superior academic achievement and enable Hope's outstanding students to communicate with each other and discuss matters of mutual interest. Two national honor societies, Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board, are chartered at Hope. Hope received its Phi Beta Kappa charter in 1971, and is one of 280 institutions in the U.S. and only eight in Michigan able to grant this distinction. Students are elected to Phi Beta Kappa in the spring of their senior year.

Hope has a strong commitment to those students that are admitted to its degree programs. This is demonstrated in the fact that its retention rates are excellent and that its graduation rates are very high. In a study done to demonstrate compliance with the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1992, the registrar reported that by 2009 Hope had graduated 79.3 percent of those students admitted as first-year students in the fall of 2003. This figure does not include those students admitted as transfers to Hope. Hope compares favorably with other highly selective institutions in the degree-completion rates of its first-year students.

Approximately one-third of Hope's graduates enter graduate schools to pursue advanced training for careers in medicine, science, business, education, economics, the humanities, psychology, and all areas of the performing and fine arts. Many of these graduates have received national awards for advanced study in fields as diverse as chemistry, social psychology, foreign languages, history, biology, education and physics.

Hope graduates continue to realize a high success rate in their efforts to get into law school. In recent years, close to 90 percent of Hope students applying to accredited law schools in the United States were accepted. The schools to which they have been admitted include nationally ranked law schools—Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, William and Mary, and Wisconsin—as well as highly regarded regional schools such as Chicago-Kent, Michigan State, Loyola-Chicago, Toledo, Valparaiso, Wayne State and others.

Hope premedical students have been accepted into medical schools at a rate well above the national average. For example, during the past 10 years (2000 through 2009), 89 percent of the Hope applicants whose grade point averages were 3.4 or above were accepted by medical schools. During that same period, another 38 students were accepted who had grade point averages below 3.4.

During the past 10 years (2000 through 2009), 78 percent of the Hope applicants with a grade point average of 3.2 or better were accepted into dental schools.

The college emphasizes a solid program in the liberal arts as a base for both life and career. Career planning and job placement are regarded as important facets of the college experience.

Hope is a member of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Division III, and fields varsity teams for men and women in 18 sports. An active intramural program also is offered.

Mission & Vision Statement

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